Your refridgerator is your pharmacy

Food.

Do you eat for enjoyment or necessity? Maybe a little of both?

I largely eat for necessity, with the occasional treat thrown in, of course.
The bottom picture is of my spinach cranberry turkey burgers (sans spinach, b/c I forgot to buy fresh spinach at the store-oops). It's just turkey burger, a handful of fresh spinach, maybe 1/4 cup of cranberries, and 1 egg. Mix 'er up with a fork and form into patties. They will feel wet and difficult to keep together at first, but trust me, they'll fare just fine. Just fry them up in a pan. I'll eat these later in the week.

The top picture is of my dinner tonight. Fresh salmon. As a nice treat, one of my church friends gave me some fresh salmon that their family had caught in Canada. I was so happy and surprised! Yum! The picture here shows what I did with it. That's fresh dill, garlic, evoo, and lemon on top of fresh salmon, right before entering my oven. I ate it with a side of freshly sliced mango.

I must have over bolused for the mango, tho, because about an hour post-eating, my bg tanked. Yikes. What happened there, who knows. Feeling icky and seeing the down-trending arrow on the CGM, I over-corrected: a 15 carb juice box, followed by about 15 more carbs of whole grain crackers.

Tonight I caught up on my dLife recordings. I try to catch it on Sunday nights on CNBC, but b/c it's broadcast here at 6pm, it's usually in the heart of a very busy part of my evening and gets missed. So tonight, I had two weeks' worth to watch. I am so happy there is a show dedicated to D.

Last week I met with another dietician/CDE, this time at the University of Minnesota, on a referral from my primary doctor. The dietician is a specialist in persons with both celiac disease and diabetes. I'm pretty sure I struck gold with her. My appointment was for 2 hours, and we used up every minute of it. I confided in her that I get jealous of other diabetics who only have diabetes (versus celiac w/ diabetes). I told her that I used to complain about having to follow a diabetic-friendly diet, but once I had celiac AND diabetes, I begged for the days that I only had to follow ONE diet (diabetes) instead of two. It can be incredibly taxing, emotionally and socially, to manage two medical diets. I began to resent people who could just order food mindlessly, without a care in the world. I would think, it must be nice, to just order whatever you want with no immediate consequences.

Yes, I am already aware I have anxiety when it comes to managing my diseases. I try to be perfect. The dietician picked up on this. She referred me to a therapist who specializes in ppl with multiple auto-immune diseases, with an emphasis on diabetes.

The best advice I have been given for managing the diets didn't come from a doctor or therapist or a dietician/CDE; it came from one of my non-diabetic, healthy-as-heck friends. He works out a lot at the gym. He told me to view food as medicine; advice he follows himself. I know that sounds incredibly boring and horrible, to not eat for the sole purpose of enjoyment, but for me it turned out to be invaluable advice. Once I started viewing food as medicine for my body, it took some of the pressure off me. It gave me a new way to look at food. When I view food as medicine, I don't feel as disappointed, like when I can't go out to eat somewhere because there is nothing safe (gluten-free) at the restaurant. It's like Kris Carr said and now I say: Your crisper is your pharmacy.

So now when I see other people eating whatever they want, I get a little tough-love on myself and remind myself that my body is broken, for goodness sake it attacked ITSELF and it needs proper and specific nutrition in order to function properly. I know I'm not like those other people. I have multiple auto-immune diseases, 3 of them, and a fourth one could be fatal or at the very least, debilitating. So I have extra incentive to follow a strict gluten-free/blood sugar regulating diet.

It's also given me incentive to cook and enjoy doing so. I have only eaten out at sit down restaurants 3 times in 2011. I've cooked all of my meals, all year. I've gotten creative with my healthy food. I've learned new flavors and new combinations that work. I've tried new foods that I'd never heard of (like teff and amaranth). I can't believe how much I like my own cooking and that I've learned to manage two medical diets, a feat that seemed nearly impossible 12 months ago. I'm proud of myself for what I've accomplished.

Whatever your food philosophy, you gotta agree that what you put in your mouth is important stuff. And sometimes it feels like the only piece of our diseases we have control over. P.S. I really recommend trying those turkey burgers! Easy and yum.