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!