A Few Days Off

Got up late, tested late, rode the bike late and had breakfast for lunch. Hey, I don't care, I am off of work for a long anniversary weekend with my incredible sweeeeeeeeetie. Happily, she is also my wife.

The numbers:

1. Blood Glucose: 153 mg/dl. Better then yesterday
2. Weight: 214 lbs.
3. Exercise: 40+ minutes on the trainer
4. Mood: Darned good.
   

Weird thing is that I on my last cold call of the day, I actually got a decent lead from a construction company looking to by a plotter. The good thing is that the guy who makes the decisions will not be back in the office until next week. I sent the lady I have to deal with on this some PDF brochures and proposal on a used system we have. Xerox has some promotions that run out at the end of this month and I don't know if they are going to renew them. I am also up against a company that will a cheap machine very cheap. On the plus side, one of the prospects vendors really likes us, so I am going to use that to the hilt.

On to food. Breakfast and lunch have been rolled into one because I was lazy and slept in. That would be two pieces of week old pizza, natures most perfect food. I just don't get tired of the stuff. Also I had a banana before I peddled. I will have an orange later on today and for dinner we are having stuff and stuff. Stuff and stuff is our phrase for eating the leftovers.

Tomorrow we are heading to San Antonio for a weekend anniversary get away. San Antone is one of our favorite places visit. Other than to get there we have no real plans, but we always say the time went too quickly.

I don't know where we are going to eat, but finding some places that can serve food good for us will be a challenge. Tomorrow is Friday, no meat, and I think I am going to forgo my usual Friday margaritas. We have even made some plans to bring some food with us.

I should note here that my lovely wife is also eating to lose weight and she is down about six pounds. Together, we can't fail!

Weather note: It's still cold by Houston standards. Even peddling in the garage with the bike mounted on the trainer, is was cold, like see my breath cold. We are course to go have a near record cold February for Houston. Never mind I grew up in Michigan, I have become a cold weather wimp. I can't wait for the weather to get hot and humid, 'cause I am going to look great!

Back on the diet. The birthday celebrations are over and I will not be eating any cake for a long, long time.

The numbers:

1. Blood glucose: 203 mg/dl. Yikes! Mega not good!
2. Weight 215 lbs. I am supposed to go up, not down.
3. Exercise: 45 minutes on the bike. One bright glimmer.
4. Mood: Grimly determined.

Back on the right regime again today.

• Breakfast was oatmeal with a few crasins. Had a banana before I peddled.
• Lunch will be some vegetarian chili.
• Dinner will be whole wheat pasta with zucchini stew stuff on top.

I did enjoy my self at Tony's yesterday. I had two Manhattans and the rib eye dinner. That was served with grilled squash and onions, guacamole and pico de gallo. I waked out full and satisfied, tested this morning with regret. Not going to do that again. Promise. Honest.

Birthday Today

Today I turn 57. Boy, that was fast. This week in my birthday/anniversary celebration week. If I am going to get older, may as well make something special out of it. Usually this involves fattening foods and adult beverages. Maybe I should re-think the celebratory accouterments. Tonight, I am going to have my usual Manhattan and rib eye steak at Tony's. It is tradition.

The numbers:

1. Blood Glucose: 160 mg/dl
2. Weight: 213
3. Exercise: 40 minutes plus on the trainer.
   
4. Mood: Happy. I am alive and kicking and I am married to a wonder woman. What more can I ask for? And I am going to have a good steak dinner.
   

Yesterday at work we had our birthday luncheon for the two of us with February birthdays . We had pizza, nature's most perfect food, a fruit tray, a vegetable tray and just for me, an Italian Cream Cake, may favorite. I had what appears to be too much pizza, too big a slice of cake and not enough of the vegetable tray, although I did have some veggies (with some tasty humus dip) and fruit slices. I will be better at lunch today and better tomorrow.

Today's menu is:

1. Breakfast: Oatmeal with soy milk and crasins and a banana (forgot to eat it before I exercised)
2. Lunch: Veg. Chili and an apple
3. Dinner: This is were I will be bad, a rib eye steak at Tony's.
   

The rib eye is tradition that goes back eleven years, the week we were making the final preperations for our wedding. My birthday was on Tuesday that year, just like today and we were going to be married on Saturday, the day our anniversary is on this year, February 27. Mary insisted that she take me to dinner for my birthday. I said she didn't have to do that, we had too much stuff to get done yet. She kept on insisting and told me to pick a place. I gave in and picked Tony's Mexican Restaurant and Cantina. It was close by. Since it was my birthday I had the rib eye. It was good then, it's good now and it's a nice little tradition I have kept up.

So tomorrow, officially a year older I will get on my bike again with a new determination to be better.

Monday and time is short today

So for now, the numbers

1. Blood Glucose: 141 mg/dl
2. Weight: 213 lbs
3. Exercise: 40 minutes on the trainer
4. Mood: Good, could be better

Sunday, A Great Day To Be Alive...

...for no other reason than I feel great. Okay, a little over the top, but feel great this morning. Treating myself to some fine music from Frank Sinatra and Mel Torme helps.

The numbers:

1. Blood Glucose: 131 mg/dl
2. Weight: 212
3. Exercise: Didn't do any, taking Sunday off. Monday, I will be back at it.
4. Mood: Very good.
   

Yesterday I also had my once aggressive trail bike modified to a more comfort bike style, or as Mary calls it, my old fart bike. I am happy to admit that. It's very comfortable to ride. Instead of leaning way over, I sit almost upright. It come out higher than I expected, but that is good. It came out better than I expected, so I am happy. I did go for a brief ride before working on the lawn. It's that time of year to start prepping lawn for the summer.

I use the Jerry Baker approach. A good lawn is more the result of good soil, so the first thing I do is work on the soil. I spread a mixture of pelletized lime, pelletized gypsum, bone meal and epsom salts. The lime balances the soil ph, the gypsum helps loosen hard clay soils (and we have hard clay soils here in Houston, black gumbo we call it), the bone meal is a mild fertilizer and the epsom salts provide the manganese that helps green up plants. It's also a great way to get sweaty, first mowing the lawn to get up the remaining leaves and then going over the lawn with soil enhancer concoction in a spreader.

That was steep one. Step two is a spray to help feed the microorganisms that really feed the grass. That is a combination of cola, ammonia, tea and baby shampoo. The cola provides a sugar the bacteria like to eat, the ammonia is good for the plants, the tea contains a substance the roots like to help them accept the nutrients the bacteria provide and baby shampoo is a harmless surfactant. I should have done this yesterday, but I ran out of time. No big deal really.

On to me. Yesterday we cooked late in the evening. Mary did a suburb job on some chicken breasts and a delicious zucchini/tomato stew that we can have later on in the week over rice or pasta. I thought the late dinner, after 9:00 pm was going to give me a high reading this morning, but surprise surprise, it was the lowest reading to date. I would like to dip below 200 before I go back to see the doctor for a follow up in about three weeks, but I don't think I am going to make. I may get close and that will be good enough. I would also like to have reading consistently below 130, but I have to idea if that is doable or not. Like the weight, I know I can get close to it.

Susan Johnson says I should have a blood glucose level of between 70 - 110 after the nightly fast before breakfast. A chart at Kroger's where I go for my pharmacy stuff says my fasting glucose level should be between 90 - 130. By that measurement I am almost at the high end of safe. By Ms. Johnson's standards, I am still high. No doubt, I am doing well and I am happy at my progress. Just gotta keep it up to make it better.

Saturday, Start of My Birthday Week Celebration

First, the data:

1. Blood glucose: 152 mg/dl
2. Weight: 213 lbs
3. Exercise: 40+ minutes on the bike. (That's eight Rush toons, more or less. Each one lasts about 5 minutes.
   
4. Mood: Very Good
   

We went out last night to usual Friday night Tony's Tex-Mex dinner. I did have two margaritas. I know I shouldn't have, but they are so good. For dinner I had the grilled catfish with vegetables and rice. I also had a few of the hot, delicious, salty chips. I guess I am paying for it in my reading this morning. All of that fat covering my cells. It is over all better, so that is good.

On Tuesday February 23, I will be 57 years old. I don't hide from it. I try to celebrate it. To kick off my week of festivities I will be have breakfast at a favorite breakfast place, the 59 Diner. What I will have I am not sure. Usually I have the buttermilk pancakes, but that is out for now. Maybe just a scrambled egg. I could have oatmeal, but that just doesn't seem very celebratory.

Anyway, after breakfast I am heading to the Memorial Barbershop where Jeanne will give a fine shave, haircut and a massage. All of this for $45.00 including tip. Man, I feel like a million bucks coming out of there.

Lunch will be left over pizza, one slice and dinner will be chicken, grilled on the cast iron grill we have and a zucchini tomato stew Mary like to make. I plan on having one martini.

Friday, Tony's Night

First, the vitals:

1. 144 on the meter. Reading done at 5:11 am. Better than yesterday
2. 212 lbs. on the scale. Woohoo.
   
3. 40 minutes on the bike.
   
4. Mood: Happy.
   

I would never have guessed I would ever cheer weighing 212 lbs. Just a matter of perspective, really.

I guess I managed to survive the half a meat loaf sandwich I had for lunch yesterday. It came from the Petrol Station, a neighborhood bar Mary and I find all sorts of excuses to go to. Good crusty roll, thick slab of meat loaf and cheese melted on the top. They may make the best meatloaf in town (the secret we were told is adding fresh rosemary) and I don't think they have any competition when it comes to burgers. The beer selection is eclectic to say the least. They get kegs of micro brewery beer from all over the country. Always something new to try and it's always good. Last time I had a pecan porter. Delicious.

Dinner was homemade pizza, topped with turkey sausage, onions and red peppers. One slice. It is a decent sized slice, admittedly, one eight of a round pie formed in a 16" pan. I usually have two and sometimes three and occasionally four. I prefer to stop at two, did prefer to stop at two, because my all time favorite breakfast is cold pizza, coffee and orange juice. The orange juice is out for now, and I should stick with the oatmeal for now as well.

This weekend I have to work on decent snacks. No more Butterfingers, so I have to start coming up with safe alternatives.

Today's menu will be appropriate for a Catholic boy on Friday in Lent

1. Breakfast: oatmeal, crasins and a banana before I rode
2. Lunch: Vegetarian chili
3. Dinner: Haven't decided.
   

This is Friday, our Tony's night. Our night to go out to dinner and just unwind, talk about the week, plan the weekend. It the "us night." Nothing to do but relax and enjoy.

Tony's Mexican Restaurant and Cantina is a local Tex-Mex place, one of the best in Houston. The margaritas are steller and chock full of tequila. Probably the worst drink I can have is a margarita. Probably I will choose from the vegetarian fajitas (whatever that is), the spinach enchiladas with tormatillo sauce , the fish tacos or the grilled fish and vegetables. Easy on the salty hot fresh from the fryer chips with a hot, flavorful salsa. Man, I love that part, bad as it is for me. How many times have we gone to Tex-Mex place and filled up on just chips and salsa, never mind dinner. Thus my current dilemma.

Pizza Night

Up this morning at 5:00 am and tested at 5:11am. Results:
Meter reading: 169
Weight: 213
Mood: Frustrated

Up on glucose, down on the weight. Sigh.

Only used one test strip this morning, so that is encouraging .

I was more careful on my proportions yesterday. Breakfast and lunch were the same as before. Dinner was salmon, a piece the length of my hand with a barley vegetable pilaf and rice. I Instead of broiling or sauteing salmon, a poached it with balsamic vinegar and honey. Maybe it was the honey, although I didn't use that much of it. The pilaf was excellent, a McDougall recipe made with with no fats. Under a McDougall plan, this is a main dish. I served it as a side. I had a cup's worth and filled up the plate with green beans. Mary loves green beans, so dinner went over well yesterday.

Did do a full fat burning 45 minutes on the bike this morning. Felt fine, if a little wobbly in the legs at the end. I also cranked the resistance up a bit.

Tonight is clean/pizza night. I will have a slice of pizza topped with turkey pepperoni, green peppers and onions. Typically, I also have a glass of wine. We usually clean the house on Thursday night during the winter months so we don't have to do it on the weekends. More good goof off time that way. The treat for our efforts is pizza, nature's most perfect food. We usually make our own. I make the dough. We like better than most pizzeria stuff, at least the pies from Domino's and Pizza Hut and it is serious competition from places like Star Pizza and Collina's, two of our favorite pizza places in Houston. We only get some take out when I don't make the dough.

Mini pizza review: We had some Domino's a few weeks ago. It's better than Pizza Hut's now, not as salty. If I had to make a choice and I am not too lazy to get it myself, we go to either Star or Collina's Joe's spinach/garlic pizza from Star is the best in town, I think. I could eat that everyday and not get tired of it. Same for pizza rustica at Collina's. It has Italian sausage, roasted red peppers and roasted eggplant.

Man I am getting hungry and I just finished my oatmeal. Lunch will be either half a leftover meatloaf sandwich brought home from The Petrol Station, a fave hangout of ours, or the left over barley/vegetable pilaf.

My First Test at Home and Other Stuff

Yesterday I had an appointment with a nutritionist, Susan Johnson. I learned two important things.

1. I have too much fat everywhere and it is blocking my body's ability to absorb or properly handle the glucose. This is where the getting skinny comes in.
   
2. My good cholesterol to bad cholesterol ratio sucks. "Sucks" was the word she used. Must be a technical medical term. My overall cholesterol was 195, which isn't half bad. Also, my triglycerides (spell that first thing in the morning) were way out of whack.
   

This morning was my first morning to meter, as they say on the commercials. I am supposed to do it every morning. It took five meter strips, but I finally got it to work. The fault was all mine; I wasn't reading the instructions correctly. I kept putting a drop on blood on a little half circle on the top of the strip, which is what I thought Ms. Johnson did. I should have put it on the side of the strip where the spongy stuff sucks up the sample and feeds it into the meter for analysis.

The good news, never mind the five used up strips, is that it read 132. When I first learned of this problem I had a reading of 275. This was after an all night fast. At my doctor's office, they did a test and got a reading of 263. This was after a breakfast of oatmeal and crasins with my usual banana. Yesterday I had a test result of 196. That was after a lunch of vegetarian red beans and rice. This morning's test was 132 before breakfast. That is encouraging.

That's the good news. I got on the scale this morning and still weighed 214. That is better than 215, but I seem to be stuck there.

Susan said I have to exercise five to six times a week. My aerobic exercise of choice is cycling. I spent too much time figuring out how to do the test stuff correctly and I have to be at a customer's office first thing this morning, so I will do it this evening after church. Spent too much time trying to get a reading and registering the meter over the phone.

Today is Ash Wednesday, a no meat day. So, the daily menu looks like this:

1. Breakfast: oatmeal with crasins and a banana. I am supposed to have only a half of a banana.
2. Lunch: More red beans and rice.
   
3. Dinner: Salmon

One thing I have to do is work on the vegetable portions. I have to eat more of those, half a plate worth. The starch portion will be barley. I love barley, but I never eat it.

Hello. My name is Dave and I am pudgy.

Hello world. For anyone interested, this my diary to you about my effort to get skinny again, to lose weight, to get healthy, to not look pudgy. About three weeks ago I found out I was a diabetic. For the record, I joined that growing bunch of Americans who are a statistic from our collective bad eating habits. For the record, I had a lot of fun getting there. For the record, that all has to change. This my part of my effort to get a program and get with the program to get skinny again, back down to slim 32 inch waist.

The sad truth of my life is that I like to eat and I like drink. I like to be around people who like to eat and drink. I like to cook. I like to find new recipes. I like to find new restaurants. Heck, I like McDonald's. I love martinis, gin, straight up and with two olives. One for me and one for my wife. I am not particularly fond of exercise. That brings me to my sad state of affairs.

This my notice to the world that I am changing. This is my notice to the world I am going to be better. I am 56, soon to be 57, and I figure I have a lot more years to go. I want to spend them, as many as I can, in good health. I am 5' 8" tall. I weighed 214 lbs this morning. My goal is to get back down to 150 lbs. That is what I weighed when I felt my best, so 150 lbs is my goal. That is down a pound from yesterday.

Wish me luck. It's mine to succeed or fail. If I fail, I want you to call me out. If I succeed, I want your cheers. So get ready to cheer, World.