TODAY IS MY BIRTHDAY!
Happy birthday to me, happy birthday to me, happy birthday dear mmeeeee,
happy birthday to me! Was that a bit
much? Oh well, we all get 1 birthday a
year and I see it as perfectly acceptable to be self-centered for 1 day a year.
Diabetic Dorothy has a birthday-what to do, what to do? So how do you celebrate a diabetic’s
birthday? How will I be celebrating
mine? Do we celebrate with cake? NO. How
about ice cream? NO! Oh, Ok, I got it, “sugar free” foods, right?
NO! In fact, there will be NO SWEETS at
all, not even fruit. My birthday meal
will be steak and broccoli; perhaps we’ll stick my birthday candle in the steak
(we get creative, one year my bday candles were in a bowl of oatmeal). Maybe I’ll get froggy later on and make some
fake fro-yo from unsweetened Greek yogurt.
You say, “Oh, Dorothy, you’re no fun at all. Indulge a little, it’s your birthday! Everyone deserves a treat!” I say, it’s not worth the extra insulin,
elevated blood sugars and feeling like crap or putting myself out of ketosis. I work very hard to maintain where I am and I’ve
learned that over the years, those “little indulgences,” have a tendency to
turn into BIG splurges. I’m not the kind
of person that can have, “just a taste” or “a little bit” of something to be
satisfied. I’d rather be safe than sorry
so birthday cake and special treats are not invited to this party!
One thing I’ve come to accept over the past few months of
MDI’s is that I was a food focused person.
I thought about food all the time.
It was an obsession. Partly
because I thought I needed way more than I actually did to maintain good blood
sugars. I had frequent lows (on the
pump) which always made me scared that I wouldn’t have food at the exact moment
my meter read “50,” and that I’d die trying to find the nearest juice box or
granola bar. Basically, fear drove my
eating habits, now, not so much.
Continuing on to some helpful tips…
Maybe you have a diabetic (either type 1 or 2) member of
your family and perhaps you’d like some non-life threatening ideas to celebrate
a birthday. Here are some:
1)
Make a “cake” out of watermelon, cantaloupe and
berries, like in this picture. I’d
rather see someone with diabetes eat real food than crud out of a box or from a
bakery that uses transfats, white flour, white sugar, garbage. (If I had the
correct URL I’d give credit to whoever really made this, but know it wasn’t me.)
2)
Look up “Ketogenic” recipes for
cheesecakes. I made one for Easter and
it was amazing. I used almond flour and
crushed pecans for the crust instead of graham crackers and stevia instead of
sugar. These recipes will be low in
carbs which will help not to spike blood sugar.
3)
Take the focus off of the food! Plan a family outing, like a hike, bowling,
biking or kayaking. Get active! It’s great for everyone!
4)
Have a party, but make the focus something like “field
day,” set up corn hole, volleyball, kickball, tug of war, relay races. It’s still active and competitive and give
out awards, adults and kids can have fun with this one.
5)
Go to a sporting event, football, baseball, basketball,
hockey, whatever. Get totally decked out
in your favorite teams stuff and have a blast cheering them on.
There are tons of things you can do, just think outside of
the box! Don’t focus on the food and
instead focus on the celebration and what it represents. Life is about more than eating, it’s about
family and memories.
Speaking of memories, I’m done blogging now so I can go make
some with my family. Thanks for reading.
~D
No comments:
Post a Comment