Going Vegan

The latest segment in our blood-sugar-issues saga…

The diabetic cat is doing very well.  He is down to only 1 unit of insulin per day.  He has come a long way from having to have 7 units twice a day at the beginning of all this.  (!)

He’s such a sweetie and takes his shots so well, and is very brave when we have to poke his little ears with the glucometer.  Bless his heart.  ♥ 

(We give him lots of his favorite fishy treats for being so good!)

As for Mr. Man… he had been following the typical low-carb diet and taking his apple cider vinegar faithfully.  But it turns out, the ACV was lowering the reading after a meal, but his morning fasting numbers weren’t ever as low as he’d like.

But then one day I saw a link on Facebook to the Forks Over Knives video trailer.  Here it is, in case you’re interested:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7ijukNzlUg

And that made me remember the book, The China Study.  So I got some books out of the library like The Engine 2 Diet, Neal Barnard’s book about reversing diabetes, etc., so I could read up on this whole thing out for free.

The proponents of a plant-based diet say that the animal’s fats and proteins “gum up the cell’s locks”, as it were, and the insulin can’t get in.  But if no animal products are ingested, the insulin is free to function normally.

(With Type 2 Diabetes, people make plenty of insulin but their body can’t utilize it.) 

So I got the books, started reading and thought, yikes, how extreme.  What was I thinking, checking these books out?
How could we ever do that??

“That” was giving up all animal products to eat:  meat, dairy, eggs, cheese…  Anything that came from animals:  milk, ice cream, cheese, chicken, yogurt, sour cream…

Did I mention cheese??   Hahaha!!

But as we read the books, and the more we learned -- the more we thought, this is it.  It just makes too much sense.

So!  What do we eat now??

Burgers, pizza, ice cream…

Of course, they’re veggie burgers, pizza with soy cheese, and non-dairy but oh-so-delicious ice cream.

Even simple brown rice and ranch-style beans works, too!  As does the humble peanut butter and raisin sammich on delicious Ezekiel bread.  :)

And it’s been a fairly easy transition.  Even eating out.

At Freddy’s we get veggie burgers…  Ditto at Flatire, but they also have sweet potato fries (!).  At our favorite Mexican restaurant we get vegetable fajitas, rice and beans, even a salad.  At the local café near us (InterUrban) we can get whole wheat pasta with veggies.

Even at the Republic Gastropub, there was an absolutely wonderful gnocchi veggie dish.

It’s been a real surprise to both of us that at most restaurants, there are more options than you’d think.

Qdoba/Chipotle is probably the easiest, but even our favorite BBQ place is good ‘cause all you do is get sides:  green beans, baked beans, fried okra, a green salad.

Yummy, I’m getting hungry just thinking about it!  :)

As for protein worries, beans and soynuts are loaded with protein.  And I can get soynuts at Braum’s, for cryin’ out loud.  (But I like the dry-roasted kind from HomeLand better.)
Talk about easy protein.  ¼ cup = 13 g.!

Honestly, if you knew me well, you would see how this suits me so. 

I’ve never been good at cooking “flesh”.  In all these years of marriage I’ve gotten away without ever making a Thanksgiving or Christmas turkey.  And I have always thought of ground meat as PlayDoh, just to be able to deal with it.  :)

And don’t even ask me to de-bone a chicken.  Yuk!!!

Oh, don’t get me wrong.  I *love* bacon.  I will definitely have it on my birthday, and probably before.  I doubt I can do ANY thing 100%.

Like, if I go somewhere and have ranch dressing or cheese on something--big whoop.  So, maybe I’m an “Almost Vegan”--that part just doesn’t matter that much to me.

Getting my husband’s A1C numbers down does.

And since we’ve been eating vegan, his morning fasting bloodwork numbers have been much lower -- often under 100!

So, it’s a new frontier, but very surprisingly, not as difficult as you’d think. 

It’s like that book:  Instead of This, Eat That.

You buy soy milk instead of regular.  Soy cheese and Purely Decadent Dairy-Free Peanut Butter Zigzag ice cream instead of regular cheese and ice cream.

Stuff like that.

And Oklahoma City is FINALLY getting a Whole Foods, so that will really help and actually make this all really fun.

So!  That’s the latest on treating borderline prediabetes from here.  Vegan.  Who knew??

XOXO,

Lucky Dog 
♥

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…!

Lover Boy

Well, our sweet male cat has developed diabetes.  :(

He’s old-ish, well, 12, and I was expecting a diagnosis of kidney problems or hyperthyroidism.  So the diabetes thing kinda threw me.

The only symptom so far was an extra-full cat pan and lots of water drinking.  And the vet said we caught it early, so that’s good.  (No ketones, yet.)

The bottom line is, we have to give him 2 shots of insulin every day, about 12 hours apart.

I just didn’t think I could “do” needles, but really, it isn’t as bad as I expected.  I don’t enjoy doing it, but I can do it.  At least it’s treatable, and relatively easily so.

And like I’ve said before, as problems go, this really isn’t one.   So, whew, that’s a blessing!

XOXO,

Lucky Dog
♥