On the Menu

When my guy and I go out for a meal -- not very often these days -- I'm ordering the most diabetic-friendly items on the menu, like this chicken cranberry pecan salad I got when we stopped at Bob Evans on one of our day trips. The dressing has a lot of sugar in it, so I get that on the side and use it very sparingly (I only used about half of one of those cups.)

My relationship with food is always going to be difficult, thanks to diabetes. In theory I can eat pretty much all the salad, meat, cheese and eggs I want, and limited amounts of rice and pasta now and then, but no bread, baked goods and especially potatoes, which are a trigger food for me. I drink coffee, herbal tea and sparkling mineral water, mostly the latter. I'm also trying to lose weight, so at this time I really can't eat all I want. It's very, very frustrating when I have to watch everyone else enjoy desserts and rolls (and french fries!) while I go without or nibble on a piece of celery.

Presently my biggest problem is snacking at night. I am working on it, but giving that up has been a real struggle. The high-fiber drink I tried that stops my snack cravings at night really does work to stop hunger pangs, but it doesn't erase the habit or the longing.

I think it's related to what I miss eating, too, like cookies. A couple of cookies and a cup if tea was my favorite snack. Recently I discovered some sugarfree cookies from ChocZero that I like a lot, and are pretty low carb, but they're very expensive, at about forty cents a cookie. I should really make my own version.

I work on my diet every day by really thinking about what I put on my menu. Today I'm planning to have a lactose free sugarfree yogurt for breakfast, and then some salad with sugarfree dressing for lunch. Because my blood sugar crashes every day around 4pm I do have an afternoon snack, which will probably be tea and cookies. Dinner is still a question mark until I talk to my guys, but if I can eat a small portion of whatever I make for them that will finish my eating for today. Tonight I will let myself have a cup of calming tea, but that's all.

I've lost about five pounds since January, which doesn't sound like much but as always it's slow-going when you rely only on diet and exercise to lose weight. Not gaining any new weight over the holidays was my real victory last year. If I can whittle off another five pounds before summer arrives I'll be happy.