Exercise Keeps Your Metabolism Going

Dear Diary,
A holiday weekend spells death to any attempts to keep eating under control. Our Easter plans included Sunday at the Grand Casino Buffet out of town. I knew that meal would be a big one, I don't pay that kind of money without coming away satisfied.

Making matters worse, we would be on the road Saturday as well. My own kitchen would be many miles behind me and getting an accurate calorie count just wasn't going to happen.

Then there was the physiological side of the issue, I just didn't want to be a practicing Diabetic this weekend, all bets were off, period. I left my blood sugar kit at home, beyond faithfully taking my medication I winged it.

Well it's Monday morning, time to pay the piper and see what damage I did. I didn't go out of my way to over indulge, in fact I chose fruit over cookies more than once. The prime rib was delicious, and it had very little fat. I even ate green vegetables. The salad bar was off my radar, and I did get my share of the small pastries for desert.

The first step was the blood sugar. Keeping my fingers crossed I snapped the lancet. Imagine my surprise when the digital readout came up with a 61 on the screen. How could that be?

Exercise was the key. Even though my diet was thoroughly trashed for 2 days, I still managed to walk at least a ½ mile each day. When combined with the regular walks since I started counting calories, this means apparently my metabolism has picked up enough to increase my insulin output enough to compensate for the occasional over indulgence.

The key word here is OCCASIONAL over indulgence. Sadly the bathroom scale wasn't as forgiving. That last 2 lbs I saw melt away last week are back with a vengeance. My blood pressure is up a tad as well at 137/78.

Time to tow the mark once again. Today everything gets logged on my nutritional tracker and tonight cabbage will be a main item on the menu.

One good motivational tool is the cost of fresh produce. If I'm going to pay the price to have it, I'm not going to let any of it go to waste. I bought a nice large head of Japanese cabbage at Walmart on Friday. The sign said .90 and since it looked so much tastier than standard cabbage priced at .40, I thought for the small price difference I'd go for it.

What I didn't realize was that price was per pound, that fancy pants head of cabbage cost me $4.79. You can bet I won't let any of it go to waste.