Judgements . . .

Yesterday was a pretty big day.  We closed on a refinance of our mortgage, locking in the current low interest rates and knocking five years off our payments.  Then we went off to our weekly ballroom lesson.  But we felt like celebrating.  Since we've been working so hard on our exercise and diet plan, we decided to treat ourselves to dinner at a great Italian place just down the road from the dance studio.  And we decided we would order whatever we wanted.  In my case, I knew it would be Gnocchi alla Vodka Sauce.

I was testing my blood when the waitress came for our drink order.  I was bolusing when she came for our dinner order.  And I felt like I had to hide my meter and my pump.  I felt like if she knew I was diabetic, she would judge me when she set the huge bowl of gnocchi in front of me.  Or when she saw me accept the slice of bread Pete passed from the bread basket.  It didn't matter that my extended bolus kept my blood sugar from going no higher than 157 after eating and put my 2-hour post-meal fingerstick at 91.  Or that a slightly higher overnight temp basal and a 2am correction of a 145 blood sugar gave me a fasting of 125 this morning.  I felt like she would judge me.  She would be under the impression that a Type 1 diabetic can't eat a pasta meal.  She would become the dreaded diabetes police.

I'm proud that I can indulge once in a while and still keep my numbers fairly in line.  But I'm disappointed that my guilty conscience sees people judging me, whether they actually are or not.

What's for dinner tonight?

Do you hate that question as much as I do?  I like to cook but sometimes I feel like I'm cooking (and we're eating) the same boring dinners over and over again.  Last week, I couldn't think of a single thing I felt like making for dinner.  What's a girl to do?  Easy, I made Pete plan the week's menu.

One of the things he requested was Lemon Pepper Chicken.  Which was fine, except that I've never made Lemon Pepper Chicken.  No problem . . . I turned to the dLife Recipe site and searched Lemon Pepper Chicken.  And I came up with this Lemon Chicken Packet. Score!! I tweeted about it and Landileigh requested I blog about it.  But first I  want to mention that since Pete and  I have started our quest to slim down I've been turning to the dLife recipes quite often.  They always include Nutrition Information, which makes it a snap to count my carbs, and also keep track of my calories and fat grams.

So on to dinner.

First, I gathered my ingredients.  This includes the noodles and asparagus I decided to serve as side dishes.

I used Perdue Perfect Portions Thin-Sliced Chicken Breasts.  I love these because each individual pack is the perfect size for a dinner for me and Pete.  I rinsed the chicken and divided it up between two large pieces of foil.  Then I topped it with the lemon juice, salt and pepper, rosemary and scallions / green onions.  I also threw on some lemon zest to give the chicken a stronger lemon flavor.  Then I added some crushed red pepper flakes to since Pete had asked for Lemon PEPPER Chicken.  This whole process probably took less than five minutes.

Now it's time to wrap the packets.  I had decided we'd cook these on the grill since it was too hot and humid to even consider turning the oven on.  So the most important thing was to make sure the packets were tightly sealed, otherwise they leak and make a mess (or maybe a fire) in the grill.  Go ahead, ask me how I know?  Anyway, first pull the two long sides together and roll over as many times as possible until you have a flat packet.  Then roll up each end tightly.

I like to do asparagus in grill packets also.  I drizzle it with a little olive oil and season with salt and pepper.  This time I also threw on a little rosemary to compliment the chicken.

Out to the grill the packets went, while I cooked the noodles on the stove-top.  It made for an easy and delicious supper.  Although I must admit, the chicken was a little bland for my liking.  Next time I will use two or three scallions because I couldn't taste any onion flavor after using just one.  I'll also slice a second lemon and arrange the slices in the chicken packet for some extra flavor.

So, what are you cooking for dinner tonight?

Goals for August

I have to admit, I'm having a hard time believing that we are into August already.  The month of July really flew by.  But like it or not, August is upon us and it's time to take stock of my July Goals and see how I did.

July Goal #1 & #2 : Do 30 minutes of cardio every day. Do weight training three times a week. -This is a tough one for me, because I REALLY don't like to exercise.  But I pushed myself hard this month and there were only two days when I didn't do some kind of cardio or weights.  I'm finding the more consistently I exercise, the less I hate it.  By the end of the month, I was even doing 45 minutes rather than 30.  I will admit I would still rather be relaxing on the couch with my knitting . . . . but the workouts aren't the tortuous time in Hell they used to be.

July Goal #3 : Continue to track my meals and snacks, staying within the guidelines set for me to lose weight. - This is an easier goal for me because I am so damn obsessive-compulsive a very organized person by nature.  The SparkPeople web-site and their iPhone app are making it very easy for me to plan what I'm going to eat.  This is especially helpful on "Pizza and Martini Fridays" because I can plug in that high fat / high calorie dinner first thing in the morning and see how many calories and fat grams I have left for the day.  Then I make really healthy food choices for breakfast and lunch.  By the end of the day, I've had my Friday treat without going over my daily calorie or fat allotments.

I'm proud to say that my July Goals led to some pretty good results!!  I lost 8 pounds in July.  Before we all get too excited about that, I should point out that I had gained some weight on the cruise, so overall I'm only down a couple of pounds from where I started.  I'm still proud though!

More importantly to me, since mid-June I've lost 1 3/4 inches from my waist, 2 inches from my hips and an inch from my thighs.  That tells me that I'm losing fat and building muscle.  That's really what is most important to me anyway.

So, what is up for August?  Although it sounds like I did really well in July, there are a few areas where I have slipped.  Mainly drinking water and eating fruits and vegetables.  So those will be my first two goals this month.

• Get back to drinking 8 glasses of water each day.
• Eat 6 to 8 servings for fruits and vegetables each day.
• Kick the cardio up to 40 minutes every day.

Need help writing a blog post?

I know I've been in a bit of a blog slump lately. Word on Twitter has it that I'm not the only one.  Luckily, the ever entertaining Harry at 25 Units to Go shared the perfect solution for those times when you are lacking inspiration  bored by your own attempts at writing  just too worn out to get a great blog post done.  Simply click over to the Lazy Bloggers Post Generator!  With just a few simple clicks, you'll have a totally awesome blog post like this one to share!

Holy Snapping Duck Do! I just returned from my daily swim on the beautiful Fijian beach and realized I have not updated this since people stopped clapping and Tinkerbell died.  You would not believe how hard it is being waited on hand and foot and generally lounging around. I hope they bring chocolate!

I am flat out like a lizard drinking with keeping up with my favorite daytime soaps, being distracted by the shiny, just generally being a biatch to the bodyguards of the blogger I am stalking.  My day seems to involve the authorities from the second I am woken by murderous Teletubbies to I run out of alcohol. I am quite the socialite.  Deal with it.

I will try to remember I promised you to send a missive out on the wire, post-haste. No, really! Unless of course the pool with the cocktail bar is heated!

Keep it or Yank it??

Okay, I'll confess.  I have a mad crush on my Continuous Glucose Monitor.  I wear it 24/7 and I love it.

I usually wear each sensor for six or seven days.  As long as it's giving me good readings, I'll leave it in.  While we were on the cruise, I must have had a Super Sensor because that puppy lasted twelve days!!  I did recharge the transmitter half way through, but it was great to have it giving accurate readings during my entire vacation.

Yesterday I noticed my sensor felt pretty itchy.  I was only on Day Four.  It usually doesn't bother me at all, even towards the end of its run, so I thought it was kind of odd.  I took a look at the site.

Yikes!!  There was a red outline on my skin.  I've never seen anything like that before.  And I'll admit I started to panic.  So I sent out a Tweet with a picture and asked what I should do.  Unfortunately, it was at the time of day when Twitter has a lull, so I didn't get any advice back.  It was time to weigh the pros and cons on my own.

I thought about how I hate to waste a sensor because they are so expensive.  I thought about how this one hadn't been giving the best readings.  Sometimes it was spot on, but sometimes it was way off.  And then, I thought about how I could be risking an infection.  I did one last finger-stick.  My meter read 119, the CGM read 68.

And then I yanked it.  Even if it had been reading correctly, I probably would have taken it off.  As much as I love it, wearing it isn't worth risking an infection.  I've decided to go without it until Sunday.  Maybe my skin needs a break.  Also, I'm going to a pool party tomorrow.  The research I did on the MiniMed Web-site says the transmitter is waterproof and safe for swimming at a depth of 8 feet for up to 30 minutes.  But I think I'll just let it stay safely tucked in my dresser drawer while I swim tomorrow.

I'll admit I do keep checking my pump to see where the CGM says I'm at.  I miss having that information just a button push away.  Sunday can't get here fast enough.

Let's all bleed together!

I'm hoping you've heard about the cool thing that's happening today at 4pm EST.  TuDiabetes is organizing 14KPWD.  The idea is that all of the members of TuDiabetes and their Spanish sister community test their blood at the same time today and post the results.

How cool is that?  You should be testing regularly anyway, so why not test with 14,000 other people today.  I know I'll be pricking!

Once you have your number, post it on this TuDiabetes thread.  Or Tweet it with the hashtag #14KPWD.  Or post it on Facebook with this link http://14kpwd.org/.

Come join the fun!

*****EDITED TO ADD******  I truly got chills testing with all of my on-line D-Pals and watching the results roll in.  After a late lunch due to a long phone call, my number was 132 just an hour after eating.  The CGM had me at 110.  No correction needed, insulin and food are working hard as my body processes lunch.

How to spot a bad blogger . . .

Well, she would be the one who blogs more when she's away on vacation than she does when she's at home!

That's right.  My last three posts were brought to you by the magic of Blogger's Advanced Scheduling.  The posts were pre-written, and published themselves while Pea and I were off on a fabulous cruise for our anniversary!

 

Yes, I did take that picture!!  Click on it if you'd like to see the rest of our vacation photos.

It was relaxing.  It was sunny.  It was so much fun.  We ate great food.  We drank yummy drinks.  We swam in the pool.  We gambled in the casino. We went to the gym almost every day - to try and compensate for some of the food and drink.  My blood sugars didn't misbehave too much, aside from a few highs and a few lows here and there.  And I even got a little bit of knitting in.

But now that we've been back for a week, I guess I can't use the Getting-Caught-Up-From-Vacation excuse anymore.  This bad blogger had better start writing some posts again!

Goals for July

At the beginning of June, I decided to start setting some goals each month. The idea is to improve the areas of my Diabetes Life where I can be doing a bit better.

My goals last month were to be sure I'm drinking eight glasses of water a day, and to eat our meals at home.  I did pretty well on the first one.  I did okay on the second.

Two weeks ago, things changed.  While doing the yearly "pack away the winter clothes and bring out the summer clothes", Pea and I decided to do a clothing purge as well.  We tossed out anything that we really don't wear.  Then we began trying on what was left.  We were both really upset to find most of it was too tight.  I got on-line and found a "diet site" that looked good.  We each plugged in our height and weight, and it calculated our Body Mass Index.  It was no surprise that we are both in the Overweight category.

Since that day, we've been using SparkPeople to track what we are eating and to be sure we are within the calorie and other nutritional guide-lines.  We've each lost a few pounds.  We each have a bunch more to lose, and should be able to safely shed it all by December.

So, my goals for July focus on the main goal of getting out of that Overweight category.

• Do 30 minutes of cardio every day.
• Do weight training three times a week.
• Continue to track my meals and snacks, staying within the guidelines set for me to lose weight.

By the time August rolls around, hopefully I'll have lost another five or so pounds!