The Challenge Continues

Believe it or not, I'm still rolling on the Special K 6-Week Challenge! It's day 5 of week 4 and you'd think at this point that I'd be tired of Special K. It's just as cold, crispy and delicious as I always thought it was.

The great news - I'm down 4 pounds. That's 4 pounds in almost 4 weeks, which is a pretty healthy rate based on what I've read about weight loss. I've got a few more to ditch, but I have no doubt that I'll get there one day.

The best results I've seen from this diet so far have been reflected in my blood sugar numbers. Eating these mini meals has helped me to maintain a healthy blood sugar level. It's as if my body is able to recover more easily after each meal.

I now envision each meal becoming an internal fight between my food and my body. Thinking back to how hard I've had to work at maintaining a healthy blood sugar level, and now seeing these results, I truly think that's what happens. Eating small meals means that my body doesn't have to fight as hard as it would with a big meal or a high carbohydrate meal. Then when I eat a normal sized meal for dinner, my body handles it better because isn't recovering from the last meal.

This is, of course, my own theory. I'll keep on testing it one test strip at a time.

Challenging Myself

A society being threatened with obesity seems to be the perfect environment to breed fad diets. New dieting concepts pop up constantly, grab our attention and most of us can never stick to them. I'll admit, I've never been able to.

My doctors say I'm not overweight, but I'm not comfortable where I currently am. With the start of the new year, I decided to try something new. I decided to take the Special K 6-Week Challenge!

It's a simple diet - replace 2 meals with 1 serving of Special K, have a healthy snack between meals (like an apple, yogurt or carrots), then have a normal 3rd meal.

Believe it or not, today is Day 1 of Week 3. So far I'm doing pretty good! I've had a moment or 2 of weakness but all in all I'm sticking to it, and it's done wonders for my blood sugar. It's more stable throughout the day and I'm getting more consistent numbers where I want them to be.

Whether this is specific to Special K or not, I don't know. My theory is that having "mini meals" throughout the day is easier for my body to process. I'm going to keep it up for as long as possible to see how it affects my A1C.

Off The Wagon Already

Just 11 days into 2009, it looks like it's time to pick my resolutions and dust them off. Time to start again.

Yesterday, I took my husband and his crew of boys to Monster Jam for his birthday (check out this video we took!). It was a crazy fun day, but after breakfast, I fell off the wagon. First came the Garden Burger, which is pretty healthy if you don't count the delicious carbalicious bun, the cheese, mayo or sugary ketchup. Then came Pringles, nachos, french fries, beer...it was delicious.

As expected, the high carb and high fat day hit my veins like a ton of bricks. Fortunately I stepped up my blood sugar testing and kept my insulin pump workin' overtime. The results? I maintained pretty tight control.

It's tempting to turn a blind eye and pretend that foods like these won't affect you, but every carb counts. I'm proud of my work yesterday. Just because I'm out having fun and veering from my diet for a day doesn't mean I have to feel guilty as long as I'm paying attention along the way.

Resolutions That Last A Lifetime

We're 1 week into the new year, and most people's resolutions are starting to wane. You probably made the typical resolutions - lose weight, eat better, exercise more. Since these goals are so expected (because we all could be healthier), it's somehow no surprise when we don't keep them. In fact, it's almost expected for resolutions to be broken.

While cliche, these health-focused resolutions are very important resolutions for us diabetics to make and to keep. Sometimes, meeting these goals are the difference between life and death, and in some Type II cases, the difference between having or not having diabetes.

I've made resolutions this year to not only try to do the expected, but also to test my blood sugar more frequently and lower my Hemoglobin A1C. It feels like a big resolution. It happens to be the same resolution I've made every year since I was diagnosed over 10 years ago.

For me, the tough thing about being diabetic is being constantly reminded that I'm diabetic throughout the day. There's no running away from it. This reminder causes me to be constantly reminded that I'm not meeting the goals of my resolutions. That's enough to make a girl want to scream and run for the hills. But since I can't run away from myself, I also can't run away from my goals because my diabetes will never go away.

The best I can do is try to follow my resolutions. If I fail, I'll dust myself off, try again, and accept the fact that I'll have to make the same resolutions every year of my life...which will hopefully be a very long time.

Breaking The Hiatus

After months of letting my blog become stale, I'm officially back. And I apologize to my readers for ditching out like that...although I'm sure at this point you're not reading anymore.

My husband was going bonkers because each time I posted something to this blog, his computer server would crash. And along with his server went his company's website and the numerous other websites that he hosts. So I was forced to go on hiatus until the problem could be solved.

You see, I just couldn't go on with my husband constantly upset with me over my blog. I hope you understand. = )

But then, life happened, and the next thing I knew it was January. And what do I have? A dead blog. So here I go with trying to resurrect it. My fingers are crossed that my readers return...