Archive for April 2008
Diabetes on the 2nd Week
April 30, 2008
Today ends week 2 of my now type-2 diabetic life since I was diagnosed last April 16. I have to log this in here because I don’t want to forget when to celebrate my diabetes anniversaries (ha ha ha).
Much has changed in the past two weeks. For one, I’ve totally stopped eating rice. That’s a feat considering that I’m Filipino and rice is part of my meals almost 3 times a day, 7 days a week, 52 weeks in a year in my 43 years of life in this earth. (That’s 31,304 meals, at least.) I’ve also said goodbye to fruit juices, sodas and chocolates. I’ve been drinking more water instead.
Second, I’ve started exercising and counting my steps. I’ve enrolled in the 10,000 Steps program sponsored by my office and Kaiser Permanente and I’m on my second day on the pedometer they sent as part of the program. I’ve put in 11,000+ steps last Monday but went down to 5,400 steps yesterday. Yes, flog me, I’m human. I get lazy, too… sometimes.
I’m now 130lbs from the monstrous (hehehe) 137 lbs I used to be before that ominous meeting with my doctor. That’s good, right? Not the meeting but the weight loss. That’s like 3.5 lbs in a week! So I have about 20 to 25 more lbs to go. When I lose all that (in about 5 weeks maybe???), I should be at my ideal weight and I can then share clothes with my two skinny sisters.
Also, being the geek that I am and because I wanted to know more about diabetes and how to live with it, I ordered 2 books from Amazon.com. The first one is called “The First Year Type 2 Diabetes: An Essential Guide for the Newly Diagnosed” by Gretchen Becker. The book introduces Type 2 diabetes to one who was just newly-diagnosed with it and walks you through your first year of having the disease. I have to admit that it was overwhelming for me – with all the things I need to keep in mind. Until I realized that I should read the book piecemeal by piecemeal. The book is divided into what you need to know on Day 1, Day 2, The first week, 2nd week, 3rd month, etc. So if you’re on week 3 of being diabetic, then that would be the only time to read that part of the book. (Hmmmm… that’s what I get for not reading the preface.) It’s a good book, tho, once I got passed being overwhelmed. I have it on my bedside table and this time around, I read it the way its supposed to be read.
The other book, I’m more enthusiastic about. It’s called “Betty Crocker’s Diabetes Cookbook: Everyday Meals, Easy as 1-2-3” and this one, totally liberated me from my gloom. I was having the notion that since I have to go on a strict low-carb diet that there was nothing else that I could eat except romaine lettuce day in and day out short of turning into a rabbit as the days passed on. This book gave me other options.
The Betty Crocker cookbook talks about Carb Choices in maintaining your meal carb intake. As long as you stay within your allowed number of carb choice per meal, you can practically eat anything. It makes you think also about what you eat and how much of it you’re willing to have. Like, if you want another piece of oatmeal brownie (which counts as 2 Carb Choices) for dessert, then you have to forego something else with also 2 carb choices for that meal.
How do you compute for Carb Choices? Basically, every 15 grams of carbohydrate that’s specified on the nutrition information is considered 1 Carb Choice. And the three main meals (breakfast, lunch and dinner), you’re allowed 3-4 Carb Choices and each snack meal, 1-2 Carb Choices. So the cookbook tells you how much Carb Choices there are per serving for the recipes they featured and from thereon, you’d be able to plan out your meals. (More on Carb Choices next entry.)
So, aside from the obvious fact that I want to continue to live until I’ve seen the last of my nephews and nieces have their own kids, my more immediate goal is that when I go and have my blood work done in 3 months, my wonderful doctor would tell me that I’m in the pre-diabetic level and my numbers have improved dramatically.
Then that would be a very good day for me.
Hmmmm… I wonder if after I’ve gotten to my ideal weight, would that hotdog toaster I saw from my friend’s website be a good idea then? Just because it looks reallyyyyyy fun to have 
Posted in Diabetes | 
Tags: Betty Crocker, Carb Choices, Diabetes, Diabetes Books, Hotdog Toaster, The first year, Type 2 | 
2 Comments »
A Girl’s Bestfriend
April 22, 2008
I am such an addict when it comes to accessories. Eversince I could remember, I love wearing bangles, earrings, bracelets, rings. Whether they be custom jewelry or gold-setted ones, I have been a hoarder of it. But that’s not all I tuck away. Blame my being a woman, but my collection extends to my handbags, shoes, clothes, sunglasses and make-up. Yes, I have to admit I’m such a prissy, and I’m happy being one! Thanks to the internet, I think my collection is even growing – with the gas money I save just staying at home and doing the “point, click, shop” thing. Shopping has never been more convenient and easy!
So imagine if you have a website that acts as a shopping search engine that will help you find specific products on the internet. A website that crawls more than 180,000 online stores and give you the product you want at the best prices. Neat, huh?
This is exactly what SHOPWIKI does. It’s a powerful shopping search engine that enables you to find all the available products and ensures that you’re getting the best deal. It doesn’t sell any product and doesn’t charge any retailer to include their products in the search results. So you get an unbiased, comprehensive search result all the time. Now, isn’t that neat?
It also has wiki’s/buying guides for everything concerning shopping. Like if I want to know about bags, blogs about bags, the latest trends, the reviews and other tips, there’s the wiki for Bags. IF you want to find out tips about men’s clothing, you can check out their wiki on Clothing for Men. They also have gift guides by recipient and by occassion. So you won’t have a hard time figuring out what to give your wife for your 10th anniversary (diamonds, dahlings, diamonds!), or Aunt Maggie, who’s a nature lover and a gardener.
So for me, since I am such a sucker for anything that dangles, I go to the Accessories page and check out what the whole internet has out there to sell. Truly convenient, fun and you can window shop at much as you want
So I hope you give Shopwiki.com (http://www.shopwiki.com) a try. It may just be your next best friend!
A Sweet Life… No More :(
April 22, 2008
Just last week I had been diagnosed by my doctor to have Type-2 Diabetes. Since my oral glucose tolerance test on the first weekend of April, I had a slight inkling that my doctor was going to say that. I really was not watching my diet and my weight considering that my mom’s side has a history of Diabetes. So it’s partly my fault. I should’ve been like my two sisters, they’re not, and never had been, on the chubby side. I guess, being the first-born child, I get all the “bad genes” – the fats, the diseases, all of it, I caught with a huge pail in front of me. Ha Ha Ha.
So when my doctor’s nurse left a message on our answering machine telling me to pick up the new prescriptions my doctor wrote for me, I half-knew it was for diabetes. I called her back and ask if I can get an appointmet with Dr. Alegado so that I can discuss this with him. So last Wednesday, in his office, he finally told me. The results of my Oral Glucose Tolerance Test showed that my sugar level is on the borderline – like really, really, reallyyyyyyyy right there on the border (126 mg/dl). Its like one foot in and the other foot out. But since one’s in, I might as well be considered inside. (‘Makes sense?)
My doctor hasn’t put up on the home test kit – yet. He’s giving me 3 months on my new meds (Avandamet) and then I’d have to go for another set of blood tests. And I have to make sure the numbers turn out good. So for the meantime, I’m staying away from the carbs – just vegetables and fruits and not a lot of bread, no white sugar and no rice. (Gosh, can you imagine an asian woman not eating white rice ever? Pure hell!)
And I’ve started exercising also. I even bought Leslie Sansone’s Walk Slim 4 Fast Miles and George Foreman’s Walk and Box. It seems to be working, I have to say. I’ve only been doing this for 5 days (the revised diet plan for 5 days and the exercise for 4) and I’ve lost 2 lbs already! So I guess, if you set your mind to it, you’d be able to accomplish your goal. And for me, not doing the daily blood testing is my goal. I want to be healthy to live longer and I know that Diabetes can be a bad disease if you let it.
So wish my luck. It’s going to be a battle but I’m ready. I’ll be posting my developments here. That way I’d be able to monitor my activities. I’m still lazy to jot down everything I eat so I won’t do that until I need to be on the daily blood test. And hopefully I don’t have to do that either.
Early Signs of Spring
April 14, 2008
The temps had been slowly going up. Nothing drastic, nothing weird – just the normal change towards a very wonderful season. Even the evenings are very agreeable – not too warm but not very cold anymore. How else can you describe it? My spring is here!
Hubbie’s house sits on a lot with a backyard rich with full-grown trees and flowers. The dining room is adjacent to the deck and so during the days we would sit and just watch the birds flying around. We have a mommy and daddy blue jay and a mommy and daddy oriole that we always see hopping from one tree to the other. In the early mornings, if our windows are open, you can actually hear the baby birds chirping. We also hear a pecking sound which we know comes from a woodpecker, altho we haven’t seen it anywhere – yet. On my first spring here in Maryland, we even saw two vultures taking a rest on the neighbor’s roof at the back. Honestly, seeing those buzzards really gave me the creeps, they’re not my favorite creatures in the world.
And hubbie’s daffodils are all out! Really, really, REALLY beautiful! Hubbie planted them all around the house and it’s very refreshing to see them. True as a lot of people say, when you see the daffodils in bloom, you would have a feeling of a promise of a new life – no matter how cold and severe a winter would be.
Hubbie and I have been taking pictures left and right. Thanks to the telephoto lens my dad gave me, we were able to take pictures of the birds even from afar! I can’t take being near birds, (no thanks to my bird-o-phobia, hahaha) so my gift from my dad was sooo cool to use.
So anyways, here are some pictures I took. I’ll be taking some more in the coming days. I just have to rest a bit today tho ’cause my whole left arm hurts so bad because of a bad fall on the stair last night. 
But I hope it’s just a slightly bad fall and nothing really serious.
Posted in Garden/Landscape, Photography | Tags: Blue Jays, Daffodils, Maryland, Orioles, Spring | No Comments »
