Secondly, I had the best “dinner” a few nights ago. I was practicing for my award-winning lip sync performance through dinner, so I was desperate for food later that night.

There is a chain called Miller’s Ale House that claims to have world famous zingers. Well, the plate platter below had my zingers on it. I forgot to take the before picture, but I will next time – and there will be a next time.

As you may be able to see from the picture, my Zinger Mountain Melt was a platter of breaded boneless chicken wings, “piled over crispy fries and smothered with melted jack & cheddar cheeses, and bacon bits.” I picked honey mustard flavored chicken wings and asked for a side of honey mustard.

I had a horrible DexCom graph the rest of the night and I woke up ready to drink gallons of water but it was all completely worth it.

I represented my team in Scrabble and brought home the victory – probably from all my Words with Friends practice. I also was supposed to play wiffle ball, but they ended up having enough players so was the very important first base coach instead. I took my job very seriously and led us to an undefeated record.

The culmination of the weekend is a lip sync competition. The amount of time, effort, and attention that go into these songs is just amazing and so are the results. I have a “blink and you’ll miss me” role in this video but am proud to say that this was the winning performance.

And I can almost guarantee you that you will never think of Switchfoot the same way again.

P.S. See also – the effects of adrenaline on glucose levels.

Give, and it will be given to you. Your gift will return to you in full — pressed down, shaken together to make room for more, running over, and poured into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you.
~ Luke 6:38

P.S. Despite all the controversy and media coverage the last few days, don’t miss the fact that some REALLY awesome things have occurred as well. MTV finally aired its episode True Life: I Have Diabetes and did a decent job of describing what “true life” with diabetes is actually like. And the diabetes online community gained two members as a result.

First, Taylor (follow her on twitter) found us because of the hashtags and @mtv replies being used during the episode. Then, once Kim published her post about the episode, Kristyn, one of people with diabetes profiled, found the online community too. Follow Kristyn on twitter too and be sure to kindly welcome them both to the community… y’all.

*if you are reading this post in a reader on January 18th, please click through to view my updated header image and visit this page.

What’s so new and improved about it?

Let me tell you –

When Ninjabetic George and I came up with the idea for the Best ‘Betes Blogs, the purpose was to bring attention to the great blogs posts from around the diabetes community. There are so many tremendous bloggers and well-written posts, with new bloggers joining us almost daily; it can be difficult to follow everything. By giving people the opportunity to nominate blogs, the hope was to connect everyone’s circles together and allow people to expand their network of support and encouragement.

After several successful months of posting the Best ‘Betes Blog awards, it became evident that George and I needed to take it to the next level. If he and I are the only ones publicizing the awards, then we aren’t really expanding the community as far as we can! And that’s where YOU come in.

Each month, the Best of the ‘Betes Blogs will now be hosted by a different blogger within the diabetes online community. We will do all the detail work for you, and all you have to do it pick the winners and write a post with the results.

Here’s another big change –

Nominations are now open all month long. If you read a post that deserves a nomination, send an e-mail to bestbetesblogs@gmail.com with a link to the specific post and the category in which the post fits OR use twitter to direct message the Best of the ‘Betes Blogs Twitter account (@bestbetesblogs) with the same information.

George and I will still handle the details with the e-mail and twitter accounts and then send the host all the nominations to choose from. The host gets to choose from the nominations and post the results on their blog on the 1st of the month. It’s as easy as that!

We are starting the new and improved Best of the ‘Betes Blogs on February 1st over at Texting My Pancreas. Start sending in your nominations now, and if you would like to host in the coming months please e-mail us.

Pass the word – we want the Best ‘Betes Blogs to truly represent the best of the entire diabetes online community!

Confused about what all this is talking about? Find out more here.

If you don’t know what I’m talking about – it’s the first rule of diabetes fight club.

A bit of a backstory first – When I was released from the hospital a family from my church that had/has a child with diabetes stopped by the house to answer any questions and set our minds somewhat at ease about our new life.

It was a little over a week until my birthday so one of the first questions was whether or not I could still have birthday cake (I could!).

Another important question was whether or not I could have fast food. The mom asked what I typically ordered. When I told her that I ordered the chicken nuggets, she said that was one of the best options because of the balance of protein and carbs. I took that as my go-ahead to continue to enjoy some Burger King.

My first insulin dosing was NPH and Humalog and because of the peaks of NPH I could generally eat most moderate meals without much thought to carb counting. When I started on the pump, I had to get more serious about knowing exactly how much insulin to take.

I was driving home from work (or grad school – you’ll have to forgive me, it was 2004) and stopped at the drive thru of my local Burger King. I ordered the chicken nugget combo for the first time since I had my pump. When I got to the window, I asked for the nutritional information. The employee walked away for a minute and came back to the window with something in his hand. Before I could see what he was holding he said,

I couldn’t find the nutritional information for you, but I did find this…

crown.

At first I was shocked. In what alternate universe is a CROWN comparable to nutritional information. I remember stammering out something about how I needed to know the information because I needed to know how much medication to take.

I think the medication word scared him because he told me that the nutritional information was posted on the wall in the restaurant and that I could come in and look at it. I did end up coming inside and looking at the nutritional information that time. It would be years before I could look up the information on my cell phone. And now I have the carb count of a least one meal memorized at just about every fast food chain for when I am on the go.

****************

A little extra information on nutritional information:

• From the FDA – A Labeling Guide for Restaurants and Other Retail Establishments Selling Away-From-Home Foods (basically they don’t have to provide information unless they make a claim. If they say it’s low-fat, they have to know how much fat is in it)

• And a federal law passed in 2010 as part of the health care legislation requiring “restaurant chains with 20 or more outlets to disclose calorie counts on their food items and supply information on how many calories a healthy person should eat in a day.” (source). The article is a great read and the regulations sound like good news. But don’t look for your favorite restaurant to have their nutritional information posted tomorrow, “the effective date could conceivably be years away.“

P.S. Do you like the new icons in the sidebar? —>>>
I like how it looks like they are peaking through the page from behind. I was looking to add ones for instagram and pinterest but I guess they aren’t popular enough yet.

For example, the minute my head hits the pillow at night I start thinking about what I have to do the next day.

I think about e-mails I have to write and what they should say.

I think about conversations I should have and actual things I should say.

I think about the order in which I should do the tasks of the next day.

I think about what would happen if I had a bad hypoglycemia episode and there was no one here to help me.

I think about my grocery shopping list.

I think about why one of my cats won’t stop peeing next to the litter box and how to make sure my apartment won’t smell like pee.

I think about what would happen if the rapture happened that night.

I think about what I will eat the next day.

I think about my bank account and my budget.

I think about what I will wear in the morning.

These aren’t fleeting thoughts. My brain gets stuck on them and I can’t sleep. Nerd alert but Siri helps a little bit by getting my thoughts on an actual list or letting me set reminders by just saying things out loud.

There is plan that seems easier and costs less money. I just have to figure out how make myself do it when I need it most.

“I sought and he answered me
and delivered me from all of my fears.”
~ Psalm 34:4

Resolutions are popular this season because mentally a fresh year just feels like a fresh start. I mean, why else did I wait until January 1st to restart Diabetes365 when I’ve been thinking about trying it again for months?

The first topic was -

As I mentioned, they resolutions really aren’t my thing so I responded that I make plans for the new year, but nothing official.

That led to the second topic -

I’ve researched goals a little bit and and part of the reason why I don’t declare that I make real GOALS is because I am not putting the effort in to make them SMART goals. Since they aren’t SMART goals they are much harder to reach.

So, no I don’t have any goals. But I do have some plans for the new year. In no particular order and listed here to keep me accountable in twelve months.

• I am not happy with my weight and fitness level right now. I am trying to work out more each week and eat out less. (If this was an actual goal I would tell you how much weight I am trying to lose, how often I am working out, and how often I will let myself eat out)

• I don’t think I will be going to Haiti this year, but regardless I have let my Creole studying slip and I want to continue to learn the language. It is a difficult language to learn. There’s no Rosetta Stone for Creole. I found one resource on Amazon about a year ago so I do have a textbook, workbook, and audio CD to study. Hopefully by the end of the year I will be able to carry on a conversation with an adult and not just ask a kid their name.

• Somewhat depending on the results of my endocrinology appointment next month, I think I am in a decent place with my diabetes management (after making some changes to my routines and doses last month) and I would like to keep that going throughout the year.

• I want to be successful with my efforts to finish Diabetes365 this year. Some of those attempting the project set up a Facebook page to encourage each other and keep each other accountable so that is helping keep me motivated.

• While I am satisfied with my diabetes management, I am not satisfied with my offline advocacy efforts. I’m not sure exactly what I am going to do yet. I have had some trouble finding my place in some “big name” organizations and might be spreading myself too thin to make a different in organizations that might be more receptive. By the end of the year, I hope to be more successful in my advocacy efforts BOTH online and offline.

Did you set any goals resolutions plans for the new year?