Woke up to a fasting glucose level of 130. It’s still in the green but barely. My guess is that’s a combination of eating late as we didn’t eat until 7:45 p.m. Plus the bread from Jimmy Johns I ate yesterday at lunch.

Today for snacks at work I am bringing some fruit and almonds. Planning to grab a salad from Mariano’s for lunch. Tonight we have martial arts again so it will be another night of eating late unless I can talk the teenager into making dinner.

Last night I downloaded an app called WaterMinder that helps track your water intake and I guess sends you reminders on your watch. I’ll let you know how that goes today.

For lunch I ended up going out with a co-worker. I chose a salad so was pretty pleased with my choice however I couldn’t pass up on dessert….I was at Baker’s Square! The French Silk Pie was amazing. Each time I have started a diet and fallen off the bandwagon I have let one meal derail me indefinitely so I’m trying to not let that be the case this time. It was one dessert. It was good. Move on. Am I the only one that struggles with that? Probably not.

Back on the band wagon for dinner I made the following: http://bitesofbri.com/2014/05/greek-quinoa-salad-cucumbers-tomatoes-feta/ and the whole family enjoyed it. I even have leftovers for tomorrow which is great! I encourage you to check it out!

Martial arts was cancelled because of our lovely Midwest weather so no exercise again tonight. I haven’t done too well this week on the exercise front.

I am loving the WaterMinder app. I think it was well worth the $4.99. It did remind me throughout the day when I hadn’t had anything to drink. It however was recommending that I drink around 138 oz of water each day. That is A LOT! Sticking with my goal of 100 for a while and then will think about upping it. You can adjust the app accordingly to your goals so that’s good.

Tomorrow will be another challenging day. I am going out to dinner with my co-workers. Will keep you posted on how I do!

Daily Numbers:

Fasting glucose level 130
Water: 99.4 oz of which 24 was coffee

Woke up to a fasting glucose level of 126 so I think it made a difference that I ate really well up until the party and also tried my hardest to drink 100 oz of water. I fell short of course with the water but not by a lot.

I’ve packed my lunch today and it’s jam packed with good things: leftover salad from yesterday, leftover game day dip from yesterday with cucumbers, leftover chicken caprese from a few nights ago, some fruit and a piece of string cheese. I usually do pretty well at work unless something stressful sends me over the edge — then it’s chocolate; or we end up having a class and lunch is brought in and I graze the leftovers.

Above paragraph was written this morning as I was enjoying my coffee and eating my Go Lean crunch (not sure this is truly eating clean — will have to research more). Right now it’s 11:35 a.m. and I believe my stomach may be digesting itself. I am STARVING! All I can think about is eating. So far today I had that breakfast mentioned above and then some cucumbers and the leftover game day dip. My willpower is faltering. Remain strong (I chant to myself).

Well, I don’t always make the best choices when beyond starving. I ended up getting Jimmy Johns but did opt for the whole grain bread and didn’t get any chips.

Tonight I am making https://fitfluential.com/mini-turkey-meatloaves/#_a5y_p=4446639 for dinner along with potatoes that I diced and added olive oil, tastefully simple season salt and tastefully simple garlic pepper. These are my all time favorite potatoes. The meatloaf recipe isn’t totally clean. It calls for ketchup and barbecue sauce. I’m going to branch out next time and try and make barbecue sauce from scratch. I’ll let you know how this meal goes with the family. I’ve got a picky middle schooler.

And the results…my picky middle schooler asked what I did to the meatloaf. And I was told Turkey is only for Thanksgiving. Argh. Anyways, not making that again.

Water: 12 oz coffee, 16 oz green tea, 12 oz coffee, 16.9 sparking water, 12 oz green tea, 12 oz green tea, 16.9 sparkling water = 97.8 oz (I do probably need to work on coffee not being included in my water intake lol…but that’s for a different day!)

The wins for the party:

• I really liked the Game Day Green Goddess Veggie Dip – it went great with cucumbers. I saved some and will have it as a snack tomorrow.
• I also liked the cucumber, corn, black bean, tomato and avocado salad. Saved this as well and will have it tomorrow.
• I didn’t have any alcohol.
• Some things I could have improved on and will for next time:
• I set a goal of four wings and ended up having six.
• Probably had too much cheese spread but had it with whole grain crackers so maybe not that bad??

• I also had a half of an apple pot pie and a smidge of ice cream; and then I almost forgot, a half chocolate chip cookie. Of course my daughter made fun of me because I split a cookie but I have trouble turning chocolate down so only having half was a win.
• I ran out of time and didn’t exercise, but did clean the house so I did see some exercise today, just not the traditional kind.
• Fasting Glucose: 124
  Water: 12 oz coffee, 12 oz sparkling water, 12 oz sparkling water, 12 oz green tea, 20 oz water, 20 oz water = 88 oz (argh, 11 oz under my goal)

I’ve planned my menu for the whole week so hoping I’ve set myself up for success. Talk to you tomorrow!

Here goes nothing. Lets do this!

Woke up to a fasting glucose of 137 which has been the typical norm for the past few months. Curious to see how that will go down as the month progresses.

I haven’t gone grocery shopping yet so pickings were slim for breakfast. I ended up with coffee w/ Splenda and fat free half and half, 2 over easy eggs and a whole wheat english muffin with Ghee. I’d never heard of Ghee before I made a recipe a few weeks back. When I googled it, it seems to have a ton of health benefits such as vitamins A, D, E, and K, promotes flexibility and lowers cholesterol to name a few. That’s good enough in my book to start using it!

Lunch was also slim pickings so I just ended up making tuna salad which was the bagged (not sure that’s the right word but it wasn’t in a can) tuna ranch flavored and mixed that with a little bit of avocado oil mayo on top of whole grain bread and a slice of Swiss cheese and a tomato. Cheese is one of my big vices…I can’t be perfect right out of the gate.

I did manage to menu plan this afternoon and hit the grocery store. I ended up eating grapes as a snack and made the following dinner which got rave reviews from the whole family. Yes!!!

https://blog.myfitnesspal.com/caprese-chicken-roasted-broccoli/

I also made yummy healthy banana bread. Recipe below.

https://www.ambitiouskitchen.com/my-favorite-healthy-banana-bread-recipe/

Day one is in the books! Looking forward to what day two brings — one day at a time!

Stats:
Fasting Glucose 137
Water 24 oz coffee; 33.8 water; 24 oz green tea; 20 oz water w/ true lemon flavoring = 101.8 (I think coffee may be a stretch but baby steps!)
Starting weight today 221

Exercise 60 min of martial arts class

I’m not sure when it all went downhill but it seemed to happen gradually and then all the sudden I was overweight and diagnosed with diabetes last year. I’ve also had high cholesterol for years but it’s been under control with not one but two different meds up until recently.

Within the last few months I’ve struggled with keeping my sugars low and after my most recent blood test, I had an A1C of 7.2 again and triglycerides of 175. Clearly something needs to change and my once under control cholesterol was off the charts. I also have very low levels of the good cholesterol which comes from exercise which makes zero sense…I’ll address that later.

Let me give you a little bit of background. I was very active and thin throughout high school. College of course I gained some weight but in the grand scheme of things not too much. I really noticed a change when I hit 25, worked a desk job, and told myself I didn’t really have time to work out. As time went on my weight continued to go up. And about 4 years ago the doctor gave me a lecture about my sugar and the fact that it was continuing to creep up so I needed to make sure I changed my habits before I was diagnosed with diabetes. I should have taken it seriously, but I didn’t.

In the last year I have managed to drop about 15 pounds which is good, but not good enough. My sugars leveled out for a while but in the last few months jumped back up to the same A1C before I was put on metformin.

So, this is my journey to health. I have some goals for the next three months and I expect my readers to hold me accountable. Here it goes:

• Journal every day – feelings, what I ate, etc.
• Check sugars each morning – I always have high fasting numbers so this is a good gauge of how well I’ve eaten the prior day
• Exercise 5 days a week – this is relatively easy for me; I enjoy exercising
• Drink 100 oz of water each day – super hard for me; of all my goals this will probably be my hardest; example – I am writing this blog at 3:40 p.m. And I’ve had 12 oz of coffee all day and nothing else; this is going to be a long uphill battle. I will say though when I drink more water, my sugar in the morning is under 130 so my body clearly needs the water
• Eat clean – I’ve read a lot on this and I am intrigued. I’m going to do my best to make sure that more times than not I am eating less processed food and more fruits and vegetables. This will be a challenge.

These are a lot of goals. Notice I didn’t put anything in about weight. I’m going to track my weight each week but it’s not my main goal. My main goal is to get my sugar and triglicerides under control and they go hand in hand. The weight will come with time.

I welcome you to join me as we work together to becoming our healthy and happy best selves yet.