Days 9, 10, 11

I have been doing pretty good eating whole food plant based this week. Today didn’t start out well though before I wasn’t prepared. I have been working 10 hour days this week to earn some extra money so that my kids and I can get a better apartment next month. Man, the cost of 2 bedroom apartments are ridiculous!! But moving to a better place will allow me to work from home which will make working extra hours a lot easier which will help pay the exorbitant rent. And then on Wednesdays, I meet a friend of mine at Panera to write. I think I might of mentioned that before. Anyway, the kids and I didn’t get home until late and I didn’t want to stay up late to get stuff together.

At least I wasn’t falling asleep at work today like I usually do. For some reason, I usually become exhausted after I eat actually start drifting off while I’m working. I sit at a computer all day long. I try to take a short walk on my breaks but I only get 15 minutes so I can’t go too far.

But I did take some insulin last night but my blood sugars haven’t improved much. It’s is going so slowly that I’m getting discouraged but I really want to get rid of this diabetes. Yesterday, my feet were really bothering me. It’s like pins and needles on the bottom of my feet and they feel like they’re frozen.

My eyesight is doing well though. My computer glasses are working perfectly while I work. Because of all the overtime, I haven’t worked out with my sister, though my daughter and I did go for a nice, long walk on Monday and Tuesday, which seems to help the blood sugar readings.

My last blood sugar reading tonight was 303. I took 45 units of humulin so we’ll see what it’s like in the morning.

Day 8

Today has been a good day. Not perfect but close. According to Cronometer, I was at 22% fat calories which I think is actually higher than it was. I didn’t want to add each ingredient I put into tonight’s pasta sauce so I just used the generic homemade pasta sauce on the site. It turned out pretty good.

After my wild weekend, I wasn’t surprised that my morning blood sugar reading was 302, even after taking 45 units of humulin before bed last night. Yeah, I went a little wild this weekend. So I took another 45 units this morning before work. It didn’t seem to help as my blood sugar readings were 430 after breakfast, which was a bowl of pumpkin spice Life cereal with unsweetened vanilla almond milk. Lunch was a veggie sandwhich, no mayo, on whole wheat roll. And a small back of Sun Chips but the fat g were really low. I was still in the teens of my fat % at lunch.

After dinner, my daughter and I went for a 45 minute walk around the neighborhood and when I came back and tested my blood, I was at 187. Whoo hoo!! So I am not going to take any insulin tonight and follow the low fat eating again tomorrow and see if I can keep my numbers in the low 200s. Getting good results like that make it so much easier to say no to temptation.

I can’t wait to see if I can repeat these results tomorrow.

Days 6 and 7

The weekend started out well. Saturday I went to the farmers market and got this week’s supply of fruits and veggies. Then I grabbed a bunch of that fruit and went to work to do 4 hours of overtime. I had Chipotle for lunch, no dairy or even avocado and I put it on a couple cups of spring mix. I got the mild salsa, like a always do, but it burned my mouth like crazy. I don’t know if the hot stuff dripped in the mild and I got a big scoop of heat or if I’m just more sensitive as I age. But it hurt.

Then that evening I went to a friend’s Pampered Chef party. Still, I did good not indulging in the appetizers set out. The lady selling the kitchen gadgets made an Indian dish, dahl. It smelled amazing. I had some over rice when it was finished thinking it was vegan because I thought my friend’s wife was also vegan.

Nope. She’s vegetarian. I should’ve asked more questions about what was in it. I saw them chopping a bunch of vegetables. I didn’t watch them put everything in the pot. I did’t ask what the white stuff was. Turns out it was yogurt.

So what did I do after realizing I just blew my diet? I fell off the wagon. More like jumped head first into chocolate chip cookies and cheese soup the next day at Panera. I even indulged in some icecream. Very tiny drumsticks, but still. I rationalized that I need a cheat day once a week to motivate me to stay on track during the week.

Let’s hope it works.

Day 5

Today started out well. I had fruit for breakfast and veggies and homemade hummus with no oil for a snack and veggie soup for dinner. I was around the 12% fat mark. And then I saw my nemesis: cupcakes.

At work, this week was customer service appreciation week and today the company treated everyone to cupcakes. I took one with the intent to give to one of my kids. Toward the end of the day, there were so many left over, I grabbed a second one so each kid could have one. Aren’t I such a nice mom?

But my ex had already picked the kids up for the weekend before I got home. I should’ve just thrown them away but I hate to waste food so I ate them. Then, since I figured I already blew it, I had the broccoli cheddar soup for dinner when I met my writing friend at Panera. I convinced myself that this week was a practice week.

I’ve had so many practice weeks.

My blood sugar reading this morning was better after the insulin I took before bed last night at 222. My last reading tonight after my awful day was 359. I’ll take more insulin tonight and start over tomorrow. Hopefully for the last time.

Day 4

Today wasn’t too bad, food wise. My blood sugars still haven’t dropped below 330. For breakfast I had 3 bananas and 2 apples. I thought my sugars would be in the 400s but they were only in the high 300s. I had a small headache today, which I haven’t had since before I started my high blood pressure medicine, which I did take today. I got my bp checked last week and it’s in the normal range. My feet also hurt a lot today. It’s like pins and needles jabbing my feet. So I decided to take some insulin tonight before bed to hopefully bring my numbers down. I usually take 45 units of the slow acting stuff.

At work, all the customer service employees were treated to a free lunch. I, of course, requested the vegan option of jackfruit tacos. My plate also come with rice, coleslaw, macaroni salad and a roll. We were also given a croissant type pastry which I wasn’t going to eat but then succumbed to after dinner. But even after eating that, my percentage of fat in my total daily count was only 20%.

I did some prep tonight, making my own hummus and tortilla chips and chopped up some watermelon for tomorrow. Not eating so much oil makes me hungrier so I need to get used to bringing more food to work to snack on. EVERYTHING has oil and fat in it. It’s very difficult to find a snack in the breakroom that is low fat.

My morning blood sugar was 332. My after dinner was 376.

Day 3

So today wasn’t my best. I was totally unprepared. I forgot to go to the store yesterday and get my cereal so I ended up eating what was supposed to be my lunch for breakfast, carrots and cucumbers with my hummus. But that didn’t fill me up so I bought a bag of tortilla chips and some salsa to snack on at work. For lunch I picked up a veggie sandwich with no mayo but it did have avocado and they were out of wheat bread so I got the Dutch Crunch bread which tore up the roof of my mouth. But it was delicious.

When I entered all that into cronometer, I was already at 25% fat. Feeling defeated, I wasn’t as strict at dinner. We had barbecued jackfruit with coleslaw on whole wheat buns and tator tots. I’ll do better tomorrow.

My total calories from fat came to 30% of my overall calories. Ugh.

My morning blood sugar was 336. After breakfast it was 371, and that was just carrots, cucumber and no oil hummus. After my lunch it was 437. And then after dinner it was 379.

I didn’t work out today because my sister is out of town and I my time has been used up feeding her dogs and cats. I already have a veggie stew in the crock-pot for tomorrow so maybe I’ll have more time to go for a walk after dinner.

Oh, and I realized today that I had already bought a no fat salad dressing last month and totally forgot about it.

I’ll be a pro at this WFPB way of life by the end of the month. And hopefully have some good blood sugar readings to go with it.

Day 2

Today could’ve been better but it wasn’t too bad. My weakness is the salad dressing. I need to go get the ingredients and actually make the salad dressing recipes in the Forks Over Knives fall magazine issue. For lunch today I went to Chili’s and order the Caribbean salad without any meat, of course but it had a honey lime dressing which was tasty, but full of fat. And then I had my vegan ranch dressing on my salad at dinner which made my total percentage of fat calories 21%. Not bad but not my goal of 15% or lower.

My blood sugars have not improved either. The first test before breakfast was 333. After breakfast was 435. After lunch was 442, and after dinner was 401. I told myself that I won’t give myself any insulin at night until the weekend if my numbers weren’t going down. But it’s only day 2 so there’s still time to improve.

Tomorrow will be a better day.

Day one

I did pretty good today. I tracked what I ate on Cronometer, a free website to track your meals and it will give you a breakdown on all sorts of things like fat intake, protein, carbs, vitamins, minerals, and calories. I kept my fat intake to 17%, protein, 13% and carbs at 70%. I need to find a good no oil added salad dressing. I love the Follow Your Heart vegan ranch but it has oil in it. 😦

This morning my blood sugars were at 380, which isn’t surprising considering the sugar and dairy binder I had this weekend. They stayed high all day. After my dinner of salad and pumpkin alfredo linguine my blood sugar was 411 two hours after eating so my daughter and I went for a walk and brought it back down to 370.

I’m not going to give myself any insulin at bedtime so I can see if what I eat, or not eat, really does have an effect on my glucose numbers. I think I need to keep an Excel spreadsheet with my numbers. I’ll work on that.

If you know of a good, no oil or sugar added salad dressing, let me know.

The Journey Begins

Hi there! I am a 46 year old single mother with type 2 diabetes. I have been researching ways to regain my health and a whole food plant-based diet seems to be the most promising to me. I’ve stopped eating meat at the beginning of this year but still eat the occasional diary, egg, and fish. Some health issues have improved just by making those changes, but my blood sugars are still very high. 

A couple years ago when I first got my new doctor, my A1C was over 12. She prescribed Metformin, slow acting insulin, and blood pressure medicine. I did get my A1C down to the 8 range using the prescriptions but I didn’t like how the medicine made me feel so I stopped taking it. My blood sugars of course have gone up. They are currently in the 300’s. High, I know.

The symptoms that I find most worrisome are the tingling in my feet, my constant exhaustion, and my fluctuating eyesight. I rotate between three different pairs of glasses depending on where my blood glucose levels are at.

So, I am going to commit to this WFPB diet for at least the month of October to see if I can improve my blood sugar levels without medication. That means keeping the percentage of fat at around 15% of my daily caloric total. So no added oils, avocado or nuts. And no processed junk.

I will update as much as possible with what I eat, my exercise, and my blood sugar readings. My sister, who is doing the Keto diet might also add what she is doing so we can compare the two approaches. She is not diabetic, just trying to lose some weight. She has already lost around 40-50 pounds with Keto. I tried it but it made me feel worse.

I hope to see some positive results. Feel free to offer advise if you notice an area that I should adjust or if you simply want to offer encouragement or share your success story. I would love to hear it.

Thanks for joining me!

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton