sweet tooth

A few weeks ago I went to a new doctor and had a physical. I really, really like her, which is good when you have questions and she is going to be, uh, examining you. She told me that since I had a pap last year, we didn't have to do one. But I insisted. I've gotten a pap every year since I was 18, and I will continue to do so until I'm too old to care about it. 

She sensed that I was a "all or nothing" kinda gal so she ordered every single sort of test they do with blood. Man that was a lot of blood. It made me very squeamish. Oh, and I got a tetanus shot. I've needed one since I was 21, which was 11 years ago. Yikes. So I got one, and my arm hurt for a whole week. It was the worst 4-5 days later- I thought my arm was dying and it would have to be removed. Over-reacting is my specialty, especially when my health is involved.

I got my test results back and drumroll....

I have high blood sugar. Like pre-diabetic high. And low good cholesterol. What the? I have already stopped drinking 3 cans of soda a day, I had NO Halloween candy, when usually I have a few bags to myself. I've been so good about cutting down on sugar. And yet. 

About the same time I cut out Dr. Pepper, I read the book "Wheat Belly" because I thought that gluten might be the cause of my intestinal and bloat issues. After reading it, I was convinced. So I cut out gluten for a week and a half. Yes, that's not much of a chance, but I have intestinal issues, and they got worse- so I gave up. After that, I have cut down on gluten, but haven't completely cut it out. 

I love bread, rolls, baked goods. If there are rolls at dinner, I'll eat 3 or 4. Toast in the morning? I'll fix 2, then 2 more. While making soft tacos, I'll be cooking the tortillas while eating one plain. I totally eat way too much wheat.

One of the things that was in the book was how wheat- especially today's frankenstein variety of cloned, cross bred, completely unnatural strains make your blood sugar skyrocket. A slice of toast has a higher blood sugar spike than a snickers bar. For real. 

So, here we are. I guess I'm gonna cut out gluten after all. But not my Life cereal. It's the only thing that keeps things, running? TMI! TMI!

I eat a bowl of Life and a yogurt for breakfast. And today I am attempting to make my own yogurt- no sugar or fake sugar. I've been making myself eat lunch (why is lunch so hard to eat?) a small salad of baby spinach and arugula, with raspberry dressing, mozzarella cheese, pecans and dried cherries and an apple. And then I make dinner. So far I haven't been making gluten free dinners, but I've been weaning myself off of it. It's so hard- I will continue to cook as normal for Danny, because subjecting him to this diet before I get some good recipes down would just be rude. He hates salad. Like last night he had pasta and I had a salad. I got a good Paleo cookbook, so I'm excited to try some new things!

Sigh. Wish me luck!

Note: this will not affect my baking. I will still make desserts- I just won't eat as many.