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