4/30/14 First workout in a long time!

Well I got a free pass to a local gym for a couple weeks. Looks like a nice place - not a huge fan of the pool being like a giant fish bowl for everyone walking in the door to peer in, but oh well.

I was able to fit in time to go swimming today after work. I made it 1 lap back and forth and was already tired but was able to push through to do 2 laps, plus some stretching and leg kicks. It's been almost 2 years since I've done any actual exercise, so clearly, my endurance is at level 0 right now. I figure if I can swim a bunch of times a week and get the # of laps up, then I can work my way up to using some of the machines.

I also learning an important lesson. When wearing a tankini while swimming and you don't want to flash your belly to those around you - you need to tuck the top into the bottoms :-). Pretty sure no one was looking, but it also creates a giant pool of water dragging you in the wrong direction if you don't do it.

This gym has a jacuzzi too - that will come in handy!

I weighed myself this weekend and I am down 3 lbs since I met with the doc a couple weeks ago. yay me :)

A few of us at my work are getting a Biggest Loser competition started in a couple weeks, so that will some good motivation for the next 12 weeks. We are making it so girls compete against girls and guys vs. guys since we lose at different speeds then guys do.

Haven't had a chance to do any cooking this week really, but since tacos were a hit last week I threw some chicken in the crock pot last night. I wasn't a fan of how it smelled this morning - not southwestern enough lol, so next time no crushed tomatoes. But i tossed in a jar of salsa and let it cook some more and should be good now. Hubby ate some and didn't complain.

I did find out the sweet potato turkey meatloaf from last week was a flop. Even the baby wouldn't eat it and he eats everything - including paper :). I didn't think it was bad but I'm not making a giant meatloaf for just me.

Here is the meatloaf I usually make, it is set up to make tiny meatballs but I use frozen onions which are too wet when pureed and don't form balls well, and I think I use the food processor for too long anyway for the other veggies, so I stick with meatloaf. I also don't use couscous because that sounds nasty. I use breadcrumbs like a normal person. I usually double the recipe and it fits into my big glass casserole dish. I usually use Sweet Baby Ray's for the drizzling of the BBQ sauce. Kids love this and have no idea how many veggies are in it :). I like it for leftovers and I put a drizzle of Thai Sweet Chili Sauce on it before microwaving it and it is delicious. (I have a bit of an addiction to Thai Sweet Chili Sauce).

Turkey Veggie Meatloaf

I still have some salmon in the freezer to make and I got more stuff to make more spinach. Annnnnd I just remembered I bought cauliflower last week and never cooked it so now it's probably bad. Oh well, so much for fake potatoes.

I do have to decide if I want to make the Dijon Garlic Salmon or Blackened Salmon. I've made the blackened one before and it was really good, but the other one sounds good too considering how much I love garlic. I've been on a big salmon kick the last few weeks. Here are the 2 recipes:

Dijon Garlic Salmon

Blackened Salmon

OK I'm off to take care of a sick little munchkin with a fever, I think the Tylenol is kicking in.

4/23/14 - Testing strips, not narcotics, and some recipe ramblings

Idiotic week so far - all I wanted was a prescription for diabetic test strips. Finally got the script from the doc whose office apparently never heard of my new fancy little meter that has all the little bells & whistles.

So they called in a script for a totally different strip because they assumed I gave them the wrong name.

Awesome.

Then my husband tried to pick them up and they wouldn't fill it because they wrote it for 100, testing twice a day for 30 days and they only come in packs of 50. So to make it correct they'd have to give me 60 and that's not possible since they can't break up the pack and they refused to fill it for 100 unless the script was re-written or the insurance company gave them an override code.

Seriously. Freaking test strips. Not vicodin, not tylenol with codeine, no narcotics of any kind. Test strips.

So I was like, screw it, I'll just take the 50 strips that will cover 25 days and be done with it. I try to pick them up but the discount card we got that lowers my copay from 35 to 15 - ya - only works on prescriptions for 100 freaking test strips.

SHOULD NOT BE THIS COMPLICATED!!!!!

So my doctor has now written a script for me to test 4 times a day, thus needing 100 strips a month (technically 120 but we won't go there!).

So Ta-Da - 4 days later and I finally have my test strips. So exciting, YAY for stabbing myself in the finger twice a day. At least I get to use my fancy little meter to plug into my computer and create charts and graphs on my sugars because I am just that type of nerd :).

Otherwise my eating habits have been pretty good. Yea I ate a bit of Easter candy, but not remotely as much as I would have in the past. I made an awesome corned beef and cabbage meal if I do say so myself. We had potatoes and carrots as a side and I was good, only ate 1 potato (red tiny ones). Also had a new recipe I found for baked breaded eggplant slices. We also had a really good creamy cheesy spinach that I found a base recipe for and made up the rest to make it my own. I ran the crockpot all day to also make something the recipe site calls chicken creole, but it's basically all the insides to a taco or a fajita with a little creole seasoning so we've had tacos this week. And miracle!! My daughter actually ate the tacos without complaining and she EVEN ASKED FOR MORE!!!! This never happens. She eats like a bird. She even added sour cream to it. She swore up and down last week that she HATED sour cream and had a total meltdown when I tried to get her to dip a single strawberry in it. God forbid lol. So this was new, and good!

And I started a new liquid vitamin I discovered that has increased magnesium to help alleviate stress and anxiety and improve focus and it has a bunch of fish oil, so that should be good. We shall see, it tastes nasty but I just down it like a shot. It's technically made for kids but based on the nutrition label and some research, it's fine for adults, so now me and the kid will take it :).

I should head to bed, but I really need to get working on creating some charts for my daughter, but I'm procrastinating. We decided with all her issues, she needs more structure, so we're creating a schedule for her and a chore list and behavior bucks that she can earn when she actually does stuff she's supposed to - which is currently very little so hopefully that changes with this new system. Then I won't need as much stress relief haha! Nah, think I'm gonna go to bed anyway, I can do the charts tomorrow. By the way, I've heard ADD is genetic and from what I've read, now we know where she got that and her OCD - yep - me. I'm impulsive, over-focus on some things and ignore others, short attention span, procrastinate, and a horrible short term memory. Thankfully for OCD I just like things to be in even numbers. Radio needs to have an even volume. If I were to be allowed to eat M&Ms again, I'd need to eat 2 - or cut one in half with my teeth :-). Things like that. My daughter's neurologist said that's common and he has that too, so that's good :). Well not good that he has OCD, but good that I'm not just weird :).

OK really going to bed this time.
But first I'll share some links to the recipes I made in case you may decide to make them or are just curious, or so I can find the recipes in the future :).

First - corned beef & cabbage - made exactly as described except I had to move pots and pans of the water from the meat around because none of my pans are big enough for all that food in one :) http://allrecipes.com/recipe/corned-beef-and-cabbage-i/detail.aspx

Next: Awesome creamy spinach, I looked at reviews before making this and decided to saute about 2 scoops of minced garlic in butter and then added the soup and the spinach and once it was mixed I added a few handful of shredded mozzarella - probably about a cup's worth. Then just lowered the heat and kept stirring until the cheese melted. http://allrecipes.com/recipe/creamed-spinach-ii/detail.aspx

Baked breaded eggplant - never expected to like these but I did. I added a heaping tablespoon of minced garlic to the mayo before spreading on the slices (I love garlic if you couldn't tell). Also sprinkled a little olive oil on them after they were cooked and broiled them for 2 mins. http://allrecipes.com/recipe/easiest-eggplant/detail.aspx

Chicken creole that's not really chicken creole - only difference was I doubled the recipe and just used a bag of frozen chicken tenderloins, I like those better than breasts usually, juicier. http://allrecipes.com/recipe/slow-cooker-chicken-creole/detail.aspx

And lastly - here is the link for the liquid vitamin. I heard it's best to store in fridge upside down and shake it like mad for about a min before mixing it in anything. I mix it in only about 2-3 oz of apple juice for my kid and water for me. Kids Calm Multi Disclaimer: Not a doctor or a nurse so don't take my choice in vitamins as any sort of expert :)

Nite!

4/18/14 - Wrapping up a busy week - getting ready for Easter!

Busy week this week! Lots of running around, doc appts, and plenty of work. I'm about a week out since having eye surgery to correct my lazy eye so staring at the computer all week at work has not been fun!

I did pretty well on my eating this week, except today. They had a cookout at work and hotdog and hamburger buns are not my friend, or chocolate chip cookies. But I didn't stuff myself or go nuts, so it'll be fine. Dinner tonight was a kale & strawberry smoothie with a little Greek yogurt and hemp seeds. Sounds hideous, but was delicious, filling, and had the perfect combo of carbs and proteins.

Now I'm off to hunt for some good diabetic style recipes to cook this weekend that will last through the week for lunch and dinners. I need to dig into my cookbook collection first. So many cookbooks, so little time. It's a good thing sites like http://www.allrecipes.com exist though, because I spend a lot of time there reading reviews on how people change perfectly good recipes to make entirely new ones :).

This weekend will be pretty full after doing an egg hunt and then grocery shopping ad of course Easter Sunday's church service and then family dinner.

Easter is not going to be an easy holiday to get past while being good about eating. Peeps and bunnies and jelly beans. ugh. Jelly beans are a weakness every year, especially the old school kind with the black ones that taste like licorice! So I just didn't buy any of those for the munchkins. Hubby gets to be the candy police during the week for the kiddos and I just have to avoid the baskets.

I'm thinking of doing corned beef and cabbage for Easter dinner....never made it before, can't be all that complicated. I watched my mom make it a billion times in her old 1970's olive green cast iron stew pot. I don't have one of those but I've got a crock-pot. Close enough :)

OK, I'm off to the exciting adventure called cleaning out the fridge to prepare for grocery shopping day!

4/17/14 - I don't want to die in a bathroom stall!

I'm Rae. I was diagnosed last Monday with type 2 diabetes. I knew it was coming sooner or later - My mom had it, my dad had it, my older sister has it, I'm overweight, and I had gestational diabetes with my last pregnancy so it was just a waiting game to see when it showed up. I don't like it but it happened. Now I have to change. Change my diet, change my exercise (or current lack thereof), change my shopping habits. Change is not fun.

Changing my food should be easy enough, I know what I should and shouldn't eat and how much. They trained me for that with gestational and now with this new diagnosis. It is a matter of the willpower to do it. I'm a stress eater, and I don't know any mom these days without stress. I may have an extra helping though it seems. My 8 yr old daughter, while smart, beautiful, and funny, she's also been diagnosed with ADD (attention deficit disorder - inattentive type) , OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder), Anxiety, TS (Tourette's Syndrome), and mild SPD (sensory processing disorder). I call it the alphabet of issues. Not easy. Then my almost 18 mo old son, his adorable happy self was diagnosed at birth with a congenital heart defect called Tetralogy of Fallot (AKA Blue Baby Syndrome) so for the 1st 4 months of his life he could have turned blue at any time. He had open heart surgery at 4 months old and is fine now but may need surgery in his teen years. In addition to that diagnosis, it comes along with some other fun stuff - developmental delays. So now my lil man is in speech therapy and physical therapy. Thankfully my husband is pretty healthy, and for my stress level, he better stay that way ;-) (for his sake too of course haha).

I wish I could say based on family history all will be well so I shouldn't worry about any of this, but I do. Thankfully my older sister is fine and controls her diabetes with diet and meds. However, my parents are a different story. My mom's heart gave out in 2010. Her co-workers realized she was missing and went to find her and saw her arm dangling down in the bathroom stall and called 911. They couldn't get her back and the doctors said her heart just gave out, no heart attack, it just stopped. She had high cholesterol and high blood pressure, both of which can easily coincide with diabetes. My dad passed a year later from Alzheimer's and he also had blood pressure and cholesterol issues.

I don't want to die in a bathroom stall, so change is going to happen. I realize that is morbid and scary to think about, but it is reality and I don't sugar coat anything. I have many years left on this planet, God willing, and want to see my babies have babies and maybe even their babies. I want to grow old and grey with my hubby and he the crazy cat lady down the street where he and I sit on the porch in our rocking chairs and talk about the good old times. So this is just the beginning.

I hope this blog can be a way for me to share and maybe vent about all the stuff that will be happening related to my diagnosis but also stuff related to my family and kids and all their own medical/neurological/psychological issues.