Diet Doctor Low Carb Challenge

[Chook]

Ooops, just remembered, I didn't explain the psyllium husk effect to Mr C and he had four of those naans whereas I only had two. Hope he got to work okay - I don't think there are any services along that stretch of motorway.

 

[Brunneria]

haha! Brilliant. Actually had some psyllium husks in my coffeesubstitute this morning - great minds think alike, eh?
Thought of doing it yesterday, and forgot, but now I will never know if that would have made a difference to today's weigh in... hey ho.

And yes, NOTHING can overshadow my brill bg readings. One day of 5.2 FBG was fantastic, but 2 days in a row? Clearly repeatable, and has to be this way of eating. So long as I don't gain actual weight on it, I will be happy.

Just had a mini shopping order delivered to last til the weekend. I picked out the keto sausage and baked veg recipe, and the chicken one too. Nice and easy, and I have ordered enough for plenty of leftovers for the next few days too. The veg substitutions have been interesting, but the celeriac arrived, which is good.

 

[Chook]

I didn't know you could put psyllium husks in hot drinks - doesn't it make it go all gloopy?

Yes, I've had some weird veg substitutes - do you have Asda deliver to you? They delivered me white cabbage instead of romaine lettuce last week. BTW, that Asda down your way has a great and inspired pharmacist. He has, in the space of one five minute conversation, virtually cured my psoriasis. He suggested using the very expensive T/G (the cheaper ones don't work) to shower with and it worked!!!!! Now just going to try to persuade surgery to prescribe it for me.

 

[Brunneria]

I will remember about the pharmacist! We live quite a long way from Asda, so end up going to Tescos most of the time. And once you have set up the online ordering system, it is more phaff to change supermarket than to stay. Captive audience through apathy. lol.

Yes, I just drop a teasp of psyllium into any non-fizzy drink, hot or cold. Makes them a bit gloopy, but you haven't lived til you have tried a gloopy cup of low carb hot choc! as good as a meal. I used to drink it before bed if I was feeling peckish.

Have just popped the second day pizza in the oven. this time I added extra oregano, onion, peppers, diced feta, more olives and sliced cherry toms. And GARLIC! Gotta get that veg in somehow. Really looking forward to it. Wish Mr B liked mushrooms. But he doesn't.

 

[maglil55]

The week 1 pizza is delicious! Basically cheese and pepperoni, and a smear of tomato puree, but very nice indeed. Should have had more salad or veg with it though. It was such a very small volume that i felt empty and went scavenging (low carb hot choc)

Tomorrow i will add coleslaw, for bulk.

I rather liked the pizza too. I added extra toppings such as salami, mushroom, olives etc. We went out for breakfast this morning so had to leave the beans, fried bread and hash brown. Figures were much the same as yesterday. Bed on 6.6 up to 7.2 and a creep to 7.8. Back to 7.4 at the hour mark but I suspect the tinned tomato and the 1 sausage I had were not as low carb as what I usually have for a zero carb breakfast at home.
Trying to plan out a menu for next week but I'm a bit down in the dumps to be honest. Nothing to do with my readings - my brother's Myeloma is active again so he has to go in to see the Consultant this afternoon. Don't know anything else until he sees him but I'm hoping it will just be a back on a chemo combination again. The count has been negligible for 9 months now so it is a bit of a downer when it starts to rise again. Fortunately I don't turn to food when these things happen - I do the opposite ; don't feel like eating at all. I don't pick up the boys until after 5 pm either so I don't have them as a distraction either. Think I will don the latex gloves and clean.....

 

[Chook]

I rather liked the pizza too. I added extra toppings such as salami, mushroom, olives etc. We went out for breakfast this morning so had to leave the beans, fried bread and hash brown. Figures were much the same as yesterday. Bed on 6.6 up to 7.2 and a creep to 7.8. Back to 7.4 at the hour mark but I suspect the tinned tomato and the 1 sausage I had were not as low carb as what I usually have for a zero carb breakfast at home.
Trying to plan out a menu for next week but I'm a bit down in the dumps to be honest. Nothing to do with my readings - my brother's Myeloma is active again so he has to go in to see the Consultant this afternoon. Don't know anything else until he sees him but I'm hoping it will just be a back on a chemo combination again. The count has been negligible for 9 months now so it is a bit of a downer when it starts to rise again. Fortunately I don't turn to food when these things happen - I do the opposite ; don't feel like eating at all. I don't pick up the boys until after 5 pm either so I don't have them as a distraction either. Think I will don the latex gloves and clean.....

I'm really sorry to hear about your brother. Please let us how he gets on. xx

 

[Brunneria]

yes, very sorry to hear about your brother.
Give that cleaning some welly. It helps as a distraction. A bit.

 

[maglil55]

@Chook @Brunneria - his paraprotein has risen from 1 to 8. Doesn't sound a lot but last time he jumped quite a lot in the next month. The issue with this rise is he is on a large scale clinical trial so they have to decide do they continue on with the last 2 months of treatment on the trial or do they change to another combination? He's been sent off until 9 March by which time they'll have made a decision. To be honest he has not had a great time on this combination so it might be a good thing to get a change of regime.
My dishwasher meantime has been cleaned in areas I did not know existed! Even had the seals off and Yuk- there was some gunk under them. I always clean the filters but this was a journey of discovery.
My BG has followed the same path as yesterday. A downward meander but not getting below 6. Tomorrow's Aqua sessions should take care of that.

 

[Chook]

OMG- I didn't know you can take off the seals. I'll have to investigate.

My best wishes to your brother and I hope they find a combination that works and that suits him. xx

 

[Brunneria]

I use the steamer on the seals in a kind of jet wash kind of way. Then i mop the floor underneath! Lol
But i don't do it often enough...

Mr B was surprised at how good that pizza was. High praise indeed. Pork shoulder steak with green beans and avocado. Looking forward to it.

 

[maglil55]

I use the steamer on the seals in a kind of jet wash kind of way. Then i mop the floor underneath! Lol
But i don't do it often enough...

Mr B was surprised at how good that pizza was. High praise indeed. Pork shoulder steak with green beans and avocado. Looking forward to it.

I was on Pork Shoulder tonight. Should have had the green beans and avocado but went for steamed shredded greens instead with the remains of yesterday's salad - couldn't finish it. Brother is still a bit down in the dumps so hubby is taking him out once I get back from Aqua for a pint (he only lives 2 doors away from us) to try to cheer him up.
Never thought of using the steamer - will do that next time. After seeing the gunk will certainly check it more often. Cleaned all the seal and the filter on the washing machine too. Dishwasher has now had a lemon cleaning cycle and smells lovely.

 

[maglil55]

I use the steamer on the seals in a kind of jet wash kind of way. Then i mop the floor underneath! Lol
But i don't do it often enough.

Does the steamer get right into the seals? I found the gunk had been building up in the nooks and crannies so had to remove the seals to get at it (and attack it with an old toothbrush).

 

[maglil55]

OMG- I didn't know you can take off the seals. I'll have to investigate.

My best wishes to your brother and I hope they find a combination that works and that suits him. xx

Thanks @Chook - he'll bounce back. He's hoping that he'll be permitted to go on holiday still but it depends what they decide on treatment. He had timed it for the 'no chemo' 2 weeks but that obviously may change now and as he says staying alive ranks a bit higher than a holiday.

 

[Brunneria]

Does the steamer get right into the seals? I found the gunk had been building up in the nooks and crannies so had to remove the seals to get at it (and attack it with an old toothbrush).

Well, I don't think I am quite so house proud as you two... but the steamer certainly exceeds my slob-like standards.

The pork was delicious, and I used the avocado and coriander thingy on some broccoli, with some red cabbage in vinegar and spices, with a touch less butter than the recipe. I will be doing it again. That avocado dressing was exquisite.

 

[Brunneria]

Yay DD! Yay 5.2 fastings! Third day in a row.
(I shall now stop posting daily updates, unless something significant changes, because no one likes a show-off)

Interesting though - last night I upped my veg to proper sized portions, for the first time since I started DD. That means I had a 250g broccoli and at least a third of a bag of frozen red cabbage on my plate. Delicious. Very filling. Needed less butter too. And only a very slight increase in blood glucose (less than 0.5mmol/l higher than on nights with the measly DD veg portions, and stayed under 6.2 all evening). No knock-on impact to my fasting blood glucose.

So I am going back to decent veg portions, so long as they are not starchy or root veg.

 

[Chook]

Yay DD! Yay 5.2 fastings! Third day in a row.
(I shall now stop posting daily updates, unless something significant changes, because no one likes a show-off)

Interesting though - last night I upped my veg to proper sized portions, for the first time since I started DD. That means I had a 250g broccoli and at least a third of a bag of frozen red cabbage on my plate. Delicious. Very filling. Needed less butter too. And only a very slight increase in blood glucose (less than 0.5mmol/l higher than on nights with the measly DD veg portions, and stayed under 6.2 all evening). No knock-on impact to my fasting blood glucose.

So I am going back to decent veg portions, so long as they are not starchy or root veg.

That's great! Don't stop posting your numbers - I do like reading about how people are successful. It gives me incentive and enthusiasm to carry on.

I went to bed with 4.8 I'm back up to a FBG of 6.4 I can't go lower on carbs so I'm thinking of reducing the amount of protein I eat to see if that makes a difference.

BTW, I wouldn't exactly call myself house proud, you can't be with three large dogs, especially as the new one is shredding anything he can get his teeth on - yesterday he shredded a new indestructible toy bought especially because it was indestructible (took him less than 10 mins), his bed (white fluff on charcoal grey carpet everywhere), the contents of the fruit bowl (at least four apples and some clementines -and including peel), and.... the kitchen timer.

 

[Brunneria]

Sorry. I shouldn't laugh (but hahahahahaha!)

How old is he? hopefully it is teething, or something, and it won't last. Fingers crossed.
We found that our two little monsters much preferred stinky pigs ears, turkey and chicken feet, real raw bones, and dried sinew/cartilage, rather than our property (thank goodness). But I imagine your dogs have stronger teeth. And FAR better reach...

The In Laws have a Jack Russell and he destroys EVERYTHING in about 2 mins. So the only thing we give him now are those huge raw marrowbones from the butchers (£1/carrier bag). They keep him occupied for hours.

 

[Chook]

He's a year old black Lab called Jack and very tall for a year - already able to reach right to the back of the kitchen work surfaces - the worry is that he's got another six months or so growing to do. I'd have expected a Lab to grow out of this by a year but he has got ..... issues..... all to do with where he lived before (basically he was kept in one of those dog crates for 18 or more hours a day) while then went to work / slept and rarely walked. Because he was hyper when he got out of the crate they'd often just keep him in it while they were watching TV. Then, with the hassle, his old owners started not interacting with him - gave up training him, didn't reinforce previous training - which has made him even worse. On top of that he really has separation anxiety - just me coming upstairs upsets him enough for him to go hyper and/or start chewing anything he can get his teeth on (dogs aren't allowed upstairs here). If I'm downstairs in the lounge where he can keep an eye on me then he's good as gold but won't go anywhere he can't see me and follows me everywhere. At the moment I'm upstairs and he is whining which will soon lead in to frenzy of running around and then - eventually - he'll find something to chew. When we are both out (which is what happened yesterday) he whines, then barks and then breaks in to a howl (which I haven't heard yet) my neighbours (who are lovely) have told us what happens - and I suspect the bed/toy chewing happened when he got bored with howling.

He's had it all - pigs ears - bones - stuffed bones - flavoured nylon bones - 'indestructible' toys - everything we can think of. The pigs ears were quite a worry, he downed one of them in less than 2 minutes but he seems to have survived it just fine. At least he hasn't swallowed my blood testing kit which Archie (dark Labradoodle) did when he was young.

The other weird thing is he drinks loads of water (and subsequently pees a lot). Its like if there's water in the bowl he has to drink it all. He can't just take a few laps like the other two. When we first got him we let him drink what he liked (like you do) but he'd get through 2-3 bowls and start throwing up - so now I have to hold the bowl while the other two drink their fill and he gets only half a bowl at a time.

 

[maglil55]

Well I've had my 3rd day of roughly the same figures. Bed on 6.6 but my fasting was 7.8. Normally I test again just before breakfast but I got mixed up today as I had been later leaving and I tested again and it was falling pre breakfast. Down to 7.6. Realising my mistake I did do the regular check pre breakfast and it was down again 7.4. I'm beginning to wonder now if I peak earlier and I just thought breakfast was reversing the trend?
By the way - the heavy duty dishwasher clean

http://housewifehowtos.com/clean/clean-your-dishwasher-for-best-performance/

This is a great site for how to clean just about anything. It is a USA site but it is full of handy tips. The woman who writes it is seriously houseproud but she is full of good ideas. She did a little book - 30 days to a clean and organised house. I can honestly say you would have to have nothing else to do to get through it in 30 days but her sequence is very logical. I still have to get all the way to day 30 but the parts I've done already have remained organised (which is no mean feat for me). Anytime I have a spare moment I do the next item in the organisation section. Might take another year yet though

 

[Brunneria]

wow. He really seems like a handful! Have you had the drinking checked out at the vets? Diabetes insipidus crossed my mind as I was reading your post. But obviously that is just a wild speculation.
http://www.pethealthnetwork.com/dog...abetes-insipidus-water-diabetes-cats-and-dogs

Poor lad. It is going to be a long road with him. And a lot of work for you.

Someone I know on a dog forum took in a rescue with similar, but different, antisocial behaviours. Her answer was to attach him to her waist by a 6 foot leash. All day. Until he just followed her everywhere, and was constantly under her eye. But I am afraid I can't remember what system she set up for him when she had to go out. Crating him with his history would be terrible, wouldn't it.