Cindy Rae Muses

When asked, telling a loved one what to cook to control his or her blood sugar levels is a *big* topic -- the loved one should do some research and reading on his or her own. After all, most of us (including myself) are not doctors or nutritionists specializing in diabetes!

Again, I am not an expert.

Having said that, I've collected some information you might want to wade through if you are serious about being healthy.

5 Tips

1. Choose the healthiest foods in the right amounts at each meal.
2. Every day try to eat the same amount of food at about the same time
3. Engage in physical exercise every day; your blood sugar will never be normal unless you do. (Note that winter-time has no bearing on exercise -- you can exercise indoors by walking, chores like scrubbing, or even chair aerobics)
4. Limit snacking after the evening meal to foods that have no or very little carbohydrates
5. Cut *all* soft drinks from your diet as soon as you can, cut as much candy, chips, fruit punch, cookies, even if they say "sugar-free", as you can

5 Links to Useful Information

• "Making Healthy Food Choices"
• "Diabetes diet: New guidelines for healthy eating with diabetes"
• Cookbook: "No-Fuss Diabetes Recipes for 1 or 2: 125 Healthy & Delicious Meals and Desserts"

DETAILS / FURTHER READING

Recipes & Meals

(take these with a grain of salt -- some of the pictures don't meet the ratio described in pointer #1, and some use regular pasta instead of whole-grain pasta, white potatoes instead of sweet potatoes, etc.)

• http://www.americandiabetes.com/Recipes.htm
• http://recipes.organic.org/cgi-bin/recipeCategory?category.264
• http://www.naturesnaturalhealing.com/recipes/diabetic/diabeticrecipeindex.shtml
• http://www.diabetic-recipes.com/menus.htm (like their Chicken Whole Meal Casserole, http://www.diabetic-recipes.com/menus/oct98_1.htm)
• http://www.mealsforyou.com/cgi-bin/recipeCategory?category.39
• http://www.diabetic-lifestyle.com/fordinner.htm

About Diabetes

• "Diabetes solutions through food, herbs, and nutritional supplements"
• "How different foods affect blood sugar"
• "Diabetes diet: Create your healthy-eating plan"
• "How do I keep my blood sugar down without taking insulin or medications?"

Exercise

• "Exercise for Seniors"
• exercise video for older adults
• exercise video of exercises you can do in a chair

Other tips

(#1-4 above are so much more important)

• Exercise even if it's just walking back and forth in the house for 10 minutes every day to get started, preferably after a meal
• Vacuum, scrub, shovel snow for exercise -- any chore that increases your heart rate (don't overdo it)
• Apply warm heat for 20 minutes to arthritic joints before exercise, and ice the joints for 10-15 minutes after exercising (if you're exercising for, say, 30 minutes)
• Pair every carbohydrate you eat with some form of protein -- cereal with almonds, whole-wheat toast with nut butter or egg or cheese.
• Choose carbs with fiber: whole-wheat pasta over regular pasta, sweet potatoes over white potatoes, apple instead of crackers
• Have a protein snack -- almonds, slice of turkey, a few pieces of cheese) between meals if meals are more than 4 hours apart
• Use herbs that help stabilize blood sugar: cinnamon, garlic, sage, tarragon, chicory, turmeric, and more (http://www.healingfoodreference.com/diabetes.html)
• Canned goods, milk or water jugs, and potatoes can be used in place of dumbbells in exercises
• Check if you have a chromium deficiency

Some good foods (in the right balance)

• fish, chicken, or turkey with spinach salad with broccoli and carrots (without sweetener, without bad oils and fats) and skim milk, low-fat cheese, or low-fat yogurt
• low-sugar coconut-almond-oat granola and yogurt and low-fat milk
• carrots, garlic, onions
• whole grains (whole wheat, brown rice, buckwheat, oats), low-sugar granola
• sweet potatoes baked like a regular potato (don't add sugar) and eaten straight or added to salad, brown rice, or bean soups
• raw nuts or roasted nuts

My husband and I spend around $250 a month for groceries and eating out. I like to eat healthy, but due to budget restrictions that no longer includes most organic purchases.

Breakfast is typically bulk oatmeal (with soymilk and low-sugar jelly as sweetener for me, just fresh milk for my husband).

Lunch is salad greens (a mix of a head of romaine lettuce and raw turnip/collard/mustard greens) with blanched almonds. Sometimes we add cheese, raisins, or whatever we have on hand for a topping.

The dressing is a commercial dressing or a mix of olive oil and cider vinegar with herbs. The salad is accompanied by a piece of fresh fruit (banana, apple, or citrus) and a tortilla for the carbs.

For supper we rotate through boneless pork rib ends (indecently cheap here - $.99/lb on sale recently), chicken, free-range eggs, and beans (with ham hocks or in soup with veggies).
Sides include baked red potatoes, frozen vegetables, green salad if leftover from lunch supplies. For carbs, we rely on rice, pasta, and biscuits or muffins.

For snacks, we have fresh fruit or I make granola bars from the oatmeal, almonds, raisins or other dried fruit bought in bulk.

Beverages are milk, soymilk, fresh juice, and the occasional beer or coffee.

We used to buy at least the salad greens at the farmer's market, but at $9-12/lb it was waaay too expensive. Plus, most farmer's market booths say nothing about growing organic, anyway -- you're just buying local (which is not a bad thing).

We want to save up to buy half a cow and freeze the parts so we can get back to eating beef again (it's just too pricey for the most part here, even the ground beef), but that won't happen overnight.

Turns out that cholesterol and saturated fats are extremely healthy for your body. The danger with Cholesterol and saturated fats become dangerous when damaged by processing.

The following information comes from the article, The Truth About Saturated Fats and Cholesterol, but you can also find more information at Men's Health or StrongLifts.com.

Both reference full-length books supporting the facts mentioned in the articles.

Saturated fats make up at least 50 percent of our cell membranes, providing essential rigidity and strength, enhance the immune system, help incorporate calcium into our bones, and some even have antimicrobial properties that protect us against harmful microorganisms in our digestive tracts

Cholesterol contributes to cell membrane rigidity and strength, is used to make hormones related to stress and sex, is converted to vitamin D, is used to make bile (needed for digestion of fat in our foods), acts as an antioxidant, and helps maintain a healthy intestinal lining, offering protection against autoimmune illnesses.

Damaged is Dangerous

The danger comes when we eat fats and cholesterol that have been damaged by heat, oxygen, and unnatural farming practices. Damaged fats and cholesterol can lead to injury to the walls of our blood vessels, promoting a build-up of plaque that heals the injured areas. It is this build-up of plaque that impairs blood circulation and paves the way to heart disease and other chronic illnesses.
...
The difference in organic and non-organic animal foods is significant. As an example, let’s look at the difference between organic and non-organic eggs. We function best when we eat an equal balance of two fatty acids: omega-6 and omega-3. Having too much omega-6 and too little omega-3 leads to numerous health problems, including generalized inflammation, high blood pressure, depressed immune function, weight gain, an irritated intestinal tract, and a tendency to form blood clots. An organic egg, one that comes from a hen allowed to eat green plants and insects, contains an optimal ratio of omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acids of 1:1. A commercial supermarket egg from a hen that is fed mainly grain in a factory-farm environment has a ratio closer to 15 or 20:1.

Perhaps my favorite Louis L'Amour novel, Fair Blows the Wind is an evocative, lyrical story set not in the American West of the 1800's, but in the 1700's prior to the establishment of English settlements on the east coast.

The protagonist of the story reminds one of the swashbuckling heroes of the cinema, a mix of Errol Flynn's Robin Hood, Mandy Patinkin's Inigo Montoya in the Princess Bride, and Douglas Fairbanks' d'Artagnan in The Three Musketeers (book), among others.

The settings are not your standard fare; scenes are set in Ireland, London, shipboard, the shores of North America, and more. Drama, adventure, the high seas, the dangers of being marooned with only a sword where civilization doesn't exist, a Central American princess, gold, and pirates.

What more could one ask?

(Well, perhaps that the movie be done well by one of Hollywood's greats -- Spielberg, Lucas, or one of the other top-notch artists)

I'm off vactioning with family deep in the Midwest, three hours from any major airport. It's always good to have time to relax, de-stress, and reflect on life and dreams. It's time to decide if I'm moving forward with a dream or not -- is it a long-lost dream for good, or should I realize it?

More about the tree farm dream later.. Enjoy your 4th of July!

(based on an earlier post in a now-retired blog of the author's)

(based on an earlier post in a now-retired blog of the author's)

Some interesting tidbits surfacing in my life this week:

• the rumor that Warren Buffett and Jimmy Buffett are second cousins is incorrect -- they themselves suspect they are distant cousins, but noone's come up with the proof yet.
• Now in his 70's, Warren Buffett is giving away his fortune, including $30 billion to the Gates Foundation
• running over a rock, paint can, or other such object in the road with your tires can cause more wear on a specific spot on your tire -- watch for bald spots
• you can't get emotionally attached to pampered tomato plants in Colorado -- something's bound to happen to them, like a huge, shredding hailstorm
• not many bloggers talk about attracting wildlife for more than one entry (shameless promotion -- see The Wildlife Porch)

It's a place of scenic pines, huge aspen, hills, snow-covered mountain peaks, and a mountain lake so beautiful it draws the eyes for hours. We've seen deer, osprey, seagulls, swallows, and a beaver very unconcerned with our presence. The lake is small and calm enough for canoing, with a bit of work when the breeze comes up.

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In our busy lives, all of us confront a myriad of choices. Having options is both a blessing and a burden, and pursuing too many options can leave one frazzled and exhausted.

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Last night a news show portrayed a family with a rare genetic defect that weakens arterial walls, guaranteeing a heart attack. Researchers examined the DNA of many family members, but some refused to have their DNA tested. Fear of impacts to medical insurance, employment, happiness of their children, and more caused some family members to decline.

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I was watching a PBS special called "Sacred Balance" the other night. I had watched an interview with the creator recently that had sparked my interest.

I took away three interesting concepts.

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A curving two-lane road, hills streaming by like waves, evergreens standing as pine sentinels bordering each side. The black night, with diamond chips of light from stars overhead. A harvest crescent moon shining benevolently down. Nothing ahead or behind but darkness; the headlights of the car the only earthly glow.

For a fleeting moment, a feeling of peace and joy comforting the soul.

...sounds so trite -- until you're deep in the Rocky Mountains. Whether standing at the top of a windy mountain pass looking toward 14,000-foot peaks and green valleys, or walking along a stream turned stepped lakes by generations of beavers, or even tracing the remnants of almost ubiquitous mining efforts -- you realize, more than intellectually, where the phrase originates.

You also understand that no matter the words, no matter the camera, it's not something you can take with you, other than the memory in your heart.

(based on an earlier post in a now-retired blog of the author's)

I've been a fan of fiction since I was very young. Some of the well-written, captivating stories drive my thoughts to seeing the story on the big screen. Here are some of my favorites, in no particular order:

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I attended my company's diversity training recently. As we talked about diversity-related issues, some old memories came back to mind.

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Cindy Rae Muses provides an outlet for my creative muse, for the topics I don't cover elsewhere in my blogs. I will cover interesting stories (from print, television, books, and elsewhere) as well my own story ideas. I'll also cover interesting concepts and theories I stumble across.

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My name is Cindy Rae. I'm an avid wildlife watcher, a professional engineer (currently on sabbatical), and, now, a blogger. Although my history with computers and software goes back a long ways, and my fascination with wild birds, bees, and butterflies goes back even farther, I've been captivated by the written word my entire life.