Body & Spirit Sunday: Update & Keeping On

I started this diet on April 19^th, that’s when I found out I’d moved just over the line into Type 2 diabetes. I’m proud to say I have barely faltered. I’m supposed to stick between 30-50 carbs. One day I went up to 100 carbs, and a handful of days I had 55-60. Otherwise, some days it’s a fight to get my count up to thirty, and some days I hover around 45-50. In other words, I’m pretty sure it evens out to about 40 a day average.

I’ve had starch in extremely limited quantities a couple of times, but always counted within my carb range. I don’t want to do more because it’s so easy to slip up again. I’ve had almost no refined sugar, no honey, no agave, no molasses, etc., since then and have been eating sugar alcohols/stevia for substitutes.

In the time I’ve been on this diet:

• My fasting blood sugar has dropped almost 40 points and is hovering barely above the pre-diabetic range.
• My joints went from hurting every time I stood up/walked to barely hurting at all.
• I’ve lost—well—going on two sizes. No, I don’t know how much weight, I cannot weigh myself because I used to have an eating disorder and I still have the mentality. The numbers on the scale set off bad, scary thoughts in my head. I go by my clothes, how my body looks, and feels.
• I’ve been able to kick up the intensity of my exercise—probably because I don’t hurt nearly as much.
• I’m seeing the changes in my body, which are sometimes kind of weird at first.
• I’m facing my emotions more—I don’t have the cushion of starch and sugar to lessen the impact when I’m disappointed or angry or stressed.
• My caffeine habit has increased—I figure I’ve got to keep one vice and it’s the one I opt for.

I’ve started learning to cook low carb treats that are perfectly acceptable and still taste reasonably good. One recipe I found recently was for low-carb muffins that are both gluten free and low carb. Here’s the original and then I’ll tell you what I thought and how I adapted it.

The Original Recipe: I made it, with zucchini replacing the raspberries, and hot out of the oven it was too moist of a texture for me, but when it cooled it seemed to firm up into a much better ‘bready’ texture. NOTE: do NOT use muffin liner papers for these--they stick horribly. Use just a muffin tin, heavily sprayed with non-stick spray.

First variation:

I made the recipe, eliminating both zucchini and berries, and added ½ cup grated goat cheddar. Was quite tasty, though does have a bit of an aftertaste, but especially good with sunbutter or peanut butter.

Second variation:

I made the basic recipe but added in an extra ½ cup (equivalent) sweetener, I eliminated one egg, added ½ tsp cinnamon, and used unsweetened almond milk instead of water. These were my favorite—sweet and worked well as a shortcake. The texture was drier due to eliminating the egg, which I liked.

I’ll be trying different variations in the future and if any are particularly good, I’ll post an update.

So there’s how I’m doing. Not too shabby, methinks. J

Yasmine