Foods On Friday

Diabetes Blog Week 2015 (Thanks Karen!) introduced us to 'Foods on Friday' - My favourite topic during the week. In fact I was looking forward to it all week (and yes, just may be I had been prepping my post since the week before in anticipation. Just maybe)

I'm really quite fascinated by food (and I don't think it's just a diabetes thing), and since this topic also fitted quite nicely with the food journey I have been on this year, I thought I would continue the spirit of Diabetes Blog week past and post the occasional 'Foods on Friday' post - please join in if you like!

Today I'm showing what I ate yesterday. There's a few reasons for this. One being that by the time 4pm rolled around I was ready for bed. And I wasn't happy about that as I had to skip my normal 5pm workout and take a nap with the cat. Please cue the violins.... I'm not even thirty yet and there I was napping with my cat in the afternoon.... on a week day! 

So two, I'm looking for some opinions, guidance, tips... thoughts on where you think I'm stumbling and causing low energy levels... here goes...

Coming to Low Carb, High Fat

My journey into a low-very low carb diet, while hard at first (and I'm not there yet!), is not really all that surprising when I sit down and reflect on a question that oh-so-many people are asking me right now - WHY??????

I basically grew up on what is now very commonly known as a Mediterranean diet. We didn't eat this way because it was fadish or popular at the time, but because my mother had an intense love affair with all that was the Italian and more widely, Mediterranean culture. Her music, food, clothing and even sleeping patterns (I'm talking afternoon naps, late nights and a good red wine...though maybe that's just the life of a Type 1 parent) all lived, breathed and emulated the essence of Italy. I wouldn't be surprised if she even dreamt in Italian. I should point out here that we are not Italian.  I don't even have a distant relative that is Italian (that I know of). And until I was 17, I'd never even been to Italy. Mum's travel plans always involved Italy, and she even had me taking Italian language classes at Uni.

Foods on Friday

For Diabetes Blog Week's Foods on Friday I wanted to share, for comment, what a general week looks like in my life from a food and exercise 'Diabetes' point of view. Mainly because I don't really separate the three from each other - for me, these three elements in particular impact and cycle into each other. I also look at my overall managment in terms of a week, rather than a day. As I find that rarely does one single day only ever effect or be effected by that same single day! Thank you diabetes!

The following table is very much a generalization though as depending on the time of year, I often also work 1 -3 nights a week. And of course things completely change again when I'm in holiday mode!

Changes

Very tired after my first very sleepless night with the pump

Well as luck would have it, today actually marks 1 month in to a very big (and exciting) change in my life.

I'm now officially a PUMPER!

Moving on from MDIs for 20ish years, something shifted this year (can't quite pin point why, it just felt like time) and I made the jump.

The journey has been a bit bumpy so far though and I'm certainly no where near where I was hoping to be by this week. Things were looking great by two weeks in and then basically went to S@#$. BUT I'm still extremely hopeful and have been taking notes and pointers from a lot of you guys. I have faith it will even out soon! lol


A little of my journey so far...

Exciting times: unwrapping my pink pancreas

Having a rocky start with a bazillion lows

My first supplies order finally arrived 10 days after starting!

Discovering that sometimes my sites really despise a good sweaty workout
and keeping them in can be rather challenging! Especially when one can't even find
any proper tape and runs out of band-aids!

Spot the tubing!
Dressing for the pump is taking some practice.
There's been a lot of huffing and clothes throwing of late.
But I think I'm getting better... or maybe I've just been wearing the same things over and over.

On top of the general bumpiness, this week I've started developing rashes where the adhesive was when I take the sites off. I have just been using coconut oil or paw paw ointment but the last site is worse than the one before... Really hoping this is just a phase...

Also I need to connect with low carb, active pumpers. Its starting to get complicated, well more complicated than usual! Please comment below if that sounds like you so I can check out your blog or hound you for some tips!


Pumpin Jess x

This Post was written as part of Diabetes Blog Week 2015

Click for the Changes - Thursday 5/14 Link List.
Today let's talk about changes, in one of two ways.  Either tell us what you'd most like to see change about diabetes, in any way.  This can be management tools, devices, medications, people's perceptions, your own feelings – anything at all that you feel could use changing.  OR reflect back on some changes you or your loved one has seen or been through since being diagnosed with diabetes.  Were they expected or did they surprise you?

Clean It Out

Some old 'D' items from the depths of my cupboards

Come July this year I will mark 30 years on this planet, 20 years of which diabetes has traveled with me. Diabetically speaking, that's a lot of syringes, lancets, and insulin cartridges, pen needles, blood strips, blood meters and log books. Included in that time has also been quite a few transfers to various doctors, specialists and schools, alongside a few travel adventures.

So when I recently, not just moved out of the family home (after moving back in with the passing of my mother), but had to sort through everything within its walls in order to sell the house and downsize my family's life, I was confronted with many a D memory. There were Instructional DVDs from how to understand carb exchanges and general life with Type 1, to folders and folders of blood sugars, blood test results, referral letters and travel docs. There were certificates for being brave from doctors, and certificates from camps for being a good sport. There was every blood meter I'd ever had, expired needles, and lancets for prickers long lost. There were bits and bobs from expos and diabetes centers that I never really used and others that had blood stains from one end to the other.

Not Talking

I’d say I’m an honest, open sort. Ask me a question, or not, and I'm pretty happy to talk and share. And for the most part, life is much better when I’m that way. Because if I’m doing the opposite it most likely means one of two things:

Diabetes Can

The Sixth Annual Diabetes Week is here! Thank you to Karen from Bitter-Sweet Diabetes for creating, coordinating and continuing such a great event that keeps us connected and promotes a positive life with diabetes.

And here is my first entry for the week (and also the first in a couple of months! Eeeekk!)

Diabetes has never stopped me doing anything. Full stop. Sure - It has made some things harder, it has made me need to take extra precautions, it has made me more aware of myself and my surroundings, sometimes more apprehensive, even anxious. It definitely made me mature quickly and it definitely forced me to take on a positive attitude. But I've had diabetes since the age of 10, at an age where there was still a whole lotta living to be done! And still is!

I always wanted to be an exchange student. I did that. Within days of graduating high school in Australia, I was boarding my flight to Texas with a year of adventures ahead of me. Diabetes can student exchange.