Wordless Wednesday NOT!!!!

Hi everyone

I am feeling so out of the loop.  I haven't been on here in quite a while.  Used to be a daily event to come on  and write my post and read all of yours.

I just haven't felt "into" it of late.  I hate to say it but I'm sick of Diabetes.  And by that I mean, I'm
tired of the day to day.  I know it sounds strange, but up till now I've been kind of feeling alone in this.
Not feeling sorry for myself, or burnt out, just bored.   Not much relevant has been happening.  I'm feeling a little angry at someone.  I'm not really sure who I'm angry with, but I'm angry. Let me explain. 

Finally, after much hard work by some very determined people, the Dexcom G4 has been approved for sale in Canada.  I was thrilled by this news!  3 years ago, I would never have given this a thought.  I was only recently thinking about an insulin pump and couldn't quite get my head around having something attached to me 24/7/365.  Now I'm seriously considering having another "something" attached to me!

As the years with diabetes go on, I realize that I am not feeling the symptoms of these lows as much as I used to.  It bothers me that some days I "feel"  low at 5.2  and other days I can be 2.8 and feel perfectly normal.  It bothers me that I may be alone, or with one of my grandchildren when that 2.8 hits with no forewarning.  My husband is pretty good (read great) with noticing lows in the middle of the night, but he is also a truck driver and not home every night.  This is kind of scary.  I don't want to imagine what could happen.  For many years I neglected taking my bedtime shot of Levemir for fear of going low and not waking up.  It has happened on several a few occasions over my 39 year career as a diabetic, but there was always someone home with me to help me out.  My husband, my children, they all knew exactly what to do.  But things change and as I said, I don't always feel those lows coming on.

So I had been waiting impatiently for the approval for sale in Canada of the Dexcom.  I thought this would be a great advantage to me in staying safe.  I spoke to the people at Animas long before the approval came through.  Gathering information for the day when I could contact my insurance and get the go-ahead to order my G4.

Alas, that apparently, is not going to happen.  I spoke with them two times in the past week.  The first time was to advise them that the Dexcom was going on sale on November 25 and I needed to know what paperwork they would need to approve it for me.  The second time was to be told that my insurance company does not cover "medical devices", and would not likely make any exceptions in that regard. 

Needless to say, I am pissed.  I explained to the nice lady, that in my insurance handbook it states clearly that my coverage includes a maximum $10,000.00 per calendar year in coverage and "includes prescription drug items approved by *******  **** ***** and certain over-the-counter items which are considered life-saving in nature and which are approved by ******* **** *****.  Including diabetic supplies."

So after explaining how a Dexcom is a potentially life-saving device, and the reasons that I think the plan my company has should cover them, and saying that I cannot be the only diabetic within the Loblaws company of stores,  I was told that she would go back and see what she could do, but in the end I may have to go to my union and press them into adding that to our coverage when we renew our contract next time.  Next time is 2 years from now.  Other plans within the same insurance cover "medical devices", but mine does not. 

I feel a battle coming on.

In other, much brighter news, I have received 7 postcards so far from my postcard buddies!  WDDPE is so much fun, and it does really drive home the knowledge that I am not alone, no matter how alone I feel.  Each day I go to my mailbox with such anticipation!  Just look at the wonders that have greeted me so far!

Seven of them are from the US and 1 is from England!  They are awesome!!  I hope mine are being received!  Lee Ann Thill (and her helpers) do such an awesome job in getting this organized each year.  This is my 3rd year participating and it's so much fun!

I'll try to be more constant in my postings and keep you up to date on my Dexcom dilemma.

the most wonderful time of the year!

hi everyone

it's been quite a while since i've written.  summer has been very busy.
i look after my 2 grandchildren and they are non-stop!  
i must say the summer has just flown by.  it's hard to believe that it's September already!  

school starts back here tomorrow, and i am looking forward to it!  Cameron is going into grade 2, and he isn't looking forward to it.  i'm certain once he gets back into the routine he will be fine.

routine is a good thing, as anyone with diabetes knows!  i will be welcoming the return to routine.  not that my diabetes routine is disrupted by summer, but the routine of the day with the kids is, well, no routine at all!  

some days they wanted to go swimming first thing in the morning.  other days they wanted to go to the park, the zoo, the liftlock, the chip truck, the splashpad.  some mornings were spent watching old disney movies (old meaning VHS), scarfing down some lunch then swimming all afternoon!

but alas, summer is over.  perhaps not officially, but in my books today is New Years Eve!

i've always felt that this time of year is "New Year" .  as a kid, i loved heading back to school.  not necessarily because i loved school.  more because i loved the social aspect of it.  a lot of my friends lived in a different area than i, and were bussed to school.  so seeing them over the summer was not really possible very often.  and this, of course, was long before the days of cell phones with facetime, or laptops with skype.  

we did have bikes and we knew how to use them, but back to school was an exciting time for me.  

when i had my own children,  i enjoyed back to school shopping, and getting them ready.   new teachers, new friends, old friends!  i don't know.  call me weird, i just love this time of year.  (<--watch the video!!)

another wonderful thing about this time of year is canning.  it's a new thing for me.  the first time i canned anything was last year.  i've become obsessed.  so far this year i've done dilly beans, corn relish, mustard pickles, dill pickles and this morning i did hamburger dills.

homemade hamburger dills

my next canning adventure will be chili sauce.  like the kind made by Heinz

we have an abundance of tomatoes so i thought i'd give it a try perhaps sometime this week.  i'll post pictures of course!

well, since it's New Years Eve, i'll think i'll go have a bevvie and enjoy this nice long weekend!  

Happy New Year everyone!

why do i wait?

This is just a small sampling of the number of lancets I have at my disposal at any given time.

Every 3 months I receive another 3 boxes with my pump supplies.  That's a total of 300 every
3 months. 

I had so many that I dropped 6 boxes of 100ea to my local Canadian Diabetes Association office.
I hope they can disperse them to those that may need them.  Seniors, newly diagnosed, those without
insurance.

And hopefully they will use them.  Because apparently I do not.  I have enough that I should be able to change my lancet every time I test, or at the very least, once a day.

So then, I ask, why?  why do I wait until my fingers hurt soooooo bad, and i get no blood, before I decide it's finally time to change the darn thing?!


I mean it's not like it's a difficult thing to do.  It doesn't require tools, or even any skill.  It takes all of 13 seconds.

So again I ask, why?

Why do I wait?

Not Wordless Wednesday (i just cant seem to do it!)

this is my new tattoo, and
i love it!
 
it's taken me almost
2 years to get it.
i believe i actually stole
the saying from a post written
by Kelly over at Diabetesaliciousness.
She may have mentioned it in its
Latin form "Dum Spiro, Spero"

i decided english was the way to
go, for this anyways.

for one, i would have to explain 
what it meant, in english, and
then i'd have to explain what
it means to me. 
this way there's only 1 explanation.

my daily grin =)

holidays are over.  i have endured my first week back to work.  

i make that sound so awful.  it actually wasn't.  

monday was a holiday for us Canadians.

tuesday evening i worked 5-10 then had wednesday and thursday off.  

how does that happen after having a total of 11 days off in a row?? 

beats me  =)

friday, saturday and sunday i worked a total of 18 1/2 hours and thus ends my first week back to work.

today is a kind of crappy weather day.  still warm, but overcast with sprinkles of rain.  

we were supposed to be having a BBQ tonight with my son, who turned 30 (i know, how is that possible right?) last sunday.  (he chose to go fishing in northern quebec instead of spending his special day with his WHOLE family at our reunion. do you sense the sarcasm?)  

the poor boy is suffering from a bad case of poison ivy.  his face now looks like something from a horror flick!  (is that karma i hear?)  he knows i'm only teasing LOL!

anyway, while sitting here deciding what to do on my now free afternoon, i was doing a little catching up on my blog reading.  i clicked on one of my favourites, and you really should read this  it gave me just the chuckle i needed on this sunless day.

now if you'll excuse me, i have some more blogs to catch up on.

enjoy your day!!

 

Holiday happenings....Part 2

I arrived home on Monday at about 11am.  A little earlier than planned because I had to drive my youngest to work for 11:30, but I was OK with that.  By Monday morning we are all ready to pack up and head out anyway.

I had packed enough for a 2 week stay, I swear!  Anyone else do that?  I mean, I know that for Diabetics there is alway "extra" stuff, but boy sometimes I think I over do it!

Anyway,  by the time I got one daughter to work, and the other daughter back home (she's one of the group of 9), I was ready to just do nothing.  

Of course that's not possible, as I had all my unpacking to do.  Deciding to do that and then either go for a dip or perhaps catch a few zzz's, I got to work.

It was site change day and so before my nap (choose to nap first and swim after dinner), I got all my stuff out, and set about changing my site.  Of course that includes new cartridge, new infusion set, blah blah blah.  Everything went like normal, and withing 10 minutes I had set the alarm for an hour and was trying to flake out.

Woke up 2 hrs later, feeling refreshed.  

I made myself some dinner, and was just tidying up when my pumped buzzed at me.

I was getting a "pump not primed. no delivery" warning.  hmmm.  I unattached myself, and went into the pump.  I primed about 3units and it seemed to be fine.  Hooked back up and thought about going for a swim.

I didn't stay in the water long.  By now the sun had moved and it was getting a little cooler.  I got out and was just sitting, drying off when the pump buzzed again!    What was going on??  I did the whole unattach, prime, reattach thing and thought that was that.   I did notice that the screen seemed to have some condensation in there, but was that the problem?  

This happened again just before I left to pick up my daughter from work, and once more while I was driving.  I just quickly hit "confirm" and decided I would call Animas when I arrived home.

I disconnected from the pump and called the 877 number on the back.  A very nice woman answered and after talking with her, and describing the issue, we went over a few things.  She determined that I would need a new pump, because she thought there may be a tiny hairline crack somewhere.  Because I am in Canada, she would have to have someone call me back and make the arrangements for the pump's delivery.  I was fine with that.  When asked if there was anything else she could do, I mentioned the problems I had had over the weekend with the meter and she said she would have someone call me regarding that as well.  

I was quite pleased with the service I received, and waited for the calls from Animas Canada, and LifeScan Canada. 

About 10 minutes later, I got a call from Tricia.  We went over a couple of things and then she asked if I would like a pump that night.  I was shocked and said that would be awesome.  She asked what colour mine was and I told her green.  She said they had green, would I like that?  Yes!!  She then told me she would call me back in about 10 minutes with the shippping information. 

Sure enough, 10 minutes later she called and said my new pump would arrive at my house by 1am.  Probably closer to midnight but just in case there were problems on the highway.

I was amazed and so glad.  I didn't want to have to go on injections even for 1 day!  

I thanked her profusely and told her how impressed I was with Animas Canada's Customer Service.  

I then went about making sure I had all my basal info and I:C and IS stuff written down before the pump just died completely on me.  

The next call came from LifeScan, and Tim determined that the strips must have been faulty, so they are sending me a package of 100 strips to replace the ones that wouldn't work!  How cool is that?!!

At 12:30am, my pump arrived!  There was a knock on the door and nice older gentleman asked me to sign for my delivery!  I thanked him and as he got in his vehicle I shut the door and jumped up and down!!  

I was and still am, so impressed with Animas!  I have been very lucky with my pump, and this is the first problem I have had.  

They came to my rescue and were so pleasant to work with!

I will be writing a letter to them to tell them about my awesome experience with them!

ANIMAS ROCKS!!!!

 



 

Holiday happenings....Part 1

I am officially on holidays!  And what a crazy start to my holiday week.  

Let me first say that I don't often take holidays, and this year I have decided to take 2 weeks.  Not at the same time, mind you, but 2 weeks just the same.

So to begin, I went to work last Thursday night, as per the norm.  Before punching in I checked the schedule for the following week, knowing that I would not be on it!  I had booked from Friday the 21st through to July 1st off.  

As I mentioned in my last post i was going on my "girls weekend".  Nine lovely ladies spending a wonderful weekend at a cottage.  Plenty of food, music, sun, some tons of alcoholic bevvies, more food, and laughter till our stomachs hurt!(you get the gist).  We would be gone Friday afternoon until Monday afternoon.

When I looked at the schedule I was shocked to see that I had been scheduled to work all of this week and the coming weekend!  That couldn't be right.  I had booked that off way back in March!  This needed to be fixed and fixed right away!!!

I spoke with the supervisor on duty explaining my dilemma.  She then called the supervisor above her, and her suggestion was to come back in in the morning and talk to our boss.  She was the one who did the scheduling and a note would be left for her regarding this.  

I'm just going to put it out there.  My boss is not the most personable person in the whole wide universe.  She never looks you in the eye when she talks to you.  She sometimes thinks she is never wrong.  And she believes that her rules rule.

I was not looking forward to having to speak with her.  However, bright and early the next morning I went in to work and approached her.  This being the Friday that I am leaving for the cottage, I have come prepared for battle.  

I had played the scene over in my mind so many times the night before, with her telling me that I was out of luck.  Of course I had my argument all planned out and was ready to go on the attack.

There was no need.  

She was actually quite pleasant about the whole thing. She actually remembered our previous discussion about my holidays and was taking part of the blame.  I was shocked.  What had happened (in a nutshell) is that I had already booked the Friday, Saturday, Sunday off, and then when it was time for holidays, chose the Monday thru to the following Monday.  Well I guess holidays run Sunday to Saturday, and when I wrote down the 24th to the 30th, (since July 1st is a holiday anyway), she thought I wanted the 30th onwards.

Now I know that doesn't even begin to make sense, however, I did understand what she was thinking.   

In the end, I got what I had originally asked for, and she now has me working the week of the 2nd, which is better for her anyway, because she was going to be short-staffed and now she won't be.  

All in all the weekend was a blast, with only a slight glitch.  My meter and test strips seemed to be bothered by the humidity.  I kept seeing error messages and when I used the strips of one of the ladies who is Type 2, they 
worked fine.  

I was planning on giving Animas a call when I returned home on the Monday if that kept up.  It cleared up once I was home but then something else happened, only this was my pump!  

I thought not having a working meter was bad, but that was nothing compared to what happened next!

More on that tomorrow!!!

  

 

 

Busy days are on the way!

Things are beginning to get that "summery" feeling around here.  Not because of the temperature (it's still early spring/early fall feeling), but rather because of the activities that are about to commence!

This weekend is Father's Day weekend.  Every year I gather my parents, my sister and her family and all my children and their children to my home to celebrate "the Dad's".  In total there are 4 dads that we celebrate each year.

My dad, my kids' dad, my nephews dad, and my grandkids' dad!  We have a lot of fun.  Good food and lots of laughs.  Depending on the weather, the kids will be swimming in the pool.  Although I'm sure the weather won't hinder the swimming.  It never has.  In fact, it could be raining and hailing and snowing and I'm sure they would still go in!!!  Crazy little toads!  Well the boys (my nephews) are both well over 6 foot.

The following week is my yearly weekend with the girls.  The girls are a group of friends and myself that rent a beautiful cottage for the weekend and spend time relaxing, eating, drinking and generally just enjoying each others company away from the stresses of family, jobs, and life in general!

We are there from Friday to Monday, and I am on holidays for the week following.  Heaven!!

The weekend after the cottage, is my Family Reunion/Golf Tournament.  
This is a yearly event, that changes locations depending on who is hosting it.

This year it will be at one of my cousins homes.  Her and her husband have a beautiful home on Lake Huron, about 4 hours away from my home.  We will be golfing and swimming, visiting with family we haven't seen since the year before.  Oh and the food!  Well let me just tell you that the pot luck table is overflowing!  There will be hamburgers and hotdogs, every possible kind of salad you could think of.  Someone always comes with something new!  Desserts of every kind!  Fruits and cheeses and pickle trays galore!  

There will be prizes for the golfers including the "Plaid Jacket" for the best golfer and the "Green Jacket" for the worst.  All in good spirit of course!

There will be tickets sold for the silent auction, the money from which goes to the family hosting next years event.  It is always a good time!

I am really excited about my upcoming weekends and holidays.  Although by the sounds of it I may need an extra week just to recover!!

only one more sleep!!

where has the time gone?  it's been over a month since my last post!!

i'm not sure why, but i have been overwhelmed lately.  there never seems enough time to do the
stuff i want to do, nevermind the things i have to do.

two weeks ago today my car decided it had had enough.  she died.  now to give credit where credit is due, she did get me home from my morning errands before she choked.

i had decided to go for a little drive to do some shopping.  there is a store just out past our University, and they were having a sale.  so i loaded my grand daughter and my youngest daughter (she's 23) into the car and off we went.  everything normal.

after our shopping spree (lots of good summer stuff  on sale) we decided that since the Chip Truck is now open for business, a lunch of yummy fresh cut french fries sounded good.

we opted to take the fries home as there was only 2 picnic tables and both were occupied.

pulling in the driveway i turned off the ignition and pulled out the key.  to my surprise the car was still running!  i put the key back in the ignition, turned it as if to start it and then turned the key off again.  the car shut off.  realizing the windows were open and there was a possibility of rain i once again turned the key in order to roll up the windows. i  pushed the button and nothing happened.  hmmm.... that's weird.

i tried to start the car and nothing happened.  nothing.  not a sound.  no dinging, no radio, no nothing.
uh oh.

now i will admit that i had been fantasizing about buying a new car.  but i honestly don't think i ever mentioned this in front of ol' betsy.  perhaps i did.  either way, now a decision needed to be made.

my car is a 13yr old mercury cougar.  she has been a very good car.  good on gas and really pretty dependable.  over the years i have had to do some repairs (battery, tires, alternator, window motor, brakes and some exhaust work) but the overall cost of said repairs was not great.  and tires and brakes are to be expected i guess at some point in the life of a used car.

so i got out some garbage bags and tape and taped up the windows.  thinking at this point that it was likely going to be fixed, i didn't want it soaking wet inside if it did rain.  poor betsy =(

the fun was just about to begin though.  my husband thought that the motor had seized.  i thought it was the ignition.  a friend of ours thought it was the clutch switch.  someone else was convinced it was just a fuse.

for the next two weeks we tried everything to get her going.  we tried to jump start her.  we tried all the fuses.  i bought a new clutch switch and returned it the next.  we did, however get the windows up just by spraying WD40 in the ignition switch.  it was driving our friend crazy!!  he said it was like a puzzle and he needed to solve it. 

the garage that has done all the repairs told me to tow it in and they would take a look.  at $80 an hour, i began to think that was an unlikely option.  $75 for the tow and $80/hr plus the cost of fixing whatever it
was, was beginning to sound like throwing good money after bad.

unfortunately off to the wreckers she goes.  so after 7 years of  mostly faithful service, she gives me $300 for her metal, and $70 back on her plates.

arrivederci betsy.  

i have decided to purchase a brand new car. my very 1st brand new car!!  i did a lot of research into a couple of different cars.  i had a list of things i needed to have.  4 doors was #1 on the list.  air conditioning and cruise control were #'s 2 & 3.  safety features like side curtain airbags was important as i would be carrying my precious cargo(grandkids!) with me.

price and affordability were also important considerations.

meet miss daisy.  my 2013 kia soul.  i just love her!  i pick her up tomorrow and i'm super excited!! only one more sleep!!!

she has all the things i needed and plenty of things i wanted.  heated seats and side mirrors, am/fm/cd player(my old car had a cassette player!!), air conditioning and cruise control. 

i'm thinking about going to bed now (its 12:30pm) so morning will come faster!!!

the "low-down" on LEVEL Life!!

I've been meaning to get around to this topic for a while now.  

A few weeks back, I received an email from Ethan Lewis, founder of Level Foods.  I know that some of you already know Ethan, but for those that don't, 
he is a Type 1 Diabetic who has developed a delicious, easy way to treat those nasty lows that we all encounter from time to time.  

Ethan was diagnosed with Type 1 at 12 years of age and struggled (like all of us) with balancing blood sugars.  The scariest and toughest part of Diabetes for Ethan, was the nasty lows.

His company has developed  the new 15g LEVEL Life glucose gel.  He offered
to send me a sample pack, and promised that they would "work quickly" and taste "amazing!".

As I waited for my sample pack to arrive, I began to think about the ways that I have treated lows over the years.  

Way back when, my mom gave me orange juice to drink whenever I was low.

Lifesavers were a constant companion when I was at school or out playing with  my friends.

 

As the years passed, and I moved away from home, my methods for treating lows changed.  As newlyweds, my husband and I had not really discussed this part of my diabetes, mainly because my lows always seemed to happen in the early morning and so he was rarely around when one happened.  Keeping the sugar bowl beside the bed became the norm around our house.  Not always the easiest way to treat a low, especially when the person experiencing the low can barely comprehend what is being asked of them.  Sugar is reaalllly messy!!  There were quite a few nights when there were sugar crystals covering the sheets and pillows after a morning struggle with low blood sugar.

 Then there were the horrible glucose tabs.  You remember the ugly, tastless white ones?  They were hard as a rock,  took forever to dissolve and you had to eat like 4 of them before they did anything.  YUCK!

Juice boxes worked better for the middle of the night/early morning lows. Especially if you poked the straw through before you went to bed!  Less mess (unless you squeezed the box in your hurry to slurp through that straw!)

These days, I have been using a few different methods for treating my lows.  For quite a while i was munching on SweeTarts.  They are yummy but you have to eat 15 of them to get 15gr of carbs.  That can take some time.  Then I found giant Rockets!  There was a time when they were my favourite Halloween candy!  But again, you have to eat 5 of them to equal that magic number 15!

Dex4 is great for me when I remember they're in my purse!  The taste is not bad (my favourite is either grape or watermelon!), but they are a little chalky and still it takes me a while to get 4 of them into me!

 

So along comes LEVEL Life fast acting glucose gel.  Let me just say that these are by far, the best tasting treatment I've ever had!  They come in four flavours.  Strawberry Banana, Mandarin Orange, Vanilla and Caramel.  The pouch is a funky looking little thing.  It looks flimsy, but again, let me tell you I carry this sucker around in my purse and it has not broken or leaked or been punctured by pens or anything!!  It is fairly easy to open when low-brain is at work.  Like a juice box, just be careful not to squeeze too hard though!!

The flavours are bang on!  Even the Strawberry Banana, which I wasn't sure I'd like, was good.  They are easy going down, and they really do work fast.

 

They are packaged in three's and priced  the same as 1 of the "other" gels.  The only problem is that they aren't available in Canada  =(
That makes me sad, because I really enjoyed using them.  Not that I enjoyed having the lows that enable me to try them, but.....I would definitely recommend them!   

all of my handy low treatments!!

   

a work in progress

so last week i wrote about my endeavor to eat low carb.

i purchased the book "Wheat Belly" and the "Wheat Belly Cookbook".  

quite interesting.  

i want to say that i have no medical need to try the wheat free diet.  i am not allergic to wheat, nor am i 
Celiac. 

i am diabetic however.  and i have been trying to keep my A1c below 7.  i feel very good about getting it down there, and i've been a little more conscious about what i put in my mouth.  i began to notice that whenever i eat breads, potatoes, rice, crackers and pasta's my BG's tend to rise quickly and stay up there.

i know i sound like a newby at this diabetic thing, but really, for myself it just has more to do with my age and my desire to lose a few pounds (i weigh the most i've ever weighed, even during 3 pregnancies!!) and feel better in my clothes.

i quit smoking almost 9 years ago.  i have gained a lot of weight since then.  i'm sure not all of it has to do with quitting.  being lazy and stuffing my face with not so good food choices has had quite a bit to do with it.

so now i am trying to change my habits.  habits that i have had for years and years.  bread, whether it be white, whole wheat, bagels, or english muffins, was an almost daily breakfast for me.  ocassionally i would toss in some cereal, or pancakes.  

lunch usually was a sandwich of some sort.  again on bread or buns.  kaisers are a favourite of mine.

supper was meat and potatoes.  mashed, boiled, baked, scalloped.  i love them all.  pasta was another thing 
that was eaten on a weekly basis.  spaghetti, ricatoni, lasagna.  whatever.  they are all delicious!

and then there is the bed time snack.  used to be, years ago, melba toast with peanut butter spread on it was the snack of choice.  along with a glass of milk, this was what i ate almost every night after diagnosis.  that is until i left the comfort of my parents home, and headed into the world of adulthood.

then i could make my own food choices.  i chose potato chips, popcorn, tostitos.  and for years i ate whole meals after work.  now keep in mind i worked evenings when my children were small.  i worked 7pm - midnight.  i ate dinner before going to work and then i ate when i got home at midnight.  macaroni and cheese, mr. noodles.  comfort foods.

well not any more.  for the last week i've been eating low carb and loving it!

no bread, no pasta.  lots of salads, eggs, fruits, vegetable.  i'm trying to keep my daily carb intake below 40gr.  i would normally eat about 30 for breakfast, 40 at lunch and 50-60 at supper, so this is a huge reduction!!

i've been trying out some recipes from the book and online.  yesterday i made an herbed foccacia "bread".  made with almond flour/meal, and lots of other things, it only has 7grs of carbs per serving.  it was delicious with chicken salad.  

today i tried to make some bagels.  the first batch looked awesome.

they were made from a recipe i found online called "Garlic Coconut Flour Bagels". i found them to be a little too sweet  and the combination of garlic and coconut was a little off.  i will try them again, but instead of garlic, i will add cinnamon and raisins. these ones only have 5gr of carbs.

the second batch, made from a different online recipe, turned out better.  they were made with almond flour, flax seed meal, and only a touch of coconut flour.

they taste more like everything bagels should.  the texture is not quite like bagels, but spread with some cream cheese and with a carb count of only 3.5gr per serving, i'll take them!!

i made these in a donut pan that i bought online from amazon.ca. 

there are lots of low carb recipes out there that i am sure i'll be trying in my eforts to eat low carb, but still enjoy something that resembles food made with wheat.  

i guess i'm kind of like a vegetarian who enjoys a veggie burger or a tofurkey sandwich every now and then!

my next goal will be to start walking on my treadmill every morning.  i hope that between the low carb eating and the increase in exercise, by the time summer arrives, i will feel a little more comfortable in my own body, and will embrace summer clothes, and my backyard pool!!