I'm 8 lbs lighter...

but better than that, I can go most of the day now with only my Novolin N insulin!

We joined the gym 2 weeks ago tomorrow and tonight I weighed in 8 lbs lighter than the day I joined. But the best news is that most days I don't need any fast acting insulin other than the few units I take in the morning to deal with the spike coffee gives me!

Tonight we had a great dinner (not on the menu for this week but it sounded good) of turkey and dressing with a little gravy, mashed potatoes, green beans, broccoli, peas and carrots and sliced tomatoes. Yeah, that sounds like a lot of food and it was but I didn't eat much of the starchy items. We shared a frozen dinner that had 33 grams of carbs so we each got somewhere around 17 grams of carbs from the dinner plus the carbs that were in the broccoli and peas and carrots.

Here's my plate of food:

Pretty good lookin', huh? It tasted great, too! But notice the small amounts of turkey and gravy (on the right), dressing (that little mound of brownish stuff next to the turkey) mashed, and peas and carrots. Each of those was slightly over 1 Tablespoon. I know, that isn't much but the point is that I was able to eat a great tasting meal with over 20 grams of carbs with no fast acting insulin and no spike in the blood sugar! Wooohoooo! That's big stuff for me, folks!

We did go to the gym after eating the meal. BG before eating was 114. BG two hours after eating and right after the workout was 108. Wow!

Two weeks of working out all but two days have paid off already. I weigh 8 lbs less than when I started and I'm able to eat a semi-normal meal (still lower in carbs than most American meals but higher than I'm accustomed to) without a spike as long as I work for it.

I'd say that's a pretty fair tradeoff!

Menu Plan Monday

We have a busy week coming up (since when do we not?) but I'm armed and ready to go! I really do appreciate the opportunity to take part in Menu Plan Monday and hope that if you haven't joined in yet, you will!

Our menu this week will be tasty and contain food that's lower in fat and carbs. If you're a die hard low carber who doesn't worry about fat, more power to you! This goes for you die hard fat minimalists, too! We all have our own WOE (way of eating) and right now ours is lower in fat and carbs. But I'm still trying to keep it high in flavor and its quite a balancing act.

So, here's this week's menu in no particular order except for Sunday's dinner which is listed first and Monday's dinner, which is listed second:

Baked salmon, seasoned with basil and garlic pepper, vegetable soup, and a small baked potato

Turkey pastrami and cheese wrap with a small salad (we're having dinner at the gym's cafe where they serve very tasty food)

Beef, Cheese, and Jalapeno sausages baked with cherry tomatoes (inspired by this recipe), served with cabbage and green beans

Spinach salad with a few baked chicken wings

Turkey sausage meatballs (adaptation of this recipe), served with baked sweet potato and steamed broccoli

Biiiig salad loaded with all sorts of vegetables and a bowl of vegetable soup

Turkey with dressing, mashed with a little gravy, green beans, broccoli, and peas and carrots (you can read more about the surprising result of eating this meal tonight, Tuesday)

And that's about it for the week. If something changes I'll post the change on this entry and write another if it warrants that much attention. ;)

Sweet potato treat on the fly

Lunch this afternoon was homemade vegetable soup, the last of the turkey tenderloin, seasoned with garlic pepper and basil and topped with homemade pico de gallo, and a delicious dessert made with sweet potato.

White and red potatoes spike my blood sugar but a moderate amount of sweet potato doesn't. I usually eat it with butter and pepper but today I've craved something sweet and decided to put my half of the sweet potato to good use. I didn't feel like doing a lot to it, though, so I came up with a simple and easy treat.


I baked the sweet potato and cut it in half. I mashed the potato, cut the peel in small pieces and added it to the potato. To that I added a splash of Half and Half and half a splash of vanilla extract. I mixed it all well, put it in a small bowl, and topped it with a dollop of Redi-Whip, one of my favorite I need something sweet and need it now things. It's almost carb free, doesn't spike my blood sugar (in moderation) and just plain ol' tastes good!

The resulting "pudding" was creamy, smooth, and just sweet enough. Next time I'll add a little cinnamon and maybe some cardamom or some cinnamon seasoned chopped walnuts but for a lower carb dessert on the fly this is awesome! And the best part is it was less than 15 grams of carbs.

If you like sweet potato and crave something a little sweet, try this idea and let me know what you think of it.

Cottage Cheese & Egg Breakfast Muffins

Sooooo...my experiment with the muffins didn't go so well. They taste fine but they're a little bland and don't present nearly a pretty a picture as Kalyn's do. I had one for breakfast this morning along with three slices of fresh tomato and I'll take one to work today for my snack. The man hasn't tried them yet...

Blood glucose before the muffin and tomatoes was 86. Blood glucose after breakfast was 109! Okay, maybe I need to re-think these little gems. If I can eat one now and then without a spike, I'm game!

I made a few changes to the original recipe, using Better N' Eggs, omitting the green onion, and using a little less cheese and soy flour rather than almond meal. The differences all combined to make a muffin that was okay by and large but not something I'd make again. However, I do think the original recipe is probably very tasty so I'll make them again a little closer to her recipe. I'll probably use more cheese, almond meal, and perhaps throw in some Spike for that extra zing it adds.

If you're looking for good ideas for breakfast try Kalyn's Cottage Cheese and Egg Breakfast Muffins but use the original recipe first and see what you think.

A new breakfast muffin recipe

In my never-ending quest for breakfast ideas, I turned to Kalyn's Kitchen, one of my favorite low carb cooking blogs and I wasn't disappointed for I found a recipe for Cottage Cheese & Egg Breakfast Muffins. The picture of the muffins looks fantastic and I'm going to make this recipe today. I don't have almond meal so I'll have to run to Granary St. to get it but that's a simple thing.

I've tried a few of Kalyn's recipes and they've all been tasty and fairly easy to make. If you haven't looked over her blog, give it a try and let me know what you think.

I'll post a review and pictures of the muffins after I've made them.