Really, I’m so surprised by this- my last A1C 2 weeks ago was 4.9! That’s awesome! The “normal” range for a non-diabetic is between 4-6. Am I still a diabetic? I say so. I am still going to watch my carb intake, exercise and take my metformin though at my next appointment in 3 months we’ll talk about that.
I rewarded myself with a couple new tops, seriously, I’m a clothes whore now. I also tried on a dress. I went to Lane Bryant hoping to try on nothing but dresses and only buy underwear. Well they only really had 1 dress and I don’t think it was really my colors, plus it was a 26 which was too big but they didn’t have a 24. It felt really nice though to try on a dress that didn’t have elastic in it, just a zipper, and have it be too big. I have a wedding to attend in Aug. so I am hoping to go dress shopping in July. I found a really cute skirt but I already have some skirts I don’t wear because I have to wear my oh so attractive new balance tennishoes all the time and they don’t really look so good with skirts. wamp.
Things are going well for the podcast, I’ve had lots of nice feedback! I am still nervous as hell doing it. I post them over on the shop blog now.
I am deep into dyeing yarn for another sock club and stressing over the kids birthdays. Eli’s will be easy, he invited his best buddy to go to the children’s museum and chuck e cheese. Anna is having an honest to god party, the first real party (that wasn’t family only) we’ve ever done. She’ll be having a pool party at a local econ lodge, I hope the place isn’t skeevy! ha!
Blogging is hard for me these days, with facebook and such I find I post my little random tidbits there and forget about the blog. The blog is how I keep shit organized though for like babybooks and such so I’ll need to go through and cut and paste funny kid comments soon so I have them here for easy printing when it come time to update their baby books… which I haven’t done in well over a year… whoops.
Retrain your taste buds. It is a well-known fact that when people give up salt, even lightly salted foods begin to taste terribly over-salty. The same is true for people who give up sugar — things start tasting cloyingly sweet. (This makes a good case for giving up diet soda and other artificially sweetened foods and drinks. Without them, your taste buds will adjust to not needing as much sweetness.) Now, extend this concept to foods made with white flour, and you may find yourself losing your taste — or at least your cravings — for white breads, bagels, rolls, pasta, and the like.
I have found that since my diagnoses in May ’10 that I have lost my taste for pasta. Before the diagnoses our dinners consisted of a meat and potatoes, pasta or rice and maybe a veggie (maybe as in veggie definitely for the kid, probably not for us). When I was diagnosed I decided that once a week we’d have potatoes for a side dish and the next week we’d have pasta as a side dish once. That way we weren’t going crazy with those carbs but we weren’t denying them either, denying things just makes me want them MORE.
After a few months it just became habit to focus on veggies as the dinner side dish that I rarely made potatoes or pasta. One night the kids were at Grandmas so we went out to dinner, I treated myself to a shrimp pasta dish I usually love and found I couldn’t eat more than a quarter of it. I tried pasta a few other times, like when I’d make mac n cheese (the blue box kind, I grew up with it, it’s the best!), to discover I just didn’t enjoy it anymore. Now I can have one or two bites of a pasta dish and be done with it.
I am very happy to have one carb monkey off my back… but oh, potatoes… I’d still eat the holy hell out of a pile of mashed potatoes or a bag of potato chips or some fresh hot fries or a baked potato smotherd in sour cream and pepper… oh potatoes, you vile carb temptress!
The world, she has gone podcast crazy. You know it’s true when I get an e-mail suggesting I join in with a podcast about knitting and diabetes. While flattered it ain’t gonna happen. Here’s my little flickr video, proof of why it wont be happening.
Obviously you should stick to the good stuff, like the knitgirllls
I had another appointment with the podiatrist about how my new brace worked great for the first week+ but things are starting to hurt again. He suggested I get new shoes and after a couple weeks we’ll see if that helps.
Since I’ve become vain I decided to head to Lane Bryant before the appt and try on pants. Well I did need new pants. I ended up buying 3 pairs of jeans and that bustier! Woo! Score, the bustier was on sale, 20 bucks down from the original 54.
In HS I wore jeans. When I was 19 and moved in with Ben I wore jeans. I got a job at a fast food restaurant called Rax a few days after moving here to Ohio (Rax was a roast beef place, think a MUCH better Arby’s). I had to wear black pants there. I worked there for almost 2 years and over time the only pants I wore were black. I didn’t make a lot of money so my work pants were my every day pants. Eventually my jeans no longer fit, I lived in a college town and worked at a fast food restaurant, needless to say I gained weight.
Anyway, when I tried on a pair of size 24 jeans it made me all happy inside. No elastic waist! Here I am trying on my first pair, these were “Average” and I needed “petite” so they had to order them for me. I always joked with Ben that I had stubby legs, petite proves it, lol.
My only regret is not buying that top… but 3 pairs of jeans and bustier adds up. I gotta stop buying clothes! I do need new bras though, mine are getting baggy, but I am holding out till March.
I got my new custom brace the other day. I’ve been wearing the generic one since June. If this thing doesn’t help then we have to discuss surgery. It’s fancy, it has hinges! and it’s leather! I need a whip…
My podiatrist admired my socks and was most impressed I’d knit them, hehe.
To kill time before my appointment I treated myself to a sushi lunch and went to Lane Bryant’s just to try on clothes and get a new pair of pants. Well, I came home with a new coat, 2 new shirts and a pair of pants. I wanted to see if anything fit better than it has in years, having lost 70 pounds I figured it should. I am now in a size 24 pant and have learned that apparently I have stubby little legs as I was told by one of the sales girls to get a petite. I am so used to buying average and having a bit of pant hang down over the shoes that while the pants fit great they still feel odd to me. I am also down a shirt size. Honestly, I haven’t had that much fun trying on clothes in a while, I wish I’d had more time but I had to rush if I wanted that sushi before my app. I only wish I had someone to shop with, luckily I have a great group of friends I can send pictures to and they can tell me to shut up and buy something if I doubt how it looks on me.
I do so love bold colors and big prints-
This is my first cowl necked blouse and I love love love it-
My new coat, which is the first coat I’ve owned that actually zips up in many many years plus it’s purple (and grey)!
no idea why, but I like that picture even though I look like a ghost in a coat.
For shits and giggles I also tried on a bustier which was super cute, but I don’t have the boobs for it.
I took a few fun pictures on the phone for Ben so he was disappointed to find out I didn’t buy it! hahaha I have another drs app at the end of the month, maybe I’ll swing by LB and see if they still have it.
I was busy this year! The only things not pictured are an afghan square and 2 barn raising quilt squares (the picture of the yarn heart is some of the yarn I used to knit a barn square).
I was hoping to have my Cravin’ a Crazy Christmas socks done by the new year but it’s not looking like I’ll make it.
Yeeaaaah… So Christmas eating was pretty darn bad. My MIL made lasagna instead of ham and more traditional foods. She had lasagna, garlic bread and a big ass salad. I was good and tried to have my plate be mostly salad…. but… Apples! The woman put apples in the salad. I don’t get how anyone can think ranch dressing and apples is a good combo, sorry. But I ate the salad, I tried to eat around as much of the apple as I could. The lasagna was decent and my piece wasn’t huge. There was pie… raspberry pie. So good. I have a weakness for raspberries (and blackberries) so I had a largish piece and took a piece home to eat later that night! She also had sweet potato pie which usually isn’t much of a taste turn on for me but pile on the whip cream and yes please I’d love a slice! She also sent us home with a whole pie. Gah. Luckily no whip cream went home with us so I had a small piece today and I’m done with it, I just don’t like it enough to eat it without whip cream.
Don’t get me started on the stocking stuffers. Or “Santa’s” Cookies. Now, admittedly my holiday eating was a megaton better than it used to be. But in all honesty it wasn’t good and I didn’t give much though to the carbs/sugar I should be avoiding and or limiting.
I have not worked out in a while. I went to Curves almost 2 weeks ago and nearly passed out, I couldn’t catch my breath. I have a wicked bad cough and I’ve been told it’s probably an upper respiratory infection but I haven’t gone to the doctor about it and probably wont.
Speaking of doctors, on the 23rd I got to have my yearly girl exam! Weeeeee. My doctor gave me the disappointed mom look when she read my updated info that I was on metformin for type 2 diabetes. I exclaimed, “I know! But I am doing well (remember this was BEFORE the bad Christmas eating, heh). My last A1C was 5.1 and I’ve lost 70 pounds!” She just gave me the look, shrugged her shoulders and went into the boob exam. The nurse who took all my info/BP/weight before the doctor came in praised me though, she said I must be working my butt off. I thought she’d at least be happy with the weightloss since last December she wanted to put me on medifast. She was supposed to call me in Jan about it but I”m guessing she went through my insurance first and discovered they do not pay for anything that is specifically for weightloss, at the time that was fine by me. So, I thought seeing that I’d lost over 70 pounds in a year would at least get a little praise out of her. Ah well. She’s a funny duck.
I took a little holiday from, well, the kids! I met up with some fabulous knitting friends in Arkansas for the Arkansas Fiber Arts Extravaganza (that name is entirely too long). As usual I was too busy knitting (and fucking up both of the projects I brought, my brain was also on holiday) and talking and laughing to take many pictures. There is a good one of us all on a friends facebook but I didn’t want to gank her picture willy nilly.
Here I am with one of my beautiful friends though, me and Jessica in front of the Christmas tree at The Lodge we stayed at.
I flew into Kansas City and carpooled with Jessica and our friend Sara, one of the best road trips ever.
We returned Sunday but my flight didn’t leave till Monday so Jessica kindly let me stay at her home and raid her sock yarn scraps. I scored some nice self-striping scraps to make fun scrappy stripey socks with, woo!
Speaking of self-striping socks. My main goal was to work on my Cravin’ a Crazy Christmas socks. I had the gusset increases almost complete before I left for my trip. I’ve done toe up before, I had my directions with me… yet… that fucking heel kept causing me problems! I finally got the heel done the last day of my trip adn realized it was the wrong heel type and therefor the sock was gonna be too small. See. These things are supposed to fit my size 10.5 feet not Jessica’s 8.5! Gah! Bad bad socks.
Despite the wicked socks I had a wonderful trip! I love seeing these ladies and wish we all lived closer.
PS- I lost 4 pounds on my trip, woo! Thanks Leslie & Jessica for working out with me Saturday morning.
I love all of my family and friends and I am thankful for many things. My husband has a good job, we have good health insurance, we are not in any major debt, our family is relatively healthy, our bills get paid, our children get fed, we get to treat ourselves to things like a vacation every year and my life is full of yarn. I am most thankful for my husband. It is no joke that he keeps me sane and carries my heart.
I have a wedding to attend in Aug. so I am hoping to go dress shopping in July. I found a really cute skirt but I already have some skirts I don’t wear because I have to wear my oh so attractive new balance tennishoes all the time and they don’t really look so good with skirts. wamp. 
