Too Much in Common

Here is a photo of Mr. Man.

And here is a photo of our male cat.

What do they have in common?  Unfortunately, elevated blood glucose levels.

You see, my sweet husband went for a physical recently and found out that his blood glucose numbers were a bit high.  Not too bad, but we don’t want it to get any worse!

Thank heavens we already had a glucometer and test strips for the cat, so we knew what to do!

Besides upping his lunchtime walking at work, we have been learning about how to eat a diabetic diet, which (very oversimplified) so far seems to be a low-carb diet.

Now, if you know us at all, you know that Mr. Man loves sugar and I love starches.  Oy!   

Seriously, his favorite treats are Smarties and Runts, and I just know I could live on potatoes.  (!)  Yikes, how is this gonna work?

So, off to the grocery store we went, looking at sugar-free this and that, and reading all the nutrition labels and checking the carbohydrate totals.  We stocked up on stuff like string cheese and nuts and peanut butter -- things that he can keep at work for a mid-afternoon snack, for example.

And of course we jumped on the Internet, my personal problem-solver for everything!

And we ended up ordering 2 books from Amazon.  One was a comfort food cookbook for diabetics, "The Low-Carb Comfort Food Cookbook" by Mary Dan Eades M.D. (of Protein Power fame), and the other was reviewed to be THE book to get if you just found out you have Type 2 diabetes:  "The First Year: Type 2 Diabetes: An Essential Guide for the Newly Diagnosed" by Gretchen Becker.

I’ll letcha know if we like ‘em…  J

The other wonderful Internet find was Dreamfields pasta.  I also ordered it from Amazon.com.  It has a low glycemic index (13) and is only 5 net carbs per serving.  Supposedly it tastes like real pasta, not whole wheat, so we’ll see.  It has lots of 5 star reviews, so I was encouraged.

Isn’t it nice to have options?

As for eating out, this weekend we went to our favorite BBQ restaurant and had delicious brisket, chicken and green beans.  Yummy!  (I had never had their chopped brisket before, and it’s the best flesh I think I’ve ever had!)

So, I hope none of you ever need to know what works well or what we prefer, but statistically, you probably know someone who has blood sugar issues.

And you *know* how much I LOVE sharing information and getting the word out!

So, there you go.  I’ll report more later… 

This isn’t exactly what Mr. Man ever wanted, of course, but compared to a really *bad* disease, it’s very manageable.  It’s all relative, right?

Over-50 ain’t for sissies…!

XOXO,

Lucky Dog 
♥

p.s.  The blizzard is on its way…!