My Diabetes Update

I know I've been awol for a while again, but life has been busy. We have begun school -- we've got 13 days in so far! Soccer season began last Saturday, and co-op begins on Wednesday. I have also been encouraging and informing my neighbor lady in regard to homeschooling. She will begin her homeschool journey with her oldest child this year. I love being able to be a help and encouragement to another mom who wants to homeschool because as far as I'm concerned, homeschooling is the only way to go. Besides, the Bible tells us in Titus 2:3-5: "Teach the older women to be reverent in the way they live, not to be slanderers or addicted to much wine, but to teach what is good. Then they can train the younger women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the word of God." I do my best to live according to God's word, and this is one part I find relatively easy to do and I enjoy doing it.

Now, my diabetes update. I had the first of 6 classes on diabetes education last Tuesday. Each of us who were there to learn more about diabetes received a binder full of information that we will be using for the class, and we can keep this binder. It was an introductory class, but I did learn some valuable information and tips. For instance, they recommend that we use canola oil for baking and olive oil for cooking, and ground flax seed is better for you than the actual seeds in that it gets absorbed in your body quicker so that you reap the benefits quicker. Also, we learned the percentage of nutrients that is changed to blood glucose in our bodies: 100% of carbs turn to blood glucose, 50% of protein and less than 10% of fat turn to blood glucose.

Next Tuesday, we have individual appointments and will meet with the nurse for a period of time and then with the dietician. We have to keep a record of everything we eat every day for the entire six weeks of these classes. I know this is helpful. I've done it before with other diets when I wanted to lose weight, but it's a real pain.

We were also advised to eat more plant based foods. So, today I had a salad for lunch and plan to eat salad just about every day for lunch. I have lots of salad recipes I've been wanting to try. Then, this evening for dinner, I made a recipe that a friend of my posted about on facebook a few weeks ago, but I tweaked it a little. She said that she had put zucchini and yellow squash in the bottom of a pain and then put hamburger on top of that, (I browned my burger first, I don't know if she did or not), then topped that with tomato slices and sprinkled parmesan cheese on the top. I added a little bit of tomato puree because I was afraid that otherwise my husband would find it too dry and he doesn't like dry foods. I also added some mozzarella cheese on top. The whole family enjoyed it! My two older boys told me that I should start getting more creative with my cooking and not always follow recipes:)

I plan to do just that twice this week. The same friend told me how she had made some homemade vegetable lasagna a couple of weeks ago. I asked if she put noodles in it and she said "yes". Well, tomorrow, I will make a regular lasagna with whole wheat lasagna noodles, especially for my husband as he is not a big veggie eater, but I am going to try to make my own veggie lasagna, and I'm not going to use noodles. I plan to use slices of zucchini and yellow squash in place of the noodles. I also plan to include red and green peppers, broccoli, carrots and spinach, and, of course, ricotta and mozzarella cheese, and some tomato puree. I can't wait to try it. I'm imagining that it will be quite tasty. I'll let you know.

Then Monday night, I'm going to create my own casserole. I'll try to post more about that on Monday or Tuesday, so be sure to stop by to find out how the veggie lasagna turns out and to find out about my casserole creation. This is fun!