Fantastic day

HEB, you rocked my socks off today.  Some of my finds that I almost shouted out with joy are:

Whole Chicken for $0.77/lb (I bought three... seriously, $4 a chicken...)
HEB Brand Spaghetti sauce in so many different flavors with only 3g sugar per serving (for reference, most other spaghetti sauces are around 11g sugar per serving, so not only is is better for us, it is also cheaper too)
HEB Brand Glycemic Noodles (in other words, 0g sugar)
HEB Brand raw almonds (the leading "competitor" didn't even have raw almond today) for over $2 cheaper per lb!

You know, cleaner eating is really hard.  It takes a lot longer planning meals based on how much "processed" food you add, and when you do, how much sugar in everything is so ridiculous that I almost cry at the lack of selection. I will say this, almost 3 weeks of seriously reducing my sugar and carb intake and eating cleaner, these are the things I have noticed:

Ethan has a sugar sensitivity.  If he has too many pieces of candy, or sugar in breads, jellies, popsicles, drinks, etc, he becomes very defiant.  He eats like I eat.  A lot of almonds, a lot of water, a lot of yogurt with hemp seeds, bananas with peanut butter and hemp seed, low sugar cereals, etc.  I even made him pancakes that substituted 1/2 the flour for whole wheat flour and added flax and chia seeds, he didn't even notice.  He's also eaten rye bread and not once said it tasted funny. He's started eating a lot of veggies he normally would never try (sauteed squash and zucchini, fresh green beans, etc)

My sweet tooth has dramatically reduced.  It's still there... but yesterday I tried an almond fudgey bite after dinner (it was only 1.9g sugar peeps!) and it almost gagged me how sweet it was.

The baby and my stomach compete for space (in not a good way) when I eat something high in carbs, and I really feel miserable for 1/2 an hour afterwards

A lot of diabetic friendly recipes (one of the ways to go if you are reducing carbs and sugars) have really good ideas that actually taste really really good.  For example, we've eating quinoa, beans and chicken (it was like chicken, beans and rice, mexican style), sloppy joes (with homemade ketchup), beef casserole, chicken, mushroom, and broccoli casserole, plus all the regulars I make just not really much starches or sauces: tilipia with sauteed veggies, baked chicken with sauteed green beans, deer burgers with salads.  And we will be trying much more new recipes.  The best website I have found is: diabeticliving.com It truly has a massive index of recipes...

My weight gain has slowed down CONSIDERABLY, and I find it easier to get up in the morning, stay awake all day, move around the house, walk around without hurting, and am just in a much better mood.  Doesn't mean we don't still have bad days.

Coconut oil, even though it is expensive, is absolutely, hands down, amazing.  It smells SO good when you're using it to cook with, you can't help but salvatate (is that even a word??), and you can use it as a lotion! (I was doing this, but because money is tight and I currently have a lot of lotions I need to use first that I cannot use as a cooking oil, I will hold off using it until they are all gone).

I have learned what a true serving is.  In ritz crackers, it is 5 crackers.  In ranch dressing, it is 2 tablespoon, in ketchup, it is 1 tablespoon (and actually try measuring these things out people, it isn't very much at all).  In lunch meat, it's like three thin slices. So it's really, really smaller than we american's have come to know, so small in fact, that (shocker here, hold on to your panties) you actually HAVE to add veggies, like salad, tomatoes, red bell peppers, cheese, etc, in order to make sure you have enough to eat.  Hence, you shouldn't have this huge sandwich with all these meats and cheeses on them and some chips, b/c whoa mama, I can't imagine what that would look like.  It's more like, two tortillas (or CAREFULLY chosen bread, b/c bread is killer in ADDED sugar not to mention the fact that it turns straight to sugar in your body anyway), with a few slices of lunch meat, shredded cheese, some mustard, spinach, tomatoes, pickles, and some red bell peppers to the side for crunch (yes I use ranch, just about 1/2 a tbs tho) and that's really it. Lots of water if you're still hungry haha.

Bread.  Whoa bread.  How I used to buy bread.  Look for the buttery golden one, the one that usually has the words "butter" in the name.  Test for softness.  Put in cart.  Pick up a package of flour tortillas as I am passing by.  Oh, maybe some cinnamon raisin bagels.  Mmm that would make a fantastic breakfast.  Gotta go get cream cheese to go on them. Did you know when I was looking at breads, because I don't really want to give them up completely, I do need some grains in my diet, that a lot of the "healthy" whole wheat breads have almost as much sugar as the white breads?  Did you know those sandwich thins have almost as much sugar as a regular slice of bread? And tortillas.  Don't get me started.  I remember being at Walmart with Kris, literally picking up every loaf of "healthy" whole grain, multi grain, oat grain, etc there was, and almost wanting to cry.  My goal is to keep my sugars under 5g of sugar per serving.  To me, that would include what I am putting on my bread.  So if it's already 17g of sugar, yea, I am in trouble.  I did find some things I can have: sour dough english muffins have 1g of sugar per muffin, paired with protein (peanut butter, turkey patty, etc), it will help negate some of the excess sugars.  Cinnamon raisin bagel thins have LESS sugar than regular bagel thins, or even the sandwich thins.  Laughing cow as a "lite strawberry" cream cheese that have >1g of sugar per wedge. (So there's my sweet snack with a handful of almonds). Rye bread, for the most part, has very low sugar.  Russian rye is the one we tried, it looks like white bread with a slightly different hint of something in it.  There's a 10 grain bread that has 2 g of sugar per slice. OH the best find was South Beach Diet Multigrain Tortillas.  They have less than 1g of sugar per tortilla.  Been making a lot of wraps and sandwiches out of them.  And they are REALLY really good!! I have only been able to find them at HEB so far. And don't let McDonalds fool you into thinking you're getting an actual wheat bun.  That stupid bun on that sandwich (grilled chicken) sent my numbers THROUGH the roof.  I was very very disappointed. Basically the only thing I can eat at almost ANY fast food restaurant  is a salad, with grilled chicken, no fancy smanchy salad with tortillas, or corn, or added sauces, a plain ole salad with dressing (a carefully chosen dressing).  And I can make a much better tasting one at home to be quite honest.  Chic-fil-a.  You're strips are amazing.  Your original chicken sandwich is to die for.  Your fries rock my socks off.  But your grilled chicken salad sucks.  Just. Saying.

My will power has increased like 1000 fold.  I literally HAD to get rid of all the sweets, the breads, the cookies, etc (I kept all my baking stuff b/c I will still bake for others, just not myself). All the frozen stuff I loved to eat as a lunch.  The chips. The snack bars (that laughably are advertised as granola, Ha!).  It.all.had.to.go.  Because I knew, that if I saw it, and I had a choice between it and something else, I would choose it.  Especially in the middle of the night when I am not 100% awake and snacking. And the first two weeks, yes, we hard.  I took Ethan to McDonalds for mommy and me the first week, and found out that I really can't eat McD's b/c of how it messes with my numbers. And Kris has a fantastic chic fil a strips and fries and soda right in front of me, and I was miserable eating their gross salad. But I stuck to it.  I have save so much money not going through sonic or mcdonalds in the morning for sweet tea or coke.  Today, at mommy and me at McD's, we smuggled in a lunchable, and I bought Ethan a fruit and yogurt parfait and a cup a water.  And not once was I tempted to eat any of his stuff.  Sarah had french fries in front of me last week.  It really didn't bother me.  My mouth didn't even water.  Was I hungry, yes, I was, for that? I am not sure.  Probably not. If I had eaten it, I prob would have not been satisfied, and then sick feeling on top of it.  And I baked the other day before my midwife appt and I did not ONCE try a cookie.  Because I knew that they had enough sugar in them to make me have to test my sugar, and I really dislike pricking my fingers.

There's so much I have learned.  I could probably go on and on and on and on.  but I won't I think I will end here...