Week of Eats: Monday 19 July

The verdict: So far, so good!  I'm enjoying this photo food diary blog, and I plan to keep doing this for awhile.

Pre-run breakfast:  I was going to eat a ginger chew, but then I thought of bananas.  I ate the little piece and froze the rest for smoothies.

Post-run breakfast: Spackle, yum!  It felt very nourishing.  1/4 cup oat bran, 1/4 cup flax, 2 Tbsp peanut butter, and about 2 Tbsp sugar-free maple syrup.  Plus 2 mugs of coffee with almond milk and half-and-half (2 ounces:1 ounce ratio) and supplements/metformin.

Mid-morning snack: Chia in hot tea.

Breakfast-for-lunch by the fountain:  2 slices flax bread french toast leftovers with 2 Tbsp peanut butter and 2 Tbsp sugar-free maple syrup, 2 strips leftover bacon, and 1/2 cup blanched broccoli.  (Not my usual side for food like this, but I needed a veggie in there somewhere!)

Post-lunch walk: The part of town where my office is located comprises residential and commercial buildings, so there are lots of pretty landscaped areas to enjoy.  I like walking down this corridor between apartment buildings.

Snack time:  I tried the Goji Berry strip this time.  It had more orange taste to it than the lime strip (as one would hope), but I finally figured out what the bitterness in both strips was like: grapefruit!  There is none in this strip (or the ginger-lime one), but I think they grind up the entire orange, and the pith + fruit flavor and the goji berries gave it a bitter citrus flavor.  So if you enjoy grapefruit without a lot of sweetener, you would probably like these.  I don't care for grapefruit, so I won't be buying these again.  (The mac nuts were still pleasantly salty but the pepper didn't add anything for me.)

More snack time: I didn't need this. I just had a yen for some chocolate.  (I've tried the raspberry and the espresso flavors, and I strongly prefer the raspberry.)

Dinner: Taco night! Mr. Handsome-and-Handy cooked up some ground beef, onion, and grilled and chopped red bell pepper, then added the taco seasoning mix. I toasted a couple of low carb tortillas (14 net carbs and 22 grams of fiber altogether!), and put on some shredded extra-sharp cheddar cheese, 4 oz of the meat + veggie mix total, lettuce mix, salsa, and some plain Chobani. (Sour cream was dated 7/8...ew!) I ate 2 pita chips...yes, with the "cheese hats."

Dessert: Mr. Handsome-and-Handy made homemade potato bread with the new bread maker (we wore out our previous long-suffering one making pizza dough). I had a little sliver (not shown) with butter, but this stuff was begging to be toasted. I also had the piece shown in the photo. (Um, yes, the smaller piece. Not the loaf.)

Between dinner and dessert, I had more starch carbs than I usually do, so I tested at 1.5 hour after dinner. 150! Yikes! Looks like no more potato bread dessert for me. After the bedtime routine with the kids, I tested again, and it was still at 120 (3 hours post-meal). I wasn't going to be burning this up in my sleep. So I hopped on the stationary bike and rode a little bit. I went 5 minutes at resistance level 1, 5 at 3, and 6 at 6. It only took 16 minutes of mild exercise to bring it down to 92. Whew!  Once again, I'm in grateful awe of the power of mild exercise in helping manage blood glucose levels.