Our new project...watching what we eat

As many of you know...Aleene is "pre" diabetic. What that means is her glucose levels are high enough that she has to take medication. She has worked with diet as we know it for over a year, but things were not getting better. Our doc finally convinced her this fall that it was time to "med-up" and attack this sucker. She got enrolled in "the classes" over the holidays. I go along as her support person. I will give you my view and feelings. You can ask her about her feelings on your own.

First, we have always been "healthy" eaters in our estimation. I do not remember a time when I did not prefer leafy greens over desert. Aleene is a great cook and she plans fish at least once if not twice a week. We do not eat "sweets" often, but she does have the Coryea/Knearm gene for ice cream. So along comes Mr. Diabetes and we were shocked. We walk two miles most mornings...so what can we learn from a structured education process? Well, it turns out, there is lots to be learned.

Aleene is testing her blood three or four times a day and learning how to balance her intake of carbohydrates to fit the ADA (American Diabetes Association) guidelines. We are also dealing with the reality of keeping ourselves (because I am in this lifestyle change, too) shaped up for heart health. Got to watch those saturated fats.

For me, it is a quantity issue and staying home most days doesn't help. But we have our goals and we are working on them.

I feel badly for the others in the class we attend because they have so far to go. They are struggling with what this all means as they have to give up years of poor eating habits to get themselves within tolerable limits. Some are quite young.

I am writing all this to alert readers that they too can be clubbed over the head by this disease which seems to be over taking America. We think that Aleene's case is distantly related to her bout with hepatitis 30 years ago. The liver pumps sugar into the system when the pancreas tells it to, but if either one of these organs are weak...they don't talk to each other so well. She has no history in her family, as far as we know. Others we have talked to have had a hepatitis event in their life time. So there you go...our own research. However, the pros are slow to accept this factor, so we are dealing with an unproven cause. What is important is that we all keep ourselves eating well and checking the numbers.