My Sweet Tooth
Thursday, November 30, 2006 | 16 comment(s)
A diabetic with a sweet tooth.
What the Hell is that?!
The punch line to a cruel, cruel joke?
Some sort of practical joke Mother Nature decided to play on me?
Ummm, well, you can stop laughing now... It IS NOT funny.
I swear, sometimes I think I'm cursed by the gods.
I blame it on my parents.
I blame it on my grandparents.
Cake and with a nice cup coffee/tea was a well-rounded breakfast to them!
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I blame it on genetics.
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I blame it on science.
I love:
Please note, this list is not exhaustive, but I'm starting to salivate and feel guilty.
I love ice cream so much, I can't have it in the house, otherwise I'll eat it for breakfast. I have no self-control when it comes to these things sometimes. It's like I have these little conversations in my head about how I shouldn't be eating this, and then whammmo! Conversation ends and the next thing I know I'm standing at a McDonald's counter ordering a chocolate chip sundae. I feel powerless sometimes.
I have actually met people who have told me that they don't like sweets all that much. I just stare back at them with this puzzled look like they have an extra nose on their face. Unfathomable... Does not compute... Alien life-form standing in front of me... Smoke poors out of my ears and I collapse in a heap.
Now that I've got that off my chest, I have a plan.
For the next 3 months, I am not (repeat (with emphasis this time): I AM NOT) going to eat any single item
I can't live without those. And I've counted the carbs carefully and have had great success in covering it appropriately, so I'm not going to give them up.
close on that list up there. I am making a promise to myself (and you are my witnesses) that I will not let any of those items cross my lips until after my next A1c test.
As I mentioned previously, I've put forth a lot of effort this past year to improve my control, but this has (always) been my Achilles heal. I am hell bent on getting an A1c reading below 6.5 in this coming year and this is easily the biggest thing in the way of my accomplishing this goal.
This is going to be a particularly difficult in the Holiday season that we have somehow found ourselves in the middle of again. I must admit, though, I made this promise to myself a week ago before taking it public and I've made it through Thanksgiving and a retirement
Oh, and I don't remember when I was last accosted by the "diabetes police" but I was at the party for drinking a beer. Oh it just chafes my ass to have someone actually question my behavior while I am working diligently to curb my sweet tooth cravings.
Literally saying to myself, "Stay away from there, Kevin... Stay away... Go get yourself another handful of nuts..."
close party at work just fine.
All lows will be treated with glucose tabs and/or granola bars, OJ, pretzels, or fruit. A low blood sugar will no longer be an excuse to indulge.
So, anybody out there like to join me on this little holiday challenge?
(I can almost see your head shaking vigorously or exclaiming "Hell no! But good luck there buddy! I'm more than happy to sit this one out and watch from the side-lines.").
What the Hell is that?!
The punch line to a cruel, cruel joke?
Some sort of practical joke Mother Nature decided to play on me?
Ummm, well, you can stop laughing now... It IS NOT funny.
I swear, sometimes I think I'm cursed by the gods.
I blame it on my parents.
I blame it on my grandparents.
Inveterate Sweet Eaters
Grandparents on both sides of the ol' family tree love(d) sweets.Cake and with a nice cup coffee/tea was a well-rounded breakfast to them!
close
I blame it on genetics.
For Both
The sweet tooth and the diabetes (although I'm the only "lucky" one in my family with the diabetes bit.close
I blame it on science.
I love:
- Ice Cream
- Cake (especially the frosting)
- Brownies
- Blondies
- Cookies (almost any kind will do, really)
- Candy bars
- 3 Musketeers
- Milky Way
- Snickers
- York Peppermint Patties
- Twix bars
- And my new favorite: Baby Ruths
- Pop Tarts
- Doughnuts
- Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwiches
- M&Ms
- Peanut M&Ms, especially
- Pie
- Apple (warm, with vanilla ice cream, of course)
- Pumpkin (like Nana used to make it)
- Lemon Meringue
Please note, this list is not exhaustive, but I'm starting to salivate and feel guilty.
I love ice cream so much, I can't have it in the house, otherwise I'll eat it for breakfast. I have no self-control when it comes to these things sometimes. It's like I have these little conversations in my head about how I shouldn't be eating this, and then whammmo! Conversation ends and the next thing I know I'm standing at a McDonald's counter ordering a chocolate chip sundae. I feel powerless sometimes.
I have actually met people who have told me that they don't like sweets all that much. I just stare back at them with this puzzled look like they have an extra nose on their face. Unfathomable... Does not compute... Alien life-form standing in front of me... Smoke poors out of my ears and I collapse in a heap.
Now that I've got that off my chest, I have a plan.
For the next 3 months, I am not (repeat (with emphasis this time): I AM NOT) going to eat any single item
EXCEPT
PB&Js...I can't live without those. And I've counted the carbs carefully and have had great success in covering it appropriately, so I'm not going to give them up.
close
As I mentioned previously, I've put forth a lot of effort this past year to improve my control, but this has (always) been my Achilles heal. I am hell bent on getting an A1c reading below 6.5 in this coming year and this is easily the biggest thing in the way of my accomplishing this goal.
This is going to be a particularly difficult in the Holiday season that we have somehow found ourselves in the middle of again. I must admit, though, I made this promise to myself a week ago before taking it public and I've made it through Thanksgiving and a retirement
Note
Just because I'm being "good" and not eating cookies, or taking up residence at the chocholate fondue platter that was available, doesn't mean that all the cheese and crackers and nuts that I ate were carb-free! But I must of thought so though, 'cause I certainly didn't bolus for 'em and peaked at 261 post-party. Kind of a bummer.Oh, and I don't remember when I was last accosted by the "diabetes police" but I was at the party for drinking a beer. Oh it just chafes my ass to have someone actually question my behavior while I am working diligently to curb my sweet tooth cravings.
Literally saying to myself, "Stay away from there, Kevin... Stay away... Go get yourself another handful of nuts..."
close
All lows will be treated with glucose tabs and/or granola bars, OJ, pretzels, or fruit. A low blood sugar will no longer be an excuse to indulge.
So, anybody out there like to join me on this little holiday challenge?
(I can almost see your head shaking vigorously or exclaiming "Hell no! But good luck there buddy! I'm more than happy to sit this one out and watch from the side-lines.").
16 Comment(s):
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Kevin said...
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Kevin said...
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Post a Comment || Go HomeGood luck with the plan!! Isn't there a loophole though? You said the list isn't exhaustive, so does that mean you can eat things not on this list? There's a lot of sweet things out there ;)
You can do it!!
kevin, start symlin and have your sweet tooth too. I would still use symlin in the morning (and have ice cream for breakfast!) if my doctor hadn't told me to stop! I admire you willing to try though. I have a sweet tooth as well, and I don't buy ice cream for the same reason! (I also wake up at 1 am and 3 am for a bowl of ice cream, im terrible!) Good luck man!
Kevin,
I have a nasty sweet tooth, too. The holidays are very difficult for me because I want to devour every "naughty" item in sight.
I'll join you on this challenge. I could use the support, too!
I wish I had the willpower to join in. For the same reasons, I don't keep ice cream in the house. And I don't understand people who don't like chocolate.
But do peanut butter and jelly sandwiches really count as sweets??
Congrats on making it through Thanksgiving! Good luck!
I commend you on cutting stuff out of your life cold turkey (or at least til the A1c), but are you setting yourself up for a binge post-test?
I always read that people who go on strict crash diets are the ones who fall off the wagon the hardest. Why not just commit to not treating reactions with the foods you mention, but limit yourself to small amounts (and I know what you mean about keeping the stuff out of the house so you're not tempted), and lower your carb to insulin ratio when you eat them?
Shannon: I suppose you're right. While I eat a light yogurt every morning for breakfast, I'd be kidding myself if I didn't count that as something sweet that I'm feeding on. But I'm going to make every effort to stay away from all the (as Kerri put it) "naughty" foods over the holiday season and into the new year.
Sarah: I've contemplated symlin before, but honestly, I'm waiting for it to come out in a pen before I seriously consider it.
Kerri: Alright! I'm glad you're joining the struggle. I wish you the best of luck through the holiday season.
Em: I eat a PB&J for dinner probably once a week, and maybe once or twice over the weekend for lunch. I count it as a meal (though not an especially healthy one). But I make 'em thick (4 tbs. PB & 2 tbs. jelly) and they certainly fulfill a sweet craving.
Lyrecha: Perhaps you're right that I'm setting myself up for disaster by making an "all-or-nothing" ("nothing-or-all"?) proposition, but I've tried moderation before, and well, it just doesn't work all that well with me. And this is something I've got to do to see if it actually impacts my A1c significantly and then I'll decide whether I want to continue this (perhaps) overly restrictive and "traditional" diabetic diet.
I hate that I'm basically trashing all the advancement in diabetes management and dietary recommendations that a carb-is-a-carb-is-a-carb, and returning to a puritanical "no sugar allowed" diet, but I'm slightly at my wits end in terms of getting an A1c below a 7.
I am sitting here at work and it's freezing cold outside and I have a ton of year-end stuff descending on me - do you think those pumpkin bars with creamcheese frosting that someone has put in the lunchroom will make it better?
Kathy: Oh yeah, I blame psychology and stress too. May the force be with you.
Kevin
I'm the same as you, insatiable sweet tooth.
Ice cream is/was such a problem that we basically don't have it in the house now most of the time.
The big problem with ice cream was figuring out how to bolus effectively for it. So my endo suggested switching to fat-free frozen yogurt. That's much easier, but nothing like as tasty. After doing this for a while, I just moved away from it.
Now if I can only avoid: cake, fresh bread, pies, etc., etc.
I wish you all the best on your plan.
I think someone on the OC needs to do a survey on how many Type 1's also have a sweet tooth. I have a suspicion that's it's most of us. I wonder if the gene predisposing us to this also causes sweet tooth? :-}
Oh man! I have always had a sweet tooth!
I'm with Bernard - I bet a lot of us have "it". And have it bad.
I've often wondered if it's not some psychological thing from all the years of being told not to eat that stuff.
We had a corner store up the block from my house. I would walk up there, buy a bunch of crap, and make sure to have it all eaten by the time I got home.
Then as I got to be driving age, I would stop at the store, again buy a bunch of crap (plus a DIET coke - what do you think the clerk thought?), and eat it on the way to wherever I was going.
I've heard that once you stay off it for a few days, that the cravings will not be so strong. Have you found that to be true?
I really commend your devotion to this, and I know you can do it. I hope that it helps things. I also appreciate the plan of committing to it to see if it works, then re-evaluate.
You are much stronger than I am.
This week, I am combatting the sweet tooth with Sugar-Free pudding cups. Mmmm. :)
This sounds weird and i do not understand it but after I got my pump, when I managed to balance my bg better, I have become less interested in sweets. I actually am no longer even drawn to ice cream. If I get starving I just want another peanutbutter sandwich with lettuce and spinach on whole wheat bread...... When i think of Benn & Jerry ice cream I DO know that if I started, i could NOT stop until the whole canister was gone. This change in me was so sudden that I honestly think that bouncing bg values made me like sweets. Maybe they will scientifically prove this some day. Remember that I said that then. I have noted that I am hungry when my bg is high, low or falling quickly. So I try like mad to keep it right. Once things go a little wacko, all hell breaks loose. When this happens I have ZERO self control. I try and keep away from the edge. All my life I have been chubby, until I got the pump, and then kilos just dropped off me.
I have a huge sweet tooth, which is not good for anyone (diabetic or not). But I'd be wary of the cold-turkey idea--setting very high goals is commendable, but it's also much harder to meet them, which can lead to dissapointment and a binge (I speak from experience!). Plus, I think denying yourself any sweets in a way backfires, since "sweets" will always be on your mind (in the sense that you will be always reminding yourself they are off limits).
I think an effective solution would be to find a way to enforce portion control so you don't have to worry about relying purely on strength of will. For instance, look at this. There are probably similar items out there as well (I don't like the fact that this product is a clear container).
Update: We went to Dean and Deluca last night. He ordered a fruit tart. It looked DELICIOUS. I snagged a piece of kiwi from the top and spent the rest of the time burrowed in a cup of coffee.
Sweets: 0
Kerri: 1
Three weeks to go. Ugh.
Greg does not have a sweet tooth, though I would consider his fondness for tiramisu and creme brulee and that chocolate pecan pie (see one of my Wednesday food blogging posts) a sweet tooth. But he thinks his isn't as great because of type 1 diabetes. Hmmm...
Meanwhile, I do have a rabid sweet tooth. Always have, even when I was super-skinny as a teenager. My problem was that after college, I kept eating the same way I always had and it caught up with me in the form of type 2.
I do well when I don't allow myself any sweets. but if allow myself to share a dessert with Greg or "just a small piece of that holiday dessert", I'm a goner. It leads to binges, which are not good.
Kevin, here's something to make you laugh- I was diagnosed at 10 months old, and when I was 2 yrs old my pediatrician asked me what my favorite food was. I embarassed my poor mom by saying "Icecream" and M&M's (though I only had 10 pieces at a time) were a favorite at that time too. So you aren't the only one who has a sweet tooth:) And I too have been battling it ever since. I try to keep it to small protions or just once in awhile treats. I also found that if I don't buy it and have it in the house to eat, it's a deterrant to me.