Welcome to the YAWYE GROUP!

[pops6927]

Welcome to the YAWYE GROUP!  

I began this group after having a series of strokes that were caused by my own denial of what my eating habits were doing to me.  After a movie shown in therapy (I am in a Acquired Brain Injury class at HealthSouth Cityview Rehab Hospital in their outpatient program) about strokes, their causes and affects, we had to sum up the movie in our own words in one sentence; immediately what came to mind was a very simple declaration - YOU ARE WHAT YOU EAT!  More importantly, I should already know this as I was in the very same class a year ago too after my second stroke! I was in a rush to get out of the class to resume my 'normal' lifestyle while the therapists all tried to convince me that change was needed; a year later I was back in their class again after collapsing at work in yet another stroke, unresponsive for 8 hours.  I was given another chance; they thought they were losing me then; it is now time to help myself and help others from making poor lifestyle choices that can hurt not only yourself, but all the others around you; they must carry the burden for your actions and choices, you are not alone.

Please join us in discovering ways to make our lives, and likewise the lives of our loved ones, families, friends and associates, improve and be healthier One-Bite-At-A-Time!  I'm not talking about giving up smoking meats or only drink water and only eat crackers; nothing drastic like that, but making better choices in what we do eat, reducing the fat, lowering the salt, trading off a bit more flavor for a few less calories, making wiser food and drink choices to extend not only the length, but the quality of our lives, something we all need to strive to do!  Please, join us, one bite at a time!

 

[pops6927]

1st order of business is that we need an Avatar for our group, something showing the YAWYE letters, who would like to help design one?  Just send me your submission in a pm or email to [email protected] !

 

[Bearcarver]

I'm here, but I don't see the button to "Join", so I don't know if I joined the "YAWYE group" yet.

I joined YAWYE awhile ago, but this group thing is strange to a non-computer-geek.

Back to the forum for some normalcy.

Bear

 

[czarcastic]

Pops,

Glad this is now an "official" group.  Hope we can all share some great ideas for healthy, tasty eating.  I think the folks here have lots of talent and know what tastes good, so hopefully we can use those abilities for making some tasty grub that still fits the mold of "healthy."

Really looking forward to being part of this!

 

[alelover]

Love the pic Czar. Could be the icon we're looking for.

 

[SmokinAl]

Yea it's a good one!

 

[slownlow]

Thanks for sharing your story Pops, I'm 31 and can benefit from your words of wisdom.  I have a 6 year old and 2 year old that I want to be around for as long as possible. 

I like the icon Czar!

 

[michael ark]

Ok pops ,I'm in.Now i just need to find a diet gravy.

 

[bluebombersfan]

Ok pops ,I'm in.Now i just need to find a diet gravy.

Diet gravy! HAHAHAHAAHAHAH

I'm in too!

 

[justpassingthru]

My story is like pops, same mentality, different disease: diabetes.

When I was first diagnosed with diabetes four years ago I didn't take it seriously, took the meds and just continued eating as usual, because of my eating habits the dosage had to be increased until finally in February of this year I had to start on insulin, at that time my doctor advised me to attend a diabetes seminar to learn about the disease, talk about an eye opener!

I learned that diabetes is a very cruel disease, first thing is sugar turns into a syrup at 98°, this syrup acts like sandpaper coursing through our veins and arteries, scrubbing them thin from the inside out with every beat of our hearts, as the veins and arteries become thinner the blood seeps out and into the body, until finally the blood stops circulating and the limb has to be amputated (usually the feet first and progressing up the leg in stages, next the calf, then the thigh, after that the internal organs and when it reaches them it's over), it causes our wounds, scrapes and bruises to heal very slowly which can lead to infection so sever in one week the affected area needs to amputated!  Diabetes also destroys our eyesight, our kidneys, can cause a stroke that can leave us paralyzed, causes impotence in men and infertility in women, destroys the nerves in our bodies so that we loose the sense of feel (and they had all the gory pictures to verify it, one man had lost his feet and legs one piece at a time, there he was laying in a hospital bed, being kept alive by machines, just waiting...,),  ...like I said, the seminar was a real eye opener.

The doctors and dietitians at the seminar, advised us to immediately stop consuming sugar in any form, they recommended powdered sugar substitutes, but I don't particularly care to ingest more chemicals, so I found a low glycemic sugar substitute called Blue Agave Sweetener that I use in everything, rubs, marinades, sauces, breads, everything, I haven't cooked with sugar since the seminar.

I also highly recommend everyone have an Ac1 blood test to learn what the sugar level is in your body, in February mine was 10.3, normal is 5-6, two months after the seminar and not eating anything with refined sugar, my Ac1 sugar level in June had dropped to 7.4, ...my doctor said not to expect any thing lower than the 8s taking insulin (PTL), another good thing to do is buy a bloodsugar test kit and monitor your blood sugar level every morning before eating, it should be 80-120 (1.8-1.2) and 1 and 2 hours after eating, the sugar level shouldn't be more that 160 (1.6), if the readings are higher then you ARE  diabetic, it can't be reversed your pancreas can't produce enough insulin for you body, however, if caught soon enough it can be controlled with meds, lower your sugar intake, drop the pounds,  and exercise, the prognosis can be good for you, you might need to take meds to stimulate the pancreas or meds to help with the muscles absorb the insulin, but it can be controlled.

At 62 years old I realized there was a disease that controlled my life, instead of me controlling it, the French have a saying about people that are terminally ill, they have either "one foot in the grave or two," I decided to learn everything I could so that I would be in control of my life for what time I have left even though I have "one foot in the grave."

For you younger people here I can tell you sugar is our enemy, when I was young we were fortunate to have one coke a month, and a bowl of 'sugared' cereal was unheard of, these items weren't allowed in the house, mom always fixed three square meals a day.  Today, you know, just read the labels, sugar is used in everything, we've become a people addicted to sugar.  Refined sugar puts too much sugar in our blood stream, which makes our pancreas work that much harder to dissolve it so that it can be absorbed by our muscles and converted into energy, all the carbohydrates we eat causes a layer of fat to build up on our muscles which blocks the sugar from entering, (hence we are always tired) and the sugar remains in the blood triggering the pancreas to produce more insulin until finally it just wears out and can't produce enough so we have to inject insulin to make up for what isn't being produced.

Are you always tired, drink a lot of liquids, urinate often, over weight, these are the symptoms, I learned from the American diabetic sites that if you are over weight it's probably because your are diabetic, here they say diabetes is caused by being over weight, the researchers are starting to say they think diabetes is in a person's genes, and it is triggered into activity by the number of chemicals in our diet, which makes sense with all of the cases of diabetes we have today and the amount of fertilizers, pesticides and chemically produced imitation products we consume.

There isn't any "cure" for diabetes, the pancreas loses it's ability to produce enough insulin, so what I took so casually 4 years ago, has now developed into the terminal disease that will one day take my life, I have, "one foot in the grave," ...most of you, my smoking friends, can still say YOU ARE WHAT YOU EAT (and please think about your children too), I can only say, ...I AM WHAT I ATE,   please...,  learn from our mistakes.

JustPassingThru (Gene)

 

[alelover]

I started eating oatmeal again and ditching the McBiscuits for breakfast. Got to be better.

 

[pops6927]

What do y'all think about the pic posted by Czarcastic as a group logo for YAWYE?

Quote:

Pops,

Glad this is now an "official" group.  Hope we can all share some great ideas for healthy, tasty eating.  I think the folks here have lots of talent and know what tastes good, so hopefully we can use those abilities for making some tasty grub that still fits the mold of "healthy."

Really looking forward to being part of this!

I posted it to see if it would fit and it looks kewl!

 

[Bearcarver]

What do y'all think about the pic posted by Czarcastic as a group logo for YAWYE?

Quote:

I like it !

Bear

 

[bluebombersfan]

Wow Pops6927 and JustPassingThru thanks for sharing your stories.  They are real eye openers. 

Brian

 

[pops6927]

You are absolutely right, Gene!  I've been diabetic for 15 years and have regular a1c testing at least every three months; it is usually around 4.8-5.5.  I have learned what to stay away from, have changed to DietRite Zero for soda (0 calories, 0 sugar, 0 sodium, 0 caffeine) exclusively, Splenda[emoji]174[/emoji] or substitutes for sugar onlyvery little if any candy at all (candy is a carb like any other, you must eat is sparingly) with the exception of one item; 3 Musketeers Fun Bar size candy bars....

As Gene has said, the pancreas stops producing insulin, which controls your sugar absorption.  Just as bad as hyperglycemic, too much sugar, is hypoglycemic, too little sugar.  That can kill you as quick as hyper.  My head of therapy at HealthSouth had her mother pass out from hypoglycemic shock; her blood sugar was 19... 1 9!!  That is within moments of death!  Her dogs knew something was wrong and barked incessantly until neighbors came to check on her and found her on the floor, unresponsive; they called 911 and somehow got her back to life.  Yes, she's 93 and has dementia.

My sugar gets low in the afternoon sometimes and I will take it to check.  If it is below 75 I have to eat something to bring it back up.  Last week it hit 60 and I turned cold and got chills, I knew it was my glucose levels (or lack thereof) - it's called a sugar crash.  i broke out 1 fun bar; three of them comprise 30 grams of sugar; 10 g apiece, easy to figure.  Ate 3 in the space of an hour until I felt ok, no longer chills or woozy, took my glucose and it was 112, problem fixed.  I don't normally have that problem but when I do I know what to do and how much to take.  For a mild low, 10 g., medium cold sweat low, 20 g., cold sweat and chills ready to pass out low, 30 g.

Your body for years and years controlled this for you; now, you have to control it yourself.  Know what to do and in either extreme, know how to correct it and protect yourself by always having your toolkit of testing and trickery with you, without fail! 

 

[forluvofsmoke]

Ok pops ,I'm in.Now i just need to find a diet gravy.

Maybe just use a healthier cooking oil instead of rendered animal fat? Been doing more and more myself, lately. You lose a bit of the flavor from the natural meat drippings when you discard them instead of deglazing or catching in a pan in the smoker, but it can be substituted with broth/bollion, and seasoned to taste. With canola and many other cooking oils in place of meat drippings, you reduce the cholesterol, sat-fats (most of the nasties we're better off without) and reduce calories, as well.

Eric
 

 

[werdwolf]

OK guys I joined this.  Many of you know I'm a doctor.  I think I will be playing devils advocate to many of the discussions.  There are so many misconcepts out there, I'll chime in as I can.  Believe it or not I started smoking meats and making my own sausage because of my health.  I have a birth defect that causes the triglycerides (the other fat) to go sky high and I have very low HDL (think H for healthy) cholesterol.  untreated my tube of blood after it is spun down is literaly half cream.  I also had 50% clogs in the artery's in my neck and all the men in my family with this have stroked.  Well last December I had an MRA and the plaques are completely gone!.  I am also insulin resistant which sort of translate into pre- diabetes.

Therefore if done properly and along with the rest of what you eat, smoking can be good for your health.

Watch the blue agave nectar.  the real stuff isn't to bad, but much of what is on the market is made with corn syrup (= sugar).  also another sugar substitute that isn't full of chemicals is Stevia.

 

[forluvofsmoke]

On the subject of diabetes, there are two types, which can be confusing at times. Here's the basic low-down:

Type 1 is lacking of the ability of your pancreas to produce sufficient amounts of insulin (as described above by Just Passing Thru & Pops;

Type 2 is lacking the ability of your body's tissues to absorb insulin, or insulin resistance. Some medical professionals often refer to this condition as metabolic syndrome, however that term can be confused with a variety of other underlying conditions and risk factors which can contribute to the onset of type 2 diabetes, IMO.

Type 2 diabetes can often be caused by chronic stress. In extreme cases, your body produces a hormone (I can't recall the name or find info on the web...been a while) which your body tissues can only absorb slowly over long periods of time. This hormone can accumulate in high enough quantities which then adversly interact with insulin and cause insulin to pool into a mass, similar to a tumer. I have personal knowledge of this condition.

---

I personally know someone who has gone through this very thing (type 2 with multiple possible causes, including chronic stress), and upon visiting an endochronolist the first time, where to begin to correct all the problems was un-clear. There were soo many problems to overcome at the same time, and treatment for one had to be carefully administered in oder to not counter-act the treatment of another, etc. The worst part in this case was that all these problems were directly linked together in complicating the diabetes, so they had to be corrected in order to successfully treat the diabetes. It was supposedly a case which only happened with approx 1 in 100,000 diabetes patients according to clinical statistics at that time, being type 2 with metabolic syndrome (they called it metabolic disease at that time). After 3 years of visits with the endochronologist, progress was steady, but slow. The tumer/mass of insulin was located on the back of the spine at the base of the neck, btw. The mass began to reduce in size after 3 - 4 months treatment with oral meds and insulin, but took nearly a year to disappear completely. The type 2 diabetes condition persisted, but was controllable.

During a diebetic counciling session, this individual was told that they would live for between 5 and 10 years max, unless they successfully controlled of their blood glucose levels (referring to nerve/vascular damage, loss of fingers, toes, limbs and severe infections). This individual ccan to this day step on a tac, driving it completely into the foot to the tac-head, and not feel it...yeah, nerve damage is that bad...just from a few months of blood glucose spikes.

Anyway, this is what I remember about it. The last dicussion I had with anyone about it was several years ago, and I haven't spent much time researching it since then. Hopefully my CRS isn't in high gear...just kidding...

---

On a lighter note: the good news about insulin resistance is that it can be reversed if diagnosed and treated early. So, don't dilly-dally about seeing your doctor if you have warning signs. I found some info below which can further assist you if you have been diagnosed, or, in determining if you should see your family doc/primary care physician for screening, and he/she may want to refer you to a specialist (endochronologist). Don't fret if this is what your next step is, as you will be seeing someone who specializes in hormones/glands...they are in the know on how to diagnose and treat these issues, whereas a primary care physician will be less knowledgable in this field.

Related web info:

Type 1 Diabetes:

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/type-1-diabetes/DS00329

Type 2 Diabetes:

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/type-2-diabetes/DS00585

http://diabetes.niddk.nih.gov/dm/pubs/insulinresistance/

http://diabetes.webmd.com/guide/insulin-resistance-syndrome

Metabolic Sydrome:

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/metabolic syndrome/DS00522

Prediabetes Warning Signs:

http://www.nbcmiami.com/news/Prediabetes-Warning-Signs-133715678.html

Therapeutic Diet for Insulin Resistance:

http://www.heartlandnaturopathic.com/irdiet.htm

Muscle Mass and it's correlation to risks for Diabetes:

http://www.onlinenews.com.pk/details.php?id=185659

Take care, all! And remember, YAWYE!!!

Eric

 

[pops6927]

We gotta share secrets, werdwolf!  My last MRI on 09/09/11 showed 70% clog in the left carotid, 60% and severely ulcerated in the right, which they operated on (endarterectomy) , and 90% clogged in both ventriculars in the back of my neck in the spine, aside from 13 other medications i'm on they added Plavix and doubled my simvastatin and hydralazine.  We would love to know what specific steps you took in your diet to clear out the plaques to only those on your office walls, not artery walls!
 

OK guys I joined this.  Many of you know I'm a doctor.  I think I will be playing devils advocate to many of the discussions.  There are so many misconcepts out there, I'll chime in as I can.  Believe it or not I started smoking meats and making my own sausage because of my health.  I have a birth defect that causes the triglycerides (the other fat) to go sky high and I have very low HDL (think H for healthy) cholesterol.  untreated my tube of blood after it is spun down is literaly half cream.  I also had 50% clogs in the artery's in my neck and all the men in my family with this have stroked.  Well last December I had an MRA and the plaques are completely gone!.  I am also insulin resistant which sort of translate into pre- diabetes.

Therefore if done properly and along with the rest of what you eat, smoking can be good for your health.

Watch the blue agave nectar.  the real stuff isn't to bad, but much of what is on the market is made with corn syrup (= sugar).  also another sugar substitute that isn't full of chemicals is Stevia.

 

[chef jimmyj]

Hello all, Thanks all for sharing...You may find that I often Clown around about my Eating and Drinking Habits...But as I am hitting 50 in June, I can't be a "Clown" any longer...Other than Morbid Obesity, since I was a child, I have been Strong, Healthy (test numbers wise) and able to do Whatever I wanted... This has all come to an END...I have been on a walker for a few years and rarely go anywhere...I had...Biliopancreatic diversion with duodenal switch... Surgery a couple of months ago, weightloss has been really slow, so YAWYE has come along at a great time...Diet changes and Exercise ( GYM appointment on Tues ) are what's needed to correct my situation  and am Delighted to have so many here for Support!...JJ