Diet Doctor Low Carb Challenge

[Chook]

Yes, diabetes did cross my mind but I tested his blood sugars and he was at 5.1 after his dinner. Dogs' ideal BG range is similar to ours. I think it is a behavioural issue - he's very good at knocking over bowls and I think he had many long hours in that crate without a drink having knocked it over in the first five minutes - which also explains another weirdness of his - sucking the rug or licking the carpet. Don't laugh. He does it all the time - seems to be a comfort thing.

 

[Brunneria]

Poor lad.

 

[Chook]

I've just been reading Jason Fung's articles on the Diet Doctor website. Have you noticed how he and the DD team seem to sort of combine their different methods to reduce BG, there is even a mention of Michael Mosley when Fung is describing the different durations of fasting.

The reason for reading his articles is because this DP thing is REALLY irritating me and I wanted to read his thoughts in it - which is simply that my liver still has stored sugar in it - so in an effort to empty the liver a bit faster he recommends fasting. (Well, he would, wouldn't he!) So my cunning plan is to add in a couple of 24 hour fasts next week and keep to under 20g the rest of the time using DD recipes as inspiration.

 

[Brunneria]

Good move. I think where I went wrong with fasting was that I did it too regularly, and too consistently (several weeks of one meal a day), which resulted in my body treating it like a low calorie diet, and slowing my metabolic rate.

Next time I go into a fasting phase, I must remember to mix things up. Different lengths of fast on irregular days, to keep my metabolism fired up.

 

[Chook]

I think I might do it on Monday and Thursday next week - they are fairly busy days for me so I won't really notice.

@Brunneria - I hope you have a nice time with your elderly carb eating relatives. Are you going for the whole week? How about offering to do some of the cooking and make a sneaky ultra low carb dinner?

I'm all ready for Valentine's Day. We don't usually bother but this year with me being at home all the time I thought I'd cook something nice - I think he's had enough of the creamy dishes recently, so I thought steak topped with stilton, asparagus and broccoli (with that avocado dressing that normally goes with green beans) and some sweet potato roasties for him - and I thought I'd make the chocolate and walnut fudge that @PenfoldAPD posted about on the menu thread but make it ramekins as a dessert served with some raspberries and cream. Sounds easy enough.

 

[Chook]

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

I have a friend who does the whole FlyLady thing - it sounds a similar idea to your book. Take a peek, it's at www.FlyLady.net I did try doing it but I found that was pretty much all I was doing all day.

 

[Brunneria]

I've cancelled the week away. Think I may be coming down with Mr B's Plague, so don't want to risk infecting the host and hostess! Very sorry to do it, because I was looking forward to the trip.

It also means that I have to do some menu reorganisation or (*horrified gasp!*) actually go into a supermarket. Myself. Manually. With a trolley. And queue. And think. And find my reading glasses.

Obviously this is to be avoided at all costs - unless they process my requisition for attaching the sub-machine gun to my trolley, that is.

So it will be freezer excavations, and a trip to the butchers tomorrow... fun fun fun.

I've read that FlyLady website. Amazing stuff. Couldn't follow the regime for more than about 5 mins at a time, but I respect anyone who can. Mind you, her ideas about breaking things into 15 minute bursts, and doing things little and often has helped tremendously as my knees and back have aged. I used to try and do DIY or redecoration in huge long sessions. Now I break it down into short chunks, governed by pain tolerance and intermittent kettle boiling. Works like a charm.

 

[Chook]

To anyone who decides to make the Diet Doctor's Low Carb tortillas. The way they give is a bit of a fuss - I put the eggs in a blender, whizzed them, then added everything else, whizzed again, let it stand for 10 minutes then baked as per instructions - but they took 12 minutes not 5 and they came out fine. Next time I might add a little extra psyllium husk.

https://www.dietdoctor.com/recipes/low-carb-tortillas

 

[Chook]

I've cancelled the week away. Think I may be coming down with Mr B's Plague, so don't want to risk infecting the host and hostess! Very sorry to do it, because I was looking forward to the trip.

It also means that I have to do some menu reorganisation or (*horrified gasp!*) actually go into a supermarket. Myself. Manually. With a trolley. And queue. And think. And find my reading glasses.

Obviously this is to be avoided at all costs - unless they process my requisition for attaching the sub-machine gun to my trolley, that is.

So it will be freezer excavations, and a trip to the butchers tomorrow... fun fun fun.

I've read that FlyLady website. Amazing stuff. Couldn't follow the regime for more than about 5 mins at a time, but I respect anyone who can. Mind you, her ideas about breaking things into 15 minute bursts, and doing things little and often has helped tremendously as my knees and back have aged. I used to try and do DIY or redecoration in huge long sessions. Now I break it down into short chunks, governed by pain tolerance and intermittent kettle boiling. Works like a charm.

Oh, poor you. Check your supermarket website as mine still has slots available for tomorrow. I quite like going to supermarkets as long as it's not for a full week's shopping.

Yes, I've got the knee problem. Arthritis in both knees, one hip, neck and lower spine, which is why I'm off work. I hoovered through today and I know, because of it, I'll struggle to get down the stairs tomorrow. I hate getting older, purely because of the aches and pains.

 

[Chook]

LOL after a lot of dog wrestling and jabbing Mr C several times, I am pleased to announce that Jack the monster dog has a BG two hours after his dinner of 6.1 which is perfect. Now I've just got to work out what to do next. He's just eaten my lovely new slippers and some of the low carb choc fudge which I stupidly left on the kitchen worktop.

 

[Chook]

Strange old morning in respect of BG. Went to be at 5.4, woke up to 6.3, had breakfast (bacon and eggs) and an hour later I was DOWN to 6.2 - then 2 hours post breakfast I was DOWN again - 5.7 this time. I'm now at 5.1. I seem to have skipped the mid morning phenomenon.

I managed to find some aubergines - 70p each from Tesco at Scunthorpe - but it appears that there is now a shortage of cauliflower rice - not actually cauliflowers though, they've got plenty of those. Neither Asda, Sainsburys or Tesco had the cauliflower rice which means I've got to grate the cauli myself

 

[Brunneria]

Interestink... and good news about the mid morning thing.

I couldn't buy courgettes anywhere, but Tescos were offering courgetti in spades. But I kind of resent that. For the same price, I could buy half a field of the real thing. OK, maybe a teensy bit of exaggeration there, but you know what I mean.

I am baking today. LC orange cake. LC coffeesubstitute and walnut cake.
The plan is to make yesterday's mini shop last twice as long by only eating DD food in the evenings, and having cake and cream for lunch every day.

Yes, I AM a genius. A genius that gets to eat cake and stay keto.

Having checked out both recipes, they give a breakdown of the nutrition, and a slice should only be about 5-6 g carbs with the rest being mainly egg, butter and ground almonds. So I feel quite relaxed about going Off Piste.

Told you I can't follow instruction...

Here are the recipe links, in case anyone wants to see what they are missing.
http://www.ibreatheimhungry.com/2017/01/glazed-blood-orange-rum-cake-low-carb.html
and
https://www.diabetesdaily.com/forum/recipes/50976-coffee-walnut-cake-low-carb/

 

[Chook]

Send some of your cake up here - they sound so yummy and I am rubbish at baking

Mr C has asked me not to keep cooking stuff with cream or sour cream (or quite so much butter) so this week coming up has been hard to work out a DD menu for, especially as some of our favourite veg isn't available.

I think having low carb cake for lunch is a great idea - very Marie Antoinette.

 

[maglil55]

I was really down in the dumps yesterday. I think I was having one of these diabetic depressed days. Didn't help that my BG would not go under 6.5. Even worse this morning. It is freezing, been chucking it down all night and most of today. Went to bed on 6.7 and got up to 9.3?????? What's that about. Was down to 7.4 by the time I got back from swimming with No 1 grandson and having spent the last 2 hrs battling wind and icy rain I'm now at 6.1. Hubby meantime has been afflicted by a 'both ends' bug so I'm wondering if I'm next.
If nothing else I've shaken myself out of my downer. Just having a coffee to thaw out then will tackle the shopping unpacking.

 

[Chook]

I was really down in the dumps yesterday. I think I was having one of these diabetic depressed days. Didn't help that my BG would not go under 6.5. Even worse this morning. It is freezing, been chucking it down all night and most of today. Went to bed on 6.7 and got up to 9.3?????? What's that about. Was down to 7.4 by the time I got back from swimming with No 1 grandson and having spent the last 2 hrs battling wind and icy rain I'm now at 6.1. Hubby meantime has been afflicted by a 'both ends' bug so I'm wondering if I'm next.
If nothing else I've shaken myself out of my downer. Just having a coffee to thaw out then will tackle the shopping unpacking.

Maybe the weird BG is because you are incubating your husband's bug and that could be why you were feeling depressed yesterday.

I know what you mean about diabetes depression - just one of those days when you think 'why me' and feel hopeless. I get like that sometimes when I've done too much or if, for some reason, I have been home alone too much.

Yes, we've got the wind and icy rain too. Horrible. I got caught out in it while shopping and have somehow lost my umbrella which I've only just bought having recently lost the last one. I think there must be a special place where all the socks lost in the washing machine, lost pens and lost umbrellas go.

 

[Brunneria]

@maglil55 I've been wondering if your raised blood glucose might be stress due to running yourself ragged with grandsons.
- that isn't a criticism, more sympathetic appreciation of how I would be in those circumstances.

My blood glucose is always significantly raised when I wake up to a busy morning (running round, time pressure, meetings, catching connections on public transport, presenting something). And you seem to live under that kind of pressure. Plus a lot of other stuff going on too.

I really do take my hat off to you!

 

[Chook]

I'm with @Brunneria on this, you have had a lot of bugs recently, a good indication that you are under the weather. Stress and illness are very good at raising BG. It can't be a carbs issue because you are eating so few so maybe your body is trying to send you a message to slow down a little and take care of yourself.

*big hug coming your way*

 

[maglil55]

@maglil55 I've been wondering if your raised blood glucose might be stress due to running yourself ragged with grandsons.
- that isn't a criticism, more sympathetic appreciation of how I would be in those circumstances.

My blood glucose is always significantly raised when I wake up to a busy morning (running round, time pressure, meetings, catching connections on public transport, presenting something). And you seem to live under that kind of pressure. Plus a lot of other stuff going on too.

I really do take my hat off to you!

I know what you mean. I've always lived under pressure. Job was the same - loads of travelling , deadlines and I was always the one to pull together new material. Retiral has just substituted new responsibilities. To be fair No 1 is a good boy and is easy enough to take care of. No 2 is a different kettle of fish but he is getting better. I'm a pretty calm individual but it doesn't help having 2 siblings with 'incurable but treatable' cancers. I think brother being down in the dumps rubbed off on me but the practical side of me has kicked in again in that we've been here before a few times - they start rising; they change the chemo; levels drop again. Sister's have at least reduced by 2/3rds. As @Chook said it could also be hubby's bug starting to stew in me - I hope not as he has been alternating between bed and the loo all day. Suspect I'll be tackling upstairs with disposable latex gloves, face mask and a giant bottle of Domestos with a chaser of Dettol spray!!
I have a whole week with no early morning rise now. Will still have the boys odd times but just an hour or so here and there.

 

[Brunneria]

Mr B has coped manfully (and surprisingly enthusiastically!) with DD so far. However, last night saw the first overt criticism.

We had the chicken skewers (I added onion and tricolour red peppers for appropriate veg additions). He loved them.

But as for the (small) portion of celeriac chips... he said
'They were OK I suppose. So long as you never call them 'chips'.'

Such damning criticism is rare from him. He has requested his Emergency Root Mash for today's lunchtime repeat.

And that means even more 'chips' for me. O joy.

 

[Chook]

@maglil55. How are you today? I hope your domestos worked and you didn't get your husband's bug.

@Brunneria I think that probably that's where I've been going wrong - I've not been reducing the quantity of veg we have with the DD meals, I have, though, reduced the number of different veg from 3 or 4 different sorts down to just one. The problem with this is I'm finding the food oddly unappealing with just one veg.

Last night's DD garlic chicken was lovely. Mr C was cooking and he made DD keto garlic bread to go with and a really gorgeous imam bayildi (I think that's how you spell it) with a bag of baby leaves lettuce to go with it.

Then, bless him, it all went a bit wrong when he made some Paleo chocolate muffins for dessert/Supper. I took a bite and immediately knew something was wrong. Being a paleo recipe it used honey, not sweetener. I couldn't eat mine but he munched his way through half a dozen.

Is every one else having this horrible weather - sideways driving rain. So much for our usual Sunday family stroll.