Carbs and sugar - get thee behind me!

Sorry it’s been so long since my last post. The truth is I just haven’t had anything positive to post about. Lately I’ve just been in “don’t gain” mode as opposed to “let’s lose” mode.

One of my biggest problems is carbs. Oh you freakishly little tasty saboteurs you. I love just about anything with carbs in them, and sugar is my No. 1 nasty habit.

I have trouble with many kinds of fruit – it makes my ear canals itch like the devil waaaaay down deep inside. I just want to shove a bottle brush in there so deep it touches my brain. Strawberries, peaches, bananas, plums, apricots, and nectarines all affect me that way when they are fresh. If they are frozen, canned, or cooked (in breads, cakes, or pies, for example) I don’t have any issues. But, I adore fruit, so I eat fresh oranges or tangerines, apples, and other berries and enjoy those other fruits in yogurt or out of a can. This is problematic since I am a type 2 diabetic and need to eat fruit in moderation. Not usually a problem, unless I am “dieting”. Since I try to cut out the crap when I “diet”, I turn to fruit as a substitute for candy, etc.

Diabetic induced coma, anyone?

I don’t eat a lot of cake or pie, or even ice cream for that matter; but give me a pile of Good & Plenty’s or sour cherry balls or Bottlecaps and I’m in heaven. I have recently (well, over the last year or so) gotten into the bad habit of having candy right before bed. I take my daily pills at night, and they don’t always go down very smoothly, so I need to eat something with them to make sure they go down. So I have been having a handful or two (or 12) of candy.

I should be eating Dum Dums because then the name would be appropriate to the action.

I thought that eating crackers or similar would be better, but it’s really not since I eat more than half the box.

Sigh…..

To combat this, I have checked out from the library “The 100” by Jorge Cruise. **Let me state, right here and now, that this is not an endorsement of Jorge Cruise, his diets eating plans, books, websites, products, or anything else. I have not been paid with cash money or in any way compensated by him or any affiliate of his to write about this book on my blog.** I need to do something to break the carbohydrate hold on me, and I’m hoping that this plan may give me the boost I am looking for. Basically, the jist is that you only count sugar calories (total carbs per serving multiplied by 4) and you only get 100 of them per day. There are lists of “freebies” – most veggies, meats, cheeses, fats, etc., meal plans, a few recipes, scary lists of foods you would think are OK that have over 100 sugar calories in just a single serving, and a lot of quotes from scientists and basic rah-rah speak. And the good news is that you don’t have to stick to just 100 sugar calories a day forever; eventually you can work your way up to 300 sugar calories per day. The 100 calorie plan says you can lose up to 18lbs in two weeks (for those who want/need to lose 30-60lbs), but you can still lose 1-2 lbs per week at the 300 calorie level per Mr. Cruise.

I have to start somewhere, and fast. My blood sugar is high and out of control, and until I get insurance in January, no medications to reduce it for me. I started today, and instead of my usual toasted bagel with cream cheese and yogurt with blueberries for breakfast (more than 100 sugar calories right there), I had two scrambled eggs and two slices of bacon (zero sugar calories). I did OK but kept feeling like I wasn’t full enough – but that was probably because I missed my bagel so much! I plan to order a grilled chicken breast sandwich without the bread for lunch, and I grabbed a very small mandarin orange to go with it (half my 100 SC right there). I’ll keep tabs on what I eat and let you know how I’m doing.

Wish me luck!