My doctor sent me to a diet program. Apparently she’s concerned because I have diabetes and heart disease riddling my family history. She suckered me in on the possibility that if I lose enough weight I might be able to drop the blood pressure medicine.
It’s a cool program. If your doctor recommends one like it, I say jump on it.
It’s free to participants with backing by both the state and the CDC. The statistics collected get turned in to the CDC and are part of their long term study of diabetes. Originally, twenty years ago, the CDC set up three groups for their study: a control group that merely reported their condition. A group testing a new diabetes drug. And a group that focused on improving diet and exercise together. The last group improved their health and longevity by twice as much as the drug group and three times the control group.
Last week we focused on fat grams. I have to have 42 fat grams or less. I’m finding it easier to count fat grams than calories, though I’m sure we’ll end up counting them, too. I know because there’s a spot for calories on their forms.
I learned all kinds of things by looking up the food I normally eat. For instance, 2% milk had 5 grams per cup. That’s a lot when you can only have 42 grams a day. Pork blade is worse than pork chop. Beef is a killer. Cheese is my Waterloo. And always, always, always look the food up BEFORE you eat it. Gyros have 40 grams per 12 oz!
Who knew? When I complained to The Girl, she shrugged and said, “Well we already knew it would be bad. I mean, look at all the people who work there.” She’s got a point.
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