Hopefully, the cookie monster won’t get you

Mental and Emotional Wellness
#1

The Cookie Monster definitely gets me from time to time. Only he’s not that friendly, googlie eyed fluff ball we all know and love. He’s a big meanie monster. No blue fluff. With a hint more of not so nice intentions with his presence. And he’s holding a plate full of cookies. Those ones I really like. Really, really like.

While I am not sure I necessarily agree with the concept of “mistake” and the use of the words “right” or “wrong” in the article below, what I do appreciate is the actionable plan that comes with it. You know, a sort of etiquette protocol for when the Cookie Monster shows up to dinner…(especially when your other dinner guest might happen to be a low blood sugar…)

The Cookie Monster. Eliot LeBow LCSW, CDE

"I took care of the reaction first.
I then went and tested my blood sugar before getting behind the wheel of a car.
I got rid of the temptation.
I compensated for the binge with extra insulin.
I didn’t beat myself up or make myself feel bad. No one is perfect, and only this one time out of hundreds did I succumb to the cookie monster.
Even though I didn’t use my reaction kit, I had it with me.
Overall, I did a good job. Remember: diabetes is hard to manage 24 hours a day, seven days a week. For every so-called mistake, there are a lot of things you do right.

Hopefully, the cookie monster won’t get you,
but if he does let’s talk about what you did right…"

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#2

Cookies aren’t what grab me irresistably and FORCE me to indulge. (“The devil made me do it!” :smile:)

Don’t get me wrong, I like cookies well enough. They just don’t have that all-consuming control over me.

Now, donuts, on the other hand . . . . or fruit pies . . . . sigh . . .

#3

And then there’s the Gluten Free Cookie Monster… He’s bigger and badder than your everyday Cookie Monster, because in truth, there are not many baked GF goodies that actually taste good. Gluten Free Cookies taste very good. Lots of carbs, too!

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#4

It can be just about anything for me! Ugh! Cheese danish is my nightmare!

#5

@Trudy1 I eat GF as well. Just wanted to share this recipe page that saves me sometimes! All the recipes are GF and extremely low carb!

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#6

Donuts… I love donuts. My love for donuts is on a level only Homer Simpson could understand. :smile:

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#7

Great piece. Would have been pecan sandies for me–I’m one of the few who only likes the cookie part of the Oreos; the inside stuff kinda grosses me out. But anyway, my curiosity was snagged by the sudden BG drop in the grocery aisle, and made me wonder if maybe like me the blogger is still producing a bit of endogenous insulin. Every once in a while it will catch me by surprise like that, and grocery shopping is one of the things that can trigger it, particularly in the late afternoon/early evening. Anyway, good story–thanks for posting it.

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#8

Donuts, specifically pink donuts. They have these pink-frosted donuts at our local Day-Night Donut store. They call them “strawberry”, but (to me at least) they taste decidedly PINK. I love them way too much.

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#9

Ohhhhh . . . . you better not eat too many of them–you’ll get dia-beet-uss. :open_mouth:

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#10

I guess one of the good things about being diagnosed as a kid back in the “no sugar allowed” R/NPH days is that I didn’t develop a liking for any of this stuff… Cinnamon buns, doughnuts, cookies, pies… All things I sort of vaguely remember from before I was diagnosed (especially cinnamon buns, since I used to get them once a week after skiing during winter) but don’t crave.

Now chocolate, on the other hand…

#11

Chocolate donuts! Exactly!

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#12

Don’t hold a candle to pink donuts! Trust me; they are definitely bolus-worthy!!!

#13

I have nicknamed my recumbent tricycle, Cookie Monster, and the Cookie Monster will be traveling with me across the country this summer.

Cookie Monster.jpg4000×3000 2.49 MB

#14

20 years of practicing Just Say No for me too. Or as I used to call it, You Can’t Unless You GOTTA. Nowadays, with the pump, it’s more like “I can, but it’s just a lot simpler if I don’t.”

#15

Yeah, when I first got the pump I was (unfortunately) told that I could eat anything I wanted. I was in my mid-20s after having grown up for the past 15 years being unable to eat most sugary treats. So I’d never had cheesecake, never had a milkshake, or a sundae, or ice cream other than vanilla (that I could remember), or a brownie, or Nanaimo bars, or fudge, or most candies people talk about, or doughnuts, or pies except blueberry from before diagnosis, or…well, you get the picture. So, of course I went out and tried all of those things and more. I went thorugh a stage lasting years where, if something was there, I’d eat it. I unfortunately gained a ton of weight from doing that, and my blood sugar spiked, but I’d been “told to do it” by my doctors, and my endocrinologist at the time said an A1c of 7.3% was “perfect” for me, so why wouldn’t I go eat all that stuff?.

These days I very rarely eat anything I didn’t prepare myself, partly because I’ve gotten over that crazy “I can eat anything!” phase, and partly because I have adult-onset food allergies that stop me. (The adult-onset food allergies are much more annoying than the childhood-onset food allergy I grew up with, because I don’t miss the food that I have no memories of eating, but I do miss the stuff I had to stop eating in adulthood, especially cheese…)

#16

@YogaO this is so awesome! Everything about this photo and post!!

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#17

Pinkness is in the taste buds of the beholder. We’ll have to agree to disagree.

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#18

@Jen Your story reminds me so much of my own…ugh! I too started the pump in my 20’s ( I believe 1997ish?). And like you, I remember being told I could now eat “whatever” and to simply bolus accordingly. I even remember being sent to the new Chipotle across the street to test it out. I gained a lot of weight very quickly as well, which led to some destructive eating behaviors, habits and warped ideas about insulin, carbohydrate, weight, etc. The AIC you mentioned was exactly my target goal set by my endo…

And the food allergies! Ugh! I had some as well as celiac as a child but they have become all encompassing as an adult. I feel so much better, like you mention, just preparing everything myself. Down to the broth…

Can you do sheep cheese? Goat I still react to but sheep, I do ok.
Thanks for sharing your story, I thought I was reading about my own! Lol!

#19

It’s interesting to see the different paths we follow. At the time I started insulin, I was eating very low carb and actually dropped a bunch of weight. I stayed very disciplined for about a year and a half, then slipped into the careless I-can-eat-whatever-I-want-because-I-have-insulin pattern. That put about 10 lbs back on, which is now slowly disappearing again. :laughing:

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#20

Ever since I’ve been on insulin all my sugar cravings ceased but I have a ‘fat tooth’. If I want ‘ice cream’ I just have a little bowl of frozen whipped cream with nothing else in it and it is sooooooo good! :yum:I also carry cheese in my purse…

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