Those leftover Christmas stamps

I don’t even remember how it started or when I got involved but a few of us (C, Simon, Kim, Jess) were talking on Twitter about a week ago about the fun of “real mail.”

Until last week, I don’t think I had ever addressed a personal letter to someone in another country. When I was in England for a few weeks in college, I wrote some letters home. This is certainly the first time I have sent anything to Australia!

Instead of writing on my blog the past few days I’ve been writing notes and letters. And today when I went to Target, I spent WAYYY to much time looking at stationery.

And those stamps I bought in December, I finally have another use for them.

This is one addiction that might actually be good for me (as opposed to the Diet Pepsi and chocolate/peanut butter problem I have).

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In other post office news – Jaimie is getting a signed copy of the recipe booklet that Sam Talbot shared at Friends for Life. He showed us how to make the recipes in the booklet (you can see the videos of his lesson in this post) so I expect greatness from you Jaimie! Or at least pictures of your efforts!

I WILL scream for ice cream

I am not typically one who fights in every diabetes advocacy battle. I prefer to let the way I live my life to demonstrate my advocacy.

But…

don’t you dare try to threaten my ice cream supply!

When Wendell Fowler wrote his “news” article questioning the logic of a fundraiser for diabetes that involved ice cream and likened it to serving an alcoholic a beer, I don’t think he had any idea of the power of the community that he had angered. He actually deleted the original article, but a copy of it can be found here.

There are some half-hearted, back-pedaling nonsense follow up articles here and here.

But let’s not focus on that, let’s focus on the power of the diabetes community to unite behind a cause.

Let’s focus on the event on Facebook that at the time of writing this post has 2,446 members. Let’s focus on the Twitter hashtag #takethatwendell where you can see even more updates (and pictures) of people enjoying their ice cream with family and friends.

Let’s focus on great friends who I explained the story to, and who were more than happy to join me in this fight!

TAKE THAT WENDELL!

Sam Talbot makes a hot dish

Sam Talbot is hot.

Sam Talbot is a chef.

Sam Talbot also has Type 1 diabetes.

Thanks to some sort of combination of those facts, Sam Talbot joined us for the Adults with Type 1 reception at Friends for Life.

For those of you – gasp – not familiar with Chef Sam, he finished third on the second season of Top Chef. He is now the executive chef at several restaurants.

The adults were, thanks in part to Tandem Diabetes Care, able to enjoy a nice reception and a cooking lesson from Chef Sam.

There may have been a Q&A session, and I may have asked a question on behalf of C that some girls in the bathroom told me violated the girl code.

But other than that incident, it was a great time!

After the demonstrations, Chef Sam was nice enough to host a meet-and-greet with us as well. The conference had put together brochures with the recipes from the night that Chef Sam signed for us.

Chef Sam graciously agreed to sign an extra for me. If you would like it to be yours, leave a comment on this post by midnight on July 26th and I will randomly pick one of the comments and send it your way. If you were at the reception, I’m excluding you from the contest

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By the way, Chef Sam has a book “The Sweet Life: Diabetes Without Boundaries” coming out on October 25th that combines his story of his life with diabetes with his “foodie tips” and some of his favorite recipes (with carb counts). Pre-order the book today!

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Disclosure: I paid for all expenses (travel, food, lodging) to attend Friends for Life. While there, I attended the reception described above. I was given the recipe brochure described in this post. I was not asked to blog about the session and all the thoughts and drooling described above are my own.

I should charge for this – cake pop tutorial!

What you will need:

1 cake mix (box mix is fine or you can make your own, I’ve done both)
1 can of frosting (or the equivalent if you are making your own)
sprinkles or other decorations

I find the rest of this at Michael’s, I’m not sure where else carries it

1 bag of lollipop sticks
3 bags of candy melts (they are round wafers and come in different colors and flavors, by the cake supplies)
styrofoam

Bake the cake in a regular 9×13 pan according to directions.

Let it cool completely.

Put the cake in a large bowl.

Using your hands, break the cake up into crumbs.

Starting with about half the can, add the frosting to the crumbs. I always use more than half the can, but never the whole can. The amount of frosting depends on how moist the cake is already.

The frosting should make the cake moist and easy to “ball”.

At this point, wash your hands or the next step is difficult.

Roll about 1/2″ to 3/4″ cake balls in your hands. You should be able to get between 35-45 cake pops from one cake.

Put the cake balls in the fridge to chill.

Melt about 1/2 of one of the flavors of candy melts.

THIS IS IMPORTANT – Do not burn the candy when melting. In the microwave set for 30 second increments at HALF power.

It will take a few sessions to melt the candy. You can also use a double-broiler (my mom would!)

Dip the sticks in the candy melts (about an inch).

Place the stick in the center of the cake ball no more than halfway (the candy acts as a glue to hold the stick in).

Put them back in the fridge to chill.

Melt the rest of the cake melts (you can remelt the previous candy).

Dip the cake pops in the candy melts to cover (use a spoon to help).

Tap the pop and rotate it on the side of the bowl to remove the excess candy.

Be sure to add the sprinkles or decorations before the candy sets.

If the cake balls begin to fall of the sticks as you are dipping, put them back in the fridge to chill again.

Prop the sticks in the Styrofoam to finish setting.

* When chilling in the fridge, there isn’t really a set time length. I usually make the pops over two days so I usually break the work up at one of those times. But it could be much shorter (1-2 hours). You can speed chill in the freezer but DO NOT allow the pops to freeze.

I store them in the fridge so they last longer, but will not spoil being served at room temperature once they are set.

Enjoy!

Click this link for a PDF version of the instructions: Cake Pop Directions

The cupcake cure

Before I address the wildcard topic I chose for today, I wanted to share quickly about what I really learned this week.

That is – there are WAY too many ways to sign in to leave comments on posts! Word verifications drive me nuts! I have an old blogger log-in, I can use gmail to log in, OpenID will only sometimes recognize my wordpress user name (and then my blog name not my actual name is in the post), using the Name/URL option is tough with a very common name. It really should be easier. Also, music on blogs is not my favorite thing, especially when I am multitasking.

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Now – what I really wanted to talk about today is cupcakes. Researchers have recently discovered that when the beta cells of the islets of Langerhans fail, they are replaced by cupcake loving cells. We are genetically predisposed to cupcakes. Our bodies need cupcakes as badly as they need artificial insulin.

When cupcakes aren’t around, I try to make do with cake pops. They help, but it’s just not the same.

Recently, however, there was an exciting development in the diabetes community in our craving for cupcakes. While some researchers are busy working on the artificial pancreas, a smarter group is working on the “artificial cupcake”. I am proud to announce here that the first edition has cleared the FDA and made it to market.

The “artificial cupcake” is one of the cheapest medical devices on the market. You can have one for only $25!!! Can you believe it? And 20% of the cost of the device will be donated to the Diabetes Research Institute – the best chance of a cure for people with diabetes!

If you want your own artificial cupcake, e-mail chief researcher Jaimie H at nallysmama [at] gmail [dot] com or click on the picture below send her a message on facebook.

Need more details?

The device is rhodium plated with swarovski crystals. After you place your order, you can expect the device to arrive at your house in about 3 weeks. No medical training required for use.

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“When you reach the end of your rope, tie a knot in it and sit down & enjoy your cupcakes.”

“Where there is great cupcakes there are always miracles.”

“A balanced diet is a cupcake in both hands.”

“Nothing great in the world has ever been accomplished without cupcakes.”

“Only cupcakes lets us see normal things in an extraordinary way.”

“Don’t cry because there is no more cupcakes. Smile because you ate them all.”

“You were BORN as a cupcake don’t DIE as a muffin.”

“Money can’t buy you love, but it can get you some really good cupcakes.”

Cupcake quotes source

Portion control

The topic of the #dsma chat this week was about carbs, which was a little ironic for me because I had just finished making cake pops with a friend. The dishes were actually still in the sink when I started to tweet.

There are roughly a billion recipes for cake pops on the internet so I wont bore you with the details. Instead you can just enjoy the pictures. The cake pops are pretty easy to make; my only advice would be to wait for the “cake balls” to be completely chilled or you will have trouble getting them to stay on the lollipop stick.

1. turning cake balls into cake pops, 2. candy melts for dipping, 3. chilling in fridge, 4. peanut butter cake pop, 5. with sprinkles, 6. blue cake pop with pearls, 7. cake pop dipping, 8. trying to cover evenly, 9. she loves pictures, 10. posing while waiting for the candy to set, 11. cake pop inside, 12. getting fancy, 13. more fancy, 14. finished product, 15. cake pops!

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P.S. I believe this counts as a D-Feast Friday post because of course it is healthier to eat a cake pop than an entire piece of cake, right? It’s all about portion control!

P.P.S. I didn’t notice until I set the timestamp for this post that today is April Fool’s Day. I guess I should have posted a CURE joke instead. Oops!

Now that’s scary! A SAE post

Halloween has always been a tricky holiday for me. As you know, I have grown up going to church, and I think that a lot of Christians struggle with this holiday. My family was never really one of those families that did not celebrate it at all, but from what I can remember we tried to find some sort of odd balance.

For example, the year I remember most clearly – for the church’s harvest festival (a way for the kids to get candy without “celebrating” Halloween) my brother and I dressed up as Mordecai and Esther. Then we came home and changed into our hobo outfits (oversized sweatsuits stuffed with pillows?!) and went trick or treating in the neighborhood.

Tonight I had some friends over for dinner. Honestly, when I invited them, I did not even remember it was Halloween. I had to ask them if they still wanted to come over after I realized the date. They all came over, but there was not a single costume in our group.

Once I figured it out, I wanted to do something fun and Halloween-y for dessert so I made some cupcakes last night but saved the decorating for us to do together tonight. Don’t look too closely at some of the pictures – if you are wondering if it says what you think it says, yes it does.

I don’t really own any scary movies so I didn’t really have anything to play in the background. You can see all my movies on the shelves under my TV and someone suggested Steel Magnolias. Usually the movie makes me a little sad (obviously) but watching it with a group of friends who were on a sugar high put quite a different spin on it.

Because we were mostly focused on our cupcake creations, those that had not seen the movie before had some trouble following along. I had to explain what was happening pretty much the whole movie. My only little version of diabetes education in the middle of my party.

And as George pointed out, If Steel Magnolias is not it’s own version of a scary movie, I don’t know what is!

You are what you eat

Today’s prompt for Diabetes Blog Weekis ‘to carb or not to carb’.

Today lets blog about what we eat. And perhaps what we dont eat. Some believe a low carb diet is important in diabetes management, while others believe carbs are fine as long as they are counted and bolused for. Which side of the fence do you fall on? What kind of things do you eat for meals and snacks? What foods do you deem bolus-worthy? What other foodie wisdom would you like to share?

I don’t pretend to have all the answers or do everything right even close to half the time, but I can tell you about my ‘carb philosophy’.

My mom has been on a diet for pretty much my whole life. Name a weight loss program and she has probably been on it at one point or another. Watching her diet has taught me one thing, if you feel deprived of something you are more likely to binge on it when given the opportunity.

So how do I feel about carbs? I eat them.

Some days are better than others, but I try to eat a balanced diet with everything in moderation. There are certain foods that my body just does not react kindly to, so I am more likely to eat potatoes than pasta and fruit than rice.

I’m not sure I would have the same eating habits if I did not wear an insulin pump. I know it gives me the flexibility to eat small snacks here or there or adjust quickly if I eat more than planned.

One of the features of my insulin pump than I use most often in relation to balancing carbs is the dual wave bolus. Most fast food is very high in carbs but also very fatty. The dual wave allows me to take insulin for the carbs ‘up front’ but also have insulin delivered over a set period of time following the meal to address the slower digestion of some of the carbs because of the added fat. It took some trial and lots of error but for the places I eat most often, I have things pretty well figured out.

Someone once told me:

You can control your diabetes or you can let your diabetes control you.

Old School

It was interesting to read the ‘day in the life’ posts from everyone yesterday and see how similar and yet how different they are for each of us.

The task for today is to share how we ‘make the low go’. I’ve got a favorite low treatment but I also have a great story about treating a low from a few years ago.

I guess you could say I am ‘old school‘ in my favorite way to treat a low. I am not sure if it is because of my relatively recent diagnosis (7-8 years ago) or in spite of it. I most often treat my lows with glucose tablets – fruit punch specifically.

There was a time when I first moved to Florida that I used the little Juicy Juice apple juice boxes to treat lows when I was home, but man those straw wrappers are tough when you are low!

I don’t really mind the taste of the glucose tablets, they are easy to store and carry, and I can buy them in bulk. I buy the large bottle at Wal-Mart and then use it to fill up whatever stray tubes I have laying around the house, regardless or the original flavor they carried. I got the ones in the picture below for free from the last health fair at work but I can assure you they haven’t carried orange tablets in them in a while!

Now time for the story. This one goes ‘way back’ to the archives of my old blog in June of 2007. I was in Minnesota for a conference and had just participated in my first blogger meet-up.

From the pride cometh before a fall archives, Scott asked me how I managed to not overtreat my lows. I talked about how I knew how many carbs I would need to raise my numbers to an acceptable level and I would take however many glucose tabs that would equal (typically 1-2). Well, the next night I had a crazy low that including some pretty wicked nausea. And I needed to get ready for a banquet. Here is the e-mail I sent to the group the next day:

Remember how I said that I didnt usually over-treat my lows? I had one yesterday afternoon (43), and proceeded to have: one glucose tablet (the last in the container), a snack-size bag of peanut butter ritz sandwiches, a DingDong, and the bag of chips I saved from Panera. 30 minutes later I was at 85, but 2-3 hours later I was at 386 oops!!

to which Scott replied, did you simply panic because you couldnt get your second glucose tablet? Or did you say man, all that stuff that Scott eats when hes low sounds really good and throw A1C control to the wind?

I think it must have been a little of both!!

In a relationship and it’s complicated

Georges recent post about peer pressure has me thinking about the diabetics complicated relationship with food.

In his post, George describes dealing with having food hed rather not eat being pushed on him by a fellow diabetic. He asked us if any of us have ever been in a similar situation. I cant remember that ever happening to me, but I wonder if I’ve been the pusher once or twice.

If food choices were politics, I would probably be described as a moderate. I dont heavily restrict my carbs, but I dont eat nothing but Smarties all day long either. Being diagnosed the year I officially became an adult meant that no one really ever told me what I could and could not eat.

Due to a mistake in the appointment schedule, my one and only appointment with the nutritionist after my diagnosis was done at the same time as a long-time diabetic who was getting a refresher because he was just starting to pump. The nutritionist repeated multiple times that we could eat whatever we wanted as long as we took the insulin to cover for it. I remember asking her incredulously if that meant that I could have a Snickers bar and a piece of cake for breakfast if I wanted to. She said it would be no more unhealthy for me than it would be for any other person. Not quite the nutritional advice I was expecting!

So if I believe I can eat whatever I want, why do I change my eating habits when I am with other diabetics? When I went out to dinner (and karaoke) with Georges family when I was home for a vacation, why did I say no to a refill on my bottomless fries at Red Robin? When I was at dinner with Kerri during a conference a few years ago and she replaced her baked potato with extra veggies, why did I feel compelled to do the same?

Last week I was eating in one of the cafeterias during my lunch break and I saw another diabetic walk in. Our meals come with a main course, side, and a drink. As she walked up to the table, I tried to hide my side under my arm. This girl has never said one word to me about my food choices, so why do I feel the need to hide them from her?

Also last week, I grabbed a bite-sized Butterfinger off the desk of a coworker and heard another coworker ask (say it with me now!) if I was sure I should eat that. That same day, I mentioned on Twitter that I was making my famous banana cake. Cherise mentioned that I should bring it to Orlando in June. Why did I immediately tweet back