Breast Cancer Awareness 2017

"You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face."

~Eleanor Roosevelt

It's almost the middle of October, and I should have done this post on the first of the month, because it so important to do all you can to remind all my friends that it's Breast Cancer Awareness Month! 

I am one of the lucky ones. I have not contracted this vicious disease, despite having a few of the risk factors. For one, I am over 55 and never had children. Also I am Caucasian and studies show that slightly more white women get this type of cancer, and also I was exposed to DES as a child born in 1962, right at the end of the Baby Boomer years. DES exposure, however, took place between 1940 and 1972.

But, while I am relieved that my mammograms continue to come back negative, I think about getting older, and how I have an increased chance of contracting different types of cancers. Life sometimes throws you curve balls you never see coming, I kinda like to fight against that by being diligent about getting that simple test on time, and checking my breasts myself, several times a month! I'm trying to eat better, but find myself slipping into bad habits, since Donald Trump took office!

Shame on me! I should be trying my best, now more than ever to keep my health strong. You never know what's going to happen next, and while I love to put my head in a bag of potato chips, or do what I did  earlier this year, eat four Strawberry Boston cakes in less than a month, I am trying really hard to remember that one day his term in office will end, and a lovely impeachment will begin, and all will be right with the world! Hopefully!

But to my credit... after eating those 4 cakes, somehow I managed to lose 10 pounds! How does that even happen? I don't know but I thank God for it every day!

Now, here is one look at how Stockton

 observes this very important cause!

Lincoln Center is the shopping center closest to where I live, and it did my heart good to see this gentle reminder!

If you haven't had your mammogram yet... GO GET IT NOW!

#10 Leaf Of The Day

October 10th 2017

Stockton, California

 

Mood: Happy/Encouraged

Me :)

 

4:17 A.M.

"We must have a pie. Stress cannot exist in the presence of a pie."

~David Mamet, Boston Marriage

 

Yesterday was, Monday July 1st, 2013, in case you managed to miss the date. It's not often, at least it doesn't seem like it's often, that a month begins with a Monday, but July did, and therefore I decided it was the perfect time to start a new diet. You see, the handy little diet journals, that my HMO sells in the pharmacy, begins on a Monday, which is great, but if the Monday I begin a diet on doesn't begin on a Monday, of the first of the month, I find the whole prospect doubly daunting! LOL. I blame my dad for situations like that, he suffered from OCD you see, he would sometimes have to check the front door to see if it was locked, four or five times before he could leave the property with any confidence that we wouldn't come home to a completely looted house!

So yesterday Alan and I both committed to beginning a new diet. Mostly it's a diet in the sense that we will be eating better, and more regular, as opposed to having dessert every night, or replacing dessert with more organic fresh fruit. We are in the best, and most delicious time of the year for fresh fruit and vegetables, hell we have some growing right in our garden! But along with the dessert goes the midnight eggs at picturesque diners, or eggs served at 4:17 A.M., kettle corn, extra large containers of popcorn with extra theater style butter type stuff. No more handfuls of nachos or gummy bears for dinner. Sigh. And Greasy, juicy, cheese loaded hamburgers I will miss you the most!

Oh well.

Eating right doesn't mean giving up stuff the way it once did. The big juicy burgers, will be replaced with leaner ground beef. The nachos will be replaced with baked crackers and hummus, midnight eggs will be replaced midnight boiled eggs or egg white quiche made with roasted veggies! All things I love, but am usually too lazy to make the extra effort for. I guess I got a bit lazy a while back, but now it's time to act like a grown up again! Whatever that means... I mean... I still feel like I in my 20s, well except for each morning when I try to get out of bed. Or the afternoon when my body screams for a nap, or at 10:00 P.M. when my eyes are drooping and I fall asleep watching the news.

God I am OLD. LOL.

But as long as I am not dead I can change my bad habits... right? And hey, my total caloric intake yesterday was 1090 calories, which was 200 calories under my goal! I am off to a great start... right?

Uh huh.

"Everything you see I owe to spaghetti."

~Sophia Loren


Mood: Happy

~Me :)

My Ellipsis Lifestyle... My Favorite Products #1 Eating Right Multigrain Spaghetti

"To eat is a necessity, but to eat intelligently is an art."

-La Rochefoucauld

As I said in a previous entry, eating as a diabetic takes a bit of creativity. That's a good thing. Putting a little extra thought into what I eat has made me feel better about living with diabetes. The days that I struggle most, have nothing to do with my Type 2 diabetes and more to do with my Fibromyalgia. There isn't much that can be done with that, but try to eat right and get as much exercise as I can when I am feeling up to it. Fortunately, I have more good days then bad ones. When I do have a bad day, it is a comfort to be able to make a decision about my nutrition that I know will be good for me, and not complicate my diabetes. I am a happy girl, and I am somewhat of an adventurer. So, meal planning for me is kind of fun, like a big experiment. What will taste really good, make me feel satisfied, and still leave me with some healthy post meal blood glucose numbers? To my amazement, I have found a ton of products that do just that.

One of my favorite new finds is Safeway's Eating Right Multigrain Spaghetti. I have tried other products in the Eating Right line, but this is the first time I have tried one of their pastas. It was a big success in our house. At first I shied away, thinking it would have that wood taste that a lot of multigrain products do, but then I thought about how much I liked their other foods and I went for it. It was really good. Not just tasty, but it also cooks up really nice. Firm yet tender. I added the dry pasta to a pot of rapidly boiling water, no oil, and it didn't stick together the way other pastas do. I only needed to do a little bit of stirring with a folk a couple times. Now of course it does have a slight multigrain taste, but it is flavorful, not dry and woody.

I served 3 oz. of the cooked spaghetti, with sauce made with 1/4 lb. hamburger (97% fat free) and 1 cup of Ragu Original flavored with meat pasta sauce, and 1 tbs. Kraft Parmesan cheese. On the side was 1 1/2 cups mixed salad with 2 tbs Kraft Fat Free Catalina dressing. My blood glucose reading before my meal was 111 mg/dl and 2 hours later my reading was 126 mg/dl. I was thrilled! Now that's more like it. I ate all I wanted, I knew exactly what I was eating, and my blood glucose numbers were great. Now I have to try some of the other pasta in this line, I think I am hooked! This stuff is good for everybody. Give it a try and let me know how you like it. :) Diets don't work, but eating creatively does. Make eating an art.

-OndineMonet
Eating Right Multigrain Spaghetti
Berkeley, California
April 13, 2008
Afternoon