1) I support people with diabetes in following the meal plan that gives them the best results

2) I see how many (if not most) health care professionals have been saying the same things about food for a long, long time and may need to open up a little (or a lot)

3) I’m having a hard time wrapping my head around a high fat meal plan (because it flies in the face of everything I’ve been taught), but I’m open to learning more

4) A low carb lifestyle may truly help a lot of people lose weight and achieve the blood glucose levels and other outcomes they are after

5) We still need better access to affordable, quality produce!

6) For those who do choose to eat carbohydrate, we still need to promote the healthy ones (and healthy protein and fat, too, while we’re at it).

I’m curious to hear others’ thoughts on low carb living. Does it work for you? Are you eating a high fat meal plan, and if so, how is that working in terms of food choices, satisfaction, blood fats, cholesterol, etc.? Please share what you’ve experienced or what you’ve heard from others.

I look forward to learning more about this and helping people choose and follow what works best for them. I still believe – with all my heart – that if we do this with a positive attitude, knowing that’s it’s ultimately our choice to decide which meal plan we follow – we will have better outcomes.

Here is a great opportunity for all! Watch this documentary starring Elizabeth Perkins, enjoy the show, and the Diabetes Hands Foundation gets money. And that means people with diabetes get awesome programs.

http://www.diabetescostars.com/

It’s that simple.

Most adults do best with 7 to 8 hours of sleep per day (night). Poor sleep can cause high blood glucose, and high blood glucose can cause poor sleep. A sleep disturbance called sleep apnea puts people at risk for serious health problems.

It’s time for bed! Let’s get some sleep.

The catch is to not overeat nuts, which can be challenging. I am fortunate, because I like almonds, but I don’t like too many of them at once. I can literally eat 6 almonds and be satisfied. However, I do like them better inside dark chocolate. Or alongside a piece of fruit. I can’t say I’m quite to the point where 6 almonds fill me up for an extended period of time. But it’s certainly better than some things I could choose to eat, right?

How do you incorporate nuts into your eating plan?

How do you handle buffets?

I have a lot of respect for the people who participate in studies and conduct research so that one day diabetes will no longer exist. I’m realistic enough to think that a prevention will happen before a cure, but maybe there will be a cure in my lifetime. It’s possible.

Today I read an article about a new hormone that makes beta cells (the cells in the pancreas that produce insulin). This is a big finding! If they can figure out how to get this hormone into a safe and effective injectable form, they might be onto something. Don’t throw away your syringes and insulin (pens, pumps, etc.) quite yet though – I once heard about people who did this on a Friday several years ago when a “cure” was announced; they had no supplies to get through the weekend!

How do you respond when you hear about a cure for diabetes? 

Anyway, being obsessed about writing blog posts reminds me about how easy it is to obsess about other things in our lives. With diabetes, we can find ourselves obsessing about numbers or food or exercise. By obsessing, I mean hyper-focusing or thinking about one or a combination of these things all the time. It can distract us and cause us to lose productivity in other parts of our lives. And can also lead to diabetes distress.

Sometimes such obsessive patterns can lead to throwing in the towel or giving up on diabetes management for a day, a week, or even a long time. I’m constantly saying and writing that “it’s all about balance.” For me, balance means not being obsessed and not being apathetic, but living somewhere in the middle. Paying attention to diabetes, respecting it, so to speak, but not letting it take over my life. I think this is how I avoid distress.

I’m not sure how, exactly, I came to not obsess about diabetes (and this was not always the case), and trust me, there are certainly other areas that I stress, obsess and distress about! But every morning I get to start over and strive for balance once again.

1.) I’m great at being a diabetes robot: I wake up and check my blood glucose every morning. I eat at relatively consistent times and relatively consistent amounts/types of food. This makes managing my diabetes tremendously easier than when I’m not as consistent/robotic.

2.) I’m great at writing a blog post every day, when I have a prompt: I love to write, and having someone give me a topic makes it so easy for me to just write. And I’m great at keeping it short!

3.) I’m great at listing the things I’m not great at. But that’s not allowed today, so I’ll stop here.

What are you great at??

@scottkjohnson (Scott K. Johnson)

@mydiabeticheart (Mike Durbin)

@ninjabetic (George Simmons)

@withfaithgrace (Allison Nimlos)

@betespora (Jeff)

@ArtMindBody (Lee Ann Thill)

@JoyfulDiabetic (Will Ryan)

5.) What Ever Happened to Carefree Sugarless Gum??

4.) On the Road of Life, Diabetes is Just One Frost Heave

3.) Fighting Fire with Fire

2.) 38 Special: 38 years with diabetes…and counting!

1.) People With Diabetes Can Eat Anything: it’s all about balance