Loving Life with Diabetes

Today will be a test

I have to do outside of my home work today. I will have to eat out for most of the day, this could be fun. I know for dinner I will probably go over my limit. I have found that going to a sit down restaurant is actually harder then going to fast food. Why? Well it’s harder to get the nutrition information. I’m going to try to do well anyway.

The hardest part is I have to be in a movie theater all day. I have to eat a snack at some point so I get to choose something from the concession stand. Not normally a big deal as I usually go with people so I share or just munch on some of there food. This time it’s just me. It’s very sucky. So far I think it’s either a small popcorn, no butter or nachos. The weird thing is I think the candy would be a better route, but I’m sure there is more then one serving in a box and that will make me not pick that up.

Why is the candy better. Well I like snow caps so I will use those. in a 1/4 cup serving there are only 180 cal 8 grams of fat and  30 carb where the popcorn, no butter has 450 calories 27 Grams of fat and 30 carbs. Yes you get to eat more with the popcorn, but I don’t’ have the option of taking it home. The nachos my really be the best bet if I’m hungry, they only have 200 calories 8 grams of fat and 29 grams of carb.

Well wish me luck with this decision. This isn’t a special day so I do feel bad for splurging, I have a feeling my weight loss is going to suck this week. I haven’t been able to exercise much either!

Get some help when eating out.

With going to school and the mystery shopping I do I sometimes have to eat out a lot. I have found a great book that is very helpful in giving me information on the foods I eat at restaurants. I don’t have the newest version, but I will be getting that soon. The book is called Calorie King and it’s the best book ever made. Not only does it have the carbohydrates in most restaurant foods it also has some great advice on keeping healthy.

This type of information is so important as many restaurants don’t want you to know what your eating. I hate this and hated it even before I was diabetic. I should have this information so that I know how much I am eating and can make that choice. Before I started mystery shopping and driving a distance to school, I didn’t eat out much mostly because I just didn’t have the extra money to do so. I usually went out for special occasions like my birthday or a friends birthday. Am I going to splurge and have that chocolate lava cake with 105 carbs? Yep! Any other time though I might not. The good news is even when I did splurge I split it with someone. The sad part is it still equaled a meal in itself according to my diet plan now.

I like choice, I think restaurants should be required to put calorie and carb information on there menu. It’s a health issue for many people right now. If I ate that cake all by myself there is a good chance I could have hurt someone or ended up in the hospital because of a high sugar.

Anyway the point of this post is to let you know there are things out there that can give you this information. Check my sidebar out for books you can get to help you out. Calorie King is in there.

Is fast food the problem?

Recently I read an article about fast food. Yes I know its everywhere fast food is bad for you. But is it really? Fast food chains have a bad rep, but there are a few that actually have some good options, if you know how to make them that way.

Salads are suppose to be healthy but when you add their dressing to it, it becomes about the same as the cheeseburger you really wanted. The best thing I think to do is to either bring your own dressing in a small bag or only use a little bit. yes I know this stinks but it is better then not having dressing at all. The other thing is if you really don’t eat out much, go ahead and have that cheeseburger, just don’t do it everyday and you will be fine.

I think Americas problem with losing weight is that we think we can not have the foods we love, we can but we need to learn how to do it in moderation. I learned this quickly after a stay in the hospital for a week. Your life changes when your told you almost died because of diabetes that you didn’t know you had. This decease can kill you. I’m only 24 and it almost got me. I didn’t grow up on fast food, we couldn’t afford it, but we also couldn’t afford healthy store bought food.

Now I come to the point of this rant. The government needs to step in and help people learn how to eat right. Home economics classes are becoming a thing of the past. In my high school they turned the home economics room into a huge office for the superintendent. Our school only had 500 kids k-12. He didn’t need a big office. Even if it’s not home economics that healthy eating is taught in lets put it in health class, I know mine didn’t cover food at all. I actually don’t think I learned anything because they were afraid to teach anything. I think that teaching people is the only way to get our nation back in shape, that and fixing the welfare program so that people who really need it can get the healthy food they need, and the people who do not really need the assistance need to be booted off.

What do you think?