My blood sugar has been acting like a Mexican jumping bean the last few days.  Yesterday, I tried another Eades' shake with nothing but the whey protein powder, ice, water and cream.  Once again, my blood sugar skyrocketed after consumption.  It stayed high for 2 hours then dropped drastically the next hour and was back to 95 before lunch.  It stayed fairly level until just before bedtime and jumped up to 130.  This morning, it was back up to 176!  It's steadily declined throughout the day and was 110 before dinner.

In addition to the blood sugar spikes, my weight went up 3 lbs yesterday then down 5 lbs this morning.  Neither day is an official weigh-in, but I just can't help myself (I know, I need to smack myself for the bad daily weighing habit).

I have no idea why the BS is acting quite so freakish.  I also cannot figure out why I'm reacting to the protein powder like I am, but it's obvious I must be super sensitive to either Whey or the protein powder I'm using flat out lies about the carb content (it claims 100% natural, 1 carb per scoop, no sugar, yada yada).  Today, I purchased some 100% pure egg white protein powder (it is the ONLY ingredient listed), so I will try another shake in the morning using that to see what happens. 

Meanwhile, I've been reading Dr. Bernstein's book a bit.  If the egg protein powder does not work for me, I'm going to switch to Bernstein's plan (which is pretty similar to what I've been doing anyway with somewhat less focus on fat and more on protein). 

As usual, I will keep everyone updated on my results and progress.

This is a de-carbed version of a traditional "Mom's Meatloaf."  It is pretty similar to the meatloaf that my mom used to make, with a few changes.  I always cook meatloaf in the crock pot, mainly because it's easier for me with my work schedule.  If you want to go that route, the best thing to do is to make a couple of  tinfoil "handles" to facilitate lifting the meatloaf out of the crock at the end of the day.  Basically, just take a couple of long strips of folded foil and place them in the bottom with the ends hanging over the top of the pot.

Low Carb Meatloaf
2 lb ground meat (I use 1 lb ground beef and 1 lb ground pork)
1/2 small onion
1 stalk of celery
4 average size button mushrooms
2 eggs
1/4 cup reduced sugar ketchup
1/4 cup prepared yellow mustard
2 tbs Worcestershire sauce
2 tbs garlic & onion seasoning (I have a blend that has no sugar.  Be careful of the various blended spices because most of them add sugar.  Of course, if you don't have a blend, you can use a combination of garlic salt and onion powder.) 
1 tbs dried oregano
1 tbs dried basil
1 tsp black pepper
2-3 tbs bacon grease, heated just slightly until it's a liquid (optional) **

1) Spray slow cooker down with cooking spray.
1) Process onion, celery and mushrooms in a food processor until finely diced (I don't like big chunks of veggies in my meatloaf).
2) Throw everything together into a big mixing bowl and mush together.  I just use my hands.  Make sure everything is blended well, especially the eggs.
3) Form into a loaf that will fit your slow cooker.
4) Place loaf into slow cooker.  Drizzle the bacon grease on top.  Cook on low for about 8 hours.

In my house, it usually cooks for about 10 hours with great results. After I remove the meatloaf, I take the drippings from the crock and pour them into a sauce pan and heat it on medium heat.  I stir in about 1/2 cup of tomato sauce and 1/2 cup of beef broth and mix it all up with my stick blender to make a nice sauce for the meatloaf.  Mashed cauliflower makes a nice accompaniment to round out the meal.

This makes 4 generous portions of meatloaf.  Better Half loves meatloaf, so he eats really big servings.  I think you can divide this into 6 and it'll still be reasonable sized servings.

** When I do cook meatloaf in the oven, I place a couple strips of bacon on top.  This doesn't work in the slow cooker because the bacon just gets mushy and sticks to the top of the meatloaf.  I always store bacon grease in a mason jar in my fridge, so I have plenty on hand.  The bacon grease adds a touch of flavor to the meatloaf, but it's by no means necessary for the meatloaf to turn out great.

Nutrition Information per serving (as calculated by DietPower):
Assuming 5 servings:
Calories 582, Carbohydrates 4.82 g (Fiber 1.29 g, Sugars .854 g), Fat 41.6 g (Saturated 15.9 g, Polyunsaturated 3.01 g, Monounsaturated 18.1 g, Trans 0 g), Protein 44.9 g, Cholesterol 246 mg, Sodium 390 mg, Potassium 805 mg

Another week has passed.  I only lost 1 lb this week.  I'm somewhat frustrated with my lack of progress, though I know I shouldn't be.  After all, 11 lbs in 6 weeks is still a decent rate of loss.

My blood sugar was pretty flat all week.  My morning numbers have come down but my numbers throughout the day were up a bit (not above 140 though).  I think part of it is that my mouth is still healing from the bone graft, so I've been in constant pain for the past 2 weeks now.  It's taking a LOOONG time to heal, though I was finally able to do some chewing on that side of my mouth today.  I think it'll be healed within the next 3 or 4 days (I hope!). 

I decided I would give the Eades' 6 Week Cure a try to jump start my weight loss.  I started this morning with a banana protein shake (their basic shake recipe with Davinci sugar free banana syrup added).  It was quite tasty and filling.  However, my blood sugar spiked to 185!  I'm not sure why.  The carb count for the shake was only about 3.  I would think if it was a spike from protein being converted to sugar it wouldn't have happened quite so quickly (since protein is supposed to be converted to sugar slower than carbs).  I ate normally the rest of the day.  I'm a little scared to try again tomorrow without knowing what the problem was.

This is a pretty easy recipe I threw together that I like to serve as a side dish.  I usually only eat 2 at a time because they are very rich and filling.

Low Carb Stuffed Mushrooms
8 average size button mushrooms (the 8 oz packages usually have 8 mushrooms)
3 slices bacon
1/4 medium onion, finely chopped (this worked out to be about 1 oz of onion)
3 oz cream cheese (I used the garden vegetable flavor), softened.
1 oz shredded cheddar cheese
Garlic salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
1) Gently wipe off any dirt from the mushrooms using a paper towel or mushroom brush (do not wash!).
2) Remove the stems from the mushrooms, leaving a hollow in the mushrooms to hold the stuffing.
3) Finely chop the mushroom stems.
4) Fry the bacon in a skillet until crispy.  Remove the bacon, wrap in a couple of paper towels and allow to cool.
5) Toss the onion and mushroom stems into the bacon grease.  Sprinkle on a couple dashes of garlic salt and saute until the onion is clear.
6) Crumble or chop the cooked bacon pieces.  I like the pieces to be fairly small so I don't end up with huge chunks of bacon in my filling.
7) Mix the bacon pieces, sauteed onions and mushroom stems, cream cheese and shredded cheddar together in a bowl.
8) Stuff each mushroom cavity with a generous spoonful of the cheese mixture. 
9) Bake in the oven for about 30 minutes, until the mushrooms release their juices.
10) Finish off for a few minutes under the broiler to brown the tops of the mushrooms.

Experiment with different flavors of the cheeses.  I think next time I might try spinach and artichoke cream cheese with parmesan cheese in place of the cheddar.

Nutrition Information for each mushroom (as calculated by DietPower):
Calories 69, Carboydrates 1.33g (Fiber .254 g, Sugars .522 g), Fat 6.11 g (Saturated 3.5 g, Polyunsaturated .344 g, Monounsaturated 1.94 g, Trans 0 g), Protein 3 g, Cholesterol 17.3 mg, Sodium 78.6 mg, Potassium 91mg

Well, no weight loss this week.  I seem to be in the pattern of one week of loss, one week of nothing, which I suppose I can live with if it remains that way. 

I'm considering starting the Eades' "6 Week Cure" diet just to see if it prods my weight loss along a little better.  Obviously, I have enough weight to lose that it's not going to happen in 6 weeks, but they give advice on how to cycle the diet for longer term weight loss.  I've seen reports from people who had stalled who are now starting to lose again on this diet.  I'm more interested in the liver cleansing aspects that the diet presents, especially if this does prompt the opening of the fat stores, as well as better blood sugar and insulin levels.  Once you get to the maintenance levels of the diet, it's really no different from Atkins.


My blood sugar was a little weird this week, mainly due to the steroids I was on.  The first 2 days of steroid use, the sugars were running a little bit high, then dropped to a more normal rate after that.  My morning numbers have been great all week (110 this morning, by far the best morning number I've ever seen).  I'm not sure why the improvement, but I'll take it.  Hopefully, it remains this way.

I don't have the blood sugar averages for the week.  I'm still not feeling great (still too much tooth pain), so I didn't get my numbers transferred from my meter to my spreadsheet.

I'll try to post a bit more often as I start feeling better.  I definitely have a few more recipes to inflict on everyone!

I'm recovering from the bone graft I had done yesterday.  It wasn't too horrible, but I'm still in a bit of pain.  They told me to eat ice cream and milk shakes all day since I couldn't eat anything crunchy or warm.  Of course, I completely ignored them.  I subsisted all day yesterday on deviled eggs and ice water (since the eggs were soft enough and cold enough not to cause an issue).  I ate a few bites of scrambled eggs this morning but couldn't eat much more than that due to jaw and tooth pain. 

My blood sugar is a little out of whack because they have me on steroids to control the swelling and inflammation.  It's been hovering between 140-150 throughout the day, which I don't like one bit.  Oddly enough though, my morning numbers are lower--around 120. 

I'll be posting more as I get to feeling better.  For now, I'm going to head back to bed and rest some more.

Do you ever just have one of those days where you feel like everything is falling apart?  Today is one of those for me.  On the positive side, I lost 3 lbs this week!  On the unpleasant side... Well, I have a cavity... And a failing root canal...  And I'm having a bone graft done on my lower jaw tomorrow so that I can keep my teeth.  My dentist is convinced I have sleep apnea, and since Better Half says I snore worse than anyone he's ever known, I probably do.

And then my dentist says, "Do you have lupus?"  I say very firmly that I do not have lupus.  "Are you sure?" he replies, "Because that butterfly rash you have on your face is a major symptom of lupus."  Ugh!  I was tested a couple of years ago for it when I had some wonky test results, but the test was negative at that point in time, but geez, should I be worried about it now??

And on top of all that, I did my home A1C test yesterday, and my results were 8.0!  I don't really see how, since it was 7.6 a couple months back, and I have been monitoring my blood sugar so carefully the last month.  Since 50% of the A1C is supposed to come from the last month, where my numbers are rarely over 140, how do I end up with an 8.0?  I'm not going to take it again, since the tests are costly, but we'll see how it is next month.

So anyway, I'm a bit depressed and feeling sorry for myself.  Hopefully, I'll be able to cheer myself back up before too long.

Sorry for the delay in posting my week 3 results.  Better Half and I started playing the new MMO Champions Online and have been pretty busy with the shiny new game. :) 

No weight loss this week (boo), but my blood sugar is improving so drastically that I'm remaining positive.  I had one cheat (boo again).  In a fit of pure laziness, I dashed across the street to McDonalds for lunch on Sunday.  It was an interesting experiment.  My pre meal bg was 95.  My 2 hour reading after a McDouble, medium fries and a Diet Coke was 203!  Yikes.  Luckily, my bg was back down to 85 before dinner, so it didn't stay that high for too terribly long, but I learned my lesson.

My averages for week 3 were:

Day 1: 114, highest 136, lowest 102
Day 2: 118, highest 148, lowest 101
Day 3: 120, highest 158, lowest 100
Day 4: 127, highest 138, lowest 117
Day 5: 109, highest 138, lowest 90
Day 6: 117, highest 146, lowest 95
Day 7: 125, highest 203, lowest 85 <-- McDonald's Day

Clearly, the numbers have improved drastically from my starting numbers 3 weeks ago.  Again, my highs were always the morning numbers with the exception of the McDonald's day.  I haven't really figured out any rhyme or reason to controlling these morning numbers--they seem to do what they want to do.  Overall, they're still steadily declining (just at a fairly slow pace), so that gives me some hope that they'll shape up soon.  I swear I'm not dipping into Better Half's M&M stash in the middle of the night!

Keep watching.  Next week I take my first A1C test, which will be interesting.  I'm not expecting a drastic drop yet, because it will still have 2 months of "bad" in the average.

More recipes coming soon!

That last few days, I swear my meter was taunting me.  I was happy with my readings, but I was looking for numbers below 100.  I was getting numbers like 100, 101, 103, etc.  FINALLY, I got a reading of 90!  Woo hoo!  This was my 'before lunch" number yesterday.  Let's see if my low carb lifestyle rewards me with continued good numbers.

Well, I'm ecstatic to have gotten two morning blood sugar readings below 140 in a row!  Both of the previous nights, I ate a spoonful of peanut butter before going to bed.  I don't know if that actually made the difference or if it was a coincidence, but we will see.

I also forgot to take my night time medicine last night (I'm usually really good about it, but fell asleep watching TV), so I was quite shocked to see the improved reading of 136 this morning. 

I whipped up some induction friendly crab cakes last night.  I was experimenting a bit, but these turned out really great.  Better Half even gobbled them up, not even realizing they were low-carb. :)

For crab cakes, stay away from the imitation crab.  It can be full of carbs (texturizing ingredients)!  I usually get my lump crab meat from Wal-Mart in the refrigerated seafood section.  My Wal-Mart sells it in pouches (similar to tuna) and also in 1 lb containers.  I've made crab cakes before with canned meat, and it'll do in a pinch, but I much prefer the refrigerated kind (I'm sure I'd prefer fresh crab meat if it was available in Denver).

I added cream cheese to make the mixture hold together better, and I think it was a worthy addition.  These would be good with some minced bell pepper as well, but alas, Better Half doesn't care for peppers so I left them out.

Low Carb Crab Cakes

1 lb lump crabmeat
2 oz spicy pork rinds, ground into 'crumbs' (use your food processor or coffee grinder)
2 eggs
3 oz cream cheese (I used the chive flavor)
1 tbs mayonaise
1 tbs dijon mustard
2 tsp seafood boil & grill seasoning (something like Old Bay)
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
a couple dashes of salt

1) Drain and rinse crabmeat, then dry as much as possible.  I put it in my colander and used the back of a big serving spoon to push as much liquid out, then drained on some paper towels.
2) Throw the crabmeat in a big mixing bowl with the rest of the ingredients and mix thoroughly.  I put on latex gloves and just mushed it all together with my hands. 
3) Form into 6 patties (these were pretty nice sized patties, and I was impressed by how well they held together).
4) Heat oil of choice over medium heat.  I used peanut oil in my electric skillet, but I think I'll try them in butter next time.
5) Fry for about 5 minutes per side, until the cakes develop a nice brown crust.  Then gently remove them and drain on paper towels.
6) Enjoy with your favorite sauce.  Better Half used traditional tartar sauce, and I used a mustard sauce that I whipped up on the spot (about 1 tbs mayo, 1 tbs dijon mustard, the juice of 1/2 lemon).  We each ate 2 cakes (Better Half added some fried potatoes but I just ate the cakes).  They were very tasty and filling.

Nutrition Information for each cake without the oil (as calculated by DietPower):
Calories 203, Carboydrates .684 g (Fiber 0 g, Sugars .157 g), Fat 12.5 g (Saturated 5.37 g, Polyunsaturated .681 g, Monounsaturated 2.17 g, Trans 0 g), Protein 21.4 g, Cholesterol 149 mg, Sodium 498 mg, Potassium 275 mg