Dear Diabetes

Community Share Your Stories
#1

People ask what diabetes has added to my life. So far it has been all subtraction.

I have had to give up real food for fat free tasteless products
I have had to give up time to dr. visits and blood tests, etc.
I have been soaked to the skin in torrential rain whilst searching for the place to have a special eye test (actually all that rain is really an addition!)
I have had to give up cooking, I love cooking, but it has to be real food I am cooking: food with sauces, cream stirred in, curry with rice, bolognese sauce with pasta, sausages and onions with mash potato.
I have given up a lot to go low carb, including my friends who say I won’t eat anything anymore and don’t ask me out with them.
Funny sort of friends.
I have given up about 8 kg - this is definitely a plus though.
And I have actually found that I have given up depression, just the effort to keep alive and keep exercising has achieved this.
Another plus, at 71 yrs, is using my brain to find a way to circumvent all that fat free food with tasty lower fat options that still keep me interested in eating. Has been a real brainstormer at times.

This is my blog for diabetes blog week.

#2

Hi Pastelpainter. Additions and subractions: Diabetes added being a lot, to my already being a bit, OCD. Diabetes subtracted massively from my freedom. On balance: I have a changed life, but still a full life.

I join you in my constant search for foods fitting my husband and my diets, which takes into account low carb, low fat, my Celiac and other food intolerances. I cheat some for that full life: morning mocha lattes and coffee ice cream. Last thought: brainstorming is good.

#3

Hi Trudy, it is not just diabetes, is it, as you get older? But does not celiac fit in well with low carb? or am I mistaken in this belief. I find low carb very hard and do cheat now and then. I won’t cheat for ordinary foods like chips or mash potato, but oh show me a piece of well made cake and I weaken! I haven’t given up milk, I don’t think calcium tablets give you the same level of calcium, and I also am allowed one slice of grain bread a day on my diet.

#4

Well, Celiac fitting in with low carb… If you decide you’ll never eat any bread, muffins, pastry, etc. again, you are in fact going low carb. However, if you buy those things gluten free, or even make them yourself, you may very well be getting more carbs than something similar with gluten. I do some gluten free baking and try to use such as almond flour and teff, both low carbs, but if you want something with a lighter texture, you have to use such as rice, tapioca or potato flours. A balancing act, for sure. In the end, I try to eat healthy and am living moderate carb. I use skim milk in my mocha latte (plus coffee, Splenda and 2 Dove kisses). Milk, yogurt, and DanActiv (a yogurt drink) I also use and consider to be healthy. We eat a lot of salad, chicken, veggies, a little fruit. Grilling season (which we’re starting again, and I expect you’re finishing) also cuts down on carbs/calories. We usually have a lot of homegrown herbs, but a mama rabbit now has a nest of babies right in the middle of our herb garden, which is a really difficult situation!

#5

Trudy, I think my diet meshes with yours very well. I guess I am moderate carb too as I include milk and yogurt, the best low fat yogurt I can find that tastes sort of ok. I use milk that is 99.9% fat free, but has a calcium boost. And I too eat salads and grilled meat. I have a ridged teflon grill pan that I use on my cooktop so grills continue year round. I make soups for the winter, alas with no lentils for thickening as my diabetic self cannot eat them.
Mmmm, I think you are unlikely to dislodge Mama Rabbit from your herb garden, what a tasty snack for the family!
I grow my herbs in pots as my lady poodle cocks her leg, especially on my special plants, little darling. I have made a new cookie recipe, with almond flour and egg whites, only 1 tbsp flour in the recipe, they are great, will post them when I have worked out the conversion from metric to the old system.

#6

Okay, Pastel Painter. Let me know where you post your new cookie recipe. I just joined the Low Carb Recipe Swap Group, which looked interesting. I’ll let you know how the bunny thing turns out, but clearly no herbs for a while. Saw a snake in there today; hope it’s just an ordinary garden snake. I’ll have to look into a cooktop teflon grill pan, come autumn. Today felt like summer, finally. Finally.