Control

 Control


What is this circle of testing,
counting carbs, and injecting insulin?


What does this tight control gain?
Why do I test over and over,
repeating the endless cycle of blood?



I celebrate each little victory,
a lower A1c, creating a new recipe
that doesn't send my glucose soaring,
finding a few moments of peace
when I actually forget my diabetes
and just live in the moment.

Control - I never knew
how much I would learn
to value that word.

I control my blood glucose 
as much as humanly possible,
instead of letting it...

Control me.


No comas, blindness, amputations,
no suffering like my grandmother,
had to go through.

Who am I to complain
about a few finger sticks,
counting carbs, injecting insulin,
getting labwork done,
overcoming my fear of needles,
when it can save my eyes,
save my feet, save my very life?

So what if I have to count carbs
and feel like a pincushion?
I'd rather count 

than die a little
every day...

Wouldn't you?


Control...

Its worth every moment that I give,
every day, month after month,
to stay here and enjoy
the spring blossoms on the apple tree,
the crash of waves on the shoreline after a storm,
the voice of my sweetheart in the starry dark,
my daughter's smiling face,
and someday...

the laughter of my grandchildren.


Petra

Low Carb Pie Crusts - Two to Choose From!

 

Low Carb Pie Crusts: 

Here's a couple you can choose from:

Healthy High Fiber Pie Crust

2 C. Fiber One cereal ground/crushed
3 T. melted butter
2 T. granular Splenda

Mix ingredients well, press into a lightly greased pie plate.

Bake 10 minutes @ 350 degrees F

Cool. Add filling of choice. I like to add a sugar free vanilla pudding filling with some fat free cream cheese stirred into it to make it taste like cheesecake. Then I top with strawberries if they are in season.


Almond Meal Pie Crust

This works best for a 9" pie pan. If you have an 8" one, the crust will be a little thicker, or you can cut back on the ingredients a bit. Very easy to make, tastes a lot like shortbread and its gluten free too!

Ingredients:
1 and 1/2 cups almond meal or almond flour
3 tablespoons melted butter
Artificial sweetener equal to 3 tablespoons sugar

Preparation:
Heat oven to 350 F. Melt the butter (if the pie pan is microwave safe, melt the butter in it) and mix the ingredients up in the pan and pat into place with your fingertips.

Bake for about 10 minutes until the crust is beginning to brown. After 8 minutes, check every minute or so, because once it starts to brown it goes quickly.

Nutritional Information: The whole pie shell has 11 grams effective carbohydrate2 plus 17 grams fiber and 30 grams protein.

You can find lots of ideas for pie crusts and even recipes without crust, that are lower in carbs. Just Google it! 

Em's Diabetic Friendly Bran Muffins

Em's Diabetic Friendly Bran Muffins   Here's my recipe for Bran Muffins, for diabetics or those on a low carb diet.  These muffins are not as large as regular muffins, but this means that they also don't have as many carbs per muffin as regular muffins either!    1 1/3 cups prune juice 1 1/2 cups Fibre One cereal , OR unprocessed bran 2 cups Buttermilk OR 2 cups milk + 4 tsp white vinegar 1/2 cup Vegetable oil 2 whole eggs (or egg whites to make same quantity) 1 tsp Vanilla extract 1 Tbsp Ground cinnamon 2 cups Whole wheat flour 1 cup Oat Bran (the type you have to cook) 1/2 cup Splenda (granular Splenda for baking, no sugar added) 1 Tbsp Baking soda Optional flavours to add 2 Tbsp Unsweetened cocoa (substitute for 2 Tbsp of the flour) OR 1/2 tsp Powdered ginger 1/2 OR cup Unsweetened coconut flakes OR 1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries (must be thawed  first) To make the batter: Heat prune juice in microwave until hot but not boiling, in a large Pyrex measuring cup. Add bran and let sit 10 minutes. Stir in buttermilk or milk with vinegar, vegetable oil, eggs and vanilla extract. In separate large bowl stir together cinnamon, flours, oat bran, sugar, Splenda, and baking soda. Mix together gently and pour into greased silicone muffin pans suitable for your microwave. To use: Medium muffins: Spray microwavable silicone muffin pan with Pam, and measure 1/4 cup of batter into each muffin cup. Microwave on high for 3 to 5 minutes or until done. Each muffin will have approximately 15 EEC (carbs minus fibre) or less. Let cool for a few minutes before removing from pan. For mini-muffin pan: measure 1/8th cup of batter into mini-muffin cups, and cook on high for 3 to 4 minutes. Each mini-muffin will have about 8 carbs each, (EEC – carbs minus the fibre). You can freeze after cooled, in  a ziplock bag. Just thaw in the microwave when you want a treat. Or you can bake in a regular oven, set at 375 F for 8 to 12 minutes, depending on how hot your oven is. Spray the muffin pan first with a non-stick spray such as Pam and fill each muffin cup about 2/3's full. Enjoy!

Low Carb Chocolate Almond Torte

Low Carb Chocolate Almond Torte

 (Also known as Chocolate Cake!)

This is a yummy treat for diabetics, or anyone on a low carb diet. I adapted this recipe from one I found on the web years ago. Sorry, I don’t recall where. Its not only rich and delicious, its also gluten free!

You can make this in just one bowl if you prefer, or even your food processor.I like to use two bowls, one for wet and one for dry ingredients. Either way, it doesn’t take long to mix and it tastes great. It has a slightly different texture from cake mixes and scratch cakes, but is still delish!

This torte (cake), is made from almond meal, which can be bought at health food stores and sometimes can be found in the bulk food section of your grocery store. If you can’t find ground almonds, you can use ground pecans. I store my almond meal in my freezer to keep it fresh. Since my diagnosis of diabetes, this is my favourite birthday cake.

DRY INGREDIENTS:

2 cups ground almonds or pecans
1/3 cup cocoa 
1 teaspoon baking powder 
1/4 teaspoon salt 
1 cup granular Splenda for baking 

WET INGREDIENTS:

4 eggs 
1/2 cup (I stick) butter, melted 
1 teaspoon vanilla 
1/2 cup water

PREPARATION:

Heat oven to 350 F. Spray an 8 or 9 inch round cake pan or spring-form pan with PAM. If you don’t have Pam, use margarine or butter to grease the pan well.

Mix all the dry ingredients in a large bowl, using with a spoon.

Mix all the wet ingredients in a smaller bowl.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry ones, and mix until well-blended.

Pour mixture into greased pan and bake. The exact time will vary with the size of your pan, and the material (metal, pyrex, etc). Start checking at about 25 minutes until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Cut when cool.

If desired, serve with home-made whipped cream sweetened with Splenda.

NOTE: I like to use a Pyrex cake pan that has a snap on plastic lid, so I can leave it in the pan and just cut and serve as needed. It’s a bit crumblier than regular cake, so serving it in the baking dish is easier than trying to turn it out onto a plate to serve. Do not store it in a metal cake pan, they can go rusty.   Once its baked and cooled, cover and keep it in the fridge. It freezes well, as long as you wrap it well to prevent drying out.   If you plan to freeze it, cut into serving size pieces and freeze 2 per package so you can thaw out only what you need.   The following is only an approximation - nutritional Information: Serves 8, each piece has approximately 2 grams of NET (effective)  carbohydrates, 4 grams of fiber, 6 grams of protein, 334 calories.


Low Carb Chocolate Icing

Mix one tub of Philly 95% fat free cream cheese, with 3 Tablespoons of cocoa powder and 3 to 4 packets regular Splenda (to taste). Add 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract and stir in well

This spreads better when at room temperature, but it must be kept cold after spreading. You can soften it slighlty in the microwave on the lowest setting, till it becomes more spreadable.

This icing must be kept refrigerated, so once you have iced your cake, cover and put in fridge right away. This is great on the low carb Chocolate Torte. Spread it thin, its rich tasting. If you need to make it go further you can mix in a couple of tablespoons of soft margarine, which also makes it easier to spread.  If you don’t care about the fat content, you can use regular Philly cream cheese, instead of the low fat version.

Please remember to store the torte, (especially the iced version),  in your fridge, so it won’t go bad. Cream cheese must be kept cold, and almond meal tortes do not stay fresh as long as flour based cakes because of all the eggs, and the nuts. This is not a flour based cake, so keep it cold!

I like to freeze about half of the torte (cake) it for another occasion. This torte is low carb, but still pretty rich, so I don't eat too much of it at one time. Its also a bit pricey to make, but well worth it and you can make it last quite a while if you freeze most of it and just thaw out a piece or two for a special treat now and then.

 Enjoy!

Which Lancet is the Finest?

Want to avoid unneccesary pain when testing your blood glucose?

Doesn't any diabetic?

Well, how about using a finer lancet?

Here are two to consider:

The BD Ultrafine, which has a gauge of 33.

Here's a page comparing it to other popular lancets, its the one on the far left, the pretty peacock blue one:

Comparison of lancets for size

I have found one other lancet which might be suitable for children, its the Tinyboy.
Its the pale blue lancet on the left in the picture below.  As you can see, its very very short.

And what about lancing devices? 

My favourite is the BD one shown at the very bottom of this photo: 

 
More Options: 

Another option to reduce pain when testing, is to use Alternate Site Testing.   
Here's an excellent article on it, which explains when its appropriate and not appropriate to use it, and how to get the best results:

Alternate Site Testing 

Where should I test if not on my fingers? 

http://gb.pinterest.com/pin/112801165641726163/

This shows the alternate sites you can use with their systems. It also shows alternate sites on the hand, (I find these just as effective as fingertip testing, you might too). As you see, you can use the base of your thumb, and the edge of your palm too.

Note that when you use fingertip testing, its usually less painful to use the side of your fingertips, rather than the flat part where your fingerprint is. 

Talk to your doctor about using alternate sites, and mention these alternate hand sites too.

A Strong Woman

 

My grandmother was a strong woman...

She raised two children on her own when her husband disappeared into the wilderness and never came home again. He was finally given up for dead many years later.

She ran the family farm out on the prairies, then moved across half a continent to give her family a better life. She started out all over again.

She was burned in a house fire, and survived skin grafts. She grew strong again, and rebuilt her home and her life, and planted a rose garden.

She was brave. Far braver than I'll ever be.

She taught me how to make bread, and told me stories of life on the prairies, and the old traditions.

She told me about my dad when he was a kid, of how much my parents were in love when they were young, of how different society was when she grew up.

She went from soddy, and horse and wagon, to telephones, and cable TV, but technology couldn't save her.

She died too soon, a brave, strong, passionate woman, taken down...   by sugar.

Type 2 diabetes

  Complications followed.

Comas, gangrene, surgery, more gangrene, more surgeries, 

and suddenly, after surviving all that, a stroke.

She was gone.

Type 2 diabetes isn't pretty. 

Its a horrible desease that kills the people we love. This is why I fight to impress on people that they need to get tested even if they don't have any symptoms.

Type 2 is a silent killer that sneaks up on you when you aren't looking. You can have it for 8 to 10 years before the symptoms start to appear from the complications and damage it causes. By then, you've already lost some of your nerve function and eye sight and may already have kidney disease. Your pancreas may have already lost much of its ability to produce insulin. As much as 80% or more of the beta cells that are responsible for insulin production will be dead.

 Everyone should be tested for diabetes at every checkup. That's the only way we're going to give people a chance to fight this disease.

Tell your friends, tell your neighbours, tell your co-workers -- "Get tested at your next checkup, ask for an HbA1c and a fasting glucose test".

  You just might save their life!

 

  

Its NOT All About Type!

I had a very interesting conversation with my endo yesterday.

He said he doesn't really believe in using the diabetes labels type 1 and 2, because no two people will have the same response to medications, and that there are so many similarities and overlapping areas between the two.

Drugs that were previously considered just for type 2 have been found to work on type 1, and vice versa. He believes there are hundreds of types and that what matters is getting results. 

Its a fact that "Type 2's" can have antibodies just like type 1s, and type 1's can still have active beta cells". 

It was refreshing to hear him discuss it; he's more up to date on this than he used to be. 

Failing to respond to oral meds doesn't make you type one, it just makes you an individual, which ALL diabetics are. What's important is getting your blood glucose under control. FORGET the labels and stop playing the blame game!

He also said that I was programmed before birth to get diabetes, and even if I was skinny, I still would have gotten it. It was refreshing to have a doc say that I am NOT blame to blame for my diabetes. He also said I was preprogrammed to be a large person, that it's in my genes, and I should NOT diet. He encouraged me to try to make good choices about food, which is what I'm doing. Its what I have been doing for years. Unfortunately I made some bad choices when I was busy renovating 2 houses and taking care of my husband after an injury left him in a cast from hip to toe for months. I'm back on track now but its a real struggle because I now have several other serious health issues and can't get enough exercise due to extreme joint deterioration.

For far too long I've been pressured to diet, and with each new diet I end up getting discouraged and gaining back even more weight when the diet fails, which ultimately all diets do.

Lately, my family doctor is all about WLS. Are you kidding? I'd probably die on the operating table and she knows this. She admits it every time we have this discussion. I have far too many complications to risk it, I am not going to be a lab experiment for some greedy doctor. And by the way, it turns out that even lap bands are not all that safe after all, and not all that successful either.

Of all the doctors I've ever had, my endo has the most positive attitude about weight, and diabetes that I've ever seen. He wasn't always like that. He's gone up several notches in my opinion, for getting more up to date on the studies and evidence regarding this disease.

I just wish more doctors, more diabetics, and family members were up to date on the research and had a positive attitude instead of blaming the diabetic for having the wrong genes.

PS. You know what's really amusing?  I was just reading the old definition of type 1 and 2, and according to it, I'm actually type 1.  Crazy!  I don't care what you call it as long as I have my insulin. Without it, I'd be in the hospital pretty quickly.