Are you there Pancreas? It's me, Holly...

I have lost four poinds in the last week!!!! Yay! I'm so glad we started Weight Watchers 8)

Another super exciting announcement!!! We are trying to get my body to act more like one without diabetes... Trina is a place that has done the artificial pancreas treatment for years and years. I just found out about this via coincidence...( I, like God, do not play with dice and do not believe in coincidences -- V) and this is one of the best things I have ever done healthwise. This treatment can reverse and prevent diabetic side effects in the future (retinopathy, neuropathy, gastroparesis, etc). Medication can help some with diabetes (especially those with type 2) but Type 1 is trickier.

I am so glad to have this opportunity. They are kind there and really take care of their patients...

The issue is I have to track my points... I ate so many gummy bears while there (it's insulin via an iv, so we have to keep my blood sugar high). I really hope this helps me over all though. I have such a good feeling about this treatment 8)

And gummy bears.... yummy 8D

( Additional note -I am finding this is considered experimental. While I am finding people who have had success in their insurance paying for this treatment, it does sometimes require appeals and patience. It's really frustrating when treatments that work or would work for people so much better than other ways are harder to get approved. We prayed and really looked at this and we know this is the path for me. They really work with your situation as well, so that's a good thing. They want people to be helped 8). I have already seen so much good from this and I am very thankful. It is helping us peel the layers of my health issues quite faster... I have been sick for years, and unfortunately, it is taking quite a long time to sort each and every health problem and to deal with the aftermath of uncontrolled illnesses, but we're working on it 8). I am very thankful for this treatment! 8))

Stay on target...

So here we are, one week after deciding to make weight loss a priority. With the help of Weight Watchers I've manager to drop a whole 2 lbs. bringing my number down to 290. It's still a tough number to look at but it's by and far the right direction. 

Even Porkins had a tough time keeping under his WW points

I know after doing this for a while keeping up with my points will be substantially easier, but in the meantime I need little encouragements. I keep hearing Porkins telling me to stay on target when I feel like chicken fingers might be the way to go. I know the Dark Side has cookies but with the help of "The Porkins Mantra" I can resist even the pushiest of Sith Scout Girls. 

I'm weird but stuff like this helps me. We're huge geeks here (though hopefully less huge in time). If I need to connect to the force to hear the dearly departed Jek "Piggy" Porkins tell me to "Stay on target" to get through these first habit forming months then may the force be with me.

Darth Vader sold enough Samoas to win a new bike and a trip to Alderaan

But let me tell you about the Dark Side. MY Dark Side. It doesn't just have cookies. It has Fish and Chips. It has BBQ potato chips. In my dreams Emperor Palpatine has a slow cooker filled with Bratwurst and a fridge filled with ice cream. Can the Jedi beat that with it's quinoa and protein bars? Not really. I love food and more than that I love fatty fried decedent food. Maybe if they wrapped the protein bars in bacon and beer battered them. Weight Watchers allows me to dip into the Dark Side of the menu now and again provided I focus on portion control and am willing to sacrifice the rest of the day. If I'm to stay on target I need to remember that sacrifice is what's needed, but also remember that it doesn't have to be as bad as it may seem.

The sacrifice is worth it. The Jedi way lets me live a longer life with my family. It lets me have plastic light saber duels with Kegan for a period of time longer than a couple of minutes. It helps me work harder. I can sleep better. I can sleep quieter which means my wife can sleep better. Sure that means I have to have baby carrots and hummus instead of cheese curls. Yeah, that means I need to resist the urge to have ice cream by replacing it with an Outshine Bar. And of course it means that a few minutes of the day should be spent working out instead of playing the flavor of the month game on my iPhone. It's worth it. It's worth it ten times over. 

I just need to stay on target. 

A Cadbury Egg is 4 points...

Holly here--- I am a Type 1 Diabetic.... I also have a sweet tooth the size of Manhattan... Logistically, that would be impossible, so I should say I feel like I have a sweet tooth the size of Manhattan...

I'm supposed to log every morsel of edible goodness (or not so good) all the time, due to my Diabetes...

Suffice to say, I'm not good at it. I feel guilty when I've had 3 Cadbury eggs for lunch and don't want to log it, etc etc...

I am pushing 200 pounds, and weight isn't easy to lose anymore... I used to be able to lose weight very easily (super easily... which is one way you can tell you have Diabetes... though it went undetected for way too long...)

I need to do something and I want to lower my A1C. It's important to have my numbers better, because if I don't, the issues associated with Diabetes are much more likely, and I want to lower my risk as much as I can...

It starts with 1 thing, I don't know why... I mean it starts with diet... That pesky mean awful little word... But is it really so bad? I want to be healthier and unfortunately my bad eating habits (i have some good habits, don't get me wrong, I just have "special treats" way too much.

Dave and I started Weight Watchers yesterday and one of the first things I checked was the point value of Cadbury Eggs... I love Cadbury Eggs. They are beautiful, wonderful, delectible morsels that have 40 grams of carbs per egg.... They are four points... Not to bad, you might thing? My daily allotment is 30... But I have a newfound commitment to this. I want to feel better, eat better, do better... I want to be more aware of what I eat. So I have to track what I eat. It's not so bad. I even get smiley faces when I do well. Yay!!!

Big Note here --- Carbohydrates are something diabetics need to be aware of, and the points are not always indicative of the amount of carbohydrates. Weight watchers will not give you medical advice, and they suggest you speak with a doctor about this. I definitely will. I will tell my endocrinologist what program I am using. I hope they won't make me talk to another dietitian, because I usually get scared... That sounds silly but I have been to people who think a piece of birthday cake on your birthday is not a good thing...  I'm human and not perfect. The dietitians are right, I should just do this, with no issues, but having weight watchers at my fingertips (in my phone) is very reassuring and much easier for me. Please be aware, as diabetics, that WW considers an orange or banana for example as no carbs. So if I put in two bananas, I have consumed 60 carbohydrates, but they are no points. I think what's important here is just to be smart about it. It is a very good starting place. I am of the mind that some fruit is fine. Again, picking those that are better in fiber and not eating 5 tangerines for dinner would be better too...

It also helps that Easter is over... When the Cadbury egg screams come out for Halloween, you might be seeing a similar post, but I hope not 8D

Two Hundered and Ninety Two

This weekend we crashed at my folks place and on a whim I decided to weigh myself on their scale. Over the past years I've been hovering at or around 260-270. I've been focusing on eating right and trying to get some exercise in and actually thought that there would be a pleasant surprise.

I was wrong.

292.

292!!!

Two Ninety F'in Two!!

I'm a bad weekend away from the 300 mark.

I weighed myself again later. No difference. 292.

I need to do something different. A number of somethings different. I had used weight watchers before and it worked well. I stopped for one reason or another and it had a reverse effect. It was clear that the first thing I need to do is re-join. And I have (as has my loving wife.)

Which brings me to my next something new. Accountability. I'm going to continue to maintain this blog (which I've been bad at) to track my weight (Sunday weigh-ins) Share what's working. Share what's not. Post recipes that are both healthy and tasty. Be honest about my fat-man issues. Celebrate my milestones. OUR milestones. We've got this. We can do this!

I'm all in. Let's make this work!

Life whizzes by

So a wee bit has happened since my last post.

I finally found a doctor who said something is wrong with your gall bladder.

The surgeon agreed, so we took it out...

A week later, I started to have stroke-like symptoms.

Six weeks of doctors not knowing, doctors thinking they know, etc, until my hero, and my current neurologist, thought the culprit might be seizure disorder.

We are still in the process of finding my triggers and getting my meds right, but we're on the right path 8)

the medical conveyor belt

So I have had 1 cat scan and two er visits in 9 days.

The pain is continuous and worsening.

I was referred to a gastroenterologist...

He decided i need to do several tests, a test to rule out Celiac's disease, a colonoscopy, and an endoscopy. they were going to be a few weeks out, but i was told that if i was continuing to hurt badly, to go back to the er and I would be admitted...
That didn't happen, but my scopes have been moved up to this week... I am nervous, I will admit it, but I know I will be ok.

also, the second er doctor is my hero. He gave me some anti-spasmotic medicine that is helping soooo much.


This ordeal reminds me why doctors call it a practice 8D. Comforting, when one realizes that we are the guinea pigs.

what's wrong with me?

Well, a lot has happened... I am gluten intolerant... most definitely...

The doctors also think I either am having gallstone issues and/or appendicitis....

I am officially on a no fat diet...

That no is very specific. no dressing, no mayonaise, no fat whatsoever... I can't cook in oil.

My sweet man made me dinner with grapes, garlic, chicken, etc. it was tasty...

i already miss gluten free bread....

But as Dave always says... "Health First..."