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.