Pre Diabetes aka Diabetes Lite part 2

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I have to post a photo first - for a "preview"

Health providers in the ENTIRE world SUCK!!  

Once I came to grips that I had diabetes lite and went through the 5 emotions of being told I had a small issue, denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance I was looking for answers and OF COURSE, when looking for solid information on ANYTHING turned to Facebook.

Actually I "did my own exhausted research" and found SO MUCH conflicting information.  I was able to FINALLY contact a diabetes nutritionist with my first face to face still a couple months away - yea - seriously!  

They sent me some info which was inline with what I was thinking. So! with this new found sketchy info I hooked up with a diabetes page on Facebook that seemed to have every country in the world.

EVERYBODY has the same issue world wide.  A complete lack of information from the Doctors who LITERALLY seem clueless!  People world wide are begging for info from the health care providers about diabetes but they tell you next to nothing.

ANYWAY - that is my health care rant.

WHAT I'm doing seems to be working.  In 2 months I've lost 10 pounds in a slow steady manner from 172 to 162.  My moving average of my fasting blood sugar continues to drop 

And with my lose of 10 pounds my knee feels GREAT!! WHO KNEW  LOL 

I average 114 carbs a day with 28 of those fiber.  Still trying to boost fiber.  Protein intake is 101 grams.

The BIG thing is carbs.  I stopped all beer drinking (really bad for you) and replaced beer with vodka (the cure for diabetes?).  I have not had a soft drink for 2 months EXCEPT Ginger beer for Moscow Mules.  White bread is gone replaced with YUCK whole wheat buns for burgers and so forth and I found "keto-like"  "white" bread that that has 9g of carbs but all 9 are fiber per slice and speaking of Keto. 

100% of ANYTHING with "keto" on the label SUCKS  Keto friendly is OK - straight Keto SUCKS  

A friend turned me on to Kahava  which for the time being I'm drinking instead of Ensure Max Protean.  WHY you ask? 

I NEED MORE FOOD!!  I work out and my fitbet says I need 2300 calories and I'm only hungry for 1400 calories a day.

Along the way I have found hacks for white rice.  Add Coconut oil to white rice while cooking.  Let it stand over night.  The oil converts the starch into protean, reheat it and you have safe white rice.  No spikes.

Pasta?  Whole wheat pasta tastes exactly the same as normal white pasta.  Whole wheat buns on subs?" Just get a spicy sub, you won't even notice the wholewheat flavor.

Breakfast are easy - eggs are GREAT. Instead of bacon I have thin thin slices of pork chops.  Today I had oatmeal and added cinnamon (no sugar) and then added Kashi Cinnamon Crunch, It's fine, adds texture and taste.  

Supper has been tough as I'm normally the cook and HATE 95% of all veggies and fruit?  SIGH - a ton of sugar in fruit but if you have a tsp of Natural peanut butter that smooths down any spikes.  Get peanut butter with the oil floating on top.  

Bananas are death fruit  LOL  a LOT of sugar in a banana but the Glycemic LOAD is not bad.  

GI and GL is something you need to look into.  GI is how much sugar something has it in.  GL is how much sugar you actually consume.  For instance Potato chips (potatoes are bad) Not real bad per chip but you eat a LOT of them. 

Popcorn  Horrible but you can't eat 2 gallons.   

Here is the thing though - You have to take care of your brain.  I can have a Mooya Burger (like Five Guys but better, tasting) with a small amount of fries every so often - it's not going to kill you and you really don't want to be in food prison. 

I can have pizza - just not a whole half of a 14 inch pizza (like the old days).  Dark Chocolate (over 72) is GREAT for you if you have 1 square a day. 

What I have found is that after a month of not having sugar snacks(Cheetos, Fritos and so forth) I don't crave them at all.  I see a donut and want one but I don't crave.  I have a LOT of nuts and peanuts (actually those are beans). 

I'm preparing to make home made pork and beans as Bushs are just pure sugar) with the sweetener pure maple syrup and Molasses.

SO - the journey continues          

I feel the main problem is that people think they have to make major changes - NO - make healthy changes with more plant based food and smaller portions.  Europeans visit America are are SHOCKED how much sugar we put in EVERYTHING. Slow and steady - you are not going to fix or CONTRIL diabetes over night.

OH - I'm taking Metformin - zero issues besides being horny all the time but I think that was there before hand (too much info?) From a number of articles from schools of science Metformin was discovered 100 years ago and may actually slow aging and increase life expectancy and is on WHOs  List of Essential Medicines. 

Diabetes lite has really tweaked my interest.  90 million American have diabetes but don't know it or don't want to know. 

Yea - who wants to live long anyway right?    

            

          

I'm alive and well

SO - Where was I in my story  LOL 

OK - I'm not dead yet.  It's been a while and I just got tired of trying to find things to entertain myself word wise -  I was boring myself with my own words. 

How has YOUR summer been.  ME?  AWESOME.  

First there was the Nightwish concert in Chicago 

  And I even got a video 

https://youtu.be/OxZkktBwlVM

 

Then a a few weeks later Gus got to go to a Brewer game and he LOVED it 

After that I was diagnosed with dementia  . . . . OH OH oops sorry diabetes . . I always get that mixed up  well - PRE-diabetes which is diabetes lite actually.  I assumed this was a mistake, I mean COMEON  I weigh 172 - how can I have diabetes . . .  but then I started testing my glucose and YUP - guess so.  So I cut out b b b b b b beer (beer is HORRIBLE with so much sugar - my blood REALLY spikes) and white bread and snacks and replaced snacks with nuts and peanuts (which are actually beans) and started on metformin which I have zero issues with (Harvard School of Medicine in a study says it's near a super drug with so many awesome things it can do - better sex, longer life then people NOT taking it even if they do not have diabetes and a ton of heart things and yada yada. . . . anyway) I seem to be getting that "under control" without too much effort (My fasting level is in the 131 range after 4 weeks - my AIC was 7.2% if you MUST know).

THEN last week we went to a Roger Waters concert.  I can now say I saw the FIRST tour of Pink Floyd in the States (the Dark Side tour) and the LAST tour 49 years later

     

Another video 

Meanwhile we FINALLY have our first paperwork done for building a cabin at the tip of Door County right there on the 3rd curve on the left

Access and tree clearing this year and HOPEFULLY building next year.

Next up are camping trips #2 and #3 and right after that the Ghost concert.  

BTW - the people who attend Ghost concerts are not like any band fans I have ever come across.  Fun loving, happy, caring people. I belong to a good number of band facebook pages and Ghost fans are the BEST.   If you want to get a really good feel what it's like to attend one of their "rituals" check out this REALLY good video.  I'm going to try to capture this vibe with my camera (phone) when we attend.

This shows the awesome, whacky, groovy weirdos in the crowd. The show is just an amazing spectacle.  

https://youtu.be/xUSf1bjd4I8

 
 SO - this was just a post saying I'm alive and well and having a blast!!  

I AIN'T DEAD YET

Did I mention politics?  NO!    OH - to knowitall - How is YOUR President doing!! Mine is not going to go to prison.  We still have that bet right?  Trump goes to prison before Obama $200! 

Tony Shaloub? is that you? GHOST 101

 WELL - I see I had a post I never published about the Nightwish Concert - I'll save that for later. 

We took the pop up to the tip of Door County with trepidation.  The forecast was cool with a TON of rain Wednesday but off we went.  

We got to The Wagon Trail which was pretty empty of campers and they gave us a primo spot.  I backed down the entrance but it opened up to more campers seasonal campers at the bottom so we decided on another camp site near the top. 

Ate pizza at The Wild Tomato Monday night and cooked breakfast Tuesday morning at the site.  Got cool but we put the BIG furnace on the pop up on for 10 minutes and then used the tiny electric heater for the night.  It got down to 38 but inside in was a convey 62.

Wednesday at noon the rain started and for 19 straight hours it was moderate to heavy rain.  We drove around and took photos 

And this is near our property 

So after we tired of driving we went back to camp and hunkered down.  It was actually sort of magical.  Loud rain on the pop up - we were warm, had food and alcohol and lots of music we could play rather loud. 

The rain was a constant 75 decibels so we partied all night to music.  At 7 in the morning the rain finally stopped.  Rivers of water everywhere. My brother who was near us had a river going through their fire pit and our original campsite was all water.

We cleaned things up and about 1:00 went to Mink River Basin for some food. The sun came out and it was awesome on the patio.  A group was being seated right before us and we sat down and were looking at the menu (GREAT burgers) and wait. . . that guy sitting 10 feet from me looks just like Tony Shaloub.  

Can't be - we'll wait until he talks . .   WHAT? he sounds exactly like Tony Shaloub.  IT IS Tony Shaloub.  We sit there with mouths open and they are talking about a new house they build right near our property  . . .somewhere.  Not that we were listening.     

Not wanting to be a fan boy or girl we were good . . for the most part.  

They all got up to leave after they ate and talked and I popped up and went over to their table and apologized for interrupting and said "Tony, I just want to say I'm so happy you chose acting as a profession"  and he said as he would . . . " I really had no choice" and everybody laughed.  

But it gets worse.  As they were actually leaving DJ says "Tony I love you". and he turns and says  "I love you too"  and we all laughed again.  

THEN - his sister (one of 8) starts petting Gus and is talking to DJ about dogs and how she also has a golden doodle and yada yada. I tell ya - a dog is a reason for people to talk to each other.   

SO SO many people pet Gus and talk about missing their dog while on vacation and Gus is an amazing good traveler.  He knows English better then I do I believe. I'm always amazed how he follows directions.  Amazing.

So we get back and it seems our NEW favorite band Ghost is coming to Green Bay in September - WEIRD.  AND . . . we got Special VIP tickets WHOO HOO.   

below is the story of Ghost - it's pretty interesting 

weaving together ’60s psychedelia, ’70s doom, and ’80s New Wave of British Heavy Metal

https://youtu.be/K5Lp-yVt19M

Surprisingly accessible metal and pop-driven hard rock, Swedish outfit Ghost deliver tongue-in-cheek sonic sermons centered on horror imagery, the occult, and occasionally Satanic themes.

Members of the band originally maintained a strict vow of anonymity, both on record and on-stage, obscuring themselves with cloaks and heavy makeup.

Ghost is fronted by lead singer Tobias Forge, first known only as Papa Emeritus, whose anti-Pope appearance was recognizable with skull-faced makeup, cardinal robes, miter, and thurible. Subsequent incarnations of this alter ego appeared with each album, as Forge changed from Emeritus II and III into Cardinal Copia for 2018′s Prequelle .

Formed in 2008 in Linköping, Ghost began playing underground shows and sharpening their sound. Given their occult ritual-styled performances, their popularity with metal fans in their home country flourished. In 2010, they issued a three-track demo, followed by the single “Elizabeth,” and both quickly sold out. Their debut album, Opus Eponymous, on Rise Above Ltd., defied expectations with a surprisingly welcoming melodic sound, weaving together ’60s psychedelia, ’70s doom, and ’80s New Wave of British Heavy Metal, and their reputation spread.

They took to the road, touring internationally. For a short while, they were urged to take the Ghost B.C. moniker in the U.S. to disambiguate themselves. Though it was a tad confusing, it didn’t hurt their reputation for wildly theatrical performances, and their identities remained cloaked in mystery. (Ghost eventually reverted to their name without the “B.C.” suffix in late 2015.)

After a wait of over two years, Ghost issued the single “Secular Haze,” followed by their sophomore album, Infestissumam, in January 2013, and the band debuted Papa Emeritus II. Infestissumam caused plenty of controversy during the recording process. Begun in Nashville, its Satanic themes caused it to be boycotted by virtually every backing chorus — an important aspect of the album. These vocals had to be recorded in Hollywood. The critical and fan acclaim was nearly universal, however, and the release increased their profile across the globe and won them many fans who didn’t necessarily claim heavy metal as a favorite style.

The album debuted on some charts at number one. Later in the year, they released a covers EP, If You Have Ghost , produced by Dave Grohl . A festival tour followed in 2014, including appearances at Coachella, Lollapalooza, and Rock on the Range. The band re-entered the studio later that year. In May of 2015 it was announced that Papa Emeritus II had been fired and was succeeded by his younger brother (by three months), Papa Emeritus III, adding to the band’s shtick.

A new single, “Cirice,” was issued in May of 2015, followed in August by their third album, Meliora, on Loma Vista Recordings. It was produced by pop heavy-hitter Klas Åhlund (Katy Perry , Usher , Kesha , Madonna ) and mixed by Andy Wallace. Album single “Cirice” scored a Grammy for Best Metal Performance in 2016, months before a deluxe reissue added two new songs and a handful of covers, including one of the Eurythmics ’ “Missionary Man.” Those bonuses were also released as a separate EP, Popestar , which was followed by a tour of the same name.

In 2017, a new crop of legal issues hit the band. Previously, the identities of Ghost’s musicians remained a secret. However, when frontman Tobias Forge was sued by former bandmembers Simon Soderberg, Mauro Rubino, Martin Hjertstedt, and Henrik Palm over royalties, the shadow of anonymity disappeared. After the year-end release of live album Ceremony and Devotion , Forge moved forward with other musicians.

For the next project, Forge introduced a new identity, Cardinal Copia, who became the face of their fourth effort, 2018′s Prequelle , which was produced and recorded by Tom Dalgrin. Unlike previous efforts, this date abandoned the occult and left the Satanic worship kitsch behind, instead focusing on their own brand of sinister arena rock in a deliberate attempt, as Forge explained in an interview, ”…to sound like the best 1970s band you never heard….”

In addition to sweeping, radio-friendly hard rock swagger, they also employed funk basslines and disco beats, fat horns, and analog synths. Their songs readily referenced themes and tragedies from the Dark Ages of European history, including an anthem about the Bubonic plague. Prequelle debuted in the Top Three of the Billboard 200 upon release, and eventually soared to the number one slot, making it their highest-charting effort to date. 2019 saw the release of Seven Inches of Satanic Panic , a two-song EP/single featuring the fiendish and retro-sounding “Kiss the Go-Goat” and “Mary on a Cross.” ~ Eduardo Rivadavia & Thom Jurek