How Stress Affects Diabetics - Tidbit of the Day!

Diabetics are advised to avoid stress but why? How does stress affect diabetics?

When we get stressed, the body starts getting into the "Flight-or-Fight" mode. The term "Flight or Fight" was coined by Walter B. Cannon in 1915. He studied the autonomic nervous system and started by studying an animal's response to a threat.

When "Flight or Fight" is triggered, the body produces more cortisol and epinephrine (also known as adrenaline) and the liver produces more glucose for the body to use as energy in an emergency. This excess glucose makes it difficult for diabetics to control their blood sugar.

Strawberry Season

Strawberries Nutrition Info :- My daughter and me both love strawberries. We eat them all year round and I love strawberries in my smoothies. But I didn't know they were so good for you - there are a superfood for diabetics and lower cholesterol as well.

Oftentimes, I cut the strawberry stem off and a good chunk of the strawberry too when preparing it for my daughter. I've been meaning to buy a strawberry corer but kept putting it off. I came across this tip at Popsugar

Get rid of those pesky stems without wasting too much of the fruit by inserting a straw into the bottom of the strawberry and pushing up. The leaves will come off too!

I tried this out and while it wasn't perfect, it did work.

Mini-Goal + Challenge: Walk 10000 steps everyday

I did the 30-Day Walking Challenge recently and did not do so well at it. I had 2 issues with it - it asked me to walk 10k steps over my regular day-to-day steps and also, I fell sick quite a bit.

My goal to lose 16 pounds by the end of the year is also not going too well considering it's almost 6 months out and I've ended up putting on weight.

I thought perhaps both of these were a little too ambitious for me at this point and I should probably start off with mini-goals to get started on the right path.

Mini-Goal & Challenge: Walk 10,000 steps everyday including day-to-day steps

May 11: Day 1: 10450 steps
May 12: Day 2: 8515 steps
May 13: Day 3: 8982 steps
May 14: Day 4: 6411 steps
May 15: Day 5: 10010 steps
May 16: Day 6: 5795 steps
May 17: Day 7: 8727 steps
May 18: Day 8: 11379 steps
May 19: Day 9: 10882 steps
May 20: Day 10: 10663 steps
May 21: Day 11: 8269 steps
May 22: Day 12: 10289 steps
May 23: Day 13: 9510 steps
May 24: Day 14: 14538 steps
May 25: Day 15: 4228 steps (didn't wear the tracker for most of the day - this was just the extra walk steps)
May 26: Day 16: 10432 steps
May 27: Day 17:  5484 steps (not well)
May 28: Day 18:  5566 steps (not well)
May 29: Day 19:  7521 steps (stayed at home all day & didn't wear tracker part of the day)
May 30: Day 20:  7155 steps (didn't wear tracker part of the day)
May 31: Day 21:  22,149 steps (Disney World Trip Day 1)
June 1: Day 22: 13147 steps (Disney World Trip Day 2)
June 2: Day 23: 18802 steps (Disney World Trip Day 3)
June 3: Day 24: 18960 steps (Disney World Trip Day 4)
June 4: Day 25: 11218 steps
June 5: Day 26: 10329 steps
June 6: Day 27: 6752 steps (Saturday, at home - did gardening work)
June 7: Day 28: 3863 steps (Didn't wear tracker most of the day)
June 8: Day 29: 6445 steps
June 9: Day 30: 10,201 steps

I'm done with this challenge and it's been a good one for me. I hit more than 10k steps 15 days out of the 30 - which was not bad but not great. But I'm glad I did it as it made me more conscious of how many steps I was walking and how active I was.

I will continue to follow this and try to hit 10k steps everyday and make it part of my weekly update.

30-Day Walking Challenge!

I came across the 30-day walking challenge by Leslie Sansone here. With spring almost there, I decided to take this challenge up. The goal is to start with 2000 steps and work your way up to 10,000 steps a day over 30 days by adding around 500 extra steps a day

I started on April 6th with a 30 minute walk around my office. The weather was great and it was a wonderful walk. Yesterday, I wasn't able to walk outside but I went for a a couple of walks totaling 14 mins which gave me an extra 1000 steps but I didn't meet my goal.

This 10000 steps a day is outside of my regular daily activities - so it's going to be hard to hit but I'm going to try to do it anyway.

(April 6th) Day 1: Goal: 2000 steps Actual: 3299 steps
Day 2: Goal: 2500 steps Actual: 1008 steps
Day 3: Goal: 3000 steps Actual: 0 steps (had a bad cough)
Day 4: Goal: 3500 steps Actual: 0 steps (had a bad cough)
Day 5: Goal: 4000 steps Actual: 2500 steps
Day 6: Goal: 4500 steps Actual: 0 steps (had guests - spent a lot of time on my feet cleaning the house)
Day 7: Goal: Rest Actual: 2000 steps (went shopping)
Day 8: Goal: 4500 steps Actual: 2200 steps
Day 9: Goal: 4500 steps Actual: None (had errands & dentist appt)
Day 10: Goal: 5000 steps Actual: 2500 steps (hit 9000 steps over entire day)
Day 11: Goal: 5000 steps Actual: 3000 steps (Almost 10k steps over entire day)
Day 12: Goal: 5000 steps Actual: 0 steps (developed a fever and stayed home & rested)
Day 13: Goal: 5500 steps Actual: 1000 steps (still sick but played with my daughter outside for 15 mins)

Day 14: Goal: Rest steps Actual: 1500 steps (still sick but played with my daughter outside for 30 mins)

Day 15: Goal: 5500 steps Actual: 0 steps (Getting better)
Day 16: Goal: 6000 steps Actual: 0 steps
Day 17: Goal: 6000 steps Actual: 0 steps
Day 18: Goal: 6500 steps Actual: 2700 steps
Day 19: Goal: 6500 steps Actual: 2000 steps
Day 20: Goal: 7000 steps Acutal: 0 steps
Day 21: Goal: Rest Actual: 0
Day 22: Goal: 7000 steps Actual: 2000 steps
Day 23: Goal: 7500 steps Actual: 3000 steps
Day 24: Goal: 8000 steps Actual: 0 steps
Day 25: Goal: 8500 steps Actual: 2000 steps
Day 26: Goal: 9000 steps Actual: 5600 steps
Day 27: Goal: 9500 steps Actual: 2000 steps
Day 28: Goal: Rest steps Actual: 2000 steps
Day 29: Goal: 10000 steps Actual: 0 steps
Day 30: Goal: 10000 steps Actual: 7000 steps

What I've learnt over the past few days is that life gets in the way of getting a workout or even a walk. I've been sick on and off for the last month. Clearly, you can see this is a challenge for me. However, I'm determined to see how far I can get.

At the end of this challenge, I've realized that maybe this was too big of a goal for me. 10000 steps outside of my regular everyday stuff is perhaps too much for me with regard to a time commitment for this season in my life. But it's made me exercise some and has give me some ideas on other challenges I could do.

To Vaccinate or Not to Vaccinate?

Over the last few days, I've read and heard so much about the measles outbreak and people coming out to talk on both sides of the issue.

I'm vaccinated and my daughter's vaccinated. My personal viewpoint is that parents should have a choice in whether they should vaccinate their kids or not and when making that decision, they should think about how their decision affects others too - not just their kids but their neighbor's kids, the kids they go to school with, anybody they come in contact with.

That said, here are some blog posts and other articles that I read recently that made me think more about this issue.

I Wish My Mom Had Vaccinated Me :- Talks about how she was not vaccinated as a kid and how she caught whooping cough, was not treated for it and suffers to this day because of side effects.

Enough is Enough with Blaming “Anti-Vaxxers” :- I have very mixed feelings about this one. I don't agree with a lot the author has to say but she has a few valid points too.

Dear Parents: There are more unvaccinated kids than you think

This Dad's argument for Vaccinations is a Game Changer

Health Update and Accountability

A couple of days ago, I was reading an article in a magazine which talked about pregnancy weight and how that's become a obesity problem for many women. It talked about how they put on weight with one pregnancy, then before they can lose the baby weight, they get pregnant again and the added weight gain from both pregnancies causes health issues.

While my case is different in that I lost all my baby weight gain during breastfeeding, I put it all back on once I stopped breastfeeding and went off the restricted diet I was on for my baby.

I checked my BMI a few days ago and it was 29.3. The range for overweight is 25-29.9. I was well beyond overweight. I'm almost obese. This is really scary. For the last 5-8 years, I've hovered around a BMI of  26 when I was not pregnant. I don't want to become obese.

For the last 1 week, I've been trying to exercise more. I get up at 5:15 and go for a walk for about 20-25 minutes where I alternate between jogging and walking. I want to work up to being able to job for the entire 20 minutes.

I want to lose weight. I want to have some accountability for the weight. For this, I'm going to have to exercise as well as eat better.

My current weight is 135 pounds. I want to get to 115 pounds by April 2015.

Every week, I will give an update on my weight and where I am with respect to exercise and healthy eating.

Immunity Boosting Meal Suggestions for Kids

My daughter hates veggies and is very choosy about the food she eates. She just recovered from a long-lasting low-grade fever that lasted for more than a week.

So I want to give her some foods that increase her immunity but which she will eat. I came across this article on WhatToExpect.com on immunity boosting foods. Here's what I got from the article.

Main foods to aim for seem to be foods rich in Vitamin A, Vitamin C, food which has live cultures, Vitamin D, Vitamin E, antioxidants, Omega-3 fatty acids and Zinc. But how to get these foods inside them? Here are some suggestions from the article.

Suggestions on how to serve:

• Steamed baby carrots or broccoli
• Mashed sweet potatoes with some maple syrup if they need the sweetness
• Fruit based smoothie with spinach or kale and tablespoon of flax oil
• Greek yoghurt & serve with granola, fruit, nuts or honey
• Oatmeal with cinnamon and honey
• Whole grain toast with jam and nut butter
• Yoghurt with berries and walnuts on top
• Chicken noodle soup
• All-natural Almond butter on apple slices
• Peanut-butter and jelly sandwich

(Disclaimer: This post is just what I got this article. All credit goes to the author of the original article.)

Exercise

I've been really lagging behind in my exercise schedule. So the last couple of days, I decided to get that out of the way first thing in the morning. So I woke up a little early - around 5:15 - and went for a 20 minute walk around my neighbourhood. 

The weather is so pleasant and so quiet - it's really nice. And I got a really nice picture of a flower in my front yard today morning. 

Fell off the wagon yesterday

Yesterday was a bad day in terms of my diet but I learned something.

I got around 6 hours of sleep the night before and so, was a little bit grumpy. Also, some things happened at work which made my mood worse and I was in a bad mood. I did go for my walk but when I got back, I was still in a bad mood and my sweet cravings hit me again. I caved and ate a bag of chocolate chip cookies. I was eating those cookies again after almost 10 days of resisting.

The interesting thing was I didn't feel better after eating them. In fact, I felt worse. By the time I got home, I felt nauseous.

From now on, I'm going to try to bring some fruits with me everyday to eat if I get a sweet craving.

Food for toddler teeth

I've recently been getting a little concerned with my toddler teeth. I'm not giving her a fluoride supplement and our water doesn't have fluoride. However, she drinks water at daycare and I don't know if that water has fluoride in it. This is something I need to bring up with my toddler's pediatrician/dentist. I'm yet to schedule a dentist appointment for her.

Regardless, I'm having some major food struggles with her and I came across this article on food choices for better toddler teeth.

The foods which were mentioned in the article are:

• Cheese
• Sweet potatoes
• Oranges
• Cranberries
• Fresh or frozen cranberries
• Apples
• Water with fluoride (tap water)

Some meal/snack suggestions from this list:

• Cheese kebabs with strawberries
• Paneer Tikka Masala (go less on the spicy stuff but add flavor)
• Sweet Potato Fries
• Put pureed sweet potato in pancake or waffle batter
• Steamed carrots or broccoli
• Cranberry Bread or Muffins made with fresh or frozen cranberries
• Oranges and apples slices

Hitting a bump in the road

After my high of Monday, yesterday was a big flop. I only hit 6500 steps - because I was only able to go for a 10 minute walk yesterday.

Yesterday, I also felt dizzy as I was having my lunch.Even though I didn't walk much yesterday, I felt very tired and bone-heavy and that feeling is continuing into today.

Today, I'm being a little more careful and eating sometime every 1-2 hours but still feeling very tired. As I was climbing the steps to get the 1st floor of my office, I could feel how difficult it was for me and I was out of breath when I climbed to the top.

I wonder if the exercise of the last week has caught up to me and I am feeling tired because of it or if there's some other reason for this.

I'm going to try to work through this and still try to hit my exercise goals.

Highest Steps Ever!

For the last 2 weeks, I've been tracking my steps with a Fitbit Zip which I bought from Walmart. Yesterday was my highest step count ever! I hit 11699 steps! 

I was so proud of myself - I pushed myself a little bit yday and I'm so happy I did.

Weekly Health Update

Over the last two years, my health has declined a lot. After delivery of  my baby and breastfeeding and dealing with my daughter's allergies, I had lost a lot of weight - I weighed 107 pounds. But I was getting very less sleep and my health was in bad shape. I was falling sick a lot. I figured it was because of my restricted diet when I was breast feeding my daughter.

I stopped breastfeeding my daughter a year ago when she was around 10 months. After that, it was like no-holds-barred for me - I was eating everything I could and shouldn't. After some time, I controlled myself but still could not stop my sweet tooth and my milk/yogurt habit.

Now, fast-forward one year, I've put on 20 pounds and my health has deteriorated. According to my blood test results, my blood sugar has gone up, cholesterol has gone up and triglycerides has gone up. I haven't received my Vitamin D test results yet but am not expecting good news from that. I keep having aches and pains in my back and start huffing and puffing after some exertion. Because of less sleep and my daughter's clinging to me, I've been very stressed out as well.

I need to take some strict action to lose weight, exercise and eat more healthy. I'm decided to be more accountable for it. Every week, I will post on my exercise and food - what I did well and where I messed up. I'm going to start slow as I don't think I can go cold-turkey.

My goal is to try to hit 10000 steps per day. I'm going to try to walk at least 30 mins a day. I will try to eat salads at least 2-3 times a week. I will try to eat dessert only 2 times a week.

Feeding a Picky Eater

My daughter, who is 22 months old, had a lot of food allergies when she was born. As she grew older, she outgrew a lot of them like milk and soy but still is allergic to anything in the bean family like beans, green beans, lentils.

This has made me very conscious about what I feed her. We are also vegetarians. This narrows down our options for what I feed her a lot and we are Indians as well so our diet is very different from the western diet. She goes to daycare - so what I can give to daycare for lunch and snack has to be daycare-friendly (something she can eat by herself without too much involvement by the teachers, no nuts, etc).

One of the major issues I have hitting with her diet is that she doesn't like any vegetables and she's low on protein. I was reading the article linked below on What To Expect on some tips. Here's what I took away from the article.

Make food fun:- Cut sandwiches into fun shapes (though I first need to get her into sandwiches - so far she's not liked bread much at all). Put blueberry smiles on pancakes or on top of cereal. Interactive food like food with dips where they have to dip and eat might be fun. (I tried this - carrot sticks with ranch dressing. She didn't like it at all). Get toddler involved in meal prep - like getting her to help in picking veggies in the store or letting her choose which healthy food to buy. While cooking, have her do some of the small things like stirring or adding ingredients. Make small portions of food - like mini pancakes or mini muffins.

Sneak in nutrients:- This is where I'm facing a lot of difficulty. Sneak some cauliflower into mac'n'cheese (except she doesn't like mac'n'cheese). Add shredded carrots or sweet potato to pancake batter or omelettes. ( I tried this as her daycare teacher suggested - carrots in omelettes. It worked. ) And fruits are good too - if she likes fruits, let her have them. Her daycare teacher suggested making muffins with veggies and see if that works. She said she'd get me the receipe from her mother.

Be a good model:- Toddlers mimic mom & dad. So we need to eat better, at the table and eat a lot of veggies for dinner. Avoid junk food.

Let them choose:- Let her choose what to eat. Give her 2 healthy options and once she's picked one, stick with it. She'll eat if she's hungry. Don't force your toddler to eat.

Feeding a Picky Eater

Saving Time in the Kitchen - Chapattis Part 1

I've been experimenting recently with trying to save time while making chapattis at home. Chapatti is an unleavened flat bread (also known as roti) from Nepal, Bangladesh, India and Pakistan. I make it at home all the time and it's a integral part of the Indian diet. It's made of whole grain wheat flour. Here are some of the things I've tried and am planning to try to make life easier for myself. 

Making the dough: Make the dough using the stand mixer. This saves me a ton of time and energy. This is the recipe I use which I got from my sister. 


Chapattis

Ingredients: 

2 cups whole grain finely ground wheat flour (available in most South Asian stores)
1 tbsp milk
1 tbsp olive oil
pinch of salt
1 cup warm water 

Preparation:

1. Put all the ingredients except the water in the bowl. Start the mixer on low and add about half the water and let the flour mix well with all the ingredients. 
2. After they are all mixed well, keep an eye on the dough and see if it starts to come together. Add more water in small amounts and wait and see if the dough has become one big ball. 
3. When it looks like it's become one big ball, stop the mixer and touch the dough to see if it's sticking to the hand. If it's sticking, then too much water has been added. Add some more flour and mix again till the dough doesn't stick to the hand very badly - a little sticky is OK. 
4. Now cover dough with a wet cloth, napkin or paper towel and wait for 30 mins. Then use it immediately for making chapattis or put in fridge or freezer. 
5. To make chapattis, take a small piece of the rough and make it into a ball. Use a flat surface and dust some flour on it and using rolling pin, roll the ball out in the shape of a tortilla. If the ball starts to stick to the rolling pin, dust it with some more flour and continue rolling it out till it's thin and round like a tortilla. 
6. Now put it on a hot pan and let it cook till it rises. When it does, flip it over and let it cook on both sides.  

I've heard that chapattis when frozen don't keep fermenting but that it continues to ferment at a slower pace it is kept in the fridge. I experimented with that by making the dough and rolling it out. I put the rolled out dough onto cling wrap sheets so it doesn't get exposed to air and put it in the fridge. When I used it the next day, it didn't taste as good or look as good as freshly rolled out dough. So that experiment didn't work out so well.

My next experiment is to make the dough and freeze part of the dough for later use and see how that dough looks and tastes.

Staying at home

A couple of days ago, I spoke with a friend of mine who has a 7-month-old baby and she told me she has decided to quit her job and stay at home for a year to take care of her baby.

Her parents who had been helping her out so far could not anymore and she had to leave the baby in daycare for a few days. She really didn't want to do this. This was a tough decision for her and she will need to make some sacrifices with respect to her lifestyle and finances but she's happy with her decision.

I'm very happy for her and also jealous at the same time.

Even though my baby's not due for a few more months, even before I got pregnant, I've always wanted to stay at home to take care of the baby for the baby's 1st year at least. Unfortunately, it's not going to be possible for me. My husband's company's health insurance is not good and we (my husband, me and the baby) are going to be on my company's health insurance. I'm going to take 12 weeks off work to take care of the baby but after that, I'm going to go back to work and it's going to be so hard.

I'm willing to make all the other sacrifices but not willing to take a chance with health care - particularly given my health history and a new baby.

I hope I'm making the right decision but I shall have to wait and see how things work out and how I feel after the baby comes.

Healthy food vs Expensive food

Was reading an article today at Get Rich Slowly about healthy food being too expensive. I don't think so.

Organic food is more expensive than regular food, that's a given. But in general, to eat healthy food, buying groceries at the store and making them at home is cheaper and healthier than going out.

Apart from the type of ingredients, the way of cooking makes a huge difference. Deep-Frying and Frying & adding lots of butter is not good for health. Oil & Butter is not cheap. Comparatively, steaming is a very inexpensive option. I was reading just yesterday that cooking vegetables by boiling them in water is not a good way to eat them since water-soluble vitamins are washed away in the water. It's better to steam the veggies - that way you don't lose the vitamins.

Much tougher than I thought...

Recently, I've started reading more about the environment and getting more and more concerned.

I started reading a few books about trying to be more green and reduce my impact on the environment. This is not easy and I can understand why so many people who want to do it give up and why so many people can't afford to be green. It's certainly the first impression you get.

After reading about the effects of SLS and parabens and the effect they have on us - reduced fertility, increased risk of ovarian and breast cancer and risk of birth defects in babies during pregnancy - I wanted to switch to greener products without these harmful chemicals. I started doing some research but it's so hard.

First, there's not a lot of information and it's very difficult to identify which information is correct and who to trust.

Second, what is the difference between green/organic/natural/sls-free?

Third, almost all the natural products are way more expensive than the products I use currently. Can  I afford to spend more money on this?

I was shopping the other day and bought a natural soap made of entirely natural ingredients like ground comfrey root, olive oil, etc. I started using it but after using it for a few days, I realized it leaves my skin extremely dry and I have to slather on body lotion to be moisturized and not itchy.

BPA-free plastics still harmful?

This is just scary...

THE GIST

• Just because a plastic product is labeled BPA-free doesn't mean its safe to put food or beverages in.
• It's possible to make plastics that don't contain hormone-disrupting chemicals, but it's impossible for consumers to tell which ones are which.
• People can protect themselves by not heating plastic containers that they're planning to eat or drink out of.

Go here to read more...

http://news.discovery.com/human/bpa-plastic-food-hormones-chemicals-110715.html