As I said the other day, I found a book that I've been reading and I'm finding it really useful. "The Prediabetes Diet Plan" explains how your body uses carbs and how insulin is used by your body. It is a very detailed, yet easy to understand explanation of how things should work in your body and how they actually work when you are insulin resistant. It also provides a lot of statistics on prediabetes and the link to many health problems and how even small changes can prevent diabetes.
She also offers a really good explanation on how to classify the foods you eat into different categories and how to build a healthy plate that reduces our calories and carbs that we are taking in to lead to healthier choices. This can be done without actually counting calories or carbs! I just finished reading about how to estimate the total amount of carbs you should get each day and an easy way to track that. What I like is that she offers a variety of ways to get started! You can start by simply filling your (smaller) plate differently and then choose to count calories and/or carbs or not. There are even tables to make it quick and easy to estimate how many carbs certain foods will give you.
Please keep in mind, this book and the recommendation of keeping your carb intake on the lower end of the RDA is designed for people that are insulin resistant or prediabetic based on actual blood glucose tests. I have been to the doctor and my fasting glucose is higher than it should be and it is, unfortunately, getting higher (as is my weight).
I'm currently using the Lose It app to track my calories and by adjusting my preferences, it will show my carb intake as well. The benefit to tracking what you eat as you eat it, is that you pay attention to what you eat and people tend to make better choices if they actually take the time to notice how much we are eating. I took the kids for a short walk this morning and I went for a jog this evening, so I was 200 calories short and 15g of carbs short of the recommendations. I could have left it at that, but cutting too many calories can do more harm than good, so I let myself have a little treat of M&Ms (measured out!). I enjoyed them and I didn't feel guilty because I knew that 1) I wasn't eating the entire bag at once and 2) I was still within my allotted calories for the day!
I also signed up for the Voyage to Venus. It looks pretty cool! I love the idea behind it and they do some pretty cool charities. I signed up for the Space Ranger level and hope to reach 100 miles this year. I felt this was perfect for me. I'm not really a runner, so setting a goal of 500 miles seemed a little overly ambitious. If anyone is reading this, you should check it out and tell them Heather sent you!
Overall feeling for today: happy
