I’m not going to eat between meals and I’m not going to take seconds. Just Today. And I’m going to try this for a year just to see what happens.
I’ve got to tell you that it really makes a difference to me that I’m doing this ‘just today’. Yesterday (and I’m sure today also) my office was filled with tempting treats. My co-workers had their annual Black History luncheon, which is a nice idea — but it’s a huge feast and the left-overs were all over the place all afternoon (and you wouldn’t believe the tempting fragrances coming from the staff room all morning as they cooked this feast.) So, the all afternoon I chanted (to myself — no need to worry anyone) ‘just today‘, ‘just today‘, ‘just today‘. And finally — the day was over. And I never did break into that gigantic bowl of macaroni and cheese that sat on the counter all afternoon.
The thing is friends (at least my friends) will thoughtlessly tell you that eating these treats, ‘just today’ or ‘just this once’ won’t hurt you (and they believe it — I think). But if you’ve been following the story of the power of ‘just today’, you know they are wrong. They might not know that almost everyday we are offered a treat that won’t hurt us if we make an exception ‘just today’. It’s obvious thatour friends (or my friends) have it backwards, it’s not eating the treats ‘just today’ that won’t hurt us.
I know from painful experience that eating the tempting treats at work can fuel a relentless drift to obsity and ill-health. But, I’ve also learned that by refusing them I’m drifting just as relentlessly towards health. And happiness, by the way.
And so, just for today — no leftovers!
eating these treats, ‘just today’ or ‘just this once’ won’t hurt you..it’s not eating the treats ‘just today’ that won’t hurt us.
I feel like I should post that on my refrigerator. People really do mean well, with the just this once, or the one I get all the time, my (insert relative here) or I made it myself, it wouldn’t hurt a fly.
And after being praised for my shugga today, I also feel a bit of that drifting toward health. It is a slow process, stabilizing shugga, they chant, and some of them sort of mumble, especially at your age, but all these days that I haven’t had a coke, or sugar in my tea, all these days that I have eaten the goddamn vegetables, albeit with spices and yogurt or some kind of sauce, reversing my lifelong practice of big pile of rice, smaller servings of everything else, to little bit of rice, lots of vegetables (with sauce) and chicken or lamb or whatever else is in it, having the half and orange instead of orange juice, etc etc really are going to drift me relentlessly toward shugga that is hopefully controlled enough to get the invisible ninjas off my feet.
Hi Ductape — maybe I should make up sets of printable refrigerator posters?
I’m so glad your doctors are pleased with your progress (and you must be too).
I was going to share some good news from last night but I just had a cup of hot chocolate and my blood sugar is 191. So, it’s two quick glasses of water for me and I’ll measure it again in 1/2 hour. (sigh)
Three glasses of water and 1/2 hour later, 205 (sigh)
kbird tell me about this hot chocolate. What chocolate and milk did you use, and how much sugar did you put in for how many cups?
Now you know why I never test until at least 2 hrs after eating anything.
And now I know why I should.
Oh and I meant to tell you earlier about the Black History lunch. If it was the food itself, and not the fact that it was not your lunchtime, you could have had black eyed peas, turnip or collard greens, even a chicken wing or drumstick and a small piece of cornbread…Not all Afro-Southern food will kill you if you look at it. Some, ok, quite a lot will, but you can pick and choose.
hot chocolate:
1 mug of skim milk
2 tbls cocoa (plain cocoa) and
2 tbls sugar
[that's all]
I guess I could put a little less sugar, but I’m probably just not going to have it again. sigh.
It’s another 1/2 hour and I’m down to 185 (whoopee!)
And just last night, I tested my blood sugar after dinner and it was 105. And hours later I realized that I hadn’t taken my medication with dinner! I was so excited.
Well, I can’t say that tonight. I took my medication — but it wasn’t good enough.
On the Black History luncheon, I didn’t even go into the auditorium. I’ve had a 25 rule against eating at-work potlucks. For one thing I am unable to remember to bring food, so it isn’t fair for me to go. And for another, it’s that slippery slope — if I ate at Black History month I’d have to eat at all the birthday parties and each and every other party. As it is, at least they aren’t offended.
I guess making that rule all those years ago was the start of my current food rules.
And that took long enough that I’m down to 166 (20 minutes since the previous)
LOL kbird. Breathe. Find your happy place.
If you put 2 tablespoons of sugar in one mug, this is no cause for alarm, or to give up hot chocolate. I put in 2 tablespoons for a pot that makes almost 3 very large capacity mugs. Then I have half a mug.
So try it that way, have 6-8 ounces for yourself, and give the rest to other people.
Or if mister or whoever constitutes other people in your household do not wish to partake of hot chocolate because they are afraid it might contain thai curry sauce, or for whatever reason, make yourself a mug, but put in only one and a half or two TEASPOONS of sugar. Do not renounce hot chocolate forever. This is a lesson you yourself have taught me much better than the TV commercials ever could: Do not let diabetes control you. You control it.
And the way you do that is by putting two teaspoons only of sugar into your hot chocolate.
I understand that you don’t want to hurt peoples’ feelings, but even if you work with a pack of monkeys, they will understand that a birthday party offers less edible food to a diabetic than does a Black History Lunch. All a birthday party has is cake. Any Black History Lunch worth its chitlins will feature at least one leafy green vegetable, even if it is cooked in pork fat and sugar. But the sugar is going to be about a tablespoon for a BIG pot. And this is the kind of Function where you can put a dab of several things that are not leafy green vegetables and not make your meter angry.
You could invoke your rules and make the slippery slope argument if you did not know that the Function was going to take place, and had just gone out and had lunch. But barring that, you could have had Black History Lunch. This is another factor that would make it different, with regard to your rules, than a birthday party.
Don’t test again for at least another hour and a half. I know how horrible it feels to know that you are just sitting there with so much sugar in your blood. It makes you feel dejected. It makes you feel horrible. But it will go away. If you are at 166 now, that means in another 20-30 minutes you will be around 145, which is within normal range 2 hours after eating. Remember they don’t even diagnose you as having diabetes unless your FASTING is over 200. So you are OK. I know it does not feel that way, but you are.
Ahhh, thank you. You are so sweet and so supportive and you think so highly of me that I hate to have to tell you this, but the way some people feel about Thai curry sauce, I feel about potlucks. I think if I really wanted to participate, I would, but I don’t. It’s very unsocial of me, but I can’t be what I’m not. And I’m not much of a public eater.
(and, I cheated — I’m at 130)
I was wondering if I could get away with less sugar. I’ll try it with a teaspoon next time (like in a week or two!!)
I should be more worried about the spikes — my dad watches them like a hawk. But, I’m really more concerned about keeping my numbers down for hours.
I’d rather it be lower (obviously) but I’ll still have 8 hours or so of close to 100 and that’s not a bad stretch.
I am going to try that hot chocolate — Just not tonight.
Yes you should worry about spikes, because you have had it so long, and are stabilized. They told me today not to worry about them, because I am not yet stabilized.
Oh and I made coffee yesterday with two teaspoons – not heaping – and I did not test two hours later, it was longer than that, probably about 4 hours, but it was 85.
What I do, I don’t use cocoa powder like I think you do, but I make it in a saucepan, and after the chocolate is melted, I put in one tablespoon, then taste, then another half, and it is usually about two before it will get to that not bitter, but just barely sweet stage. Then I put the blue milk in, and taste again just to be sure that there is no bitter taste, but still just a hint of sweetness.
If you are making it as I think you are in a mug, do the same thing, but with half teaspoons of sugar, and taste, and you will see what I mean, the goal is to add the minimum sugar to make it not bitter.
And 130 barely an hour from the TWO TABLESPOONS of sugar in one mug of chocolate is pretty impressive. You are now in normal range, and you could even eat something if it were a mealtime.
Speaking of which, did you add an extra meal to your daily schedule? A lettuce wrap or similar type snack-meal to compensate for normal changes of the passage of time and extra activities?
(Quiet voice from corner.) Sometimes I think I must be looney to spend time reading as people discuss a disease I don’t have. But it’s so sweet to watch people being kind and supportive to one another.
I won’t be around much for several days, as I’m having out of town company. I’m pooped from cleaning the house for her. There were moments–twixt dusting and scrubbing–that I wondered if it was too late for her to get a refund. Now, in my sparkling house, I’m glad somebody is coming to enjoy it with me!
What is the significance of a spike, if it gets down again fairly fast? And why would it matter more for someone who’s had it for a while than the newly diagnosed?
The 130 was more like 2 hours after the hot chocolate, I think when all was said and done (I spent a lot of time typing some of this). But, I’m down to 105 now. I really think the 4 glass of water I’ve had during that period helped pull it down (and my evening medication also) quickly.
Do you have a link or something about the spike thing? Is it a kidney issue? Because I guess the sugar would still be going through the kidney??
“Now, in my sparkling house, I’m glad somebody is coming to enjoy it with me!”
How fun! Now stretch out on a couch and just look around with a smile. (and a cup of hot chocolate, if you dare after this!) That’s what I did the time I cleaned my house!
No cocoa here. Thank god you helped me identify this oversight before company arrives!
I should probably just drop mine off at your house! It would do us both a favor.
Well kansas it is such a fun and exciting disease that of course discussion of its minutiae is just riveting. I am sorry to hear that you have slidden down into the shadowy world of housecleaning. Next time you are seized with such an unwholesome urge, tell me and I will talk you out of it.
kbird I do not have a link, it is just something that they said, and I think I will ask next time if it is at all kidney related, that is a very good question that did not even occur to me.
I am assuming that people who have been stabilized for a while should worry more about spikes simply because they have been stabilized for a while, so spikes, unless they have an obvious explanation like 2 tablespoons of sugar in hot chocolate, or like I did the other day, a big glass of orange juice after eating vegetables in an Asian sauce sweeter than Tso, would be worrisome in the case of a long-stabilized diabetic because it could indicate some change in the sugar processing mechanism that might require a medication adjustment or something.
Whereas in someone who is not yet stabilized, they just mean the person is not yet stabilized. Again, this would be in the absence of the big glass of orange juice, etc. – a spike without a cause, as it were.
Oh and kansas, take katie’s advice and have some chocolate. Put in all the sugar you want, and maybe you will spill some. Clean house addiction is tough, but it can be beaten. I am here for you.
Ductape’s absolutely right. I can tell you that it is an addiction that can be controlled if you are disciplined enough.
You guys are hilarious. But where were you when I needed you today before I succumbed? Hell, I thought I had that particular addiction licked, and you would have thought so, too, if you had seen my house. I guess one can never be too careful. A mere visitor can trigger that old weakness. I’ll try very hard not to clean up after she leaves.
kansas as a word writer, you have a special responsibility to maintain a disordered and unkempt environment at all times, precisely for the benefit of visitors, who will expect this.
You live in a constant cloudworld of evil villains, pristine (or slightly smudged) virgins, exotic locales, killer airports, enticing clues that lead the reader down the wrong road just long enough to make them feel sleuthy when they discover their error, a world of somber detectives and budding romance, of autumn leaves that whisper sinister secrets, dashing heroes and balding old men pondering the half-eaten contents of fine old porcelain egg cups.
You cannot possibly be bothered to clean. Madame Fatwa also suffers from this affliction, I have always done my best to try to guide her in the right direction by demonstrating that she cannot possibly create order faster than I can mess it up, therefore her time would be better spent doing other things.
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You have hit on one of the joys of being a word writer, DTF. Writing for a living means never having to clean your house. And the visitor who’s coming is a word writer, too, so she would have been perfectly content to abide in mess.
The rub is–I can’t write in a really messy house. It’s a good thing somebody is willing to clean libraries and cafes.
G’morning.