Well...it's Friday!

No sewing again yesterday. Well that is not entirely true. I patched my little boy's jeans. Any quilt making is on a hiatus. We are working on the house getting ready for a small reception for after the wedding.

This protocol is getting easier. The cravings have almost disappeared and I really feel like I have some self control. I didn't even have any coconut M&Ms. It is going to be quite some time before I can have the ice cream that only I will eat. I guess I should use the "suck and seal" (Food Saver) and protect it from freezer burn.

Maybe I should mention the supplements I am taking along with the food. In the morning I take 200 mg of Alpha Lipoic Acid and 500 mg L-Carnitine. Then in the afternoon I take GTF Chromium (I need to get more). The evening time is when I take my vitamins. I take a good quality multi-vitamin. Then I take additional 500 mg of vitamin C, B-50 Hi-Energy Complex (contains all the various B vitamins), 600 mg of Calcium, and 400 I.U. of vitamin E.

I was extremely good yesterday. It was easy cuz the cravings weren't there. Now let's talk about some of the other things you can have. We will start with the protein, make it lean. White meat skinless chicken or turkey. We are looking for the leaner types of beef. Flank steak, sirloin, Porterhouse steak (make sure you trim it), Filet Mignon, Round steak, London broil, 85-93% ground beef, tenderloin, Rib roast, Rump roast, Chuck roast. Seafood (yum, yum!) is a wonderful choice. Cod, tuna (fresh or packed in water), trout, snapper, flounder, herring 9not creamed), tilapia, whiting, haddock, sardines sea bass, pollock, halibut, swordfish, mahimahi, clams, crab, oysters (yuck >p!), lobster, shrimp, scallops, and surimi (imitation shellfish). Then there is pork, the other white meat. Pork tenderloin, Canadian bacon, canned ham, trimmed pork chops, fresh ham, deli ham, center-cut pork chops. All of these meats you need to have lean cuts, avoid regular bacon and sausage because of the added fat (you want your body to burn your fat, not the fat you eat. Trim excess fat, no breading, coating, or sauces that contain more than 5 grams of carbs.

Yesterday was spent on cleaning off horizontal surfaces. I have noticed through the years, that we have a problem keeping elevated horizontal surfaces clear of "stuff". We really need to get into the habit of putting stuff away instead of setting it down. I like a living room, or front room, or parlor that is separate from the rest of the house. I can usually keep that one room clean for unexpected, heck, even expected company. So slowly, but surely, we are getting the house clean. We have until Saturday. I want to be done by Saturday the 13th. Here's hoping!

Piles and piles and piles

I have not done any sewing for a couple of days. I have made my two oldest boys a string quilt. So I am now completing a string quilt with a spiderweb effect for son #3 and his girlfriend (soon to be wife on Feb 14th). I have top and bottom sashing to sew on and then the binding and this quilt will be done. Sashing, quite often, is a frame of fabric around the body or individual squares of the quilt. Like a picture, a quilt can have the quilt body (the picture), then a sashed border (the matting), another sashed border (the frame), and then the binding (decoration on the frame). This particular quilt, when done, will have the quilt body, sashing in a green color, then a string pieced sashing, another width of sashing in blue and then the binding. The pieced part and the blue go on as one piece because of how I have chosen to back this quilt. This quilt is a "back as you go" quilt, so when you get done all that is left is the binding. If I were to do this again, I would chose to do nothing larger than a full size quilt. The quilt I am making is queen sized and it is definitely getting unwieldy. I will not be getting much sewing done today either, piles and piles and Piles of laundry!

Diet is such an awful word. As Garfield has observed: "It is DIE with a t at the end!" So that is why I am using protocol. Yesterday went fairly well. SH (sweet hubby) made me a breakfast, carefully adhering to what I can and cannot have. I had my little square of bread. Boy did I want more. As with most dietary restrictive regimens, there are cravings. The reason for these cravings is your body's stockpiles for emergencies. Your body stockpiles fuel by storing fat. Your body stockpiles carbs by storing a three day supply of blood sugar in the liver. The liver releases these blood sugars on a regular basis. When these sugars are discharged your pancreas panics and releases too much insulin, thus the cravings. This is why the first three days (or so) are the most difficult. We are trying to get rid of the surplus blood sugars and your body is rebelling! Once these sugars are gone, and you limit you carb intake appropriately, your pancreas can "rest" and then the reprogramming can begin! Oh, and the by product of this is...drum roll please...WEIGHT LOSS!! I pulled out my bag of veggies and munched on them through out the day. Lunch was more veggies with cream cheese thrown in the mix (low-fat is recommended but not mandatory.) Dinner was a deliciously tender pot roast with potatoes and carrots and onions with a very nice gravy. Oh wait...I can't have potatoes...or carrots...or gravy. It smelled so-o-o good. I had the meat and some green beans. At least I could have the onions that were cooked with the roast. Those kind of veggies always taste so good. Hubby was a dear and ate those other veggies for me. Then he got the rest out of sight and packaged them up for his lunch for the next couple of days. And about those cravings. I am so glad I went out and got some nuts. Nuts are allowed at this stage of the game. The ice cream was calling to me relentlessly, especially the Southern Crunch Butter Pecan. I am the only one in the house that will eat it. It will just have to wait. Eventually I will be able to have some. Portion control will be very important. Not only is this a "protocol" it will be a lifestyle change.

We got the guest room cleaned up and able to accommodate guests. We used to call it "the white" room. Now we may have to call it "the Princess-and-the-Pea Room". We put our former queen set (we upgraded to a king) on top of a waterbed frame our second son gave us. We are gonna have to eliminate the box spring. The bed is three feet tall! Wonderful for nine year old boy but for us older folks, not so much. You need a step ladder to get in bed! We now have to figure out what to do with the full size bed. We upgraded the guest bed. Our youngest kinda wants the full. He has some issues he has to deal with before that can happen. I have an idea for a Murphy bed. Will have to think on it some more.

The living room is done. The guest room is done. Tonite we will work on the kitchen-dining-family rooms. This is pretty much all one space. We would like to get this all cleaned so we can rent a steam cleaner this weekend.

Quilting, Dieting, and other fantasies

Since my blog says quilting, dieting and other fantasies, we will start with quilting. As you have seen, I have made "string" quilts for two of my boys. I have also made many rag quilts. When my first grandson arrived I made him this quilt: It is a little hard to see, but it is a four patch. A little more structured than a string quilt. Then when my second grandson came along I made him this quilt: Front and back. I didn't have enough fabric of any one kind to make the back. I thought this turned out well for a little boy. This quilt was not quite as structured. It did have squares that were identical, just turned in various ways. In the making of these quilts I have discovered a few things about me. I am not particularly interested in making structured quilts. I love the piecing of string blocks. I enjoy putting the blocks together to make the quilt top. I love how a rag quilt is done once you get the "blocks" sewn together (well...you do have to "rag" it after that). I bog down and have a problem with the actual quilting of the quilt. I could hire that part out, but money is tight. I think I have figured out how to combine the two types of quilts I like and I am going to make my hubby a car quilt as my prototype. His will be khaki on the rag side and flannel string blocks on the soft and finished looking side.

Yesterday went well. Breakfast was an omelet with onion, tomato, garlic, spinach, 3 egg whites, and one yolk with a sprinkle of cheese. Notice all the complex carbs. In this program I can have 5 grams of other carbs. There is a type of bread at my local store I like. It is a multi-grain, nut and seed type. One quarter of a slice has 4 grams of carbs. Sigh! Oh well, it's for the greater good. I have found a lower carb bread that has 5 grams per slice. I will try it after this other loaf is gone. I got a package of those "green" bags. I didn't get the name brand, nor did I get a knock off from the grocery store. I went to Dollar Tree and got some there. I did this a couple of weeks ago and put plain old iceberg lettuce in it. They seem to be working well. But I digress. I got the bags and filled one with radishes, cauliflower, celery, and mushrooms (experimenting with the shrooms to see if they will not get slimy, so far so good). I snack out of this bag throughout the day. According to the powers that be, the first three days are the hardest. I must say the potato chips and cosmic brownies are taunting me. The bananas are laughing (no fruit in this stage of the game). Lunch was sauteed zucchini. No breading :(. As long as it has been five hours or more, I can have another 5 grams of carbs. Woo-hoo, another quarter slice of bread! Or something else that is allowed. No fruit, or fruit juice, that is why the bananas are laughing. Dinner was Two slices of lunch meat and more veggies. I could just keep quiet, but I will admit I did cheat a little. I had two, count them two, coconut M&Ms. I was afraid to have anymore. I really want this protocol to work. I have to "rest" my pancreas for 8 weeks. If I mess up too badly, I can't just start up where I left off, I will have to start over fresh. Before I started this, I had lost 40 pounds. Then it all stopped and it didn't seem to matter what I did, I couldn't budge from that. Here's hoping I can achieve my ultimate goal and become half the person I was!

Now other fantasies. Tonite, when hubby gets home, we will be doing some extreme cleaning. Our third son is getting married (Valentine's Day no less)and we are getting ready for a small, informal reception for after. My guy did not marry me for my housekeeping skills. I do well if I get the dishes done and the clothes washed. The rest waits for a wrecking crew. He works so very hard and I stay home and yet he is still so willing to put up with this and help! How lucky can you get. While working on this blog, I have been cleaning the front room. SO I do get some done. Thank goodness for company, otherwise our house would never get clean!

Why must we always start at the beginning?

This blog will be my ruminations on my quilting projects, progress with my diet, and other observations in my life.

I went bold by starting this blog and the diet on the same day. Bold or silly, you pick!

Type 2 Diabetes is knocking on the door and I will have to let it in if I don't do something. Since my body doesn't seem to be reacting to carbs appropriately, I have found a protocol that may help. It is a low carb, very low carb, extremely low carb plan. You can't live without carbs forever and this plan reintroduces more carbs as it progresses. Just remember that all carbs are not created equal. In this plan, most of the refined carbs have been verboten! You get to eat most any vegetable (no potatoes for now), lean meat, and other things. What this protocol is trying to do is retrain your pancreas to release insulin appropriately. With type 2, when you eat carbs, the pancreas panics (in effect) and releases too much insulin. The insulin attacks the carbs, but there are not enough carbs for the insulin released. So your brain says that you want more cake, chips, crackers, etc. Then the pancreas panics again. It's a never ending cycle. Let's see if this protocol will end this cycle and help me get to a more normal place.

I have just recently started quilting. My first project was rebuilding a quilt my grandmother made. This was at the request of my second son.


I liked it so well, I made a quilt for my oldest son.

I have four sons and have made each one what I call a car quilt. These were rag quilts made out of old jeans. In hindsight, I would have put flannel on them too. My youngest son got one made of camouflage material, denim on the rag side and flannel on the flat side.