Monthly Archives: November 2007

11 Tips for Thanksiving and Dieting

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Wow, Thanksgiving is around the corner, with all the great food and family that comes with it. If you’re trying to watch your weight or even (gasp!) lose weight during the holidays, this one can be a real diet-breaker. Face it, what’s more traditional that eating a huge meal and falling asleep on the couch later?

Here are some tips for you to keep in mind to mitigate the damage!

  1. Fill up your plate once, and don’t go back for seconds.
  2. If you’re eating at someone else’s house, don’t bring home leftovers. If you’re having people at your house, then plan on sending leftovers home with everyone!
  3. Fill up your plate with lower-calorie items like vegetables, fruits, and lean turkey before adding on the more fattening items like stuffing, mashed potatoes, etc.
  4. If you have any control over the timing of the meal, try for mid afternoon so you won’t be eating both lunch and dinner.
  5. Buy fat-free gravy in a jar rather than making homemade.
  6. Make other “smart” substitutions like using lower-fat milk, sour cream, mayonnaise, etc. in your cooking.
  7. Whether you’re cooking the entire meal or only a dish or two, try to fix something that you really like AND that’s lower in calories. You’ll have something that feels like a treat and that won’t blow your diet.
  8. For dessert, try fruit or cranberry salad instead of heavier desserts.
  9. If you must have a “real” dessert, skip the whipped cream. Eat the pie filling and not the crust.
  10.  Drink diet soda, water or coffee with the meal.
  11.  Take a walk afterwards instead of a nap!

Even if you eat more than you really ought to, relax. Don’t let one day turn into several days of overeating.

Diabetic Eyes: Something you Don’t Know

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My husband had an appointment with an eye specialist because of his diabetes. Many diabetics have something called Diabetic Retinopathy. After you’ve had high blood sugar for some time, you can experience eye changes, including leaking blood vessels and new blood vessel growth, that can be big trouble for your eyes.

Fortunately, doctors can now do surgery and prevent vision loss, but without it, diabetes can still lead to blindness. We’re lucky; my husband doesn’t need surgery because his diabetes was caught before his eyes progressed to that point.

When we were talking with his doctor, we learned something interesting. After being diagnosed with diabetes and (presumably) getting your blood sugar near normal ranges, you can expect your eyes to worsen for the next nine months.

Yes, that’s what his retinal specialist told us. For nine months after the blood sugar starts coming down, the eyes tend to get worse. After that, you see drastic improvements in the eye with continued blood sugar control. I wish we had known that up front; it would have saved a week of worry while waiting for the appointment with the specialist. He told us that it’s not really known why that’s so, but that it does tend to work that way.

He also emphasized that it’s very important to get blood sugar down into a normal range and keep it consistently there. That’s the only thing that will help your eyes over the long term.

We learned some other good bits of information.

  1. You don’t have to have any vision changes to have diabetic retinopathy.
  2. You can have diabetes and have none of the usual symptoms.
  3. Routine blood work can miss diabetes. Diabetes is often undiagnosed for years, and that’s years that the disease can damage your eyes, kidneys and other organs!

Talk to your doctor about getting your blood sugar tested, even if you have no symptoms or family history. If you DO have symptoms or a family history, you need to get tested sooner rather than later!
If you have a real aversion to drinking the glucose for the fasting test, ask your doctor to do an A1C instead. You just give some blood, and you don’t even have to fast or drink anything! You can’t tell me that’s not easy enough to do.

Tips for avoiding diet sabotage

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Recently, I wrote about how we often sabotage our own efforts at weight loss. I’m sure that you also know that others do their part in sabotaging us as well.

First of all, remember that it’s rarely done on purpose or out of spite. In fact, usually the person doesn’t realize it at all, so don’t get angry. The best option is to recognize it, examine the reasons behind it, and deal with it from there.

Let’s talk about those people who make it difficult without meaning to or realizing they’re doing it. Maybe they bring donuts several times a day or show up in your office with their latest baked goodies. Instead of getting frustrated, try something like, “Everything you bring is so good, I find I can’t resist it. Since I’m trying to lose weight, would you help me by not offering? I just can’t say no to your homemade goodies!”

Others will insist that you socialize with them by eating out. If that’s the case, stick with appetizers or something light. Drink diet drinks and avoid the alcohol; it’s loaded in calories. Offer to be the designated driver.

Still others will try to convince you that you don’t need to lose weight. These may be genuine compliments or just the person’s way of being nice. Accept it as a compliment but explain that you want to do this for you.

You’ll also need to deal with others’ fears. If you lose weight, will your partner feel threatened or jealous? Will your best friend feel self-conscious? If you lose weight, others are bound to look at you differently, and that can be scary for them. If you find that your family and friends are less than supportive, recognize that it’s likely fear that’s motivating their behavior. You may have to reassure them that even though your body is changing, you won’t.