Day 16

Howdy,

Well I have hit a snag. I noticed that when I added whole grains, in the form of whole grain Ezekial bread my blood pressure started to go back up the scale and when I went to my doctor's office today it was about 171/91. I cannot tell you how disappointed I was. I shared the book with my doctor and told her of the changes I had made and how my blood pressure had been dropping, but she had no evidence of it because the BP was so high today. She gave me a stronger BP medicine to try out for the next two weeks. I told her about how I had gained weight after my last visit and the eating machine was on. I also told her about the weight loss in the past two weeks, too. And that as soon as I added the whole grain in, I stopped losing weight again.

She seemed to be very pleased with the changes I am making and was intrigued by the book, but she disagreed with the addition of whole grains back into the program. Perhaps it is because I am so obese, and have so far to go, but she did not say that. She merely stated that she had seen this happen before with other diabetics that as soon as whole grains were added the blood sugars started to go up again.

I just checked my blood sugar after having eaten a sandwich with the Ezekial bread made with cheese, alfalfa sprouts, EVOO and spices, plus a large salad with romaine, broccoli sprouts, alfalfa sprouts, grape tomatoes, avocado, a hard boiled egg, and a little cheese -- it was 109 -- which was actually pretty good. I am thinking that perhaps I had been going overboard on the bread and eating too much of it.  It did seem to be taking the position of the vegetables. Perhaps that is the problem.

My doctor looked at the list of allowable grains from the book and suggested that I only add quinoa, buckwheat and brown rice and that wild rice would be better than brown rice. I asked about the rye and barley on the top of the list but she said she did not recommend them or wheat, only the three mentioned above. She was in absolute total agreement about the beans, though, so I stopped at Kroger and got a bunch of dried beans. I also bought some chicken, cheese, eggs, avocado, romaine, canned chopped chilies, and Pace Pecante sauce. I read the ingredients on the cans and P-sauce and did not think they were so bad. They did not have any sugar and not much that was not natural, so I thought they must be OK.


Another thing my doctor did was order a ton of blood tests to see what kind of changes have happened in the last two weeks. I did not say this, but had wanted her to wait for another visit until I got things under better control to check all that stuff. So what I said to her was, "I've only been doing this for two weeks, do you think there will be significant changes in that amount of time?" And she seemed very positive and sure that some changes will have taken place. As the "blood nurse" was filling what seemed like about 12 or 13 of those little vials with the different colored tops, I wondered to myself if taking all that blood would bring my blood pressure down. (ha) I asked her about the color of it, and she said she thought I needed to drink more water. Rats. That is what they told me last time, too.

I asked my doctor about the spots on my feet and ankles and showed them to her but she had no better idea what was causing them, than I did. I told her about the vinegar and how when I stopped using that, no new ones appeared, but frankly, they have also not completely disappeared, yet. She asked if I had changed anything else in my diet, and since absolutely everything has changed there was nothing else to pin point. She suggested that I see a podiatrist and gave me the name of one. I am not sure I am going to do that -- partly the expense -- and partly, I don't think they will know what the spots are either, and there is no sense spending the money to hear the answer I already know. I have a history of really odd reactions to things, so, unless the spots start getting worse, like getting new ones or the color changes, I'll just keep an eye on them and see what happens.

So. Concerning the grains. I will finished the loaf of Ezekial bread, but only eat it once a day and no more than two slices. I'll get back on the salad wagon more efficiently and really start eating them beans. Here goes.


On to day 16: Add Vitamins. Dr Rip says we should be taking a high quality multivitamin and gives good reasons -- he also gives his favorite brands which I will let you find out in the book. He also really recommends Vit D3 for its diabetic healing properties. I am already taking the D3. I am not yet committed to the multivitamin but will consider it.