Tuesday, February 21, 2012

My little friend here can be found at amazon.com
 It is not an electronic tampon.



This nifty gadget is a sort of calculator for keeping track of nutrition numbers.
It does not tell you how many calories you have burned 
or how many steps you have walked...
though its found in the same store section if  you are looking to buy one.


Setting goals in my personal life was never my forte...
until I became diabetic.
Unless you or someone you know well are one...
you don't know just how much of a bummer that is.
They scare the crap out of you with horror stories about:

Depression.
Going blind.
Kidney failure.
Infection that can lead to amputation.
Heart attack or stroke.
Coma.
Loss of nerve sensation due to poor blood circulation.
And if those things aren't bad enough...
Limp Lennies!


I got an inkling of what I was supposed to do.
They gave me books to read.
I went to meetings.
But my brain had trouble getting past this
nasty business of "diet and lifestyle" changes.



You put the word "diet" in front of me and you may as well 
replace it with the word "punishment".
"We here by punish you for being fat by taking away all the 
taste and joy that food brings!"
When they added exercise to the list my brain exploded.
Inwardly I shrieked.
This simply was unfair and too much to ask.
Couldn't they see I was a slug?



I fought it at first.
I only put half effort into doing things right.
I made progress of a sort.
The doc gave me a  year to get things the way they should be.
I used every second of that year to avoid as much of the issue as possible.


Then I had that life changing moment... if you have read here long,
you know about it.  If not...
I decided that I was not happy and the only one who could change that fact was me.
That's when I got serious and got busy.
That's how I got here to my happy place.


However, I still have the issue of "stress eating".
Prior to  the wedding I began to have the nibbles.
Then after the wedding I continued to nibble.
I regained some of the weight I lost.
Then I got a grip again and began to do things right.


Then I quit smoking!
Remember that?
I began to nibble again.
CRAP!
I cannot afford to do this.





The trick for me is to understand that we are all on "diets".
Not all "diets" are good for us.
Too many people are on "gaining weight" diets.
I am choosing to be on a reducing weight diet that is healthy and sane.
I have to be careful of that... the healthy and sane part.
(Sssshhhh... I'm tricking my brain here!)


So I ordered that gizmo up there.
There is a formula for diabetics to figure out what your ideal weight goal is.
(ideal being reasonably accomplish-able)
And another formula for figuring how many calories you can take in daily to accomplish reasonable weight loss.
And another formula tells you how many carbs you can have with that amount of calories that will keep your blood sugars right.
It is then up to you to divide them into two snacks a day and three meals.
AND KEEP TRACK of what goes into your body.


See how simple that is?
It means you can eat whatever you want as long as you fit it into your daily goal amount.
Oh, and try not to be stupid about it.
One of Carl Jr's six dollar burgers could do in my daily intake amount for everything!
Shopping at the grocery store is fun and saves carbs and calories.
Not to mention you can make some darned tasty fresh food.



I've always done this with a little note book.
Yeah... like my little note book for keeping my blood sugar levels recorded.
I'm not good at making those entries,
though I know what I can and can't eat...
I can lose track of how many calories or carbs I have left in my day...
because I forget to write them down.
Or I left my notebook at home.
My blood sugar levels are kept electronically in my meter, thank heavens!


So now I found a gizmo to do that with my nutrition too.
Less chance for screwing up!
Less time spent scribbling in notebooks.
Yay!
And its just a little guy that can go in my pocket.
Very cool beans.


Now all I have to do is;
not wash it in the laundry,
not lay it down and forget where I put it,
not sit on it and break it...
well you get what I'm saying.


Are  you making any life style or big changes in your life?
Have you found a cool new gizmo that does... something? 


BTW... 55 days and still not smoking.  Yay!

18 comments:

  1. Is it USB enabled? No, I won't ask if it vibrates.

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  2. First off, big-time congratulations on the not smoking! You're a better person than I am, Gunga Din.

    The tool DOES look like a bright electronic tampon, but so long as it does the job. Keep it up. We like you.

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  3. What a cool little device! Sounds like it could be a genuine life saver. My ex has diabetes and it appears to me like he doesn't handle it as well as he should.

    I am so excited that you are doing so beautifully in your stop smoking challenge! I understand that there is really nothing harder to quit. I feel so proud of you!!!

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  4. laura b.- It is a cool little device. Its easy to get off track with your diabetes and not handle it very well. Just like any diet you can start making exceptions... that lead to another exception and so on. And you feel pretty good while you are doing it, so it doesn't feel dire.

    Thank you! Except for the nibble thing I've done very well with it. But I've got to nip the nibbling in the butt! hee hee

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  5. Suldog- Thank you! But I beg to differ... you are a wonderful person! I am no better.
    I will keep it up. Promise. I want to stay around too... with all my parts.

    On an unrelated note. I dreamed about you last night! I woke up around 3:00 AM and "The Sandlot" was on TV. I love that movie, so I ended up watching most of it... before launching off into a dream. We were not kids, but we rode our bikes (Yes, they had banana seats and goose neck handlebars. Yours was red and mine was purple.) to the sandlot to play. We were still waiting for other people to show up, having a catch, when my alarm went off. Crap! I would have enjoyed that game.

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  6. dmarks- No, but there are those out there and your computer will track your numbers for you. lol

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  7. congratulations on beating satan and his friend mr nicotine.

    how about keeping healthy stuff like pumpkin seeds around to nibble on. excuse me while i have a few ju jubes.

    (this word verification is getting too difficult for me)

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  8. Congratulations on the 55 days of not smoking!

    My dad had diabetes and my nephew has it too.

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  9. billy pilgrim- Thank you. I do keep healthy stuff to nibble but even healthy stuff has carbs, fats, calories, etc. that I have to add into my little calculator.

    I loath word verification! In fact, I thought I had it turned off. But when you said something... off I went to check and darned if it wasn't turned on again! The old word verification before the chaptcha (however one spells it) was annoying enough... but this thing is ultra annoying.

    I think I have it turned off now. Sorry about that folks.

    Tara- Thank you. Yeah, there are so many of us diabetics out there. The statistics are crazy on it. Our Type 2 numbers are increasing at a terrible rate, especially among children! That used to be unheard of for kids to get Type 2.

    So you know what its like. My FIL had it too. I used to watch my MIL plan his meals for him and tell him what he could and could not have. I felt sorry for him to have such a mean food policeman wife. Now I'm my own food police, but I have to say, I feel so much better when I do things right. Maybe she wasn't so mean after all.

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  10. Awesome! Thanks for sharing!
    Keep it up, I'm always here to support you.

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  11. Kudos to you for the lifestyle changes! Pat yourself on the back for me.

    I've never seen that nutrition gadget and I'd recommend it to my dad if I thought there was a chance he's use it. He won't. Macular degeneration has left him with poor eyesight and he doesn't even read the newspaper anymore. Frankly, I'm surprised he uses a meter.

    He is a notorious nibbler of items he shouldn't be eating. My mom is always hiding the grandkids' food from him. He sees well enough to spot a hidden bag of cookies, though.

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  12. Hah ha! I immediately thought of the controversial vaginal scan or whatever they are talking about for abortion testing. Glad it's not that.

    Don't think of it as diet. Really. I hate diets too. Think of choosing better foods. Think of it as treating yourself better and handling your emotions in other ways than eating.

    And SOOOOO wonderful for 55 days!!!! Your treat to yourself was buying and electronic tampon. Woo hoo!

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  13. PS, thank you for getting rid of word verification. Your site is tough to deal with.

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  14. The Tame Lion- Thanks! Good to have you here.

    Cube- Aw, thanks!
    I used to think my ex MIL was so mean! But someone has to be in control. I have sat and considered what I would dislike most... loss of eye sight or loss of limbs. Scary thinking. I've decided to avoid both. Good for your mom for taking better care of him than he does himself!

    Out of defense for your dad... being diabetic can make you feel like you are actually starving. Because your body can't process the food, it thinks it is not getting any food and your brain screams at you to eat... even right after you have eaten something that you should not have eaten. Its hard to get back on track when you back slide because of the hunger. Its a weird business.

    NoRegrets- Ha! I hadn't thought of that. Goodness no!

    I will and really, I do feel so much better when I eat right. Once I have my blood sugars in the right zone... I don't even feel hungry until my stomach actually hurts and then I think "Duh. Eat!"

    Yep... electronic tampon is the way to celebrate!

    All- I didn't even know that darned verification thing was on there. Girrr... I don't like those myself. So yay! that its gone.

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  15. Thanks for explaining the diabetic hunger pangs. I didn't know it was that bad.

    BTW I got rid of my word verification, too. The recent "improvement" made me feel dumb.

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  16. That's pretty cool. I added an app on my iPhone that lets me take my heart-rate from my finger using the camera lens. I always have it with me, so it's kind of cool. I really am trying ot be more vigilant about exercise these days.

    Um... do I want to know what a limp lennie is?

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  17. Extremely cool beans. Congrats on the not smoking, and another congrats for not ordering an electronic tampon. That made me laugh because it does look like one. Thank you for the chuckle. Best of luck to you and hope everything goes great. Take care.

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  18. Cube- I hate those things! As for the feeling like you are starving... its a very weird thing.

    Secret Agent Woman- How neat is that? I'd be using it all the time when I walked and exercised. Oh and a limp lennie is pretty much what you can imagine it is. =;]

    Mr. Shife- I'm glad I could make you chuckle. You take care as well and thanks for the congrats. Oh! And hug those babies for me.

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