21 Friday Feb 2020
Posted in health, life, nature, Uncategorized
Tags
appointment, big girl pants, blessed, diabetes, doctor, moments, route, stroll, walk, weather, widow
had a lovely walk this morning…
exactly a week since I took the same route on a freezing morning… quite a difference today…
today I parked much further down the street and enjoyed the stroll to and from my appointment, where my doctor was pleased with my blood pressure, A1C and heart…
looking forward to more walks in nicer weather…
10 Saturday Aug 2019
Posted in family, health, life, loss, nature, Photography, technology, Uncategorized
Tags
beloved, big girl pants, bread, ciabatta, diabetes, Miracle Whip, tomato, treat, widow
since my diabetes diagnosis I have tried to stay away from bread except for rare occasions…
today I made a tomato sandwich on a mini olive ciabatta… the only other thing on it was Miracle Whip…
I picked up the bread yesterday and had a tomato from our CSA box this week…
it was a delicious treat…
reminded me of all the wonderful tomato sandwiches that my beloved made for me over the years… took the longest time to realize the reason they were so delicious was the amount of Miracle Whip slathered on them, lol…
07 Friday Dec 2018
Posted in family, food, health, life, loss, nature, Photography, technology, Uncategorized
Tags
A1C, alarm, big girl pants, crazy, daughter, diabetes, doctor, focussed, health, quality of life, sleep, treadmill, treat, widow
crazy morning…
I usually set my alarm for 6:30 but always wake up before it goes off… I’ve been having trouble sleeping for the last week or so due to a sore neck so didn’t put on my alarm as it was my day off…
woke up to a call from my daughter at 7:51… unfortunately I had an 8 am doctor’s appointment;-(…
flew out of the house wondering what my blood pressure reading would be, lol…
was only a few minutes late as the office is close to home…
my blood pressure was great which was amazing but my A1C was not so great… still in the safe zone but it has been creeping up over the last year…
early on following my diabetes diagnosis I did not consume any sugar and was so strict with my diet that my life was overly focussed on food… the good news about that was how low I was able to bring down my A1C without meds… the bad news was that the strict eating was causing problems with my quality of life… since then the doctor and I agreed to relax my eating to find a happy medium…
today we decided that I need to find something between crazy strict and what I’ve been doing recently…
so, not so many treats… and I also think I need to be sure to spend a bit more time on the treadmill every day…
27 Saturday Aug 2016
Posted in family, health, life, loss, nature, Photography, technology, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, blood sugar, cholesterol, diabetes, doctor, fear, Fitbit, MyFitnessPal, nervous, on track, weight, widow
last week I went and had blood work done for my doctor’s appointment yesterday…
people comment on how well I am staying on track with my diet and that I am looking great…
I am careful out of fear… fear that my sugars will go up and I will need drugs to manage my diabetes… I don’t want that and the fear makes me be good, lol…
now, when I taste something I don’t like, I don’t finish it… I’d rather save the calories for something I enjoy… I have an app on my phone (MyFitnessPal) that connects with my Fitbit and helps me keep track of daily calorie intake…
but I am always nervous about what the results will be when I attend the appointment…
excellent news yesterday… blood sugars are great… blood pressure is fine…
cholesterol has come down significantly with the very small dose of medication that I started on three months ago, and with no side effects… the doctor was surprised as he thought I would need double the dose to get this type of result…
early on he’d talked about my weight coming down by another 20 pounds from where I am now… yesterday he agreed that I should stay at my current weight… when you are 75, he says, it is nearly impossible to lose weight, so he doesn’t want me to gain anything over the next ten years…
this was a great relief because I’ve been stuck around 160 for ages and really don’t think my body had any plans to go any lower…
all in all, an excellent appointment…
21 Sunday Feb 2016
Posted in family, health, life, loss, technology, Uncategorized
Tags
40 pounds, between, big girl pants, clothes, diabetes, jacket, jeans, renew, size, wardrobe, weight loss
since November of 2014, and my diabetes diagnosis, I have lost forty pounds…
I’ve had to renew my wardrobe a few times during the process…
this morning I was shopping, looking for new pants, including jeans, and a few tops…
apparently I am between sizes again… makes it so much harder to find things that fit, sigh… will have to look in another couple of stores…
my daughters were both surprised about the jeans as I never wore them until three or four years ago… I only have one pair and they are getting too big to wear…
really happy that this jacket we picked up yesterday fit nicely…
been hard to let some pieces go but it is also getting clear that many items are way too big… continue with a box in the dining room which collects all the things that no longer make the cut…
16 Tuesday Feb 2016
Posted in family, health, life, technology, Uncategorized
Tags
A1C, big girl pants, blood pressure, cabinet, cholesterol, diabetes, doctor, drug store, healthy
had my doctor’s appointment today with my GP… great news was that my A1C was the same as the last test, 3 months ago… I had been a bit worried because I felt I slipped a little over Christmas…
feel confident that I can eat as I have been and not be worried all the time that I am messing up… this is very good news and should help me relax about my food intake…
my cholesterol is up a tiny bit, but not enough to consider drugs, thankfully.. and my blood pressure is good…
all in all a great appointment…
packing up my diabetes strips and lancets to give to a colleague… if I need them again it will be down the road and I will get items that aren’t expired…
also spent some time cleaning the cabinet under the bathroom sink… dumped out a bunch of out-of-date items and made a bit of space… will have to drop the stuff off at the drug store in the next while… they are able to dispose of it properly…
pretty fine day…
30 Monday Nov 2015
Posted in health, life, nature, technology, Uncategorized
Tags
Advent, big girl pants, calendars, chocolate, diabetes, drugs, food, grandsons, Lindt, plan, Star Wars, treadmill
tomorrow is the beginning of Advent…
yesterday I sent home Advent calendars for everyone… there was a Starbucks one for my daughter… Kinder Surprise ones for the little boys… a Lindt one for the oldest grandson, and a box of Russian Mints for my son-in-law…
usually they have to share so the little boys were very pleased…
I arranged for a friend of my daughter in Ottawa to pick up a fancy Lindt calendar for her…
and we also got a Star Wars one for my son-in-law there…
great fun to arrange the surprise for her because she sends calendars to a number of people every year… she has been sending them to me since she moved away… I’m still looking for the magnetic covers that go on top of muffin tins that she sent four or five years ago… I put them away very carefully, sigh…
this year the little boys got a parcel in the mail from her so they will have chocolate and another treat each day…
on Saturday the youngest helped fill up the drawers in my reindeer calendar with chocolate raisins… this year I won’t be having any of these, so when they come over on the weekends they will share all of the days that have passed… one in particular is very large, so they are already anticipating opening up that one, lol…
last year I got a lovely collection of different sized boxes, which I managed to save and remember where they were… they were picked up on Saturday and I am hoping that the Advent fairy comes by tonight with the collection of filled boxes…
a friend recently asked how I was managing my new food regime… and wondering what I was missing most… as I thought about it I realized that I’m not really missing anything… I still have chocolate, just much less often, and in smaller amounts… I eat everything, but try to plan the not-so-good items a bit farther apart than previously and in smaller quantities… the biggest change I have made is to plan my meals out the day before… this helps me keep on track and I don’t get surprised with a meal arriving and I haven’t got any idea, so make poor choices… and finally I eat lots of vegetables at every meal… most days it works great… now and then, not so much…
I don’t want to take drugs for diabetes if I can possibly manage it, so that really encourages me to eat well and get on that treadmill or take a walk every day…
19 Sunday Jul 2015
three years ago today I had surgery to remove a cancerous uterus and repair a large hernia…
and here I sit, feeling great after a busy day where I walked to and from the grocery store, went plant shopping with my daughter, made supper for my kids, cleaned up after they left and am spending time enjoying the garden, not even tired…
just the other day someone commented on how quickly I had walked from one location to another…
so much has changed in just over three years… the devastating loss of my husband… cancer, surgery and slow recovery… diabetes diagnosis with lifestyle changes and forty pound weight loss…
I am one of the lucky ones… free of cancer and healthy…
and life goes on…
28 Thursday May 2015
Posted in health, life, nature, Uncategorized
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six months ago today I was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes…
hard to realize it’s been that long… and on the other hand feels like just a few days…
big changes to my life since then… no more sugar or chocolate, stricter diet with more veggies and less meat, more exercise, needle pokes, weight loss, and lots of research…
feeling better on the whole… been thinking of some of the health issues I’ve dealt with over the last number of years… pancreatitis and gall bladder surgery, cancer diagnosis followed by hysterectomy and hernia repair…
had to learn to deal with some of these things on my own… miss George so much during these difficult times…
he was always there to help get me through illnesses and looked after me all the time…
on my own, I’ve had to figure out when I need to call someone, who the first call will be to, and what I have to do when I am feeling sick… sometimes I want to put off getting help when I’m not feeling well…
I am so blessed to have my daughters and their partners… we talk on a regular basis and I see the kids here at least once a week… most jobs that need to be taken care of are looked after by them…
seems like those big girl pants are fitting better every day… whether I want them to, or not…
dandelions on the walk home… thankfully not in my yard…
lovely lilacs… really wanted to bring some home, but I restrained myself, lol…
14 Thursday May 2015
Tags
food has become an important part of my existence as I work to keep my diabetes under control…
makes me think of my dad, who ate to live… food was just something he had to get into his body to give him energy… he had emphysema and eating used up a lot of his energy… if there was too much food on his plate he couldn’t eat anything…
because of that I think I have always been empathetic of those who have trouble keeping their weight up…
for most of us the problem is trying to keep the weight off… and it is hard to understand the difficulty in struggling to maintain it… sadly I know many who deal with this…
tonight I had a burger… a veggie burger…
it was quite delicious… who knew that I would be eating, and enjoying, vegetarian food…
have been trying to eat meatless at least once a week… so far my favourite has been a “chick’n burger”…
looking forward to trying some of these on the barbecue…
interning the turns our lives take…
