So I haven’t blogged in two days. What does that mean? It means I fell off the rail…but not totally. I ate well for breakfast and lunch each day and then dinner did not go well. The past two mornings I have been super disappointed with my fasting glucose numbers. Tuesday morning it was 140 and Wednesday was 141. Both nights however I didn’t choose wisely and I ate late. I did however manage to get my water in so I guess that’s a small victory. Tonight for dinner we had pizza so most likely tomorrow morning will also be rough. The next two days we also have lunch being brought in for meetings so it’s going to be a tough few days.

Does anyone have any tips when they start to go off the rail? Before it gets totally out of control? Let me know! I need all the help I can get!!!

With all that cooking I did over the weekend I have set myself up for success this week. I had scrambled eggs for breakfast, some of the paprika nuts for a snack, leftover burger (no bun) and potatoes for lunch and marinated mushrooms as a snack. Dinner wasn’t as good as we went out to the Olive Garden. That won over the veggie soup I was planning to make. Guess that’s on tap for tomorrow night!

I was thrilled this morning when my fasting glucose was 124. If you are keeping track that’s 8 days in a row of below 130. So headed in the right direction. We will see if the Olive Garden dinner causes me to have high fasting numbers tomorrow morning.I did get all my water in so that should help to keep it level.

This post is short. Will post more tomorrow!

Stats:
Fasting Glucose: 124
Water: 100 oz

1 p.m. I’ve been less than productive on this Sunday. Slept in until 10 a.m. Which is unheard of for me. So nice however for once not to have to set an alarm and great that we really don’t have to go anywhere except to Costco. It’s also supposed to snow today so a good day just to lay low.

For breakfast I did make the family the following: https://www.livewellbakeoften.com/chocolate-chip-greek-yogurt-pancakes/ and the whole family gave it a thumbs up. Of course the kids added extra chocolate chips and also whip cream. I just stuck to adding a small amount of maple syrup to the top. I did modify the recipe and used olive oil instead of regular oil. I don’t believe chocolate chips are clean eating so need to experiment a bit more with that but it did only have a 1/2 cup of chocolate chips and it made 16 pancakes. Haven’t done the math yet but don’t think that’s too bad. I probably need to purchase some darker chocolate as I believe it has less sugar in it.

My goal today once I actually get out of my pajamas is to make some healthy banana bread again and some healthy muffins to go with my vegetable soup. Recipe to follow on that tomorrow as the veggie soup is on the menu for tomorrow night.

10 p.m. I’m exhausted. Besides the trip to Costco it seems like I spent the rest of the day in the kitchen. I made some marinated mushrooms which were amazing. https://cookinglsl.com/easy-marinated-mushrooms-recipe/. I also made the following snack: https://cookeatpaleo.com/paleo-snack-mix/. I was only able to find smoked paprika, not the hot or sweet kind or smoked sea salt so I just used regular sea salt and smoked paprika. I liked it. Could have used more salt but I will definitely be making that again.

For dinner we had potatoes in the oven with olive oil, season salt and garlic and pepper seasoning and then I made burgers. I opted not to have a bun with mine to make it more low carb.

And finished up the evening by making raspberry muffins. So good. We are going to have those with our soup tomorrow night. https://www.sweetashoney.co/whole-wheat-banana-muffins-an-easy-snacks-for-kids/

Daily Numbers:
Fasting glucose: 111
Water: 100.9 oz (although most of that was consumed later this evening so I may be regretting that partway through the night lol)

Today wraps up my first seven days of truly tracking and making positive changes for my future. I of course had some challenges like eating out and going to events but did my best and tried to make good choices. I think that’s all we can ever ask of ourselves. What I learned this week was that through managing my diet and coming close to meeting my drinking goals (water of course) that I can control my fasting glucose levels and I can kick diabetes to the curb if I keep plugging away at it.

What’s next week’s goal? To really try and hit that 100 oz of water each day. For the week I averaged around 80 oz. I also need to do a better job with exercise. Lets do this!

Fasting glucose level: 115

Water: 80 oz

I started the morning with fasting glucose at 128. I’m especially pleased with this since I went out to dinner last night! Yea!

Today will be another challenging day. Now that I am blogging about my day it seems like every day has challenges lol. No wonder I was struggling! Anyways, today I am going to a happy hour party. My goal is to have a snack before I go and then stop in for a bit, maybe have one glass of wine, and then head home.

I ate out quite a bit today but like to think I made some decent choices. For breakfast I ended up at Panera and had a breakfast sandwich with ham and egg on a whole grain bagel. For a snack I had some seedless grapes and a lowfat string cheese. For lunch I had the half-size Southwest Avocado Chicken Salad from Wendys and a small bowl of chili.

I’m excited to report at the happy hour I threw a piece of gum in my mouth and then opted to not have any appetizers or drinks. Huge WIN!

Had martial arts class tonight so that meant another late night meal. We had Panera (I know, I know, second time in one day!) and I had the you pick two with chicken and wild rice soup and a half grilled cheese sandwich on whole wheat bread. I just couldn’t do another salad for dinner when I had one for lunch!

Fasting glucose: 128
Exercise: 60 min martial arts
Water: 83.9 oz

Yea! so happy to wake up and my fasting glucose was below 130 — 123 to be exact. My end goal is to have my fasting glucose the same level as those without diabetes. My last A1C was 6.7 on 1/22 so will be in for a retest in three months. Diabetes is getting kicked to the curb!

I packed a healthy lunch again of the leftover quinoa salad from yesterday. So good! Dinner will be a challenge as I am going out. I just need to keep thinking about where I want to go, not where I currently am.

11 a.m. Snack Time – I ate a whole wheat english muffin with a smear of natural peanut butter.

1:30 p.m. Update on Lunch – I did well! I ate the quinoa salad and a handful of grapes and a sparkling water. And I’m looking at the dinner menu for the restaurant and think I’m going to get soup and then a salad. I’d prefer a burger but I’ve got goals baby! Also planning on only one alcoholic drink.

My snack in the afternoon consisted of a lowfat string cheese and a few purple grapes.

5:30 p.m. Dinner – Had a bit of pretzels and cheese dip for the appetizer but not too much and for the main meal had soup and a salad and only one light beer. WIN!!!!

Today was a good day.

Fasting Glucose: 123
Water: 81 oz

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!