Notice anything different?

You may have noticed a little title change in my blog. Formerly "Diabetes & Celiac Sunshine", I changed it to Celiabetes. Why? I wanted a blog address that incorporated BOTH of my diseases, because both affect my life daily (and affect each other) and also so new people who saw the blog address would know I talk about both diabetes AND celiac disease.

So I did something pretty fun this past weekend. I decided to drive down to Des Moines, IA last Saturday to attend the TCOYD conference. It's a little over 3-hour drive south from my house in Minneapolis. It was a great event, but what I loved most about it was meeting bloggers in person that I have met through the online community. Here is a pic from the event. If I look a little rough, it's because I got up at 2:50am to drive down to the event! No time to get ready and seriously felt like I was half dead when the alarm went off that morning (do I even call that 'morning'???)

Kim from www.textingmypancreas.com, me, C from cslifewithd.blogspot.com.

I was able to meet other cool bloggers in the D-community, shout out to Mike Durbin, Marie and Bea!! So cool to put names with in-person faces. And I got to hang out with Scott and Heather, two members of the DOC located here in Minneapolis with me. So fun!

I also got to meet Bobby Dean, Paula Deen's son. Good looking + thick southern accent = HOT!

Yeah, he was into me. (RIGHT!)

They served a delish meal for lunch, which on top of being diabetes-friendly was also GLUTEN FREE. Holler!!!! It was this chicken dish with a mango salsa on top, with a side of black beans and veggies and a slice of flourless, GF chocolate cake. OMGosh, so good.

So yesterday I decided to re-create said meal at home, following the recipe provided at the event. I didn't make the dessert, but made the chicken dish. I'm sad to report that while the dish turned out scrumptious, it turned out to be quite expensive to make! And took over an hour to prepare. The mango alone was $3.42 (gulp), then buying ingredients I won't likely use that often like dried rosemary, fresh cilantro and fresh jalepeno. I loved the dish, but won't be making it anytime soon since the cost is above what I'm willing to pay for a meal. Here's what mine looked like:

Yesterday I had my 10-week post surgical follow up. It went great. Xrays show that the fusion is beginning to take (yay!), and I was told that my xrays looked like that of someone 4-6 months out of surgery, not 10 weeks, so that's awesome. I love being ahead of schedule! Still have restrictions that are tough to adhere to, like no yoga, running, lifting above my head, lifting (weight) restrictions, etc. But I am happy to be feeling good with little or no discomfort. Not too shabby. While I was at the hospital, they had a hope board posted, where you could write on a sticky what you hope for. I wrote "Cure for Type 1 Diabetes" with a blue circle for the upcoming World Diabetes Day. And I placed it right above my favorite sticky entry on the board:

I LOVE that this little kid wrote a cure for type 1 diabetes, hope AND MUSTACHES! Hilarious!!!!! I want to meet this kid.

Lastly, this is my last week of nothing-ness. I return to the workforce next Monday. Talk about nervous. I love the excitement of starting a new job, but am nervous about dumb things, like fitting in. I'm self-conscious about diseases that cannot be hidden from view. I can hide the spinal cord injury, I can hide the grave's disease. I can't hide the diabetes or the celiac disease. In fact, both tend to rear their ugly heads on the first day of any job; usually when your new team surprises you with a potluck you can't eat or a lunch invite to a restaurant with no gluten free options. Yep, no hiding it. And let's not forget an ever-BEEPing insulin management system. Oh well, guess I'll just hope that my **sparkling** personality overshadows the food issues! (tee hee).

The rest of this week is getting ready for next week. I'm ironing all my wrinkly clothes, putting some outfits together. Planning lunch menus and snacks. I'm already making a big batch of the black bean burgers I told you about previously and freezing them for next week. I think I'm also going to make a batch of GF pasta with veggies and sauce and freeze them for ready-made frozen lunches. And I'll probably also make a big batch of lentil stew for freezing into individual sized servings for lunch, too. These are easy meals that you can pull out of the freezer and just add on a healthy side, like pack a little side salad, a no-sugar-added fruit cup or a side of veggies. For snacks, I already mixed together a big batch of trail mix. I really like the Nantucket Trail Mix that Sam's Club sells; but it's too expensive so I bought the ingredients separately and mixed a batch at home. In it: shelled pistachios, craisins, unsalted/roasted almonds. (The Nantucket Mix also has raisins in it but I don't want the extra carbs). Another snack I'll have ready: Wild Garden Hummus with sliced carrots, celery and whatever other veggies I have in the fridge. I don't buy baby carrot sticks; I buy the full sized carrots and slice them myself (cheaper).

Do you have any other healthy snack ideas? I'd love to hear them. Comment if you do!

Talk to you tomorrow!