Weigh In Day

The start of week 16:

weight 207

Measurements: 39 3/4
Waist 39 (If I measure too tight, I can get it down to 38 - been a very long time since I could do that!)
Abdomen: 47
Hips: 44 1/2

Been amazing how fast I have lost weight off my hips: started out at 52 " - 7 1/2 inches less there!

And 8.5 inches off my waist, too. That one's the most important one for my health. I read on the American Diabetes site that if your waist is below 39 inches, you have much less risk for insulin resistance.

The other day, my hubby told me I don't look so oversized any more...I look like a normal heavy woman...It doesn't sound like a complement to outsiders, but to me, it feels good.

Dog Daze....

It has been such a nice morning...cool, light, and enough to make me want to go out and play instead of doing the stuff I need to do today. Ah well.

I compensated by filling up my bird feeders and watching my three dogs play.

This is Amber, the oldest of the three...she's about eleven. Nowadays, what she likes best to do is sit outside, and watch the fenceline for some wood rats that hang out in the neighbor's wood pile and eat what the birds drop from the bird feeder. In her youth, Amber was a pretty good hunter. She much prefers to hunt on her own, instead of retreive like she was trained to.


These are Hunter and Velvet. Hunter, the golden, used to be my oldest son's dog, but like a lot of kids do, he's grown up and moved on, and now Hunter has decided that she's my dog. She's also a first class escape artist, and will find or create holes under the fence, and we have to watch her like a hawk. She's about seven, and is the baby of our doggie family

The little black dog is my baby, Velvet. Some sort of mixed breed terrier, she's my constant shadow, although now that she's about ten, she's more willing to let Hunter shadow me while she relaxes on her special pillow. The smallest of the bunch, she has convinced the other two dogs that she's the head honcho. Don't ask me why they let her get away with it, but they do. Maybe because she's mommy's little angel.


Such a nice day, and I have to do laundry. Ah well. Maybe I'll go out and sit on the porch in between loads while it's still cool. Supposed to get up to 96 today. I won't be sitting out then!

Hard Truths (a nutrition-diabetes-dieting rant)

One of the things that was driven home to me during my trip was this:

Everybody in my bloodline, except for my grandmother and uncle, are overweight.

On my mom's side of the family there is a strong tendency towards heart disease and diabetes.

My brother and I, my mother before me are really subject to carbohydrate cravings, which is a factor in insulin resistance and diabetes. My brother, whom I love dearly, loves food that is rich in carbohydrate and fat, and he's on two medications for his cholesterol and is absolutely in the prediabetic phase. They know he's starting to plaque up in his arteries. His grandfather died of diabetic complications after two major strokes.

One of the saddest things I read that my mother wrote was how she started every day with the good intentions to stay on her diet, but she had this problem with bread. This was part of the syndrome that killed her.

There is hard truth here: with our tendencies, we cannot eat like people who don't have them. When you are pre-diabetic or diabetic, you cannot eat like other people. It's a handicap, like other disabilities, and if you still go on eating that way, it will make you fat and kill you.

There is no compromise. You either eat differently, or you get fat and get diabetes, heart disease, kidney trouble, chf and all the other problems that come from having metabolic syndrome.

It's impossible to have it both ways.

The ONLY way I cope is by restricting my carbs to small amounts. It's like binge drinking: if a binge drinker drinks too much too fast, they will drink until they pass out, because the alcohol takes over. A person with metabolic syndrome has to admit that carb rich foods are dangerous to them, and has to restrict them to levels (and perhaps kinds) that work with their body. No other choice except to be sick and fat.

Looking at foods on the glycemic index might help. But for me, it's strictly a matter of quantity. If I eat a sandwich at lunch, and eat some light chips, I will want to eat all afternoon. If I want to eat carbs in more than the amount of one slice of bread (say, 100 calories) I have to eat it at night.

What do I do if I get the afternoon hungries? I eat something protein rich, like non-fat, unsweetened yogurt (which I like the taste of) which seems to short-circuit the munchies. When I do eat carby foods during the day, I eat them in small amounts, like no more than 100-110 calories worth (I am particularly fond of Genisoy's Soy Chips for this). I avoid potatoes during the day, and only eat them with dinner.

At dinner time, I normally eat a carb portion of about 200 calories. I don't graze after dinner, and it's the largest meal of my day. This works for me.

I expect to eat something like this the rest of my life. The total calorie portions will change perhaps, but the concept, low amounts of carb at any one time, lots of fiber rich veggies and fruit, and avoiding things that rely on too much high fructose corn syrup will be the way I must eat.

I must eat this way, because I have a disability. I process carbohydrates in ways that are bad for my health. I don't want to live like that. I decided to stop fooling myself.

This is something that those of us with metabolic syndrome have to do, or suffer the consequences. There's really no middle ground.

I'm back!

Back from a lovely weekend with my family, wishing my niece and her new husband the best of wishes as they start their new life together.

As usual, Houston was hot and steamy. North Houston is awash in fast growth and pine trees...I had driven down that road many times back when I lived there, but didn't recognize anything!

My dad and stepmom and their dog, my old friend Bear, were the first to arrive from out of town. Dad's sort of a desert rat nowadays, living in a tiny community in West Texas, and sort of resembles Papa Smurf with his white beard. Bear is about 15 years old, and spends lots of his time sleeping, but he seemed to remember me quite well. I don't suspect I'll get to see him again, and it will be a sad day for my dad when he goes.

Bit by bit we all arrived. My grandma and uncle were next, along with my sister-in-law's daughter (my niece's stepsister) and my brother's ex-wife and family. Amazingly, enough time had gone under the bridge that there was no real tension between my sil and ex-sil, which has not always been the case! It was nice to see her again.

I took lots of pictures, but haven't gotten them scanned in yet. Here are a couple I copied with my digital camera (bad resolution, but still nice:)



From the right: me, a friend of my niece, my niece and one of her bridesmaids. My niece's colors were black and white...and another of her stepsisters had to put the screws to her not to use fake silk black roses for her bouquet!



After the wedding, the family went to a real Texas icehouse (a bar and grill type place) where they used beer cartons to hold things like salt and pepper, and used rolls of paper towels instead of napkins, and had some really interesting decorations.

Starting from the left, my step-niece, my brother, my father (the blue robed figure in the background with outstretched arms,) me and my stepmom. My grandmother and uncle were there too, but you can't see them.

I was teased a bit about my not eating like the rest of them (here, I had about 6 oz of steak, a salad with vinegar and half an undressed baked potato), but I still enjoyed myself and had no heartburn.

The ride home was bumpy...lots of thunderstorms. But it was good to see everybody once again...living 2000 miles away from everyone else means I don't get to do family get-togethers very often, but I hope I can do it more often than once every six years!

And btw, I was a good girl...when I got home, found I had lost two pounds during the trip!