141129 More Cross Posting From Atkins

141129 Not So Bad Thursday's overage must not have been so bad. I had no carvings yesterday, which is what makes diets so difficult. Today, I have had a strong desire for water. It's just before noon, and I've had three quarts. Before Atkins, I would usually drink up to four quarts per day, so this is not that out of line. I decided not to limit my water. I take in enough sea salt to compensate. Currently, I eat five small meals per day. I load the calories early, because it gives this morning person energy for the day. Usually some kind of beef starts my day. I love the Atkins frozen dinner of Beef and Broccoli. First thing this morning, I had an on-the-go breakfast of beef jerky, which had four grams of sugars in it, and not enough fat calories. :(  Mid-morning, I had 1.5 slices of bacon, 2 eggs, 1 oz Swiss, and two tablespoons of San Antonio salsa. For lunch, I am having chicken with coconut oil and broccoli. Mid-afternoon will be a salmon filet with pumpkin cooked in butter.  Supper will be consumme, salad, and maybe some leftover chicken, if I'm still hungry. Most days are similar. It keeps things simple and prevents impulse eating. So far, my daughter's blueberry bagels have not tempted me. Posted Saturday, Nov 29, 2014 11:34 AM by Moons Mom | 0 Comments [Edit Post]

141128 The Day After Someone brought sugar-free cranberry sauce, sugar-free pie, and sugar-free cookies. I had no idea what the carb count was, but I ate them anyway. Also, I ran out of bg testing strips, so I have no idea what happened to my blood glucose. No headaches, and no dizziness seem to say that the diabetes part was OK, but I think I overdid the carbohydrates. I'm back on Induction today. Should I restart the two weeks? Today would have been Day 9, if I hadn't gone over. Posted Friday, Nov 28, 2014 6:57 AM by Moons Mom | 4 Comments [Edit Post]

141127 More Thanksgiving Posts

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday, and it's more than just food; I am truly thankful for many, many things! I have your average dysfunctional family where hurt feelings arise and people say stupid things. That's why we confine our festivities to my dad and my sisters. Extended family has their own thing where they devour each other. They might even unite on occasion and say nasty things about us, but we don't care anymore. I get that from my dad. He never said this, but his body language indicates, "You harpies are not going to give me indigestion. Goodbye."

Several years ago, I reconnected with my cousins. We were all hugs and laughs until someone mentioned the dreaded twins: politics and religion. I refuse to lie about my beliefs, so by answering a direct question, I discovered why my father stays as far away from my mother's family as is humanly possible. To my dismay, they found me on Facebook and continued the argument. Oh, how I enjoy those new privacy settings!

Yesterday, I forgot to take a reading after Chinese food (no rice). Then, I blew off readings for the rest of the day. I think my bg was up, because I fell asleep early, and first thing this morning, it was 105. While the menu I made for myself counts carbs and calories, eating out is iffy. I had beef and broccoli, but what other ingredients did they use? What's in the hot and sour soup? I gave the rice and the egg roll to my daughter. 

I count calories, because I have been on the Atkins before, and got hungry. My diet at that time had too few calories, so it became necessary to find carb-free calories and to introduce fats into my diet. My brother-in-law has been an insulin dependent diabetic since childhood, and we go round and round on this. He has a medical degree, and follows the ADA diet religiously. He doesn't like the Atkins and regales me with the benefits of high-carb vegetables and low-fat dairy.

He'll be at dinner today. At least we can agree on the turkey. 

141127 Happy Thanksgiving!

Sorry, I haven't been blogging so much around here. How about I cross post? I have been blogging at:
http://blogs.atkins.com/Blogs/Moons%20Mom/Default.aspx

141126 Warning: Higher Power Mentioned! My blogs work as a journal, but then I found the journal function. Hmm. I'll just keep blogging. You don't have to read it, but someone might enjoy my ramblings. I haven't posted in a couple of days. My girls came back from a cross country trip, and I was occupied. Guess what? I stayed on the program!  I have a new friend whose screen name references the Bible. What's not to like? I reference the Bible frequently. My favorite passage for weight loss is:  1 Corinthians 9:24-27 24 Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain.  25 And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible.  26 I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air:  27  But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway. The Epistles contain many examples of athletic terminology. That shows that God is interested in our health and well being. Some may say it isn't so, but that does more to show the limitations of their thinking than any supposed limitations of God. Anyway, we could reduce this concept to a sterilized discussion of an amorphous 'higher power', but I might as well make my stand known. (Joshua 24:15) Yesterday, my blood sugar dropped to 65, but after dinner, it spiked to 145. I'm not sure what I had eaten, but it had a dramatic effect. The first few days after starting the diet, my readings seemed to stabilize, until day 5. My children came back, and my blood sugar spiked. All that 'sugar', I guess. ;) Time for a reading. Posted Wednesday, Nov 26, 2014 4:25 AM by Moons Mom | 2 Comments [Edit Post]

141123 Progress I already forgot what day I'm on, but I think it is day 4. I haven't been counting carbs so much as following a menu. I devised the menu last week by assessing all the nutrition, including the carbohydrates. Since I have Celiac disease, that eliminates a lot of heavy carb foods already. I just have to quit the rice and watch the starchy vegetables, as well as tweak a few other foods to limit my carbs to vegetables and high protein foods. Dr. Oz said to automate some meals, so I have the same breakfast and same lunch every day. Both have six carbohydrates and 240 calories in them, although one has beef that the other has chicken. Snacks vary, but have no more than two carbs each. Supper is usually some kind of fish or eggs with vegetables that have no more than four carbs. I keep the total calories between 1200 and 1400 per day. So far, I do little exercise. After Induction, I'll work a plan for that. This morning, before breakfast, my blood glucose reading was 97. Finally, a morning where it was below 100! An hour and a half after breakfast, it was still 97. Does this mean that I have reached ketosis? What would those readings look like? Posted Sunday, Nov 23, 2014 8:07 AM by Moons Mom | 3 Comments [Edit Post]

141122 Tough Day I tore out of here at 6:30 am. Took Beef Jerky as a snack, even though that stuff is made with sugar. Got home by 11, but I have to go out again at 2:30. After that, I'll probably get home after 9. Posted Saturday, Nov 22, 2014 12:38 PM by Moons Mom | 1 Comments [Edit Post]

141121 Doing Well OK, it is Day Three. Things are going well today. I finished my NaNoWriMo challenge nine days early! W007! What is NaNoWriMo, you ask? National Novel Writing Month started some years ago with the challenge to write 50,000 words in 30 days. In 2008, I wrote my first ever novel, which is how a person wins. Then, I edited it and sent it for publication. Sadly, the general public will not be reading my tome. I wrote another one in 2011, but it was disjointed and vague, so I never let anyone see it. (I'm sensing a pattern here... :p) Every three years I write. What does this have to do with food? Well, I tend to eat better food when I'm happy. When I am happier, it's easier to eat good food.  Today, I checked my blood sugar twice. At waking, it was 102. I ate breakfast of beef, with a little bit of tomato. After typing for four hours, it had dropped to 84, so I ate two Italian sausages. Now, after eating two eggs, an ounce of cheddar, and some coconut oil, it reads 82. Maybe I should wait two hours after eating. I'm still jazzed about finishing my novel. :D Posted Friday, Nov 21, 2014 1:38 PM by Moons Mom | 2 Comments [Edit Post]

141120 Day Two - So Far So Good Today, I have vague hunger. This morning during cravings, my blood sugar was 107. A half an hour ago, I had some beef to try to counteract this afternoon's cravings. My blood sugar was 105. I'm checking to see if the cravings coincide with a spike or drop in blood sugar. The cravings are subsiding, so I probably didn't wait long enough after the meal to check it. Today, when I logged on, there were friend requests and comments to read. This pleases me! I really smiled to see them, and it encourages me to keep this up.  One problem common to many dieters comes in the form of familial needs. I have to feed my two daughters. Neither one will eat the foods I need to eat. (One, however, will eat bacon -- all of it!) It would be easier with them out of the house, but then the real world seldom bends to our wishes. The only real change we can effect is to our own minds. It always comes down to motivation and the willingness to bend one's will to what is best. There. I feel better and the craving is dissipating. Maybe I'll check the blood sugar again. I am having so much fun with this kit, I may use all my supplies in the first two weeks. If the Atkins works to keep my blood sugar stable, I'll never have to go on drugs. There was a diabetic cyclist who was on the Atkins. It would be nice to find that website again. Posted Thursday, Nov 20, 2014 3:07 PM by Moons Mom | 5 Comments [Edit Post]

141112 Again With the Ringing

Once again, my ears are ringing. I have been eating a lot of fruit lately, and I just finished eating some fried rice. My guess is that my blood glucose levels are up. I almost collapsed in the kitchen last night. Emily thought I'd been drinking, but I hadn't. While it seems like such a little thing to control one's diet, the truth is that cheap food has a lot of carbohydrates in it, and carbohydrates turn to sugar in the body.

The constant ringing in my ears had started to go away, but I was going crazy on the restrictive diet. Food prices also took another jump, so I went back to the food bank. What they give falls mostly into the "breads and grains" category, so I dropped off the expense of the Atkins and added rice to my diet. Emily took the other grains. The ringing is back full force, and although I've had only water so far this morning, I feel like I am drunk. My brain is fuzzy and that low level buzz makes me think of alien bombardments.

Temperatures here took a drastic nose dive yesterday. Monday's high was near 80F (26C). Tuesday's high came at about eight o'clock in the morning. It got close to freezing last night, and we should have a hard freeze tonight. Yes, northerners laugh, but adapting to survive the summers here does come at a price. Cold bites.

If this doesn't sound incredibly depressing, it is because I am fighting SAD with all I have. The novel has become dark, but I'm on track with my goals concerning word counts. I have discovered that I cannot write an outline, then write the book. I have to just write. I thought this was a failing, but then I listened to a favorite author, John Erickson, discuss writing. He doesn't plan, either, and sixty-four published books says outlines don't have to be.

OK, how can you be depressed listening to "It's me again..."

What? Children's books can be fun and funny. He didn't write the first two for children, but when children loved them, he decided to make a whole series of them. He's a good speaker, too.

I'm just a lump on a log. I miss ice cream. Ice cream tastes wonderful and is fun to eat, but would just make my body feel worse. *cries*