Laughter is the Best Medicine

Diabetes is a serious thing, but sometimes you just need lighten the mood with laughter, and that's what this post will hopefully do. All I've done is collected memes/funny pictures about diabetes from pinterest and I'm going to pile them into this post and hope that they bring you all at least a little laughter! :)

Diabetes and Holidays

I want to first start off this post by saying, Happy Easter, guys! I hope you all have had a day to relax and spend with family, whether you celebrate Easter as the day Christ resurrected from the grave or not. I had a fabulous day at church with my friends and family and got to enjoy some time with friends, neighbors, family, and my sweet boyfriend this afternoon and I'm filled to the brim with contentment.
But, let's get back on topic after that rabbit trail! Diabetes and holidays, like today, can be tricky. You might be busier than you normally are visiting family and travelling, and holidays tend to revolve around food. (Not entirely, but there's usually a LOT of food around the holidays.) I mean, come on, Thanksgiving revolves almost entirely around a huge meal where you eat until you can't possibly ingest anymore food. Holidays are great, but they can wreck havoc on diabetes. It's hard to check, or you forget to check, or your blood sugar is all over the place from going high from all the food and the dropping low from treating the low(this is a rollercoaster that I got to ride today... it's exhausting.)
I've been diabetic for almost ten years now, and I STILL haven't mastered holidays(and truth is, I probably never will. Diabetes is definitely NOT a science that you can master and set "rules" for.) But, that being said, I do have a few tips for y'all on how to better manage diabetes around the holidays.
TEST, TEST, TEST.
Let's face it, the holidays just require more checking than usually. You're eating tons of food, you might be travelling, and you might just be plain stressed out by the holidays, all of which can cause your blood sugar to be higher/lower than usual. Although you can't avoid this, you can monitor your blood sugar more closely and try to roll with the punches as best you can.
Bolus, bolus, bolus.
Along with testing, bolusing is another thing you need to be consistent about doing. It's easy to eat something and completely forget to bolus, especially around the holidays, but being diligent about it can help prevent the rollercoaster of highs and lows.
Something I've found helpful in keeping up wit bolusing is keeping a log of blood sugars, what I'm eating, and how much insulin I gave myself/when I gave it. It may take some extra time, but I have found it helpful personally.
Relax and don't stress yourself out.
The holidays can be stressful, but there's really no need to get stressed out! The holidays are a time to celebrate and be with family and friends, so don't stress it! Everything will be okay. You may have a few highs and lows, but life happens. Nothing always goes as planned, and as long as you're trying and you take care of the highs/lows and take measures to prevent them, that's what ultimately matters.
 http://www.cdc.gov/features/diabetesmanagement/index.html

http://www.diabeteslibrary.org/View.aspx?url=Diabetes_Holidays_Stress

Thursday Ramblings

Hey guys! I'm back again, and this time I'm not blogging about eating habits and diabetes, and I'll leave whether that's good or bad up to you. 😋 In the end, I decided that vegetarianism isn't for me and have since started eating meat again. 🍕🍔🍗🍖🍤 While some people eat vegetarian/vegan and enjoy it, I really didn't. I felt like I was depriving myself of meat for no reason, and although it is possible to survive without consuming meat, it's just not for me, or at least not right now. In addition to feeling like I was depriving myself of something, I just had so many more low blood sugars during the time I tried to cut out meat and it was actually super annoying. Maybe I wasn't getting enough protein or eating enough, but it just wasn't fun dealing with the lows.
Anyway, moving on. This post had no real topic, so please bear with my random word vomit (or don't. It's up to you. 😃) With today being the start of spring break(at least for me), I thought about doing a post about packing for trips/being prepared, but I'm fairly certain I already have two of those types of posts already, and there's only so much you can say about that. Basically, just carry your stuff with you and have extras of everything because you never know when you're going to need something or when something might happen. So, with that idea cut out, I'm sorta out of ideas to blog about for the moment... My mind is on spring break and diabetes isn't really a hot topic to me. To me, it's a disease I've lived with for almost ten years now and am extremely tired of. To me, it's nothing new. It's very, very old, and if I can deal with it without having to do too much extra thinking about it for at least a little while, I'm going to take that opportunity. Sooooooo, yeah. 😳 That's about all I have, I hope all is well with you guys and that you're staying well and not dealing with allergies and all have super amazing A1Cs next time you visit the endo and that you have a wonderful, wonderful Easter weekend. ☺️

Eating Vegetarian with Diabetes: Continued(I forgot how long it's been. :p)

Aaaaand I'm back! It's been a few days since I've blogged(oops... sorry guys!) but I'm still trying to make the switch to vegetarianism and so far it's going pretty well. I'll admit it, I did break down and eat chicken today, but other than that, I've done pretty well cutting meat out of my diet. While I am cutting meat out basically cold turkey, don't feel that you have to if you want to try becoming a vegetarian, because you totally don't have to. It's completely okay to cut meat out little by little, and it's probably a lot easier. I chose to cut meat out all at once mostly because the only meat I eat( or ate) on a regular basis is chicken, so there weren't really many varieties of meat to cut out. Overall, the decision to change my eating habits has still been a good one. One thing I will say, though, is that not eating meat does require a bit more prep and planning. Rather than getting up and just throwing whatever I could find in the kitchen in my lunchbox to take to school, now I have to do more planning ahead and do most of my prep/packing the night before, which isn't a bad thing because it helps make my mornings less hectic. I also do a lot more prep for my dinner meals, which kind of sucks because instead of eating whatever my family is eating, I'm usually making my own meal because my family is not going vegetarian, which is totally fine, but I slightly miss not having to make my own dinner... oh well. It's good practice for the future, right? (Side note: I didn't have to make my own dinner tonight! Yay for veggie stir fry!)
As far as diabetes goes, I'm noticing that I'm having a few more lows, but nothing huge or horrible. Cutting meat out of your diet takes some getting used to, both for you and your body, and I'm still in the adjusting phase and that's okay.
One thing I would stress about cutting meat out of your diet is stay healthy! It's easy to not eat meat and still eat unhealthy foods. Chips don't have meat in them, ice cream doesn't have meat in it, chocolate doesn't have meat in it... you get the point! Make sure you're eating lots of fruits and veggies and complex carbs and getting protein. People ask vegetarians/vegans all the time, "where do you get your protein?" but it's because meat is such an easy way to get protein and taking that away can have us confused as to where to get the protein we need from. Depending on whether you're vegan or just vegetarian, eggs and dairy can still help you get protein. Soy is an incredible source of protein, as is anything that's made from soy(tofu, for example.) Although it's not incredibly healthy, peanut butter can be a good source of protein if you're in a pinch. Protein shakes can also help you get protein in when you're in a rush or just don't have the time to think about where you're getting your protein from. To help you guys, here's a list of meatless protein sources that I found online that's helped me(and this isn't a comprehensive list and there are definitely more sources of protein out there) http://www.refinery29.com/greatist/89?crlt.pid=camp.ZLJJQv2czW5L#slide.
If I haven't said it before on here, another thing I would recommend to help make the transition easier is finding new, vegetarian recipes and trying them! Don't be afraid to try new things! You're cutting out something that seems to be a huge dietary staple for most Americans and you need something to replace it with. You could just eat salads all day everyday, but that would get boring and you probably wouldn't be getting all the vitamins and nutrients that your body needs and it is super, super important to make sure that you are doing that. Vegetarians can be some of the healthiest people, but you have to take the proper measures to do that.  So basically, just try new things and don't deprive your body of the things it needs! One of the best places( at least from my experience) to find new recipes has been Pinterest! Pinterest has been a very helpful tool in making the transition and if you don't have a Pinterest account, I would highly recommend making one. You can type in vegetarian recipes and have thousands of recipes at your fingertips that you can "pin" and save for future reference. It's awesome and has definitely been a great help to me!
Well, folks, that's about all I have for today. Ultimately, yes, I did cave and eat meat today, but ya know what? That's okay. None of us are perfect, especially not in the very early beginning of things. The way I look at it, I can either look at eating meat today as a reason to give up vegetarianism or as a mistake that only makes me human, and I choose the second one. Tomorrow's a new, meat free day and it'll all be okay/

Eating Vegetarian/Vegan with Diabetes: Days 2+3

Hey guys!
I'm back blogging about the transition to vegetarian/veganism with diabetes and things have not gone quite as planned. As I mentioned in my blog about day one of eating vegan(or at least I think I did) day one did not go quite as smoothly as I would have liked for it to go and I ended up eating foods that definitely were not vegan and after day one, I decided to try to simply eat vegetarian to begin with, thus the change in the title of this post. And honestly, I don't regret making this decision. It's still been hard watching my family eating meat and telling myself to be strong and not eat it, but adding dairy and other animal products back into my diet is making the transition a lot easier. Not completely, but significantly easier. And what I've learned from my few days of eating vegetarian, is that it is completely possible to still feel good without consuming meat, and that while choosing to eat vegetarian /vegan requires more food prep and planning, it helps reduce stress when you think ahead about what you'll eat and don't just walk to the pantry to find food.
As far as diabetes goes, there have been some ups and downs, quite literally. While I haven't had many, if any, lows due to cutting meat out of my diet, there have been a few highs caused by not letting myself have certain foods during the day and then losing my resolve at night and forgetting to bolus for the foods I'm eating, which has led to a few after-high lows. But, overall, I haven't noticed much, if any, change in blood glucose patterns from the few days I've cut out meat and most dairy.
If anything, deciding to make the switch to vegetarianism has been a good decision. Yes, some days have been rough as far as missing meat, I'm not going to lie, but I have noticed that I'm making a more conscious effort to eat healthy and to check my blood sugar more regularly, which has been something I've been struggling to do for so long. I haven't been perfect, but I've been better than I have been. I've been eating tons of fresh fruits and veggies, and learning what I like and don't like, and while it's still a learning process, I'm starting to feel confident about my decision and I think that's awesome.

Eating Vegan and Diabetes: Day One 🍏🌽🍌

Alrighty, here goes. Today, I attempted to start eating vegan(not eating meat, dairy, eggs, or any other animal products.) I started the day strong, determined to get through the day and not give into temptation to eat things that weren't vegan and to try to put as little processed/artificially flavored/colored products into my body as possible. It sounds great in theory, right?
Well, I lasted until about 3 pm when I got out of school. I got up and ate a fairly healthy breakfast(a banana and oatmeal) and when to school armed with a healthy vegan lunch and fruits and veggies for snacks. Breakfast went over pretty well and I didn't drop low or spike up, although I was a little on the low side when I woke up which might have played into it. Between breakfast and lunch, I ate some of the fruits and veggies as a snack, but forgot to check and bolus, so my blood sugars was slightly high when I checked at lunch(I was at about 215 or so. ) I checked at lunch, heated up my meal(chickpeas with cooked spinach and an orange and some more veggies.) But... I ended up not being too crazy about my lunch(cooked spinach does NOT go down too well... unless it's your thing. Then you'll be fine.) So, for lunch I ended up eating an orange and some carrots and celery with peanut butter. By about 1:30 or so, my blood sugar was dropping and I could tell. By the time I was out of school and able to check, I was at about 49, and, in the hungry, I-just-want-to-feel-better state that being low brings, I broke my vegan foods only attitude and ate marshmallows and a pack of Little Debbie cakes.... oops. And, with my resolve weakened but not gone, I decided not to beat myself up over breaking and eating non-vegan foods and to try just eating vegetarian for the rest of the day... which lasted until supper time when my family had made chicken and I gave in and ate that too.
Basically, what I learned from today is that eating vegan and making that transition isn't easy, but that's okay. You're not going to be perfect on the first day, or ever. You just have to do your best and keep trying, even when you mess up and things go wrong. On the diabetes side of things, I learned that changing eating habits is going to require more careful monitoring of blood glucose levels and carb/protein intakes. Eating vegetables doesn't mean you never eat carbs in protein, it just means they come in different shapes and forms than they would when eating a carnivorous diet, and that's okay. You and your body will take time to adjust to new eating habits and how to get what your body needs and it'll take some time, but we can both get there with a little patience and perseverance. 😃

Diabetes and Veganism

As a diabetic, and as a human being in general, eating a healthy diet and making sure your body had the necessary vitamins and nutrients that it need to function properly is so important. Almost any planned, well informed diet can do this, but today I'm going to talk about an option that is often overlooked and underestimated: veganism.
I know, I know, veganism doesn't seem, at first glance, like the most healthy, nutritious diet(most of you are probably thinking, "What do those people eat? Salads for every meal, every day?!) But despite the stigma surrounding veganism and those who choose to adopt this lifestyle, eating a healthy, well planned vegan diet can provide all the necessary nutrients and can offer many amazing heath benefits.
Veganism simply means that, like vegetarians, you don't eat meat, fish, or poultry, and you take it a step further: you don't consume any animal products either(aka eggs, milk, dairy products, honey, or gelatin.) While this post will mostly focus on the health benefits of the vegan diet, veganism also comes from a compassion towards animals and a desire to see animal cruelty minimized and spare the lives(or at least the brutal killing) of animals that we would normally eat without thinking twice about. Whether you're looking to adopt the vegan diet for health reasons, ethical reasons, or both, the vegan lifestyle can be adjusted to fit any person in any walk or stage of life.
As I said before, veganism offers many awesome health benefits, and vegans are some of the healthiest people around, granted that they're carefully planning out their diet and have done their research to learn what nutrients they need to get and how to get them without consuming meat or animal products.
HEART HEALTH.
Studies have shown that vegans following a healthy diet plan have an 26% percent lower chance of having a stroke or heart disease than those who eat a nonvegetarian diet and it has been found that the vegan diet provides much stronger protection against stroke than any other dietary pattern, and it has also been shown that vegans have the lowest total and LDL(bad) cholesterol, that vegans have the lowest intake levels of saturated fats, trans fatty acids, and cholesterol, have higher blood levels of antioxidant and lower levels of lipid peroxidation, have lower rates of hypertension and have leaner waist to hip ratios. Along with these benefits, there are a few risks, such as possible higher rates for blood clots due to low levels of omega-3 fatty acids and higher or similar homocysteine levels, which can increase the risk for heart disease, due to low levels of vitamin B12.
CANCER.
In addition to these heart health benefits, eating a vegan diet(plenty of fruits and vegetables) is associated with lower risk of cancer at almost every sight, and is proven beneficial because animal products and meat, which can have a detrimental effect of health, are not being consumed.
DIABETES.
Most of you reading this are questioning why I'm putting this section in here because, if you're like me, you're thinking, "I already have diabetes, there's nothing I can do now to prevent it. "
However, the vegan diet can help bring better control in diabetes and knowing the facts about how it can possibly help reduce the risk of diabetes is helpful information for the future and for protection our families from having to fight the same battle we are dealing with.
The vegan diet has been shown to help improve blood glucose control(along with exercise) and has been shown to possibly reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes(vegans tend to have the lowest number of cases of type 2 diabetes. However, it is still unclear if the low body weight is strictly the cause of this.) As type one diabetes only account for about 10% of all cases of diabetes, it's hard to tell what triggers the disease, but milk consumption has been possibly linked as one of the factors/triggers, which, if it's true that milk triggers type one diabetes, could make the vegan diet a way to help prevent type one diabetes by eliminating milk and dairy consumption. However, there is only limited research on this and further research is needed.

While these health benefits are great for any person in general, I think they are especially great for diabetics, who are two to four times more likely to have heart disease or a stroke than people without diabetes.
The vegan diet, as you've seen, has many great health benefits as well as ethical benefits brought by not consuming meat or animal products. But, as with any dietary change, it is important to do your research before making the switch. Find books at your local library or at Barnes and Nobles, ask someone you know who's a vegan or vegetarian, ask a nurse, nutritionist, or just ask your doctor. Just do your research to decide if eating a vegan diet is the right choice for you. The book that almost all the information in this post is coming from is Becoming Vegan by Brenda Davis and Vesanto Melina, and I've found it very informative in learning about the health benefits of veganism as well as the risks and how to properly plan a vegan diet so that you get all the vitamins and nutrients you need.
While I think veganism can be extremely beneficially to diabetics, I am in no way trying to say that it is the only healthy way to eat or trying to force it upon anyone. Veganism is not for everyone, and meat and animal products can still be part of a healthy diet and there is absolutely nothing wrong with eating them at all. I simply wanted to share what I've learned about veganism as I've looked into and researched it and I look forward to hopefully sharing more about veganism and diabetes as I make the transition.