Caroline's Keto Journey

Weight: 191.4; up a pound from yesterday, but still down from the beginning

Morning blood sugar: 5.0

Units of insulin last night: 5

Yes. I’m down from thirty units of insulin at the beginning of this to five last night. I’m staying within the normal range as well, although not entirely at 100 percent. I don’t really know what that means since I can’t see the graphs in the app, but I’m really okay with this.

I’m still trying new recipes, and last night we had this bacon-crusted chicken recipe. It’s definitely going on the list of meals we’ll have again. I served it with cauliflower rice. With a bit of no-sugar added ketchup, even Bruce enjoyed a bowl of it. I told him that sometime this week I’m going to make butter chicken, and I’ll serve that over more of the cauliflower rice. I want to make my own, but I’m concerned that it might get too soft. I attempted to shred cabbage a couple years back to make homemade coleslaw, and it turned into a huge mound of mush, so I’m a bit hesitant to try again. But now that we’ve been generously gifted a food processor with a grater attachment, I may try it with a small amount of cauliflower and see what happens. It definitely would be less expensive to buy the cauliflower and make it myself than to buy the frozen stuff in a bag. So, we’ll see. And, if I’m feeling really ambitious, I might even make this naan bread to complete the meal.

In other news, I may have mentioned a couple weeks back that I picked up a few pairs of pants a size down from what I normally buy, along with a belt. Well, I’m already able to fit into the smaller size pants. I think I was right on the verge of this smaller size already, so it didn’t really take all that much, but I really do have to say that it’s nice to be able to put my phone in my pocket and not feel like my jeans are going to fall down around my ankles. The new things also have belt loops, so I’ll be able to make good use of them for quite a while. I don’t want to keep replacing my clothes at this point because it could get rather expensive, so I’m just trying to come up with ways to make things work.

Other than that, I think that’s about all I’ve got to say at this point. It’s almost time to enter my new data into the web site to get the second month of the plan. I’m really hoping to be able to actually get Bruce added this time, and we’re going to go through the food list again and see if there’s anything else we can possibly add to expand the variety a little bit more.

Weight: 192.4

Morning blood sugar: Very good

I’m still here. I just haven’t really had anything new to say, so rather than keep repeating the same things again and again, I thought I’d skip a couple of days.

Today though, I’ve got news. About three months back, I had a medication switch. My acting doctor, (my regular doctor has been on maternity leave), put me on a once-a-week injectable medication. This med was supposed to help with appetite and possibly weight-loss. Unfortunately, it also wasn’t covered by insurance, so we’ve been paying out of pocket for it. After taking it for three months, I haven’t felt that it’s made any difference for me at all, other than to inflate the credit card bill. I currently have one dose left, and would need to get it refilled this week or early next week. However, I just spoke with Lisa, our friendly dietician, and she agrees with me that there’s really no point in continuing this medication. So, she’s going to just confirm with the doctor, but Friday should be my last dose. One less needle I have to stick into myself a week is a good thing.

We’re finding that the recipes we’ve been given on our meal plan are getting a bit repetitive, and we both want other foods. So, over the weekend I’ve been branching out a little bit. Saturday night I made us taco salad, and these keto biscuits, which are low carb, paleo, and gluten-free if those things are important to you. I added garlic and cheese, and turned them into a knock-off of the cheddar bay biscuits from Red Lobster. The texture using almond flower is a bit different from regular flower, but they were very good overall. Things I do with almond flower also seem to be a bit more dry, but I don’t know if that’s normal or if there’s something I need to change. In any case though, it was so nice to have a biscuit. This recipe can also be used to make hamburger buns, and I could totally see this working.

I don’t plan to make a habit of this, but last night I was up until after 1 AM working on a project. By the time I went to bed, I was really tired. I crawled into bed and then remembered my insulin. My sugar level was hovering right around 4.7, so I made the decision to just skip the insulin altogether. It ended up being a good thing. My sugar was around 5.5 this morning, and I didn’t end up having any overnight lows. I told Lisa that I’d missed my dose last night and she also said that taking it might have caused me to go low, and suggested that I try cutting back a little bit again. So, I’ll try that tonight and see how it goes.

Other than that, I really don’t have a whole lot to say. I’m still not feeling all that great. Lisa says that it could be because my body is so used to having the higher blood sugars, and now that they’re in range, I’m having to get used to the lower levels, and it’s possible that I just feel like I’m verging on too low because of the drastic decrease in my numbers. I’m really having to push myself some days to prepare these meals, and I’m really glad that everything is really pretty easy. I’m still holding out for that magic moment when I’ve suddenly got all sorts of energy. Interestingly enough, I wake up most mornings with a really dry mouth, which is usually an indication for me of high blood sugar. I know that bad breath is a sign of ketosis, and if what I’m breathing in when I wear a mask is any indication, I’m totally there! 😊

But now, I’ve got to get ready to go out for pizza, (yes, keto pizza crust, of course), so that’s about it for now.

Weight: 193.4

Morning blood sugar: Right around 6

Well, actually, it was very easy eating green today. Lots of green. Our supper tonight was broccoli ham and cheese casserole with roasted broccoli. I just happen to really like broccoli, and those two things were, for some reason, scheduled for the same meal. I think I over-roasted the broccoli just a bit because it was on the lower rack in the oven and rather close to the element, but Bruce said he actually really liked it that way. Breakfast was a sausage and egg scramble with bacon.

There’s really not a whole lot to say today. I’m still really wiped out, but I was home all day today so that helped. I’m home again tomorrow too, so I hope having a couple of days where I’m able to take things kind of easy will help me.

My numbers have been really good, but it shows that my average over the last twenty-four hours for being in target range is only 89 percent, although my average number shows 6.7, which is still really good. I haven’t had any highs or lows, so I don’t know what’s causing it. I ended up only taking nine units of insulin last night. The vial in my pen ran out, and although I had another one to replace it with, I didn’t want to inject a second time for two units. It seems like that ended up being okay though, but I would like to get back into the 100 percent target range. I have a suspicion of what might be happening, but need to confirm it before I write about it.

But, I think I’ll call it good for today and spend some time curled up with a book.

Weight: 192.4

Morning blood sugar: Around 9.4

So yes, a bit higher than it’s been recently. And yesterday, of course, we kind of went off the plan, even if we did pick good things. And I know what the problem is. When we’re on plan, everything’s been calculated for me. The fat, protein, carbs, all that is calculated so that I don’t have to do any of the work. But, if we choose a meal that’s not on the plan, I don’t know the ratios of what we need, or how to figure it out. If you check my links menu at the top of the page, you’ll see that I’ve actually added a low carb and keto macro calculator to the list. So, I need to sit down at some point and figure out what each thing is, what it means, and learn how to plan for it when making meals that aren’t on the plan. For example, later this week we want to have taco salad. So I need to figure out how much meat, cheese, and other things I should be using. Although the calculator will tell me numbers, I need to research how to turn those numbers into something I can use. So, this is definitely a learning experience, and I’m still kind of bumbling my way around as I learn.

I was out shopping earlier, trying to get some groceries that we’ll be needing and couldn’t find my favorite keto bars. I did, however, find these SlimFast keto fat bombs. (That link takes you to Amazon Australia, so you might not want to purchase from them, but that’s where I found a link to the ones I bought. But, if you’ve ever had a turtle with the caramel, nuts, and chocolate, that’s what these are like. Bruce loves turtles, and we were floored by how good these things are. If someone were to hand me one and tell me it was like a turtle, I’d never know it was a keto snack. It was absolutely delicious!

As I said earlier, my blood sugar was up a bit this morning. I’m still holding at eleven units of insulin a day, and I’m still taking my oral medications. But, 9.4 is still so much better than the high teens and/or low twenties that I was getting. My average level is still hovering around 6.3, so still very respectable. Hoping to get my average back up to 100 percent tomorrow though.

Weight: 192.6

Morning blood sugar: Good

Today was … interesting. I got up around 7, checked my blood sugar and got on the scale, and then went back to bed for a bit just because I could. I got up again just after 9 AM with the intention of making breakfast for us. I went to wash my hands, and that’s when I realized we had no water in the apartment. No water when you are cooking, and need to wash hands and other things is a bit of a challenge. We were hungry, and after contacting our building manager we learned that the water wouldn’t be back on until 3 PM. So, we ended up ordering in for breakfast from Denny’s.

As far as places go, Denny’s isn’t too bad. They have a lot of different egg choices, and you can really customize things. I made a bit of a mistake though. We both ordered eggs, bacon, and sausage. Bruce ordered a ham slice, and I, thinking I was going to be good, ordered a cup of fruit. The last time the fruit was strawberries, pineapple, and bananas. I figured I’d probably get the same thing. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen. I got the bananas, grapes, apple slices, and some kind of melon. First of all, I can’t stand melon! I can handle water melon every once in a while, but don’t like cantaloupe and other stuff like that. So, scrap that. I ate the bananas, grapes, and apples, and they were fabulous. But, a couple hours after eating, my blood sugar was up. It wasn’t horribly up, but it was definitely above the average that I’ve been experiencing lately. So, after the fact, I checked, and it turns out that bananas, grapes, and apples are not approved for the keto plan. Very sad, but still really tasty.

We ended up having a talk with Lisa, our friendly neighborhood dietician this afternoon. We’d wanted to run a few things by her, and she had an opening, so we took it. She was able to talk with us about things we’re doing, and just to check in. We’ll speak with her next at the end of October.

In other news, I’m still having good and bad days with my energy levels. Yesterday definitely wasn’t a good day. Today, while better, was still rough. I’m chalking it up to keto flu, which should hopefully go away soon.

And, speaking of being tired, I’m done for the day.

Weight: 193.2

Morning blood sugar: Still on target

This has been a very long day, and I’m more than ready for bed! I’m hungry tonight, but I know why. I’m used to following the meal plan, and today we really didn’t. We made good food choices, but I don’t know that we got enough calories and things. Because I’ve been using the meal plan, I don’t know what I need to do to calculate things if I don’t do something that’s been scheduled. I have a book that I got when I signed up for the plan, but haven’t really read much of it yet.

So, I don’t know much today. Although I’m hungry, my levels have been pretty consistent. I got knocked down to 94 percent for some reason, but I’m not sure why that is. My current estimated A1C is around 9 something, but that’s normally calculated over the last 90 days. I recently got a new phone, and for some reason my data didn’t transfer with my account, so I’ve only got sixty days-worth of info. That A1C definitely needs to come down, but the longer I keep my numbers in range, the better the A1C is going to get.

And those are my short thoughts for today.

Weight: 192.4

Total loss for the week: 4.8 pounds

Morning blood sugar: 5.5

Well, it’s the end of the first week. I still get an evening snack of strawberries and whipped cream, but at the moment I’m too full from the homemade pizza we had for supper tonight. That pizza crust recipe is one I’ve been wanting to try for weeks now, and tonight Bruce and I wanted to celebrate making it through the first week with one of our favorite foods.

And, let’s recap that week a little bit. So the insulin I’m on is a long-lasting 24-hour one. A week ago tonight I took thirty units before going to bed. Last night I took eleven. Other than that one low reading I had on Friday, I’m still in target 100 percent of the time, with my average level over the last twenty-four hours currently at 5.8. A week ago my blood sugar level was averaging around 15 or 16.

Today I got up, washed dishes, and made breakfast. It was an amazing mushroom and cheddar omelet for me, and a ham and swiss omelet for Bruce. This afternoon I pulled out my Kitchen Aid mixer to mix up the pizza crust dough, and, of course, made the pizza. Right now, I’m tired, but I’m not feeling that overwhelming exhaustion that I was feeling a few days ago. Oh, and I did some exercise! What? Me? Really? I was actually thinking of a friend of mine who lives in England. She uses a Fitbit, and does what she has termed “bouncing”. I expect it’s kind of jumping and moving in place, but still getting the heartrate up. So, while on a Zoom call this afternoon, I got up every once in a while and moved around, and purposefully made an effort to keep it going. At the moment, my Apple watch says that my exercise ring is at sixty-seven percent. Considering that most days that number sits at zero, I’d say that’s not too bad. And, I’m hoping to close all three rings today. My stand and move rings are already really close, so this is something to work on before going to bed.

That’s all I really have for today, but I’m just so thrilled with the numbers. I know it won’t always be like this, but if I can at least keep the blood sugars looking good, I think the rest will happen too. So, let’s see what happens in week two!

Weight: 193.2

Morning blood sugar: Good

First off, you’ll notice a new look to my page. I wanted to make it easier for people to leave comments if they wanted to, and I just wasn’t overly happy with my previous theme. Hopefully this one will be better for everyone.

A couple of things I wanted to write about today.

First, someone asked me last night what my blood sugar numbers meant. As I said in my first entry, the US uses a different numbering system than Canada, and many other parts of the world. No surprise there, of course. But, at least figuring out what my numbers translate to in the US is simple. Take my number and multiply it by 18. Or, if you’re like me, ask your personal assistant of choice to do the calculating for you since that’s a whole lot easier. Whichever way you do it, that number is where I am on the US scale.

We didn’t end up having our wings and cauliflower last night. I had a bit of a kitchen disaster, and the floor became a skating rink. It was oil, so I had to get in there and try to get it cleaned up, and, for the most part, I think I got it. There are still a couple of bad spots that I’m going to go over with the mop again, but at the time I needed to create the marinade for the wings and get them in, the floor just wasn’t passable. So, that’s our meal for tonight. I’ve decided that instead of doing everything in the oven, I’m going to do it all in our ActiFry air fryer. The one I’ve linked to here isn’t our model because that one is no longer available, but you’ll get the idea. What I like about our unit is that there’s one button, on and off, and a stirring paddle inside that keeps the food moving so there’s no need to stir or shake the basket. We also got an accessory for it that allows me to do things that I don’t want stirred, so it’s been a very versatile tool. So, the cauliflower is in there now, and the wings will go in once the cauliflower comes out.

Now let’s talk portion sizes. This was something that both Bruce and I struggle with, which is one reason we chose to go keto. But I look at some of these recipes and wonder just how, exactly, I’m going to get full with such small amounts. But then, after I eat, I actually am full. It just amazes me, even though I’d read about it and know that’s what’s supposed to happen. But my mindset says big portions. So that’s a definite difference. Before, when we tried scaling back on the portions of what we were eating, we were still hungry, which often led to wanting something, especially right before bed. I’m finding now that although I sometimes still want something before bed, the overwhelming feeling of needing to eat immediately isn’t there anymore. Of course, I wrote this right after eating a mix of raspberries and blackberries with whipped cream. And let me tell you, I enjoyed every single bit of that!

I actually had a low blood sugar yesterday afternoon, and had to drink some apple juice. That was an unexpected treat, although the reason for needing it was, of course, not good. But, the juice brought it back up where it should be. A common thing with diabetics that I’ve talked to recently is that when we get low sugars, we often just want to eat and eat until that number comes back up. The problem with that though is that there’s a delayed reaction, so then the levels go the other way. The apple juice was a really good compromise. Of course that low brought my daily average of being in the target range down, and by quite a bit. It was showing 93 percent for a while. I just did another reading a few minutes ago though, and I’m back up to the twenty-four hours of 100 percent in target.

Weight: 193.8

Morning blood sugar: 5.0

And I’m starting this post earlier in the day so that maybe I won’t be so tired when I’m writing.

I had my phone doctor appointment this morning. He was impressed with my numbers, and supported my choices with my insulin decreases. I did end up sticking with twelve units last night, and as you can see, that was still very good for my morning level. I’m still at 100 percent in target range, with a 24-hour average of 5.6. I still don’t really feel any better, but I know that’s not going to happen overnight. I do wish this total lack of energy would get better, and I feel at times like I’ve got a very low-level headache. It’s not enough to really bother me, but it’s enough to let me know it’s there.

Breakfast this morning was homemade beef sausage patties and mozzarella and oregano omelets. Loved the sausage, although next time I’m going to make the patties a bit thinner and larger around. I’ll probably use my burger press to keep things more uniform. I used my kitchen scale to ensure that the patties were the weight suggested in the recipe. I just love that scale because it really does make it easier to get measurements right!

But now, to the omelets. I have never tried making an omelet before, except one time in my electric egg cooker. That was really good. The problem is that what they call an omelet in that cooker is really an egg patty. So today I did the flat pancake-type thing where you put fillings on top and fold it over. The recipe didn’t call for any flipping, so this was a good thing. Having never done this before though, I wanted to know how long I should be cooking things. I asked Google, and was told one to two minutes. Um, okay? Each one of ours took about ten minutes. I used a fairly small frying pan, but they were only three eggs each, and there was cheese mixed into the eggs. But, the recipe said to cook until set, and the top wasn’t set for about ten minutes. In any case though, Bruce started eating his, and said that now he loves omelets. I still don’t know if I did it right, but whatever I did worked, so he told me not to change it next time.

This got us thinking a bit though. Bruce said I should put some taco sauce on mine. I chose not to do that, but I used this no sugar added ketchup instead. While eating it, I thought of things I could do with it. Since this didn’t get flipped, there’s kind of a firmness to the bottom that really helps to hold things together. I was thinking of making these in a larger pan so that they’re bigger around and thinner. This would allow me to use them as soft-shell taco shells, crust for pizza, etc. And, with different seasoning, I can make it into anything from Italian to Cajun, to whatever.

As I’m getting more inventive and doing different things, I’m looking at ways to streamline the process for myself. To that end, I’m going to add a wish list to products that I think would be helpful. A couple of examples are this Cuisinart Frittata 10-Inch Nonstick Pan Set, or this Happycall Nonstick Double Pan. They both seem to be fairly similar, but what I like about them is that rather than having to flip the food itself, I would just flip the pan. I can see so many advantages to this. I had something similar to these several years ago called the perfect pancake, and my problem with that one was that as I flipped it the batter would fly out and make a mess. I assume that, at least the second one, doesn’t have a break between the top and bottom, so stuff wouldn’t come out when I flip.

Tonight’s supper will be buffalo chicken wings and more roasted parmesan cauliflower. We’ll also get a snack later of dark chocolate. Unfortunately for Bruce, dark chocolate gives him headaches, so as much as he enjoys the chocolate, he doesn’t enjoy what comes next. So, welcome to Friday, and hope everyone has a great weekend!

Weight: 196.8

Blood sugar: Amazing!

I have been absolutely exhausted this week! I’m told that this is normal at the beginning, and that it should go away in about a week. I really do hope so because by the end of the day I just have no energy whatsoever. It’s barely 9 PM and I’m ready to go crash now.

But, despite the extreme exhaustion, things are continuing to go really well. I’m back up to 100 percent in range for my blood sugar, with a current 24-hour average of 6.0. I increased the insulin by two units last night like I said I was going to, and that was just about perfect. So, unless I’m lower when I go to bed, I’ll do the same tonight. I’ve had a busy day today, which is always good, but I’m looking forward to a quieter day tomorrow.

Supper tonight was spicy basil lemon chicken for both of us, creamy garlic mushrooms for me, and baby carrots for Bruce. I have to say, that was some of the best chicken I’ve had. And the mushrooms! I just can’t say enough about the mushrooms! They were sautéed with garlic and onion powder, and then I added a bit of milk and some cream cheese.

Well, I know I’m boring tonight, but it’s time for me to drag myself off to bed.