What I Found Surprising About My New Meal Plan

I'm not exactly sure what my diet would be labeled. My goal in the day is to eat a lot of high fibre vegetables, 2-3 green smoothies, and plant based protein (soy, nuts, seeds). 

The most surprising thing I've found is that I'm loving cooking and recipe experimentation. Before going plant based, our family ate meat at every meal. I'm a germaphobe and didn't realize how much stress this was causing me. Since eliminating animal and animal products from 90% of my meals I've become less stressed in the kitchen. I don't worry about washing my hands a million times because I'm worried about spreading e. coli, and I'm not constantly washing utensils that have touched raw meat.

When looking for recipes I search Vegan Keto. Keto recipes tend to have low to no carbs and sugar. If you're looking to recipe test, I recommend Googling, Youtubing, or Pintersting "Vegan Keto Recipes."

Below I share a bit about my restrictions, incase you are thinking of trying something new :)

This is a list of the foods I don't eat:

Starchy and High Carb Vegetables (Potatoes, Yams, Beets, etc)

Tropical Fruit

Grains (Wheat, Quinoa, etc)

Sugar

These are the foods I eat sparingly:

Carrots

Onions

Apples

Blueberries

Strawberries

Raspberries

The How

The first couple of weeks I tried the Keto diet with meat. I ate a lot of meat and cheese at every meal with an even larger helping of greens and fresh vegetables.

My numbers improved, but I could get past 6.0 mmol.

I did more research and found that blood cells with too much fat in them made it hard for them to absorb insulin... Meat and Meat Products have a lot of fat...

I cut out meat and went fully plant based for two weeks.

The results came back within a couple of days. My mmol began to drop to the mid and low 5 mmol. I couldn't believe my eyes!

What I learned during this time is Fibre, Fibre, Fibre... The more fibre you consume the fuller you'll feel, and the better it is for your blood sugars.

This is what my day looks like:

8:00am check fasting blood sugars

11:30am make lunch of green smoothie (no fruit except lemon), salad, and plant based protein

2:00pm or 3:00pm snack of nuts, but only if I need a snack.

6:00pm check blood sugars, dinner of green smoothie, roasted greens, plant based protein

8:00pm snack of keto chocolate, green smoothie, or nothing

My Green Smoothie consists of Celery, Cucumbers, Ginger, 1 Slice of Lemon, Spinach, Water
Celery is the major ingredient because it is so fibrous.

I drink this smoothie 1-3 times per day as a meal filler if I'm still hungry at the end of the meal.

I Reversed my Type 2 Diabetes in 6 Weeks

The summer of 2018 was the greatest summer. It was filled with sun, fun, and sweets!

But the fun needed to be reigned in when I realized that I couldn't sustain the sweets I've been consuming and controlling my blood sugars without medication.

Most diabetes medication makes me sick. The fillers in all types of insulin give me welts and rashes, and most medications makes me violently ill...

The main option for me in controlling my blood sugars is to control my diet and exercise.

My doctor gave me a bit of an impossible task. He said that he would see me again in 6 weeks, and at that time if my blood sugars didn't drop to 5.5 mmol before every meal, I'd need to go on insulin. Well... it was either control my blood sugars or live with rashes at every injection site.

I was excited and nervous to be tasked with something so crazy. He was basically saying that I needed to reverse my Type II diabetes in 6 weeks! I was to drop my medication and figure it out with diet and exercise.

I did A LOT of research. I watch youtube videos of success stories, and read the book "How Not to Die" by Michael Greger, M.D.

My conclusion from all my research was a plant (more green veggies than fruit) based diet with low carbs and starches; and tons and tons of physical activity.

I recently went back to the doctor and the results were positive. I lost 10 lbs, and my blood sugars stabilized to 5.5 or lower at ever reading. I started with 9.0 - 8.0 mmol readings at the beginning of my journey.

I can't believe it was possible for me to reverse my diabetes in 6 weeks, but with a lot of hard work and self control anything is possible.

Fall/Winter TV Shows

A couple of fun shows I'm enjoying right now are...

1. Splitting Up Together

This show has Jenna Fisher... aka Pam from the office! She is so cute in this new show. It's a great light hearted feel good show to make you smile :)

2. Roswell, New Mexico

I am a huge fan of the original show Roswell. I've watched the entire series about 10 or more times. I was a bit worried that the remake wouldn't do the original show justice. However, it's not a remake, it's reimagined. The new characters have the same names as the old characters, but the entire world is different. This version, the characters are older and deal with current day issues like immigration. The chemistry between Liz and Max is the most important part, and they go that 100% right!

3. Good Trouble

This show is a spin off of The Fosters. I'm not the biggest fan of spin off shows, but this one is amazing! I love how, like in the old show, they touch on sensitive topics. The characters are going through what everyone goes through when they are navigating a new career. The tension between doing what's best for your career, and what's best for your conscious is a major theme in the show. 

I hope you enjoy these new shows too!

BeesInTheGarden :)

I Choose Happiness :)

I choose to be happy.

When I was hospitalized for high blood pressure when I was 24 weeks pregnant, I choose to look to the positives and to choose to be happy.

When I was then diagnosed with gestational diabetes and put on a strict diet with 4 shots of insulin per day that made my injection sites break out in large bumpy rashes... I choose to look to the brighter side of the situation. I stuck to the diabetes plan, and from 26 weeks - 37 weeks only gained 5 lbs.

When a doctor told me that TheLittleBear had clubbed feet on the morning I was to take a four hour exam, followed by another four hour exam the next night. I let myself have two hours to wallow in self pity, then I pulled myself together and received the highest mark on one of the toughest exams of my life.

No life is perfect.
I believe that it's the imperfections that make us enjoy the beautiful times.
Like meeting the child you've been waiting years to meet.
Watching a mircle grow and develop right before your eyes.
The soft cuddles right before you put them to bed.

No matter what life throws at me, I choose to be happy.
I choose to look at the positives.

Doctors... Doctors... Doctors...

This is a crazy thing I'm going to tell you...

Doctors are not always right.

When I was pregnant with TheLittleBear. I had an ultrasound at 34 weeks that made it look like TheLittleBear had clubbed feet. The doctors made me stay and speak to a geneticists who made me and TheDapperGentleman detail our family history.

Even though there was no history of clubbed feet. The doctors were convinced that TheLittleBear had this issue. I asked if there was a possibility that my womb didn't have a lot of room for her to stretch and that's why it made it appear in the ultrasound that her feet were in odd positions. They assured me that there was no possibility that she didn't have this diagnosis.

Because of this diagnosis, when I gave birth we had two different pediatricians look at her feet.

And...

The final diagnosis was that she didn't have clubbed feet because clubbed feet are stuck in the odd position. TheLittleBear's feet were flexible. Therefore when she started to grow and put weight on them, they would naturally straighten out. The pediatricians also said that there isn't a lot of room in the womb so sometimes their feet bend in odd angles...

Up until this point in my pregnancy, everything that had gone wrong was because of my body.

To hear that your perfect baby now had an imperfection that would need to be corrected with needles or a cast... This was hard to hear.

TheDapperGentleman and I kept this news to ourselves. In my gut I knew that I would love her no matter what, and this didn't change anything for me.

This will come as news to some of our friends and family because in the end we decided not to share this new development. We had a lot of support from our friends and family, and I didn't feel like I needed any support for this. I loved TheLittleBear no matter what, and I didn't want anyone to feel bad for us, because to me, there was nothing bad. This was our baby, and these were her feet.

The moral of the story is, doctors aren't always right. Until there are concrete fact, don't give up hope.

Friendships that Spark Joy

The last few years have been tough on my friendships. Friendships ended with people who I thought were going to be in my life forever.

After going through some major changes in 2016 I learned that I didn't want to hold on to friendships that didn't spark joy. It was a hard decision to let go of people who I cared so deeply for, but knew our friendship had come to a natural conclusion.

I have never been a person who makes lasting connections easily. I don't let many people in. I used to think that I would prefer one deep friendship over numerous superficial ones. This opinion has since changed.

I think in the past I put too much on my friendships and not enough on myself. I needed to learn how to not use people as my social safety blanket. I needed to learn how to be by myself.

When I let go of my friendships in 2016 it was hard. Really hard. But I did my year of yes in 2018 and now I have people in my life that I truly enjoy.

I don't share every part of my life with a single friend. Instead I have different friends to meet different needs. I have Mom friends, Cooking friends, Work friends, Casual Friends... The list is endless.

What I learned the most from my meeting new people is that I don't need a handful of people, I need a whole village.

Yes Yes and more Yes

In 2018 my resolution was to say Yes to every invitation I was offered.

I said yes to all company events.

I said yes to all invitations from coworkers.

I said yes to all after work drinks.

I said yes to lunch dates.

I said yes to parties. Like real parties.

I said yes to everything I could.

No matter how scared and uncomfortable I was. No matter how much I would stress sweat. No matter how I wanted to throw up because I was so nervous, I said yes. And I couldn't bail last minute unless I was on my death bed.

In the beginning it was so hard to leave TheLittleBear. It was hard to go to events alone, with no safety blanket friend. But I sojourned on.

The results of my year of Yes is that I had the best year of my life! I met the most amazing people, and my yes' allowed our friendships to blossom.

Making new connections and getting to know new people, helped me discover new things about myself. It allowed me to shed my insecurities that I was unlikable and unlovable.

Happy 2019

Hello Friends!

Welcome Welcome Welcome :)

I know I've been very absent for a long time, but it took some time for me to refocus and heal. 

In the next couple of weeks I hope to share with you my journey of feeling whole again. 

I hope you enjoy :)

With Love, 

BeesInTheGarden

Spreading the Word: Diaper Need

I was reading this article recently about Diaper Need. I've never even heard about it until this article popped up on my radar as I was scanning for something to occupy my time.

Diaper need is when a family doesn't have the funds to provide enough diapers for their baby/child. Huggies has reported that 1 in 5 families in Canada have experienced this.

Here are the two articles I've read: One and Two.

Thinking about little babies and children being kept in dirty diapers because diapers are expensive is so troubling for me.

Before I had TheLittleBear I would be sad and compelled by things like these. But now, it's so personal. It's painful to think about TLB not having everything she needs.

In Vancouver, Canada the resources for families with Diaper Need are your local food bank and BabyGoAround.