What was your fasting blood glucose? (full on chat)

ianpspurs said:

@Annb good news that your chest has cleared and you have an appointment with the dietician. @gennepher good on you for growing your own leaves. I would need (needed) 2 poly tunnels. Also well done on making your own sweet treats. JKP has lovingly tried to make lc sweetstuff over nearly 8 years, hrs and hrs of her time and distraught that it (mainly) never works. Goodness know how much money spent on ingredients to eventually throw away. Just about the only way I can include non savoury foods is to buy them, even then few work. There is Cambridge based company which people in here rave over - not cheap but I had to bin much of their produce due to taste of that e stuff.

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Annb said:

Actually, my chest has cleared and I don't seem to have any cold symptoms. It has taken me a long time to get this appointment and I don't want to pass it up. So, despite what I'm sure is good advice, I will go for my jab this afternoon.

The dietician at the hospital just phoned with an appointment to see her next Tuesday. This is after the consultant at the medical clinic referred me last February. She's a new one, so maybe she'll have some idea about low carb, unlike the previous one. Not that the refferal is for diabetes, it's to see if she can come up with any ideas about losing weight. Maybe I just eat too much and need to have smaller portions, although I don't really think so.

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ianpspurs said:

@Annb good news that your chest has cleared and you have an appointment with the dietician. @gennepher good on you for growing your own leaves. I would need (needed) 2 poly tunnels. Also well done on making your own sweet treats. JKP has lovingly tried to make lc sweetstuff over nearly 8 years, hrs and hrs of her time and distraught that it (mainly) never works. Goodness know how much money spent on ingredients to eventually throw away. Just about the only way I can include non savoury foods is to buy them, even then few work. There is Cambridge based company which people in here rave over - not cheap but I had to bin much of their produce due to taste of that e stuff.

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gennepher said:

Maybe most of our longings for our treats or sweet treats etc come from past memories.
Maybe for comfort, maybe for a good memory, and so on.
My longings for cooked breakfasts are when Grandma cooked them on the farm in the black leaded ovens, when I lived on the farm as a child.
My longings for the afternoon tea @dunelm mentioned earlier are again precious memories of the the 4pm afternoon tea everyday except Sunday. Many different sandwiches. The pork was from our pigs. Grandma made jams. Grandma baked her own bread. Several home baked cakes. My favourite being buttercream Victoria sponge with her jam in.
And similarly for Sunday roast. Grandma would wring the chicken's neck and pluck the feathers out on the doorstep, the wind taking the feathers. I chose the chicken to meet its demise. Vegetables were all from the vegetable garden, which I also helped with.
Eggs were from the hens. I collected those.

And so on.

The sugar industry has a lot to answer for getting us addicted to sweet stuff and making it an 'essential' part of our diet. I have been addicted long enough to it, but I cannot stand the smell of manufactured sweets or manufactured cakes any more, so I don't long for them now. And I also know if I have one bite of a manufactured biscuit, I will reach for another, there is something addictive in it.

But I still long for something nice, but from honest to goodness ingredients.

I have been experimenting with some ideas. Not carried them out yet. But they include using something where you can plug it into cigarette lighter in the car (which I already have, and it works well, I can put cold food, from fridge, and it heats up cold food in 30 to 40 minutes), and it will keep hot cooked food, or you can heat up previously cooked food. This will satisfy my need to drive somewhere, have something very decent to eat, and enjoy my day out.

I would like to support initiatives like 'too good to go', and local cafes, but given my food problems and reactions to foods, and being diabetic, I cannot risk that any more.

Could you not make your own sweet treat, based on what you fancy, and not relying on others, whether manufacturers or JKP? Forget conventional recipes, make something up of your own.

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ianpspurs said:

To be fair sweet things aren't enough of a miss to make it worthwhile. Dark chocolate bars and these with my single daily coffee are enough. Sweet food or dessert were never my thing. Your childhood sounds idyllic and explains your love of wildlife and growing things,

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gennepher said:

Fbg 10.2

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lindisfel said:

Believe it or not my youngest is going to a Duran Duran concert at Leeds tonight. I hope the trains keep running to ticket.
Not really my taste but I remember well the sounds of her youth coming out from under the bedroom door of our Simons tones.

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gennepher said:

That afternoon tea sounds exciting, please may we have a photograph of it when it happens.

Great sketch @dunelm

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gennepher said:

Thanks for the potassium link @jjraak

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gennepher said:

Oh deary deary me @jjraak

Resilience & discipline?!?!?

Next time cut that tiny piece off (I am not saying deny yourself it all), and before you eat it, pop the rest in the waste bin/food recycle and mix it thoroughly into the unmentionable contents.

Then sit down at leisure and savour that tiny sliver of a slice with a cuppa...

There is no way you are going to fish the rest out of the messy bin for more...is there???

Yes, one of my strategies, and yes I do lift the lid off the bin to check ....but alas I have mixed it in well...

EDIT: I do not buy things I shouldn't eat, because I live on my own I can do that, but it's virtually impossible when you live with someone else. But my problem is my friend D who always comes with a carrier bag with some stuff, all this will be a nice little treat for you. I tell her I do not want it. I do not need it, but she never listens and says oh a little bit won't do you any harm she insists. She doesn't have diabetes, or she has not been diagnosed with diabetes. And what I do now... I never take the bag home now, I never even open the bag, it always ends up in a litter bin on the way home, because I know I will not be able to resist, especially if it's some of her home-cooked stuff, and I know it won't be good for me…

Now, as I park my car, so I don't hand it back to her, she opens my boot, puts a carrier bag (or two) in of whatever, shuts my boot, as I am turning my engine off. And comes to my driver's door and says oh, I've put a couple of things in the boot for you. This now means I have to stop at a litter bin on the way home and put the carrier bag/s in the litter in. She always ties the handles. So that makes it easy for me not to be tempted to look in, because any resistance to her cooking is nil...

But I have to make sure there is no security camera trained on me, because I am sure this looks suspicious...

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gennepher said:

Fbg 10.2

I am thinking this is hopeful...

Had my usual breakfast.

Checked 2 hours later. This was now 12.9
Checked again, it didn't go lower.
After my usual breakfast, I am always lower than my usual Fbg

So this stupid server guy who put vegetarian sausage in my meat breakfast (and never told me ) and smothered it with tomatoes so I wouldn't see, needs to be hung, drawn, and quartered and left swinging from the gallows at Tyburn for eternity. I only took a bite out of one sausage...before I realised it wasn't just tough meat...

This has badly upset the equilibrium and balance inside my body.

I am now going to go on as absolutely zero carbs as possible now, until my body restores its finely tuned balance and I get the fbg's I should have.

I don't feel good with this blood glucose level. I feel grotty.

I used to be in charge of making sausages as a child, minced the meat, and used that skin to make sausage links...anyone else do that?
But I think all meat burgers would be quicker to make...

I just feel so lethargic this morning.


Wildlife nighttime cameras

A night of cats, fox, and badger, all feeding off the stray cats' biscuits on the swing...


This video is from when I didn't have everything tied to the swing like I have now, to stop the badger, pulling the cloths off. He was hurting one of his back legs after getting down from swinging on the swing. It is the fox and the cats which scatter the cat biscuits from the small bowl, at the back of the swing seat.

I actually watched this badger the other night, from my bed trying to climb on to the ledge at the side of the swing from my plant pots but he went flying, and limped sadly away.

Yesterday Midnight had taken his thrashing battery operated fish in the garden and was playing with it. It was a present from a well meaning friend who thought Midnight ought to find his inner child. I had to find that last night before I locked up, because I had visions of Midnight and KissyKissy playing tug of war with it....


Here is the sweet little Angel Midnight helping me with my painting this morning....he keeps touching the screen...

And here is the finished painting of the Jack-By-The-Hedge in my garden...

Now, I have to go back outside again, because that darned Mr Magpie is dancing on the swing ledge outside my bedroom window glaring at me because, despite putting out two lots of wet food out this morning, the stray cats have devoured it all and he needs that jelly wet food so he can carry a lump of that back to his babies...

I am exhausted before my day begins....

Have your best kind of day...
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ianpspurs said:

Morning all from a dry, bright but too windy and cool for me L.A. Another goose down gilet start for me today, still not warm enough for pre-6.00 am starts. That was why HITT/long slow ex-bike was such a good idea back in the day. Still, a (loose) theme hit me/came back home today. Call it heaven in the ordinary - thanks George Herbert via Malcolm Guite.. This version of Dreams - latest earworm - exudes joy which is what a Cathedral should do, imho. Wonderful sound system doing justice to the pulsing rhythm About 30 seconds in this poem came to mind - seemed a natural link. One way or another (yes Debs) - dodgy food, mobility issues, heart attacks, hip pain, pacing oneself, richter scale etc - events dear boy, events can impede such simple joy. Moving on. @dunelm thanks for sharing the art and enjoy afternoon tea prep and eventual eating. @gennepher hug for prolonged impact of "that" - very partial - meal. Thanks for the creative and introducing me to Jack by the hedge. I think you did so last year, I googled and sadly forgot. My brain latches on to things like these lyrics or sporting moments. Am I just wired wrongly? @Annb do check if the covid jab is advisable. @jjraak lesson learned - for now. Too smug of me for remembering cutting 5 gms from JKP's birthday cake? Pizza would be no problem - lasagne/pasta/sourdough more of a challenge. Pretty sure I'd fold at lentil dahl. @Lainie71 the bind moggles as to what is happening in your body to feel like that. @Krystyna23040 have a great family weekend. (I genuinely don't find Aldi cheaper than Ocado even if they had the same range. What am I missing here?) Enjoy your day : make your own kind of music, find your own heaven in the ordinary.

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dunelm said:

We use seaweed as a salt substitute in cooking and sprinkled on stuff. Kombu I think has the most potassium load. We buy it on line from Mara

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dunelm said:

Oh dear. Very well meaning of course and such a pity it can’t be passed forward to someone else. Probably not acceptable to a food bank.

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dunelm said:

Beautiful hedge garlic art. Take care not to get too stressed out, breathe - you already know that.

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gennepher said:

Maybe most of our longings for our treats or sweet treats etc come from past memories.
Maybe for comfort, maybe for a good memory, and so on.
My longings for cooked breakfasts are when Grandma cooked them on the farm in the black leaded ovens, when I lived on the farm as a child.
My longings for the afternoon tea @dunelm mentioned earlier are again precious memories of the the 4pm afternoon tea everyday except Sunday. Many different sandwiches. The pork was from our pigs. Grandma made jams. Grandma baked her own bread. Several home baked cakes. My favourite being buttercream Victoria sponge with her jam in.
And similarly for Sunday roast. Grandma would wring the chicken's neck and pluck the feathers out on the doorstep, the wind taking the feathers. I chose the chicken to meet its demise. Vegetables were all from the vegetable garden, which I also helped with.
Eggs were from the hens. I collected those.

And so on.

The sugar industry has a lot to answer for getting us addicted to sweet stuff and making it an 'essential' part of our diet. I have been addicted long enough to it, but I cannot stand the smell of manufactured sweets or manufactured cakes any more, so I don't long for them now. And I also know if I have one bite of a manufactured biscuit, I will reach for another, there is something addictive in it.

But I still long for something nice, but from honest to goodness ingredients.

I have been experimenting with some ideas. Not carried them out yet. But they include using something where you can plug it into cigarette lighter in the car (which I already have, and it works well, I can put cold food, from fridge, and it heats up cold food in 30 to 40 minutes), and it will keep hot cooked food, or you can heat up previously cooked food. This will satisfy my need to drive somewhere, have something very decent to eat, and enjoy my day out.

I would like to support initiatives like 'too good to go', and local cafes, but given my food problems and reactions to foods, and being diabetic, I cannot risk that any more.

Could you not make your own sweet treat, based on what you fancy, and not relying on others, whether manufacturers or JKP? Forget conventional recipes, make something up of your own.

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dunelm said:

Lots of electric lunch boxes and portable food heaters around - search on Amazon to get some ideas.

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gennepher said:

I am now going to go on as absolutely zero carbs as possible now, until my body restores its finely tuned balance and I get the fbg's I should have.

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ianpspurs said:

have a great family weekend. (I genuinely don't find Aldi cheaper than Ocado even if they had the same range.

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