Day 2: the rest of the food

Lunch

1 cup Greek yogurt

2 big pinches coconut

14 macadamia nuts

Cinnamon 

Snack

Cheese stick

4 oz trail mix (peanuts, raisins M&M)

Evening meal

Blue cheese wedge salad

6 oz sirloin

4 grilled shrimp

4 cherry tomatoes

Sautéed spinach

Pre meal blood sugar.  307. 

Day 2: 10 am, blood sugar check, food

Decided that it would be best to check my blood sugar levels through the day based on the high numbers this morning.

Breakfast
3 eggs scrambled in coconut oil
1 avocado
2 tablespoons homemade salsa (corn kernels)
grated part cheese

water

ice tea

morning meds after eating

2 hours later, blood sugar:  331

I noticed that my testing supplies are out of date.  Like 3 years out of date.  I don' know if this can result in false tests.  These are the kind of numbers I was seeing when I was first diagnosed.

Day 2: Blood Sugar/Blood Pressure and Meds

My daily medication regiment has been the same for some time:
1000 MG Metformin, morning and night
50 MG Carvedilol, morning and night
Lisinop/HCTZ 20-12.5 MG, morning and night
Simvastatin 20MB, night

Metformin for blood sugar.  Carvedilol and Lisinop for blood pressure.  Simvastatin for cholesterol.  I have never has cholesterol issues, but my Dr. has all of her type II diabetics on a cholesterol med.  I go in for blood work in a couple of weeks.  The results won't give me a hard baseline as I'll have been modifying my diet, but the numbers should give me some context and a place from which to measure progress.

Blood Sugar (7:00 a.m., 11/6/14, fasting)
340
316
356

I was so surprised by the first number, I tested 3 times.  I have not been monitoring or sugars for a long time.  I was med compliant yesterday and ate very low carb and low sugar.  Further motivation to continue monitoring and eating correctly.  Also something to watch as I go to the doctor in a few weeks.

Blood Pressure
129/90 pulse of 62
113/91 pulse of 63

I am pleased with these numbers. 

Reason to be concerned.  Those blood sugar numbers are significantly elevated.  Strong motivation for vigilance in diet and continuing to monitor.  Must be back on track.

Food plan for the day:
egg and meat omelet for breakfast
yogurt, coconut, and nuts for lunch
steak, salad, and veggies at dinner
snacks?
coconut oil in tea

Day 1: Part 2

Having recovered from my morning episode, I gave two lectures back-to-back in the afternoon and felt pretty good.  Not 100%, but well enough to engage the students.

Afternoon snack:
4 meat sticks.   A student brought these by.  I shared one with someone else and ate the remain four in two settings.  Her dad markets them.  Tasty.  I read later that brown sugar is used.  Not the end of the world.
2 cups water

Not sure I ever felt 100%.  Slight headache and tired.  Daylight savings time is impacting me and my caffeine input was low.  Also I didn't sleep well last night.  Too many variables to know.

Evening meal (7pm):
10 buffalo wings
several tablespoons ranch dressing
steak salad, no dressing
2 servings diet soda
4 glasses water

I left work late, didn't have the kids and didn't feel like cooking.  I figured this was the best I could do at the local pub.  Did not eat the bread stick.  Major win.  Turned down candy in the afternoon.  Another win.  Work meeting out tomorrow night.  Steakhouse.  Shouldn't be hard.  I am trying to eliminate soda.  I have continued to read it causes the body to respond as if the sugar was real.  Probably too much sodium.

All in all I feel good for the day.  A morning and afternoon snack will be in order.  Tomorrow morning I'll check blood sugar.  Decided to try swishing coconut oil around in my mouth.  I hear it is the rage.  I don't hate it so far.  

Eat Bacon Don't Jog: an experiment in eating. Day 1 morning.

Grant Peterson, of Rivendell Bike fame, has a new book, Eat Bacon Don't Jog.

http://eatbacondontjog.com

Over the course of the last week I've been visiting with him via email regarding the premise of the book.  I haven't seen a copy so I don't have a global perspective, but the part I'm curious about is the notion that to really control blood sugar one must not eat very many carbs.

I'll expand in future posts, but for now I'm beginning to keep some data.

Meds:  Typical dose (I'll add later)

Morning meal (7:30 a.m.)
4 eggs
5 ounces canned salmon
small handful of grated cheese


All together in a skillet.  Scrambled.  I could only eat about 3/4 of the bowl.  Just couldn't force more down.  Drank 2 cups tea.

Morning snack
I added 1 teaspoon of coconut oil to my thermos of white tea
2 cups tea
1 cup water

Lunch (noon)
1 cup fat-free greek yogurt
big pinch of coconut flakes
10 macadamia nuts
several shakes fancy Vietnamese cinnamon

Just before lunch I experienced what felt like a hot flash.  My face flushed.  My body temperature increased and my stomach felt ill.  I'd been hungry up to this point and intended to eat 30 minutes earlier, but was sidetracked.  Eating helped me feel normal.  A bit worried about teaching this afternoon.  I do not have monitoring equipment at school, but would be interested to take blood sugar during this episode.

Roasted coffee and other caffinated soutions

This summer the kids and I headed into Kansas City for a tour at The Roasterie and a stop at The Nelson to see the Water Lilies. It was a fantastic day. At the conclusion of The Roasterie tour, Henry asked aloud why we did not roast our own coffee. A very good question and after a couple of weeks of research we were in business. For the past 5 months, he and I have been roasted select green coffees from around the world to our own delight. We formed a brand name, Blunderbean Express, and with the help of my cousin created a logo. It has been a good bit of fun. Over the summer we had lots of time and sent sachets of the roasted beans to friends across the country. The school year has slowed this enterprise down a bit, but I get lots of questions about my equipment and source of beans so I figured I should create a post.

The roaster:
I use the Nesco roaster. I'm a firm believer in air roasting and this seems to be the best option on the market. It has drawbacks. The link in the previous sentence is to Tom's reviews at Sweet Maria's. I agree with most of what he has to say, but couldn't find a product that seemed better. I would have gladly paid more, but there just wasn't anything I liked better on the market. My unit was purchased in KC through The Roasterie with a couple pounds of green beans thrown in. I think Sweet Maria's offers a similar deal. The unit is also on Amazon. After about 10 pounds of roasting, I couldn't be happier. I don't expect it to last forever, but considering the price of green verses already roasted beans, it will pay for itself.

The beans:
I order ALL of my green beans from The Roasterie. Their Home Roasting section offers a fine selection. If one orders before 12:30 p.m. and spends more than $40, overnight shipping is included. Amanda, at the front desk, who helps with such things, is the bee's knees. A handwritten note comes with every box. There are other places to get unroasted beans, but I consider KC local and with free shipping the price can't be beat. Green beans have a six month shelf life so ordering 5 pounds at a time is not a big deal.

Quick tomato sauce

I picked up a few pounds of local heirloom tomatoes at the farmer's market this weekend. Olivia has been asking for pasta for a couple of days so I thought I'd make a fresh sauce with as many local ingredients as I could work in. I was please with the results. Sadly, I didn't get a photo until after the meal when I was putting away leftovers. It was pretty much THAT good.

• 3 cloves garlic
• small onion (I had white on hand, but might have preferred red)
• olive oil
• salt
  
• pepper
• red pepper flakes
• tomatoes (four large and a handful of cherry)
  
• soy sauce
• basil
  
• pasta
• cheese
  

I put the pan on medium heat and let a couple turns of olive oil heat while I chopped the onion and garlic. I add both to the hot pan and added salt, pepper and red pepper flakes. I found myself salting the dish each time I added ingredients. Next I chopped the four large tomatoes. I had two different varieties that needed used. Rough cut and a dice leaving seeds and juices on the cutting board. I added the tomatoes to the pan, stirred and salted. I had the idea to cut some cherry tomatoes in half along their equator and add them to the pan. For some reason at this point I was moved to add about two table spoons of soy sauce...I have no idea why, but it seemed to work. I also chopped five or six big basil leaves and added. The sauce was pretty juicy so I let it reduce for about 10 minutes while my water heated, checking and stirring often. Then I added my pasta to the water and added a bit more salt to the sauce. As the noodles finished I felt the urge to add another turn of oil to the sauce which had reduce quite a bit. I toyed with the notion of letting the sauce further reduce, but instead drained the noodles and added them to the pan. After stirring and letting the noodles take in some of the juice, I finely grated two ounces of hard cheese over the dish, removed from heat and covered while I finished some chicken breasts I served with the pasta. I haven't posted in about seven months and the dish moved me to do so...that is all the advertizement the dish needs in my mind. I'll be repeating all summer as the tomatoes continue to make their way from the fields to my table.