Diet Is Not a Dirty Word

REPOST from former blog My Type 2 Diabetic Life ©

January 24, 2020

My great grandparent’s dining room table. It reminds me of a Norman Rockwell painting.  

Image: My Type 2 Diabetic Life ©

Some of my best memories are around the dining room table enjoying a meal with family and friends.  Breaking bread with others has been woven into society, across all cultures, since the beginning of time.  

My great grandmother would say “I don’t have a thing to feed y’all,” but then her table would be FILLED with food.  It was like clowns getting out of a car at the circus, but in this case, it was that “down home country cooking” coming out of her kitchen.  

The kids’ table (This is not me. 😁 It’s my aunt and cousins.)  Image: My Type 2 Diabetic Life ©

Like many people in modern day culture, I fell into the trap of processed foods.  I recall as a kid, getting excited when we got to eat TV dinners.  Those little aluminum trays of food where each item had its own compartment was quite a novelty for a kid who was a picky eater.  None of the food was touching the other food! 

TV Dinners were a TREAT!
Image: TES.com

For working moms in America, the mantra became “if you can make it out of a box, it’s in like Flynn!”  Bring on the mac & cheese, the rice-a-roni, the hamburger helper, and the frozen chicken strips!  I could say dinner was good “and I helped!”  (If you grew up when I did, you’ll remember that last quip from a commercial using an unnamed boxed product to make baked chicken – and pork chops – that supposedly tasted like it just came out of your grandma’s frying pan.)

When my diabetic journey began, I looked into my pantry and saw a multitude of boxed, processed foods.  Same thing in my freezer and fridge.  So I grabbed the trash can and my sweet husband helped me to cull through it all, and throw out all processed foods.  I even dumped the sugar and white flour out of the canisters, and got rid of the sugar filled sodas.

We then went to the grocery store and started shopping the perimeter.  We loaded up on produce, fresh poultry and fish, nuts, seeds, and whole grain (lowest carb we could find) bread.  We also only drink water, plain sparkling water, and coffee.  We use fat free, lactose free milk in our coffee, and Truvia.  

Image: My Type 2 Diabetic Life ©

I have ALSO learned that the more WATER I drink, the lower my blood sugars are.  WATER is your friend, whether you’re diabetic or not.  We are drinking so much water that we have invested in the 5 gallon refillable jugs (you can get them from Whole Foods or off of Amazon), and we got this nifty pump gadget off of Amazon that just sits on top.

When this began, my first thought was “oh lord, I’m going to have to go on a diet.”  But as I began to search Google for diabetic friendly recipes, I realized that the word DIET is not a dirty word.  We have to eat to fuel our bodies, The word DIET is defined as the kind of food that someone habitually eats.  It doesn’t mean depriving yourself of nutrients.  

There are two things that I began to look at when figuring out if a recipe would be healthy for my body (because what’s healthy for someone else may or may not be healthy for me) – carbohydrates and sugars.  (I’ve not yet had my appointment with the nutritionist, so I’m just kind of going on what I’ve read in the Mayo Clinic book and on the American Diabetes Association web page as my current guidelines.) I try to stay in a range of no more than 30 carbs per meal, and as few sugars as possible.  

If I was going to be cooking from a recipe, how in the world would I know this information?  I know I can read nutrition labels on those boxes, and on cans of stuff, but if I’m cooking from scratch HOW can I figure out the nutrition?  I found a super nifty website that does it for me!  All I have to do is type in my ingredients and it will create a nutrition label!  How cool is that?  At Very Well Fit I use their nutrition label calculator to create a nutrition label for EVERY recipe that I have put in my recipe binder.  (My sweet sister-in-law got me started making recipe binders. Now it’s an addiction, I think. 😆). Very Well Fit draws from the database that is used by the FDA, in order to create their labels. The FDA is who oversees the nutrition label laws in the US, so I trust this site.

Here’s an example of one label that I created for a low carb hummus recipe (not my recipe) using the nutrition calculator. The calories seem a little high, so I’m still not sure if I’m going to make this recipe, or create a new one. When I do, I’ll make sure to write a post about it.

Image: VeryWellFit.com Nutrition Analyzer

So what’s the take away from this long rambling post?  Diet is NOT a dirty word.  I’ve learned that diet is simply the fuel you put into your body.  I’ve also learned that I have to drink LOTS of WATER, and know my carbohydrate and sugar intake.  (Ask your doctor and/or your nutritionist about how many carbs and sugars you should be having per day. Everyone may have different targets.)

In future posts, I’ll share some of the recipes that I’ve used, along with nutrition labels to those recipes.  I’ve started a brand new recipe binder that I am using ONLY for recipes that are diabetic friendly.  I’m still keeping all of my old recipes, and will work through them to see how I can adjust them.

Image: My Type 2 Diabetic Life ©
Binder from: Amazon

I’ll also be adding future posts about the new workout habits that I’m trying really hard to make a part of my life.   

Thanks for reading about my journey.  Feel free to ask questions in the comment section below.  

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