July 23 - By The Pricking Of My Thumbs

  Something healthy this way comes!
  Ok, I'm paraphrasing, but liberties with The Bard aside, I have a cool new toy!  Sure it stabs me twice a day, but it does allow me to have live updates on my blood glucose levels.  The pen thing, that's a 6-needle cartridge wielding Multiclix Lancing Device and the little doohickey with the screen is the Performa Blood Glucose Meter.  The little bottle with the cap on contains Test Strips.  One end speaks to the Meter, the other end is where you stick your droplet of fresh squeezed blood!
   So obviously I saw the diabetic educator today and she was really helpful.  She gave me the whiz bang handy-dandy monitor and lots of information on how the particular type of diabetes I'm looking at works (Type 2).  Essentially, my pancreas is a bit sluggish.  It is therefore producing low-quality or defective insulin leaving too much sugar in my blood stream.
She weighed me and, assuming the scales at her clinic are out as much as my doctor's, confirmed I have lost 3kg since the start of July. Yay me!
They also checked my vision in both eyes and that's all good too.
  The only thing that came up weird was my blood pressure... They got 180/120 with a heart rate of 84.  Now the heart rate seems possibly right but there is no way that my blood pressure was that high.  I was calm, collected and only slightly worried about being two and a half hours late for work (I had no idea it would take that long).  In a resting state like that the highest it's ever been was 130/90.  The nurse who took it felt that it was inaccurate too so I'll get my doctor to check it on Wednesday night.
  The good news is, she's very pleased with all the changes I've made so far especially the exercise as it apparently 'wakes up' a sluggish pancreas.  And she is helping me understand further changes I can easily make with what I'm eating.
  One of the cooler pieces of printed information I got today is this life-sized representation of my ideal dinner plate and what food groups should be on it.  The diameter of the white circle is 21.5cm.  On the back it also has suggested foods and daily food plans.  I find it very helpful and I'm going to find some way of keeping it in the kitchen.  With that in mind, I have laminated it to keep it clean.
  I got home, pottered about a bit then convinced myself to get on the cross trainer.  Today Buffy was attacked by parasitic mind-controlling bug baby things.  They looked suspiciously like larger versions of the parasitic mind-controlling bug alien things in the Star Trek TNG episode 'Conspiracy'.  So... now that you've all been made even more aware of my nerdiness, on to the day's consumption!
Breakfast: Yoghurt, berries and fibre toppers.

Lunch: Homemade pumpkin soup and a Coles Bakery Rustic Roll lightly buttered (same as yesterday's dinner but without the sour cream as that was going to be messy to transport to work) and a passionfruit.  My blood glucose two hours after lunch was 9.0 which is higher than I though it would be as after my breakfast I was only 6.4 but I guess that might come down to the bread roll.

Afternoon snack: A small slightly green banana.

Dinner: Homemade pizza of a wholemeal Khobz flatbread, Leggo's Pizza Sauce, shredded ham, six slices of beef salami, mushrooms, broccolini, red capsicum and Mainland Finely Shredded Light Tasty cheese.  I know I've photographed the pizza's about a billion times already but they all look different!  Pizza: Now with red blobs!

  I think that's it of significance today.  I'm still finding dinners are my weakest spot, mainly because I really don't feel like cooking when it's sometimes 8:00pm by the time I've done my exercise.  Thank you Jodes for the Broccoli Soup recipe though, will try that one out soon I think!

  I just want to say too what a big support this has been and how great you all are for reading and sending me your ideas and even just telling me you enjoy reading.
  It's all really helping and here's hoping that I can keep my momentum going!

  Jess