Learning curve.

I am learning all about low carb eating.  As I posted earlier, the reading of nutrition labels continues to be an education.  Also, am very put off that apparently if the store makes it in house they only have to list the ingredients, not the values.  Albertson's grocery store makes a wonderful yogurt parfait, but it is large and there is no way to know how many carbs are in it.  I would reason that it is similar to the large yogurt parfait from McDonald's, but have not investigated the weights to see how close they are.  The 5.3 oz. size carries 31 carbs.


I now have the finger pricking and blood testing down.  So much so that I am pretty sure I can stop logging my results each time since I can pull that info up on my glucose meter.  I am doing pretty good with the carb counting as well.  In fact, I am quite proud of myself.  I made this recipe last night for a pork chop dish in the slow cooker. It was pretty good with the stuffing cooked with the meat.  I added some green beans for an extra vegetable.  The pork chops were so moist and tender.  The stuffing however was a little hit or miss.  Great flavor with the apples and dried cherries, but the edges seemed to be cooking hard and dry so I added a little more liquid, which in turn made the layer on the bottom kind of mushy. The recipe is from the Sparkpeople website.  GREAT site for information, support, and tracker for weight loss. Anyone that is trying to loose weight or just change to a healthier life style should really check it out. However, in my brilliant half thinking mind mode, I did not catch that there was a corrected version of the Pork chop recipe which had about 9 more grams of carb.  Not a lot, but I was calculating based on the wrong information so ended up eating too much and my glucose level went a little higher than I like, but still with in my doctor's guidelines.


To me it just proved that my slow cooker is cooking way to hot, especially to be on low.  I may have to check in to purchasing a new one.  I also want a panini grill.  Which by the way, Hungry Girl has come out with a line of flat breads for sandwiches and sliders that are lower in carbs, fat, and calories.  If you are trying to loose weight, you really should check her out.  She has a show on the Food Network channel where she takes the everyday things we like to eat and gives you a healthier version.  If you go to her website, you can watch episodes online if you don't have access to the Food Network, which I think you can watch the episodes on their site as well.  While she does lighten the counts a bit, as far as calorie and fats, some times the lighter version is still a little heavy in the carbs for my restrictions.  I went to the Goodwill store and on Amazon (got to love that place) and purchased some books related to all the changes I am making.  Sadly, several of the books I bought at the Goodwill store were published before the new changes.  It is a bit interesting however to see how the medical community has changed the thinking on their dietary guidelines over the years.  Back in the early 1900's a diabetic was treated with a starvation diet of whiskey and coffee...only.  The whiskey offers about 800 calories and seemed to make the patient a little more comfortable while being starved. The last few years has seen a change from a high carb, high starch, no sugar diet tracked by and exchange system to just simply counting the carbs.  I like this system, it is much easier and don't have to formulate any numbers.  I have also purchased the newest version of MasterCook software for my computer.  I love this program, you can enter any recipe you have and it will automatically figure the nutritional and cost analysis for the dish.  Some other things you can do with the program: calculate changes in recipe for servings (go from a recipe for 2 servings to make it for 6 servings and vice verse), plan menus, generate shopping list, pantry and freezer inventory, has technique tips and videos as well.  You can purchase it from the publisher website, or from Amazon and such.


Which takes me to the next point of my learning curve.  One problem with learning and focusing on the carb count, I am not taking in enough calories.  Need to figure that one out because when you don't take in enough calories, your body reads it as starvation mode and tends to hold on to fat more.  


Due some health issues, family members not just mine, I have been unable to get to the gym this week so far, but am not giving up.


So, goals for the week end and coming week:
Clean house (so grand baby can come over)
Do ALL the laundry
Clean/organize/defrost deep freeze.
Get to gym
Clean up my work room so I can actually do some sewing once again.
Make menu plans for September.


Now that I have wasted way too much time on the computer this morning, I need to get a couple of errands done.  Thanks for stopping by and come back soon.

August? Really?

Wow, had not realized how long I have been away.  As I posted earlier, so much is going on lately.

First of all, update on my grandson.  He is just doing amazingly well.

He is now a month old. Today he had a follow up appointment with the pediatrician who is totally amazed with how well he is doing.  Realize, he may be a month old (well a little over, was a month on the 10th) but he was not due until the 24th.

He has doubled his birth weight and grown 1.5 inches in length.  I know I am biased, but like my other two grandsons I think he is a keeper.

I had to add the other grandsons as well.  Mr. W just turned one and Mr. T is 8 and his mom Mrs. C my oldest daughter.

Other news, it is official, I have type 2 diabetes.  I have been sent to classes to manage this, have finally been given the glucose meter and have begun testing my blood three times a day.  I had thought that changing the diet would be the hardest part of this.  SO WRONG.  The hardest part is making my finger bleed for the testing, making sure to get the strip in the machine with out touching it on anything, and getting the blood in the strip before the time is up.  I am getting better though.  The first time I tested, I used up three lancets (the needle) and five strips.  At least now I am down to one lancet each time and for the most part one strip, getting the timing down as well.  Now, to learn how to eat correctly while cooking for the family.  I am allowed 45 g. of carbs per meal and can have a couple of snacks as well.  According to the class, it is all about counting carbs.  Once I figure the carb part out, then I will also concentrate on limiting my calories to 1500 per day.  It is a bit confusing, the 45 carbs the class has taught us is a bit different than what is recommended by some of the diabetic cooking plans but will figure it out.  Also, I have really started looking at the nutrition labels on the foods I like.  What an education that is.  Like I said, it is a little confusing when they tell you that you need three servings of diary, but each serving is 12 carbs, you need three servings of grains, that is 15 carbs each.  I am trying to be very mindful of what I am eating, tomorrow will start the food log of what I eat, but my family is not really too willing to give up their eating habits.  My hubby told me that he wasn't the diabetic one, I just told him "guess what, your cook is."  He eats out for lunch each day, he can have what he wants for that meal.  Supper time at home has just turned in to their healthy meal of the day. I say "deal with it", I have to all day every day.  I also hope to start back at the gym, not full force this week due to hectic days ahead, but daughter J starts back to school on Monday so I am heading to the gym after she goes to school.  My goal is three times a week, 15 minutes each time.  Long term goal is five times a week, 30 minutes each time.  We shall see. I think I may even end up loosing some weight in all this.  I hope so, I would like to loose 90 pounds all together and will find out in the morning if I have lost any over the last two weeks with the new changes.  Of course, it is all still new so may not be any loss yet.  At any rate, will find out in the morning how close my home scale and the scale at the gym are to the scale at the doctors.

As I mentioned, this week is hectic.  We took one last long week end camping trip this past week end before school starts.  It was just wonderful.  High up in the mountains, was nice and cool, relaxing, and the best get away.  I only rode my quad one time, taking the helmet on an off is just a little to painful still. It pulls on the cuts from the surgery. But I had so much fun on the ride while we went through the trails.  At any rate, we got back today.  Tomorrow morning I have a doctor appointment with my primary physician, Wednesday I have an appointment with the surgeon, a follow up for the eyes.  They are doing well, will try to get an after photo soon.  Thursday morning I have to take my mom for a blood test at her doctor to check her medication levels.  We are doing this every week for the time being.  Thursday night we are invited to come over to the kids house and spend some time with baby M once again.  My daughter-in-law has been so wonderful at allowing us to have time with him.  With the other two grand sons in Texas, it is such a joy to have one so close to us.

I have been following several shows, not that I normally have to see them, but I have really been stuck on these.  The first is Next Food Network Star.  Jeff the sandwich king won.  He is very funny.  I must say that I was really glad to see the Food Network pick a show dedicated to something so diverse as the sandwich and a topic that is not currently being done.  Last year they picked Arti, her show was titled Arti Party and is about Indian flavors (which was already being done on a show called Spice Goddess) which was disappointing to me, also that she had very few episodes actually air.  I plan to watch the debut of Jeff's show.  While I wish it wasn't on Sunday morning, I will be watching it if at all possible.  His motto is "every sandwich can be a meal and every meal a sandwich" which I think is a pretty neat idea.

Also, on the Food Network, another new cook with a new show is Ree Drummond otherwise known as the Pioneer Woman.  She started a blog long ago, all about how a girl from Los Angles on a trip home to Oklahoma met a cowboy and married him.  She calls him the Marlboro Man.  The blog is great, wonderful photos, humorous stories about life on their working ranch, awesome home cooking recipes.  She has written cookbooks and a children's book.  She even beat Bobby Flay in a Thanksgiving throw down.  Her show debuts on Sat. 27 at 11:30 am.

Come on Food Network, can you please put the new shows on air at time they can be watched?

Along the lines of cooking shows, I watched the recent episode of Master Chef.  I was sure that Christian was going to be eliminated, but no such luck.  He is just a cocky, rude jerk. Okay, I have another name for him, but this is a family blog.  I really hope he doesn't win, but he is the type of personality that Gordon Ramsey would go for.

On a bright note, it is almost time for the new season of Bones.  I am eagerly awaiting this new season.

I don't know when football officially starts, but I don't have to anticipate it, that will happen in this house on it's own.

Guess that is about all I have for the moment.  My meal planning is off track for the time being as I gather new information, new recipes, and will then start back.  Before I have only planned the supper meal since it was only me.  Now however, I will be menu planning all three meals.  I think too, I will switch over to posting the meals for the past week instead of the week to come.  I had mentioned this before in previous postings, but it just seems like the logical way to approach life now.

Thank you for taking the time to stop by and please come back to see how things are going.