Rayen

The title of this post and the embroidery on this mini quilt I made last year are the same: jasin-eul salanghaseo . It's a Korean phrase that has very deep meaning for me. It came to me during a terrible time as a gentle wake-up call, and became a motto for this time in my life. It empowered me like no one and nothing else in my life has. What does it mean? The literal translation in English if you google it is "I love you" but the actual meaning is "love yourself." In the past I have always attracted people who do not actually care for me. They have told me they do care so they could use me, abuse me, swindle me out of money and otherwise gratify themselves at my expense. I'm not sure why they behave that way, but that was my heaviest burden. I have done my part by being naive, believing what they told me, hoping it would get better, and even thinking at times that I deserved to be treated that way. I had no one to protect me. Much of thi...

If I didn't have diabetes I would probably never leave the house except to shop for food. I am a homebody by nature. I love my home, my guy, my nephew and our dogs. That's my world. I do not feel the same about the outside world and most of the people in it. The world seems dark and nasty, and most folks appear to be just out for themselves and what they want, and heaven help anyone who gets in their way. For these reasons I would happily stay at home forever. When I'm not writing, cooking, caring for the pups and my guys or doing my housework, I can sit for hours and crochet, read and watch videos. That's my life and I do love it. Maybe that's why I am a very sedentary person. Also, I've never found an exercise that I ended up genuinely liking. I've done gymnastics, weight lifting, dance, aerobics, swimming, tai chi and a bunch of other stuff. Now I'm so old and crippled by arthritis that all I can do is walk, but I do walk, twice ...

You remember me showing you this deadline week disaster. The rack and shelves in my wardrobe ended up spontaneously collapsing, taking all my clothes with it. I have a philosophy about bad things happening, especially when I'm busy: it could always be worse. In that yes, my closet self-destructed, but we can fix it ourselves. Would have been much worse if the wall had come down with the clothes. It took about an hour to clean up, and my clothes went to live in the spare bedroom while my guy repaired everything. The rack and shelves just needed to be remounted, this time correctly. I tried to see this as an opportunity rather than the pain in the butt that it was. I'm not naturally a glass-half-full person, but it's the healthier attitude. So when my guy had finished the repair work I started putting my clothes back while removing things that were too big, too heavy or that I didn't like for some reason. I also weeded out most of my old cold-weather jack...

When it comes to diabetes management, there are a lot of videos on YouTube which are basically fear-mongering for views and sheer quackery for the quick-fix chasers. If you're diagnosing and/or treating yourself according to crap you watch online, you will likely suffer for it. If you're not sure, videos with titles like "Eat/drink this and reverse your diabetes in 24 hours!" or "The simple cure for diabetes that doctors don't want you to know!" or "Lose fifty pounds in a month (or even a week!) and end your diabetes with this trick!" are pure quackery. In my experience, pretty much any title with an exclamation point at the end is crap. Hey, I've fallen for it, too. Turmeric, which is often plugged as a miracle supplement in such videos, seemed like something I could try to reduce my inflammation due to arthritis -- it's a spice, right? How could that hurt? I also cook with turmeric regularly. Simple thing to try. At firs...

Last week while I was writing my guy came into my office to interrupt me, which meant either the house was on fire or a disaster had happened. The first words out of his mouth were, "Honey, we've got a disaster" so it didn't look like we were going to burn to death. No, it was just half of our walk-in closet's shelves and racks spontaneously collapsed. All of them, all at the same time. My half, of course. The folks who installed the shelves and racks did not bother to find the studs in the walls, which is why after 29 years and many pounds of clothes, bed linens and pillows the drywall screws just worked their way out. My guy helped me move everything to the bed in our spare bedroom, which will serve as my temporary closet while he builds me new shelves and racks. It took an hour I didn't have to spare, but that's my luck. Hey, at least the house didn't burn down, right? Good disaster.

One thing that is hard for all diabetics to do is give up certain foods. Usually when I give up something I have to stop eating or drinking it entirely; doing smaller or even tiny amounts doesn't work for me. Eat just two M & Ms? Please. Sometimes I'm able to find safe substitutes, like sparkling water for soda, or zero sugar cookies that taste like the real thing. I've also modified my expectations. Before I was diagnosed I could eat a whole pile of Oreos. Now? I eat two of the zero sugar variety. To give you more ideas, here are: Ten Healthy Substitutes to Control Cravings: Baked potato: A baked sweet potato with a sprinkle of cinnamon is much lower in carbs and just as satifying. Bread: I don't care for Keto breads, but I do like chaffles as a substitute. Cereal: Instead of sugary processed cereal for breakfast I eat oatmeal with ground flaxseed, chopped walnuts, a sprinkle of cinnamon and a little stevia. Chocolate candy: The be...