Living as a Diabetic Day 3

Many of you remember the event back in May and since that day I have had e mail and remarks on the site about the program. If you want to get the start up date write to harlemhospitalcenter@nychhc.org and ask them for the official start date for 'Stirring the Pot'. 


For those who want to see photos of the event you can visit http://www.stirringthepotharlem.com/ 

Take note not only of the beautiful crowd and our friends at the Central Harlem Senior Center but check out all the folks to my side, in the kitchen, and running back and forth. The propped me up and did everything I could not. All I had to do was season and stir and talk a little bit. It was our extraordinary volunteers who did all the heavy lifting and I could not have even approached this without their help. If you are one of their patients send out a little love to Dr. Rhonda Trousdale for creating the program, Dr. Joan Culpepper-Morgan for pushing it along, and Bariatric surgeon Dr. Leaque Ahmed for taking it to the next level. 


Those classes everyone keeps asking me about are coming.

I am sitting here with a big smile on my face. I love the people of Harlem and seeing those photos again puts me in a good mood.

I finally had a breakfast in balance. I finished off the ham, had the 3/4 cup of cherries and a medium 100% whole wheat pita, along with my coffee and goat milk. 41 grams of carbohydrate. Honestly it is now noon and I still feel stuffed.

However I understand the importance of not skipping meals so I will have something before proceeding out to exercise.

I finally ate and lunch provided a very decent 41 grams of carb. I used the last bit of rice and pork with a little added cabbage and soy sauce. (If you need to watch sodium use soy sauce sparingly)

Without question some more vegetables are needed but thus far I've done pretty nicely.

I did get a question in my e mail box about diabetes and bariatric surgery. It is true that if a diabetic has this surgery they often can stop insulin. However this is an option only to be considered by the seriously overweight diabetics and you must keep in mind that you need to be scrupulous about your diet post surgery.Speaking of which, Stirring the Pot will have classes specifically for pre-and post surgery bariatric patients. They are a center of excellence in Bariatric Surgery so if you are considering it, talk to them.

For a snack I had a cup of chicken soup, not because I was hungry but my asthma today has been horrible.Soup helps.

Because I had made it a while back and froze it, I actually took the noodles out of the
broth with a slotted spoon to measure them. My snacks are supposed to max out at 15 grams of carb and this came in at 20 but I ate it anyway. As a result I am breathing better, so to me, the 5 grams were worth it.

I had one ounce of cheddar as a second snack. After the gym and time at my local farmer's market I was hungry and needed a bite to tide me over while I made dinner.

Many chefs talk about farm to table, and some do butcher whole animals and buy directly from farmers, while others just mean fresh food. I take it literally.

This was my salad. I've had more than one request to check out Ranch dressing and let people know which was the healthiest. I must confess that prior to being asked about it, I had never tasted Ranch. When I looked at the ingredients I discovered that the flavoring was just onion and herb but the dressing tended towards having a lot of sugar, especially the non-fat. For the most part a lot of garbage ingredients. I finally found a dry version that only contained the seasoning. To me the fat free version is obvious, I mixed a little of the seasoning with fat free Greek yogurt. Voila fat free Ranch.

I dolloped it atop a sliced tomato with shaved fennel and had a beautiful, fresh from the farm summer salad.

I roasted some potatoes and a zucchini along with a baby artichoke at the base of the chicken. Notice the eye at the right, my chicken was directly farm to table.

I prefer the male chicken, (you didn't think I would call it a cock and have you laughing at every taste reference did you?) It has a deeper richer flavor. In most groceries even the organic chicken tends to be a hen, if you want a more flavorful chicken you can ask your farmer for a male and specify age, old birds make great soup.

I had the wings, the zucchini, the artichoke and yes rice. I love rice and measured the portion carefully, to have my one cup. I maxed out my carbs at dinner but what a dinner it was. I have a lot of tasty leftovers to enjoy and soup on the stove.

My total carbs were 169 for the day. Under my 180 limit. My calories were 1,628 and my balance was good. I still need more fiber and few more more nutrient dense foods, but overall it was a good day. Most important, everything was delicious and I felt satisfied.