I hope you’ve missed me lately. I haven’t been blogging
because I haven’t been able to play around in the kitchen much. GASP! I know,
let me set the layout for you a bit…
I’ve had the blessing of having this summer to revamp. Now
this is a bit of a joke. When you have three bodies other than yourself that
live in your house, there is never a moment of peace. Certainly not a morning
where you wake up feeling you have nothing left to do. Unless of course you
stayed up until 3 cleaning and got up at 6 to start all over again. HOWEVER, I
have really enjoyed my summer. I did get to organize and clean a few parts of
my house that would have otherwise had to stay dirty until I “one day” got
around to it.
At the beginning of this month, I started going to a new
doctor. With my gyn over an hour drive away, and my endocrinologist is always an
hour wait to get in, I wanted to find one doctor that could handle everything.
Instead of getting advice from four different people, I wanted a whole body
approach. I got in for a consultation with Robin Otte. She’s a nurse
practitioner who at first made me nervous, but I don’t have a good excuse as to
why. She was wonderful. She discussed all of my individual health issues with
me, and put me a super no-carb diet. I thought this sounded great as I left.
Except of course, for the end of my Dr. Pepper addiction (more on that later).
She made it clear that I was never going to lose weight, and most likely never
get pregnant, until I got my carb count under control and lost some weight…
Talking about my weight has never been easy for me. When I
weighed 140 (quite thin for a big boned sister like me at 5’7), I thought I was
a cow. I dreaded being close to all the skinny minis. In fact looking at
pictures, many of the people I was around…they weren’t bigger than me at all.
It was all in my head. Since this was my teen years, I get why I felt so much
pressure to be thing, to compare myself to others. Now, 70 pounds heavier, I’m
much closer to what I was so afraid of then. Since I moved out of my parents’
house, I have been a pretty solid advocate of eating planned, homemade meals straight
from your own kitchen. I do love the treat of eating out, but if you do it too
much, it isn’t a treat but a convenience. I’ve been lucky to always have someone to cook
for. This prompted me to try to get keep balanced, yummy, and easy meals ready
at all times. People talk about my cooking. And that makes me a very happy
girl.
When I got home from the doctor, all of this began to sink
in a little more for me. All of my favorite recipes, from meatloaf to salmon
patties, bread and pasta in any shape, it was all gone. And oh my god, Dr.
Pepper. I’d tried SEVERAL times to stop drinking it, but it was always my
comfort. Some people like a beer in the afternoon. Me, I like a Dr. Pepper five
or six times a day. No wonder I struggle with my weight, eh? I went through my
food cabinets which were nice and full after three weeks of some serious successful
couponing. I looked at every label. If one serving had more than 5 carbs, there’s
no way I’d stay under 20 per day. I was in a very uncomfortable shock when I
realized I could eat a whopping, eh, about 1/16th of what I had in
my pantry. I knew meat and cheese were acceptable, but I try not to buy too
much cheese. Adam and Belle eat it like candy, and it makes the grocery bill
easily double.
WHAT WAS I GOING TO DO!?!?
1.
Go on Pinterest and search like a mad woman….CRAP!
Nothing looked good. (Most likely from lack of bread and pasta. Not to mention
some funky ingredients)
2.
Look at Atkins. I’m old enough to remember the
no carb low carb hard to chew faze America went through. The website is VERY
helpful, don’t get me wrong. But they are seriously pushing their name brand
snacks that are quite pricy. HELLO, sister is on a serious budget here!
3.
Google. Surely a Google search would point me in
a direction that would tell me I could secretly go to Rigatoni’s and eat bread
and chicken alfredo until a popped. You can find anything on Google, right?
Wrong.
4.
Really really really want a Dr. Pepper and a
donut.
A few days later I got a phone
call from the doctor. She had my blood work in and needed to talk to me. Turns
out, there were more than few little problems… then she hit me with the big
one. My insulin levels, which ideally are between 8 and 10, were over 200. I
was clearly insulin resistant. I was beyond insulin resistant. I was SUPER
insulin resistant, or whatever… She told me I needed to get in with my
endocrinologist and have him look at my test results ASAP. She even offered to call
the office and make it clear this was a time sensitive matter. I was pretty
freaked, so freaked; I wanted a Dr. Pepper and a donut.
So now my research had shifted. I
was no longer looking for no carb yumminess, but rather, PLEASE TELL ME IM NOT
GOING TO GET DIABETES AND DIE. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE. Overreaction, maybe. Mmk.
Most likely. But after I’d lost both of my grandmothers within four months, I
was well aware that I wanted nothing more in life but to be healthy. I get it
now. The need to be healthy, and in turn happy, for your family and for
yourself. I am determined that Adam and I are going to be the hot grandparents
who embarrass the hell out of their grown grandchildren.
I got in to Dr. Ahmed pretty quicky.
After my usual wait, I got the speech I was waiting on. The gist of it was that
no drug or diet secret was going to get me healthy. I was on the only thing
that could get me healthy. Determination and okay, a little metformin to keep
me from becoming diabetic.
So now I am back at the planning
stage. I feel like all summer I’ve been planning. But now, this plan has to be
one that I can implement for the rest of my life. Maybe not forever, but for
longer than I usually stick to my plans.
Otte recommended the following:
1.
A serious kenogenic diet.
2.
Vitamin d3
3.
Fish Oil
Ahmed recommended:
1.
Regular exercise
2.
Metformin
3.
Some serious self determination
So, I have decided that I want to transform what I was
already doing to fit my new lifestyle. So far I have…
1.
Downloaded the Atkins app so I can track my carb
intake.
2.
Went to the Piggly Wiggly a lot when I run out
of things I can eat
3.
Put the scales where they are easily accessible
to keep myself accountable.
4.
Make myself take the Metformin, side effects and
all
5.
Look more seriously into the Paleo lifestyle. I
feel confident that once I get over this beginning stage of the diet, Paleo
would keep me on track.
6.
Drink Diet Dr. Pepper whenever I feel like I
need Dr. Pepper. Most of the diets say you can have diet soda, but recommend
against it. While I’ve given up on the sugar stuff, I need something to keep me
from wanting to kill someone. I feel like I can eventually cut it out as well,
but I am not afraid to say I’m not yet ready.
7.
Do some serious self-talk.
8.
Tell Adam everything, from what I am eating to
how I feel about it to how I hate him when he’s eating cheese puffs in front of
me. This sounds like a no brainer, but as my partner, he’s been great. He keeps
me accountable. Seriously accountable, like way more than I ever would myself.
My experiment for today was to try to make salmon patties
fit within my carb count. They are still a little high, but I am going to try
again to get them lower with more research…
Green Salmon Fritters:
Ingredients:
·
1 pack Chicken of the Sea Salmon (2.5 oz)
·
Salt and Pepper
·
2 tbsp. Vegetable Oil
·
2 Celery stalks, put through the food processor
(2.4 CARBS)
·
¼ of a large green bell pepper (2 CARBS)
·
1 tbsp. garlic powder (6 CARBS)
·
1 tbsp. parsley (.2 CARBS)
·
½ c. French fried onions, put through the food
processor (12 CARBS)
·
2 eggs (.8 CARBS)
·
¼ c. AP Flour (22 CARBS)
Directions:
Mix everything together. Fry in vegetable oil until they
brown (they’ll still look green too).
Makes 8 fritters. This comes out to 5.6 CARBS per fritter. I’d
like to get it down to half of that.
Do you have any suggestions as to how I can cut the carbs?
How about making some salmon patties that are lower in carb
count?
I welcome and need all advise.
