This blog aint dead yet

The basic message of this blog is very important. Sometimes, I get busy with other stuff and get lax about what I eat and the next thing you know, I start to get Type II and my sugar goes up and takes a couple of days to come down again, regardless of how much insulin I use. This has been happening about once a year or so. Then I get back to the truths I have laid out on this blog and I am ok again. It is important and easy to avoid High Fructose Corn Syrup, and in general, food that is not fresh. Get away from the nitrates and the cans and the bags and boxes. Yesterday, having a can of sloppy joe mix in the house that a visitor had left behind, I decided to use it up, so I bought hamburger (we are fresh out of our grass-fed burger), and started roasting fresh onion and pepper to add as well, then I noticed the can was tainted with HFCS, so I threw it away and opened a can of simple tomato sauce, added it and the onions and peppers, and then threw in my own extra spices, such as more garlic and salt, and ginger, and half a dash of red pepper. Boy oh boy was that good! And get this - it actually tasted like a sloppy joe should! And that without even including any kind of sweetner! Except for the cheap buns I used because my bread shop was closed - they had HFCS in them. Oh well. By the way - DEATH TO THE "INSURANCE" INDUSTRY AS WE KNOW IT, WHICH WANTS TO INSURE EVERYTHING IMAGINABLE, AND PROVIDE ASSISTANCE FOR REGULAR EXPENSES IN ADDITION TO CATASTROPHIC ONES, AND CONTRIBUTES TO THE WAY PEOPLE ARE BECOMING IN THAT THEY JUST MAKE MONEY AND MAKE MONTHLY PAYMENTS AND NEVER MIND AB0UT RESPONSIBILITY OR PLANNING. DEATH TO THE MANUFACTURING INDUSTRY AS WE KNOW IT, WHICH HAS US THROWING EVERYTHING AWAY AT FREQUENT INTERVALS AND BUYING A NEW ONE. WE ARE ALREADY UP TO OUR EARS IN UNREPAIRABLE JUNK, IT IS NOT THE BEST ECONOMICS FOR THE CONSUMER, AND IT DEPRESSES THE SOUL BECAUSE IT IS ANTI-QUALITY AND HAS AN EFFECT ON THE S0UL OPP0SITE THAT WHICH GREAT ART BRINGS, FOR EXAMPLE. DEATH TO THE CORPORATE FARMING AND FOOD INDUSTRY AS WE KNOW IT, WHICH HAS BEEN RAPING THE PUBLIC HEALTH FOR OVER 100 YEARS AND THE HEARTLAND SOIL AS WELL. DEATH TO GOVERNMENT INVOLVEMENT IN BRINGING AB0UT THE DEATHS DESCRIBED ABOVE AND OTHERS LIKE THEM. ONLY THE PEOPLE, UN-AIDED, CAN DO IT. And if only one more person joins us, it will improve the situation just that much. One more person to realize that their life won't change before they do, nor will this country.

Recently, I have had a few extraordinarily delicious innovations for supper or breakfast but I was busy or lazy and didn't record them. I don't even remember anything about their makeup. So what's the point of even mentioning it? Well, just to let you know I'm still at it and loving it, I guess. But here's the one I came up with tonight: a quick 'cream of mushroom' sort of soup. I toasted grollet and roasted mushrooms (dry) on an iron griddle that I place over two gas burners on our range top. I heated milk to hot in a cereal bowl in the microwave, then dumped the roasted and toasted items into the hot milk. I also cut mozarella cheese bits into the hot milk to melt, which was really something with the crunchy grollet. That's it. Oh, I should mention that my grollet has evolved a little. It has lately contained the usual barley, spelt, millet, amaranth, but now also wheat, sunflower seeds, flax seed, sesame seed, and another grain similar to spelt that I forget the name of: it has a beautiful bright (and light) orangish brown color. Toasted grollet, especially if it contains a large percentage of amaranth, is very good for things traditionally done with bread, such as bread and milk or milk toast, grilled cheese, peanut butter and honey, etc. You can't use it to make a sandwich in sandwich form, but you can use all the same ingredients and flavors, just do it in a bowl!

I was in the low-budget grocery store today seeing what looked good and one thing looked really good - the kale. 99 cents for a bunch. It looked really good. I went home with some and got the onions I had baked in the shell yesterday and squeezed them out of their shells into a frying pan in which I had melted a dab of butter along with a 1/16-in. layer of coconut oil, all sticky, juicy and slimy, sliced them a bit, threw on some (dry) grits, cumin and a dash of garlic powder, and browned them to go with hot steamed Japanese style rice, cold, light-red kidney beans and the kale, which I had washed nicely. And of course, I used chopsticks, and devoured that pile of snorse like a horse. Whatever. Japanese rice makes that there kind of thing not only irresistible but you can't help snarfing it as fast as you dare.

Timpanogos

Recalling the time Caleb and I spent a day on Mt Timpanogos, we took our time in the meadows, rock fields and slides just below the peak. We noticed the flowers, the rocks, the animals, and realized it all had been deliberately arranged into a most beautifully designed garden. We knew no rangers or volunteers with the park service had done it. We realized God had done it deliberately. So we basked all day in the upper meadows and saddles and then watched the sun cast its last blaze of glory upon the peaks to contrast the shadow filling the upper basin like black water. We lay on our backs, on boulders on the rock slide below the peak and looked straight up at the cliffs. We bathed in the quiet foreboding of the mountain. It's big and scary. I told Caleb I had always felt a strong haunting from that, like I could feel the spirits of indians who had passed before. But I know that God is not in the wind nor the rock, it only seems that way sometimes. And it is easy to understand how the indian and the priest felt something, just as we did. While it was yet day, we observed other hikers. Hiking was their purpose. They tromped past, up the mountain. They marched back down at a chipper pace, not looking left or right - a happy occupation among so much beauty, when one enjoys good health and a spring in their step. It was plain to see that they did not see how the garden had been deliberately arranged. Their purpose was to hike the mountain and get back home in time for things they needed to be home for. But our purpose, Caleb and I, was to be in the mountain. So when one opens the scriptures, it is good to have the purpose of immersing oneself and being in there rather than getting something read or thinking about how much they have left to read - getting from A to B, so that they can go on to the next thing. Similarly, Sunday was ordained of God. His guarantee is that you need not give any thought to your workaday troubles or things on this planet, for one day out of every seven. He has you covered if you stop, get off, and go see Him for a day. See also Isaiah 58.

Last night and today, my recent experience of unprecedented independence from insulin (which had subsided) came back in yet another unprecedented manifestation. I mean, including the recent experience (I told about it on facebook, not here), I NEVER had anything like THIS. Last night, I ate a regular supper, not too strict, not too indulgent, but substantial. I don't know how many units of insulin I took but it was something like 3-6, but normally, I would have had a little extra after finishing. Not this time. This time, my sugar dropped to 55 when I was expecting it to go a little high. Didn't think too much about it but then this morning, instead of my minimum necessary 4 units for breakfasts, I decided to take only 2, in light of last night, and proceeded to eat another not-too-strict and substantial breakfast, after which my sugar again dropped like a rock. (normally, regardless of how little I eat for breakfast, sometimes even if I don't eat at all, I need a minimum of 4 units. Mornings are much more (injected) insulin-dependent than eveingings, for me) It was like any amount of injected insulin over the last 24 hours was too much - as if I were a normal person. And like I said on fb the other week, I haven't even been exercising at all, nor have I been eating strict, nor have I even been thinking about any of it, much less trying to cut back my insulin shots.

Now and again, I fix myself a full course meal and have to exclaim it was the best I had ever tasted and far better than anything I ever had from any chef. Is that because in cooking for myself, I know what I like? I suppose. But also I think I just get plain lucky. But not just luck, I apparently have a knack. Because if I ever follow a recipe or measure anything, just like when I am doing mechanic work, my eye is more accurate, so when I use measuring tools, cooking or wrenching, it seems to turn out wrong. But when I just use my eye, just like I do (and everyone else I hope) when I make a pb&j or something like that, it turns out great. Well, here's what such a meal I had tonight: Frozen and breaded Maryland Blue crab cake (which I was told to deep fry), thawed, heated a minute in the microwave, and then fried in a pan in butter, both sides. Rice from the rice cooker, done to perfection. Which means you do it soft but not soggy, dry but not burst. You steam it till just before it wants to burst. And you let it scorch by turning the cooker on again a time or two and then let it sit without taking the lid off till it has a chance to un-stick itself from the bottom. Salad: Plenty of Romaine, rutabaga slivers - right amount, a little broccoli, slice green onions - just the right amount, cucumbers (peeled), tomato, enough fresh ginger to not be too little, but not too much to where it is in every bite (in salads, you want it to show up every now and again for that "MMMM! SO goood!" surprise), mayo, Annie's Tuscan Italian. Tip: You got to ALWAYS have more than plenty of rice!

Summary, perhaps not Final, Post

Nothing since I began this blog has swayed my philosophies, nor have I changed except for two things: First, it is easier to do what I do; it always gets easier. At the same time, and apparently it is natural and expected, I am much less anxious to be perfect in my practice. Second, I started out bent on getting off injected insulin dependence, now it is hardly important to me. It's just not a big deal any more. Even tho I still believe it possible. Nothing new here, I hope, but to stress some important points: Eating well has always been important to me and remains so. I seem to be much more sensitive to the difference in feeling good between eating empty calories (commercially processed junk that lots of folks consider wholesome), and real food. I would not trade the experience and spiritual growth I have gained through more than a decade of diabetic-related struggles. No one ever wants to trade spiritual growth. In the beginning, I thought I was permanently healed overnight a couple of times, and such was my aspiration. Now, I am profoundly grateful it didn't happen that way. I still say it's silly to link diabetes and diabetes risk to obesity as an effect of a cause. I still say obesity and diabetes can both be linked as two parallel effects of a common cause: eating American. But a bigger point to be made is, WEANING YOURSELF OFF OF INSULIN OR GLUCOFAGE IS NOT MAINLY ABOUT BLOOD SUGAR LEVEL CONTROL. If you are able to maintain decent blood sugars by a diet and exercise, you don't yet have it covered. While you may be saving your feet, eyes, vessels, nerves and kidneys from the damage excess sugar in the blood can cause, you may yet be starving - getting by on less nutrition than nature intended. Insulin and cell response to it are necessary for the cells to absorb ALL things, not just sugar. Insulin is necessary for you to get your protein, calcium, vitamins and minerals.....and oh yeah, 'control your sugar.' Maybe if you can get healthy enough, your ability to absorb into your cells nutrients can become adequate without the aid of injected insulin or orals. The primary issue with diabetes of either type is getting all nutrients into the cells, not just sugar. A secondary concern is that if sugar isn’t entered into the cells, it will do damage while left in the blood, such as to blood vessels, kidneys, eyes and the nerves. If you can tell you are strong and not wasting away or anemic, but building up, then weaning off may be ok. If you are merely comfortably maintaining normal sugar levels by eating adequately and perhaps exercising a lot, you are in danger of dying a slow death. You will lose teeth and stuff like that. You will weaken in the same manner as someone living on Dorito’s and diet Coke. But the key indicator of whether you are getting adequate nutrient absorption into your cells is whether you can eat a meal to satisfy your hunger and fatigue, and be satisfied to the point that nothing could interest you in taking another bite for the time being. If you do not experience this “I’m full” feeling, you are starving to some degree, and you need medication. Lastly, a reminder that the appetite is key. If cared for and not messed up by a lot of flashy flavors and decadent (yes, this is still a word with a negative connotation) indulgences, it will not only tell you when to stop eating but also what to eat right now or today, and what not to eat. I personally recommend you ignore all diets that begin with "The ______" and end with "diet." Such as the Atkins diet, which was pure insanity. You don't need diets, you need sensibility and a healthy appetite - which again, doesn't mean you eat a lot, but means you can tell how much and what to eat. You can hear something, in other words, when you 'listen to your body.'