I'm No Victim

My blood glucose levels depend on my body's reaction to the insulin my pancreas produces or does not produce, I can't control that.

I can control what I chose to eat. I can control what I put in the cart when I go to the grocery store and where I chose eat when I eat out. I can control when I chose to exercise, what kind of exercise to do and when I choose to sit on the sofa and watch TV instead.

I may be a "victim" of type 2 diabetes, but I am a diabetic who works at controlling the blood glucose levels of sugar in my blood. I pay attention. I educate myself, I follow up with medical checks.

Do I get tired of being careful?  You bet.  Do I wander from the path some times?  Yes.  But, more days than not, more meals than not, I work at healthy living with my diabetes. 

Eating healthy, walking, working out, taking medication are conscious choices -- all go into the mix of self-care.  My BG levels fluctuate.  I am asked to keep the level below 140 mg at the two hour mark (after a meal) and I work hard at it.  If I have a piece of pie or an extra fruit and my number goes up, I take responsibility for my choices and I go for a walk for 20 - 30 additional minutes.  That my friends is how it is done. ♥ 

If I forget this and start to complain about type 2 diabetes, remind me to read my own blog posts! 

First Friday in December

Since Thanksgiving, I have been self-sabotaging with poor food choices.  I am trying to lighten my days by "enjoying food" more.  I start the day out well but as morning turns to afternoon and the sun sets in the west things go haywire.  Each day in December finds darkness falling earlier.  Tonight I refused to forage in the kitchen for something to lift me my mood. I get it.  I miss the 5 o'clock visits from neighbors who stop by to visit baby blue while walking their dogs. I am missing daylight and my neighbors!

What can a person do to avoid sinking into a winter solstice depression that slows a person down until spring?  Here are a few things I am trying this December.  Yesterday at 4:30 I went to the gym to work out on the machines for a while.  I scheduled several sessions with a trainer for the hour when I am most tempted to eat the wrong things.  This morning I woke up with a blood glucose level of 159 (high for me). So I immediately put on some music and started to dance while I waited for my tea water to boil.  I have downloaded some 5 and 6 minute songs to my iPod.  Move to 2 songs in that set and I've gotten a good start to my cardio work for the day.  Dance to 3 songs and I'm half way to the recommended "dose" of PA (Physical Activity) for the day.

This morning I had a date with 5 girlfriends - we met up at the gym's pool for the Aqua-fit class. I felt wonderful this morning for having worked out.  We promised one another to meet up again at the gym on Monday morning too.

I came back to my office and spent the rest of the day feeling good knowing that I had succeeded in self care today - then the sun started to set.  I went hunting in the kitchen and found something that would serve me better had I given it away last night when company was leaving.  I enjoyed a brownie, no two brownies with a cup of coffee.  I wanted more.  I knew should not be going back into the kitchen for more and it took everything I had to stop the cycle that had started.  Brushing my teeth put a stop to the taste of chocolate that had triggered me to behave as if I did not have a condition extremely sensitive to carbohydrates.  It's interesting that an apple never leaves me feeling like I want to eat several more!

People take vacations from food plans. Parties and meals out give me all kinds of excuses to deviate from a healthy minded menu.  However, my diabetes never vacations. In fact, it will not appreciate being treated with ill regard during the season of short days and cold winter nights.

Creativity helps me get back on track.  So, I went to my office to cut card stock for Christmas Cards I have been making.  It was a good diversion that kept me out of the kitchen. After finishing with the card stock I turned to my blog.  It has been weeks since my last entry.   Dinner is ready.  I used the crock pot to make a soup from winter vegetables and a few bits of left over ham adding a can of beans for extra protein and fiber.  The soup is delicious.  I know because I taste tested it.  And it will not raise my BG level.

Ancestor Hunt - Granny Bishop's Apple Crisp

I hit the jackpot!

I found ancestors and a recipe while I was online searching for ancestors tonight.  I found a web page full of information and an e-book of ancestors which includes my own mother.  How cool is that?

I was searching online, picking through the hyper-links, when I came across is a recipe that I recognized from childhood.  It was one my mother used to make all the time.

The following apple crisp recipe can be adapted for lower sugar / carb count by substituting the brown sugar in the recipe with the artificially sweetened brown sugar substitute.

Anyway, I am pleased and excited about finding a branch of the family which brings me further back in the history of my mother's side of my family tree.  I am also looking forward to making Granny Bishop's Apple Crisp Recipe tomorrow!

Thanks to Granny Bishop and the Noggins Corner Farm Market, Nova Scotia Canada.  The Farm is owned and operated by the Bishop Family - My grandmother was Nancy Bishop of Springhill NS. 

Granny Bishop's Apple Crisp

INGREDIENTS:
4-6 apples, thinly sliced
¾ cup brown sugar
¾ cup rolled oats
½ cup flour
½ cup butter
cinnamon optional
PREPARATION:
Place sliced apples in baking pan. Combine brown sugar, rolled oats, flour and cinnamon. Cut in butter. Sprinkle mixture over apples.
Bake at 350°F for 35-40 minutes. Serve hot with whipped cream or ice cream.

(This recipe is copied from the Noggins Corner Farm Market Newsletter)  For more recipes, please join our newsletter (using the form on lower left) or visit their Recipe blog.

Reflections On A Saturday Morning in September

Ten years ago today there was no such think as Facebook, Twitter or even iPods!  It was a different world. We've all changed - we dared to rebuild and life went on. We have witnessed amazing bravery, love, courage, and agony. Just For Today, let us love one another and see where it will bring us.

On 9/10/2010

I was a different person. I had not yet turned 50. My mother was alive. I'd just quit smoking for the 3rd or 4th time. I had a system for working the business Alpha-Interiors my husband Vin and I own. I'd begun to enjoy the fruits of being an entrepreneur - I was choosing the time of day when I'd do my share of the work for the business.

I had high cholesterol and needed to increase exercise, lose weight, and stop living like I was going to last forever. I had a few medical conditions as a result of taking a diet drug that was removed from the market and the weight piled back on after I stopped taking the "magic" pill. I was afraid that my foolish attempt to lose weight with a magic pill would bring my life to a sudden end.

I was intentionally working on eliminating refined sugars and white flour from my system. To help me in my efforts to stay off cigarettes I was walking our young dog several times a day (actually she was walking me). Also, I spent several hours a week working at The Great American Stamp Store in Westport, CT as a sales clerk. The work at the store was a delight to me. I loved every minute.

We were preparing for a guest artist who was coming to teach at the store the next day. The classes were booked up solid as the guest's art rubber stamps were a popular commodity in the store. Then next day, I believe just one person who had signed up came to the classes. It was a solemn afternoon as we listened to the radio learned new techniques to apply to our rubber stamp art together.   

Just about a year later, I met a young mother who was a 9/11 widow.  We became friends.  She was pregnant with a second child on 9/11/2001 and had another young child as well.  Knowing her opened my world and my heart to meanings and appreciation for my own life that I am yet unable to put into words.  Today I’m reminded of a poem I wrote as a result of knowing such a courageous woman.  I will share it sometime if I can find where I put it for safekeeping. 

Memories to Treasure: Honeyhill Elementary School Grads Gather

The Hour Story about the Reunion

Last month there was a most unusual picnic held at Cranbury Park in Norwalk, CT.  It was a 50 year reunion of Honeyhill Elementary School graduates and teachers.  That's right FIFTY year reunion of ELEMENTARY SCHOOL. My husband Vinny was on the committee. 

Former students - some of whom are now retirees themselves gathered with some of the retired teachers from Honeyhill Elementary School.  The former teachers brought everything from homemade salads to baked ziti, meatballs and an impressive variety of delicious picnic foods.  The former students provided hotdogs, hamburgers, condiments, cake and water.  The event was a huge success.  Eighty six people attended.  The DJ played music from the fifties and sixties, there was dancing, laughing and catching up with old and new friends.  What a delightful story to hear about.  Alas it wasn't front page news.

Except for The Hour, the news media forgot to show up.  The Hour had a misprint stating that it was a high school reunion. The Norwalk Mayor came, along with our State Representative Larry Cafero, School Superintendent Susan Marks, and State Senator Bob Duff. The gathering was sweet and endearing.

Ed Farris, Vinny's fifth grade teacher in the golden 1960's attended the picnic along with many other former teachers at Honeyhill. Ed who is79 years old and still substituting in the Norwalk schools, was working at Honeyhill the day they opened and was still there the day it closed.  The City of Norwalk closed the school due to falling student numbers. A Scholarship fund has been created as a result of the warm memories of an era long past.  The members of the reunion committee decided to honor Ed.

The Ed Farris Scholarship has been awarded to a local Norwalk High Scholl Graduate going into the field of teaching.

Sadly, the committee wasn't notified of the event and no one was there to present the student with the certificate.  We do not even know if the recipient knows what the scholarship means to those who contribute to the ongoing fund.  Former students, co-workers, current friends and family members have contributed.  As a result there will be scholarships available in the future.  A formal presentation is being arranged to right this oversight.

As an aside to this event I want to mention that Vinny and I bought a house on St. Mary's Lane in 1980 so our children could experience a similar grade school education that Vinny enjoyed.  By the time our girls were old enough for kindergarten, Honeyhill Elementary School was closed.  The site now houses The  Honeyhill Healthcare Center which I believe is owned by the Norwalk Hospital.  The city gave the property to the hospital despite an offer from the Norwalk YMCA to renovate and rent it from the city and to give it back to us if we decided not to renew a lease in the future.  I am not going to address the politics of that!

I attended the event and discovered that despite our daughters not being able to attend the school that we wanted them to; the girls did have several wonderful elementary school teachers from the Honeyhill Lunch Bunch - that is what a group of former Honeyhill teachers who still gather regularly call themselves. 

Mrs. Dayton taught Melissa and Stephanie in Kindergarten.  Mrs. Jones had them in the First Grade.  Mrs. Fodor taught Stephanie, and Rev. Jeanettte Olmstead-Sawyer taught the girls Science at West Rocks. 

The gift of Norwalk's Honeyhill Elementary School is still giving.  How special is that?