1/15/20

Wait what? How’d I get to Day 21 already? The struggle is real folks. Every day seems to bring about a new set of challenges which I need to overcome. I’m not sure how people can eat clean day after day. Do they splurge on occasion? Are they able to get back on track? Or are they laser focused and stick to it. I like eating clean. I feel better when I eat clean. But I get caught up in the day to day business of working full time, being busy each night running the youngest around, myself taking martial arts classes, religion class for the youngest, etc. Sometimes I’m just plain old tired, don’t want to cook or don’t have time to cook.

I have two voices in my head. The one that is saying of course you are tired. You are a busy working mom. You deserve to just order take-out. You’ll do better tomorrow. And that other voice is get your head out of your *** and make it happen. I once had a trainer years ago that used to say if I truly wanted something, I would make time for it. Mind you she was like 20 years old, not married, no kids, etc. and I was working full time and raising a child. I believe my daughter at the time was under one. I used to argue with her that I truly had no time for working out and she just didn’t understand. But in hindsight, she was totally right. We make choices every day. I can chose to eat clean or I can chose to make poor decisions, but in the end the only one I am accountable to is me.

Such a deep blog post. More tomorrow….

1/9/20

Weight 231.6
Down 2.8 pounds
Fasting Glucose 150

For the win, I managed two days in a row drinking 77 oz of liquids. Going to keep this up for a full week and then up the oz by 10. Now that I am using the water app again it does make it easier to remember to drink. It’s called WaterMinder in case this is the first blog post you are reading of mine.

For the second win, super happy I am finally down a bit a weight. It’s not much, but it’s something so I will take it!

Slim pickings for food in the house today as we are getting a new refrigerator on Saturday so I ended up having a sandwich for both lunch and dinner. I ate it on whole grain bread so hopefully not super bad.

Hitting martial arts class tonight and then Friday and Saturday. My body is hurting but first black belt test is next weekend. Yikes!

Other than class, laying low this weekend which sounds awesome after the busy holiday season.

Until tomorrow!

Short post. More this weekend.

1/8/20

Wow, already two weeks into this journey of eating clean. I certainly haven’t been perfect but have been paying attention. I think my biggest accomplishment is when I would get off track for a meal, I would get right back on immediately following. In the past, my getting off track would snowball me into a month or longer of eating anything and everything in site which as you can image, doesn’t help the waistline (or glucose levels!)

My second win is getting started on December 26th so that come January 1st, I already had nearly a week of eating clean under my belt.

And lastly, my third win was planning all dinners. I have a menu board on the fridge and meal plan every sunday for the following week. The planning includes getting all the grocery shopping done as well. So helpful to have it displayed on the fridge as when I am running late the husband or daughter can start the meal prep.

A couple of areas for improvement for the following week should be planning my lunches ahead of time. I have a bad habit of standing in front of the fridge in the morning trying to figure out what I am going to bring for lunch. I probably need to make a big batch of homemade chili and individually freeze it for grab and go lunches and do more research on some easy lunch ideas that can be made ahead of time.

Second area of improvement…..water….ugh. So bad at this. I can consistently get in about 50 oz of water a day but half of that is coffee. Maybe I need to start small by trying to increase my amount each week by 10 oz or something. I try to jump right back to 100 oz which always seems so far out of reach. With a goal that large am I setting myself up for failure? Not intentionally, but it kind of feels like it. And, as I type this sentence my water reminder goes off on my phone lol. I should probably start to use that app. Interesting enough I just put in my 12 oz of coffee and it converted it to 10.8 oz of water. I’ll try using this app for a week and see how it goes. The name of it is WaterMinder. I do believe I paid for it but it was only a couple of dollars.

For dinner I made the following recipe. I think it could be better. If I make it again, I will opt for less chicken and more whole wheat pasta. https://homemadeforelle.com/clean-eating-chicken-lasagna/

And the win for the day, I used the water tracker and got in 77.6 oz today. That’s HUGE! See ya tomorrow!

1/7/20

Weights: 233.8 (237 at the doctor – OMG)
A1C 6.9

As predicted, my A1C is higher that it’s been in the past. Doctor has upped my meds temporarily until I can get my glucose back down. Although I had to drag myself to the doctor, I am glad I did as it helps me get refocused.

I also did well after the doctor as I usually then hit Panera. I had made myself coffee at home (which I didn’t drink until after the doc since I had to fast) and brought my egg bites. I did go out to lunch however had a ham & cheese omelette and an english muffin. I know I need to really switch to a veggie omelette but I just love cheese and ham way too much. At least I avoided the fries this time so that’s something.

I made it to martial arts class again tonight. Class seems to be getting easier so hopefully that’s a sign that I am building my stamina back up. First black belt test is a week from Sunday. Yikes.

And once again, the hardest part of the day with eating healthy is the 8-10 p.m. time slot. No matter how well I eat during the day I tend to fall off the rails. My goal needs to be to brush my teeth before the witching hour and then I avoid eating for two reasons: food tastes funny and I’m too lazy to brush my teeth twice before bed. I probably need to put that at the top of my priority list.

Tomorrow I have officially been trying to eat clean for 2 weeks. Baby Steps.

1/6/20
Fasting Glucose: 184 (my highest yet — and not in a good way)

As much as I want to now really skip the doctor I am forcing myself to go tomorrow. My last test was last May (shame on me — it’s supposed to be every three months) and it was 6.1. The time before that and the highest it has been was 6.7 on 1/22. My assumption is that it’s back up to 6.7 or potentially higher. My goal is still to kick diabetes into remission which I know I can do if I keep my focus on eating clean as best I can, drinking water and exercising.

“By recording your dreams and goals on paper, you set in motion the process of becoming the person you most want to be. Put your future in good hands – your hands.” Mark Victor Hansen

Yesterday I took the time to menu plan for the week, went grocery shopping and even made two new recipes for the week.

These muffins are delicious! https://www.superhealthykids.com/recipes/chunky-monkey-muffins/

And I made these egg bites which were amazing. I made enough for the whole week. https://mycrazygoodlife.com/copycat-starbucks-egg-bites-recipe/ I did buy the cooking container on Amazon. It came in a two pack with a rack. I did make the mistake of storing the bites in the container I cooked them in as it came with this handy dandy lid however note to self (and others), don’t do this as the entire bite will stick to the container once it’s been refrigerated.

Tonight for dinner I am making a taco bowl. I used a whole wheat tortilla that I put into my air fryer to crisp it up and turn it into a “bowl.” Lets just say it didn’t look like a bowl, more like a flat crisped tortilla, but it was super good and I do plan to make again. Then just topped it with the usual taco fixings.

1/4/20-1/5/20
Glucose Saturday: didn’t test
Glucose Sunday: 175 (yikes, super high)

Weekends always seem to be challenging. I just have to remember that this is not a diet, but a new way of life.

I’ve got to get my glucose back under control or I will have long term consequences. I do go to the doctor tomorrow to discuss how I’ve been struggling for the last month. I know for me, it’s less about diet and more about weight. When I get below 220 is when I see a dramatic drop in my fasting glucose levels. I do shudder to think what my A1C is going to be tomorrow but I’ve already cancelled and rescheduled the doctor a number of times so I am forcing myself to just go and get it over with. Then I will set new A1C goals for the next three months.

Over the weekend I did make it to the gym on Sunday so all in all, the week was a success in the exercise department. I went to the gym twice and martial arts advanced class twice. Feels great to have a week of exercise under my belt. Next week I’m going to shoot for five as that is my long term goal and totally achievable. In 2019 my top exercise month was October and I exercised 8 times and burned a total 2,013. I can totally beat that in the month of January.

Saturday in the eating department I did okay until late at night when everyone was upstairs and I raided the pantry and fridge. Had way too many snacks of the unhealthy kind. Once the junk is out of the house it is not being replaced.

Sunday breakfast and lunch went okay and dinner we went out to Chili’s. Didn’t make very good decisions. Monday is a whole new day.

1/3/2020
Fasting Glucose: 143

Goals for today:

• Make it to martial arts tonight
• Drink 80 oz of liquid
• Track

I’m dragging today after the butt kicking martial arts class. Going back for more tonight…maybe it will loosen all the tight and sore muscles. Black Belt here I come! Also plan to hit the gym sometime this weekend so I will have worked out 4 times this week. Goals baby!

After all the festivities, I am looking forward to a relatively quiet weekend. The only thing planned is a training session for work tomorrow that will include a plated lunch. Goal is to avoid the bread bowl on the table, bring a snack and drink water.

Breakfast:

• Daily Harvest Smoothie – Cherry Almond

Snack:

• lowfat string cheese
• cucumbers and hummus
• coffee with sugar free creamer/splenda

Lunch:

• Homemade chili w/ lots of veggies and small amount of grated cheddar cheese

Dinner:

• Wholegrain pasta w/ homemade pasta sauce
• 2 small portillo’s bread w/ butter
• Salad in a bag
• Small portion of diced ham

Snacks:

• Babybel
• hard boiled egg
• 5 egg bites

Recap on my goals: Did well tracking and going to martial arts; stunk at water.

“Vision will inspire you, but discipline will get you there,” Christine Caine

1/2/20
Weight 243
Fasting Glucose 164

Goals for today:

• Drink 100 oz of liquid
• Track everything

With one week under my belt, I am down .4 pounds which I am totally okay with. With all the parties and eating out, I’m actually quite impressed that I lost anything. Glucose was high this morning but not surprising based off the amount of pixies I consumed yesterday. Seriously hoping they are gone when I get home.

Today will be a great day. Although it’s sad that my vacation is over and I am back at work, I’m looking forward to being back on a schedule. I packed a healthy lunch of egg salad made with greek yogurt, some veggies, hummus and lowfat string cheese for a snack and some other fruits to snack on throughout the day. We did have breakfast catered in however I tried to chose wisely.

Breakfast:

• Coffee with splenda and half and half
• scrambled eggs
• 5 sausage links
• 1 slice bacon
• 1 small whole wheat bagel with plain cream cheese
• Coffee with sugar free vanilla creamer and 1 splenda

Lunch:

• egg salad sandwich (2 eggs, small amount of greek yogurt and dijon mustard) on 1 whole grain slice of bread
• Mosaic chips
• 1 clementine

Snack:

• Lowfat cottage cheese w/ blueberries

Dinner:

• Leftover Portillo’s Beef (2 small sandwiches)
• Chopped salad with no pasta
• handful potato chips and onion dip
• 2 turtles (not proud of this but they were so good)

I made it to the advanced martial arts class which seriously kicked my butt, burning 376 calories.

Goal Recap: Only ended up drinking around 60 oz of water but tracked everything. Will keep same goals for day 9.

12/29/19
Forgot to test fasting glucose

I started the day with high hopes. Got up early to drive my parents to the airport. Wore my gym clothes expecting to hit the gym shortly after that. My eye has been bothering me quite a bit, so much so that I was guessing I had a scratch on my cornea. If you’ve never had one before, be thankful. It hurts and light bothers it tremendously. Anyways, I was so uncomfortable driving that I went straight to urgent care. Apparently everyone, and I mean everyone, was at urgent care. It took forever to be diagnosed with a scratched cornea. I should have been a doctor.

By the time I got home after doing all that, it was already after 12 and I hadn’t eaten breakfast yet. Ate breakfast and then needed a nap lol. In my defense, my eye hurt a lot and I didn’t sleep well the night before because of it. Excuses….excuses….

All in all, my eating for the day was okay until I hit dinner.

Breakfast:

• 2 ham and cheese omelettes
• coffee with splenda and half and half

Snacks:

• Almonds
• Popcorn (at the game – huge win for me!)

Dinner:

• Buffalo Wild Wings nachos (shared with the family)
• Buffalo Wild Wings Buffalo Chicken Wrap

Evening:

• Bowl of ice cream with chocolate sauce

So what I already knew in my head, but didn’t really see it until I had put it down on paper, is that I make poor decisions when I am beyond hungry. And when I consume non-healthy carbs, I then want something sweet. So all in all, today could have been a better day but on the up side, it could have been much worse.