At The Old Spaghetti Factory

Today was a good test for me. I attended the Pride on the Plaza Festival in Concord and ate with our Church 1.0 group at The Old Spaghetti Factory. While everyone else was having pasta and spumoni and Italian sodas, I had iced tea, house salad (no croutons), and one link of Italian sausage. I gave my ice cream to one of the children present. Stayed within Atkins food guidelines and carb count and blood sugar remained steady at 107 mg/dL. Yay, me!

Actually, it was surprisingly easy! Even the ice cream. Three years ago I would have killed for ice cream! The only problem was that the waiter forgot to bring out my Italian sausage with the rest of the order and I had to go hunt him down!

At California Pizza Kitchen, I can get a chicken Cesar salad (dressing on the side) with grilled chicken. At Old Spaghetti Factory, they use "lightly breaded" chicken for their Cesar salad. NOPE. It's a challenge to be creative in a restaurant. And immensely satisfying to be successful!

Losses

Today my friend Ryan Bell posted this:

"Some losses are a song interrupted. Some run their course and make coherent sense but sudden ruptures are deeply unsettling. Like a chord unresolved, it irritates and agonizes, not necessarily even because you loved the song so much, but because that's not how music is supposed to work. Like a story that ends midstream, it offends our highly trained narrative ethic."

This is especially meaningful to me as I am struggling with the first anniversary of my devastating loss last year of losing my biggest web client, which represented 20% of my income. And way more than 20% of my life.

What does this have to do with my diabetes journey, with my Year Without Carbs? Maybe nothing. Maybe everything. I am two weeks into The 30-day Richard Osborn Challenge, which is to see how close I can get to 10,000 steps a day. I was doing this last May and almost made it when everything came to a grinding halt on May 25. I have not walked since then, not until May 1 of this year when I began again. I'm not doing anywhere near 10,000 steps but I am putting on socks and shoes, taking a water bottle, finding a hat and sunglasses, and getting Barley dressed for the excursion. Some days I even manage to take along my iPod.

I'm also starting the second week of The New Atkins for a New You challenge and have survived seven days without half-and-half, almonds, and raspberries. Not even one. This is first time I've felt even remotely ready to take on this challenge! So far, no morning migraines, Dawn Phenomenon is minimal, and I haven't yet choked on any medication, swallowing pills with almond milk instead of half-and-half. Gawd, I miss half-and-half, though! But I will survive.

Challenges for Healing

Today I am beginning a 30-day challenge with the Atkins group, based on Dr. Eric Westman's book, The New Atkins for a New You. Now that I have my migraines and Dawn Phenomenon under better control, I think I can do this! Plus, I just discovered that Dr. Westman uses Net Carbs and I'm so used to calculating total carbs, that this should be a breeze! The main challenges for me will be giving up drinking 1/2 cup of half-and-half twice a day to swallow my pills with. And no cottage cheese, yogurt, nuts, or berries (with exception of the unsweetened almond milk).

I really love this Atkins approach since it is so appropriate for diabetics and accommodates all dietary lifestyles, from vegan and vegetarian to Adventist non-vegetarian. Contrary to popular misinformation, Atkins is not "high protein" or "all about meat." It is low-carb, moderate-protein, and high-healthy-fat. In fact, the basis of the diet is "Foundation Vegetables"--a list of 50-100 cooked and uncooked vegetables that are nutrient-dense and low in carbohydrates. I have my menus planned for this first day and the total is 19.7 grams of carbs.

One of the rules of this group's challenge is to do some kind of exercise every day. If walking, the final goal is to get up to 5,000 steps/day by the end of the month. I am already one week into The 30-day Richard Osborn Challenge with the Adventist Vegetarian Diabetics group and yesterday I did 6,145 steps, which I think may be my limit since I am having leg muscle twitches at night which (according to Google) is "because lactic acid accumulates in the muscles used during exercise."

I so need both of these challenges this month of May. For my healing.