14 Days of Healthy Eating

I've decided I'm going to do a healthy eating bonanza for 14 days starting the 4th of February. 

I like to think I eat a pretty healthy diet and my recent cholesterol levels indicate that. But I've never been strict on myself for it. So I decided that I would try something new, a focused 14 day healthy eating plan. SHONELLE STYLE!

I forsee a balance of strictness and going with the flow. Anyone that knows me personally knows I can be a bit of dreamer/loose unit sometimes. I've posted before about my inability to committ to something so I've decided to start small and do it my own way. I also believe in keeping realistic and measurable goals. Does my 14 day eating plan mean I can't eat takeaways or drink fizzy drink? Heck no. What I am going to focus on is including more vegetables, protein, healthy fats, whole grains and low GI foods. The strict part about my 14 day healthy eating bonanza is the documentation and preparation. Anyone who has done a diet record before know they are about as much fun as standing in a never ending super market queue. I'm determined to have 14 days of diet records out of this 2 week bonanza. There's always a heap of documentation for my diet records. They include the food I've eaten, the carb counts for said food, my insulin to carb doses, my insulin correction rates doses and the exercise I've done. Oh and blood sugar levels.

The preparation side of my 14 day bonanza is a focus on preparing lunches and snacks so I don't get caught in the trap of purchasing food from near my work. I'm going to spend the rest of today and Sunday researching food recipes, shopping for food and preparing it so I can have two weeks filled with tasty snacks and lunches. So food wise, I'm going to focus on healthier options but not to a point where it's unrealistic for me. So for me, the strictness of a 14 day healthy eating bonanza is not about the food I'm eating but making sure I'm documenting it and preparing it in advance.

I'm also going to prepare an exercise plan but I'm going to start small. I do a fair amount of light exercise a week as I usually walk to and from work every day (about 50 mins a day). So I'm going to focus on getting some cardio and resistance training in.And then I'll finish my 14 day bonanza by doing a 12km walk over in Central Otago. 

What's going to keep me going?

In reality I have just one goal out of all of this. Dropping my HbA1c at the end of the month. It's currently sitting at 77 (9.2) at the moment. I am going to do this.

Other things that keep me going are:

- Knowing I have two hospital appointments at the end of the month. One with my dietician and the other with my Certified Nurse Educator. To make the most out of them I'm going to need records to show them!

- I'm going to do a 12km walk in Central Otago, originally I was going to train and run it but it soon became one of those things I had an inability to commit to.

- The prepration side of this will help me to save money, which is especially important as I'm saving money to go on a trip to the States at the end of April.

- I'm going to tell 2 of the people closest to me about this who I hope will motivate me. My amazing best friend and my amazing boyfriend.

- I'm going to blog about it. I know my blog doesn't have the biggest reader ship but I do know that the view count does rise! Knowing there are others out there reading this makes me feel good and motivates me to keep going :)

- Because I'm doing this for the right reasons, not as a quick fix weight loss plan (though that would be nice!) but as way to focus on healthy eating, exercise, emotions as attitudes. My previous post showed a glimpse of some emotional struggling, I want to use healthy eating as a way to feel good in my body and soul.

I'm pretty excited about all of this.

Please feel free to comment on advice, recipe ideas (especially lunch ones!) and anything else motivating, happy and optimistic.

Shonelle xx

I'm really struggling today

I'm finding everything a bit hard today.

I'm finding my work place pretty stressful, I work in a Student Support Centre for University students, helping them with every issue under the sun. This ranges from academic, tenancy to employment and disciplinary issues. Yesterday I had an hour and a half conversation with a student who experienced a sexual assault last year, last night after hours I received a phone call from a student that has been raped on the weekend.

The well being of students I see in my day to day work often weighs heavily on my mind. I like to know that they've left my office happier and with a better understanding of their options. With sexual assault I know there's not a lot I can do but I try my best by being someone students feel comfortable talking too. I just feel sad and mad at the world for everything. I'm angry that because of a miscommunication one of these students was turned away from our University counselling service. I'm sad because I have students come in that have a significant expense for their course with no money to pay for it. I love the advocacy side of my job but it does often get me down at times.

Of course, I also volunteer for Youthline as a phone counsellor and am trained to deal with crisis calls so  I have been utilising those skills when talking to distressed students. I was able to talk about my work and my feelings around it at our Youthline supervision group last night so I am really grateful for that.

This feeling of sadness, madness, depression isn't me at all. I like to face the day with a smile and be optimistic. Negativity, complaints is something that really gets to me. Ordinarily I would have tried to ignore my feelings and put on a smile but as part of my personal development I think it would be good to get used to feeling sad. Because it's okay to be sad sometimes. I'm also on my 10th day working without a day off so that also doesn't help.

And of course, Diabetes doesn't take a holiday when I want/need it to. I was woken by a wicked low blood sugar at 1.30am this morning.  So starting off my day feeling sleep deprived hasn't helped my mood at all!


But it's okay. I still feel my happy grounded self, looking forward to skyping my wonderful boyfriend later on in the week. I'm just allowing myself to feel a little sad today. I think it's healthy for me :)

The Diabetic Jigsaw Puzzle

I'm supposed to be working right now. But I have all these thoughts going on about my Diabetes management. I had an appointment with my Diabetes Nurse Educator last week, I love how knowledgeable she is. 

I think without a doubt my management of my Diabetes has gotten better but it still has a long way to go. I haven't quite reached my goal of getting my HBa1c under 8 the most recent blood test I got puts it at 9.1. While that may not be impressive to some, for me it shows a 0.5% drop since my last blood test a couple of months ago. I'm all about celebrating the baby steps you take. I also know that my control hasn't been a "good" as it could have been. The last three months have included Xmas, New Years Eve and a 3 week holiday. I know that being back at work and getting myself into a regular routine will affect on my next blood test. I also know, I am going to try so very hard to tighten up that control. 

Which takes me back to my appointment at the Hospital last week and my Diabetic jigsaw puzzle. I've been  in and out of Hospital appointments for the last 6 months and it's resulted in a whole heap of changes. Changes to my Lantus, my Insulin to Carb ration, my correction ratio etc. Last week, it took us about 40 minutes to come up with a new plan of attack. I know one day I'll be able to do this on my own but I find there are so many different variables I could change that I need help with making changes to my own routine. I'm okay with that, working through issues as a team is how I like to roll with my everyday life so it makes sense to include it in my Diabetes management. Our new plan is looking at my insulin absorption rates, while I have no lumps on my stomach I do tend to stick to my left side below my belly button so I've been asked to inject anyway above the belly button.  It took a lot of looking at my numbers and  discussing if I should decrease my Lantus dose, increase my insulin to carb ration or split my Lantus to come to that conclusion. So many different options, different pieces to put in place to see if they work.

We also briefly talked about my cholesterol levels too. My dietitian mentioned that they were "elevated" in our last appointment. She mentioned it in an off hand sort of way so I wasn't sure how serious it was. In any event, asking about my levels this time round my Diabetes Nurse Educator said that my bad cholesterol had gone down and my good cholesterol had gone up. She asked a range of questions about this:

"Have you been exercising more in the last 3 or 4 months?"

"Have you been eating more leafy greens?"

"More wholegrains?"

It felt so good to be able to say yes to all those. And it made me really really really happy that the effort I've been making to exercise more and to eat healthier was actually being reflected in test results. It showed me that it's just about putting in the effort, trying different things to see what works and focusing on all aspects of my life to see results.


As I was walking out of the appointment, I couldn't help but feel that my life was one big  Diabetic Jigsaw Puzzle.

And I like puzzles.

Google can find the craziest images, this is a puzzle of a Proglitazone Drug Molecule. Image credit here

2013 and all that jazz

It's been a busy few months. I'm nursing a bit of a hangover today. It's making it rather difficult to focus and type this blog post.  

I've been thinking a lot about what 2013 means for me. My friends have coined it the year of "giving more." I think you can interpret that any way you choose. I haven't quite got my interpretation down yet. I feel like I give a lot through my volunteering, so maybe for me it means giving more to myself? I'm going to be focusing on alone time and looking after myself. My wonderful boyfriend has recently moved to the States and is working on a ski field, so I'm not going to see him until April. I miss him an incredible amount. But I feel happy in knowing that even though he is so far away, it hasn't affected my feelings for him at all. If anything I love him more! It does mean that I will be alone a lot more than I'm used to. I think learning how to be alone and enjoy it is a good thing. I'm usually someone who loves company, having people around and is always on the go. So I think that stepping back and just relaxing a bit will be good for me.

I don't often do the whole New Years resolutions thing. But this year I've got a couple. They range from easy, tangible/measurable goals to longer term ones. In no particular order:

- Buy a pair of jeans or nice pants.

I don't really own any pants. The ones I own are either PJ's, comfy round the house pants or my boyfriends track pants. 

- Drop my A1c to below 8

- Drop my A1c to below 7

These two are combined obviously. I haven't had the best control but I'd really like 2013 to be the year that I actually get some traction in my A1c's. The last one I had was about 9. I know I've changed how I manage my diabetes a lot of the past year so I have my fingers crossed I'll start seeing a downward trend in the A1c numbers. I'm turning 25 soon, I need to look the heck after myself!

- Exercise on a regular basis.

Along with the looking after myself theme, I'm going to make a concerted effort to exercise on a regular basis. I'm thinking about signing up to a cross fit programme. Exercising really does wonders to my BSL numbers. 

- Eat less meat

I've spoke about this before but I'm going to focus on Vegetarian inspired meals. Deliciousness!

- Go dairy free for 2 weeks

I have pretty bad skin/ezcema sometimes so I'm going to try and go dairy free for a while to see if that will have a difference. I was going to start it the other day but then I went out and had a coffee. The idea of drinking soy coffee completely slipped my mind.

There might be some more but these are it for now. I'm spending the last few days of my holiday in Central Otago with my ultimate best friend. She's been out of the country for almost 2 years and has just got back to NZ, I truly love her with all my heart! My friends are the backbone to me, couldn't do it without them!

Cider and Cheese. Amazing. 

Power Foods for Diabetics

Following on from my healthy eating/healthy living trend of recent blog posts I found this article on Diabetic Living Online about the Top 20 Diabetic Power Foods. I thought it would be interesting to see how many of these foods I actually eat on a regular basis. So, for my own interest I thought I'd take a look at my own diet and see how many of these "power" foods I actually eat.

1. Asparagus
Eat lots - when in season!

2. Blueberries
These would have been an eat little, but I've been having blueberries in my smoothies lately so I've bumped them up to eat some.

Image credit here

3. Red Grapefruit
Eat little - I rarely eat this. The only time I can recall in the last year was in a drink... with Gin. 

4. Beans
Eat LOTS! - Love my beans. Kidney/Black/Green Beans etc. 

5. Broccoli
Eat lots - This is a staple vegetable in our household and often ends up in meals

6. Carrots
Eat lots - Again, safe as above. Except we'd probably eat carrots more. 

7. Fish
Eat little - I rarely eat fish. Over this past year I've had tuna 3 times and battered fish once. Not enough I reckon! 

8. Flaxseed
Eat lots - I take flaxseed oil supplements every day. It's supposed to be good for skin, mine is chronic for getting dry and attacked by eczema :(

9. Cranberries
Eat little - Have recently started eating a small amount of the cran, mostly in baking - but I worry about the sugar content.. 

10. Apples
Eat some - To be honest, it's probably boderline of the eating some. I'm not a huge fruit fan in general but have been making an effort to add apples to my lunchtime diet on a regular basis.

11. Melon
Eat little - Again like the cranberries, melon doesn't enter my diet much. Mostly due to price/availability reasons

12. Nuts
Eat lots - Definitely on this one! Have almonds/brazil nuts as a snack on a regular basis and have recently purchased some LSA (ground up linseed, sunflower and almonds) and add that to a bunch of stuff. 

13. Oatmeal
Eat some - Oats make their way into my baking on a semi regular basis.

14. Red Onions
Eat lots - These are a regular addition to meals

15. Raspberries
Eat little - Again similar to cranberries and melon as raspberries don't enter my diet much. More than the latter two but could do with getting a bunch of frozen ones and keeping them in the freezer.

16. Spinach
Eat lots - I'm a big green fan. I add spinach to a bunch of different meals.

17. Soy
Eat little - I'm working on this one! I've been wanting to experiment with Tofu for some time now, it's on the cooking agenda. And I also have Chocolate Soy Milk in the fridge currently. 

18. Tea
Eat/Drink little - I'm not a big one on hot drinks in general and when I do it's normally espresso coffee but do go through stages of drinking tea especially herbal ones!

19. Tomatoes
Eat lots - I don't really eat a lot of  fresh tomatoes as they're pretty expensive in NZ when they're out of season. But eat heaps of canned tomatoes and buy fresh when they're cheap.

20. Yoghurt
Eat lots - There was a phase there where I didn't eat any yoghurt at all. Correction: I'd eat spoonfuls of other peoples yoghurt. But this past year I've found it to be a really good snack food and also use it in smoothies.

So, all up -
Eat lots: 10
Eat some: 3
Eat little: 7

Definitely going to look into ways to increase my fish and soy intake. Hoping to increase berry/fruit intake by smoothies. Would be good to lower that eat little number and increase the other two. But all in all, I think that's a pretty even spread.

Is A Plant Empowered Diet For Me?

I've been reading a lot about nutrition, wellness, healthy living and all that jazz recently. I stayed up late the other night learning about Gerson Therapy by complete accident. It's well known to all my friends that I'm addicted to the internet (most, if not all, would say Facebook). While there's some truth to this Facebook addiction, I am also genuinely in love with the amount of information, inspiration and ideas that are out there online! Gerson Therapy seems to surround cutting out everything from your diet and having juices 6 times a day. It's not something I could ever manage as a Diabetic but it was interesting nonetheless.

Awhile back a friend of mine gave me the link to the trailer for the documentary Forks Over Knives. I'd heard about it before but hadn't looked into it. If you're not familiar with it, this blog gives a really good review. Good as in balanced :) Basically it's about how living a plant empowered diet is better for you. Just a warning for Diabetics, I felt just a slight kick in the gut, when I heard this line in the trailer:

"I have reversed the Diabetes. The Diabetes is not coming back."

Of course, comments like that in general make me not want to give any kind of credit to the documentary as I believe that the millions of preconceived notions and assumptions about Type 1 Diabetes stem from things like this. However, since I'm addicted to the internet and information I of course, looked into it. I really do believe in the power of plants. I think there's something to be said for eating organic, natural and unprocessed food. In a previous blog post I posted a photo showing the difference between free range and store bought eggs. If that's not enough evidence that eating organic/natural foods is good I don't know what is.

But what does that mean for me?
I'm not 100% sold on the idea of never eating meat again. I thought about living by myself last year and if I had I would probably have ended up making mostly vegetarian meals. However it ended up being cheaper to live with a group of friends. One of their comments was, I'm so glad you're not vegetarian. The idea is to do flat cooking and they obviously have a bit of bad will towards vegetarians! I don't but I can see how a vegetarian would make flat cooking a bit tricky. For me, I would just see it as a challenge to make sure I was including enough vegetables with my food! But each to their own. So it's looking like I'll be eating a bit of meat for flat dinners. This isn't something that bothers me but I'm going to make it a bit of a new years resolution to increase the amount of meat free/plant empowered breakfast and lunches that I have. At the end of the day, I don't need to be eating meat with every single meal. In an ideal world I would be eating a mostly plant empowered lifestyle with organic meat 2 to 3 times a week. For now, and for 2013 my focus will be on delicious plant empowered lunches and experimenting with my own flat meals. I found this year that a lot of my flatmates meals were often half carb, half meat. E.G Spaghetti Bolagnaise. So I'm going to ensure my meals have a heap of vegetables in them, and low GI carbs etc.

I love how Forks Over Knives calls it a plant empowered diet. I think it's much more politically friendly than just saying Vegan/Vegetarian. And I also love the idea that what I eat empowers me.

On a similar note, the friend who showed me the link for the trailer is also visiting me next week. I haven't seen her in over a year and I'm bouncing off the walls with excitement! She's a vegetarian and also a chef so I love seeing her ideas for meals. I also love her to pieces for everything else, not just her amazing cooking abilities.

I truly believe that Friends are the backbone to my own happiness and sanity  :)

xx

Changes and Refresh

Someone posted a question on Reddit recently that made me think. It was How do you make yourself care *about* your diabetes, not for it.

There was a few comments that were I like my eyesight/limbs/want to watch children grow up and etc. But when you're living in the here and now, Diabetes complications seem like such a far off thing. I've always "cared" about my Diabetes. I know it's this long term, chronic condition with the likelihood of complications if you have poor control. In all honesty, my way of dealing with it was to just take my insulin every day and test on an ad hoc basis. Over the last 6 months how I care for my diabetes has changed into this scientific guessing game. Carb counting, correction doses, balancing, exercising. It's exhausting. But I keep going. Because I know I can do this. 

This is one of the replies to the question, it really encapsulated how I feel - Not sure if you can read it but I'll put the majority of it here:

It boiled down to not feeling defeated if you screw up during the day. Like, if I checked my bloodsugar only twice throughout the day, I can't think, "Oh crap, I'm taking shitty care of myself so why bother at all?" Instead I try to think of it as a win. "I tested two more times than I did the day before! I'm working on it, so it's ok."

It's always a work in progress, so you have to take the view that anything you do is better than nothing. "My A1C is down .2 points! Great!" or "I tested 4 times today!" I know I should do better, but thinking in this way has made me feel less like I am always circling the drain. Instead, I am slowly clawing my way out of it. I hope that helps.

Sometimes you can't win with diabetes, it throws in curves ball blood sugars and whacky overnight lows. But you just have to keep trying.

I fell off the wagon a tiny bit with recording all my food and exercise (slash actually doing exercise) but tomorrow is a new week! I'm starting small but my goals for this week are:

- Producing 3 diet records for the Dietitian

- Exercising 3 times - I think this will be more of the walk variety but I have access to some lovely gardens so will make sure this includes some uphills! Ultimately I'd like to do some running but just starting small. 

- Some sort of strength/core training exercise twice.

It's all very manageable. Since I've been super busy lately I've had less of a routine, so I'm getting back into it. Changing it and just starting afresh! Writing it down helps keep it present in my mind and makes me actually want to complete some of my goals. 

Until next time!