Day 1- April 2, 2017

Today I finished reading Gretchen Ruben's book, The Happiness Project, and am ready to embark on my own happiness adventure. I had already brainstormed some of the areas of my life that I would most like to see change and had created a PowerPoint of those ideas a few weeks ago. That made it very easy today to check out Gretchen's goal charts off of her site: http://gretchenrubin.com/get-started/get-started/ and type up my goals for the month.

This month I have the goal of getting my diabetes under control. It was a year and ten months ago that I was first diagnosed with diabetes. After a year and several months of working hard to bring my blood sugar down, I had great results last September with an A1C of a 6.5. I had finally broken under the elusive 7 A1C that the doctor wanted me to have. I was ecstatic!

Then disaster hit. I had one challenge after another present itself around that time: my father-in-law's battle with cancer that ended with his death at the end of November, my mom announcing her engagement with the marriage being held about five months later in February, a classroom of students with recognizable learning disabilities that were not diagnosed, and more. With so much stress in my daily life, I turned back to the habits that probably led to my diabetes in the first place- my bad eating.

Now I am on a mission to get my blood sugar levels back down to where I know they can be and to keep them there. Here are my goals for April:

1. Say no to carbs/sugar.
2. Eat vegetables.
3. Try a new recipe once a week. (I get sick of eating the same healthy foods over and over, so I need to find more ways to prepare them.)
4. Swim 4 times a week. (One of the only types of exercise I enjoy.)
5. Hike once a month. (I live in Hawaii. I should take advantage of the beauty.)
6. Jump rope, tennis, basketball twice a month. (I need to switch it up.)
7. Check my blood sugar every other morning. (I hate poking. I haven't poked since September.)
8. Keep a food diary. (I have been successful with making better food choices when I record what I am eating.)

Now begins the hard part of keep track and following my resolutions through. Here is what I ate today:
10 AM: 1 C of cereal with soy milk, 2 eggs with 1 T of ketchup, 2 slices of turkey bacon
12:30 PM: 1/2 C of macaroni and cheese, 1/2 C Zippy's chili, 1 Crunch granola bar package
3:30 PM: 3/4 C of macaroni and cheese, 1/2 C Zippy's chili
6:00 PM: 1 enchilada bowl

I definitely need to eat some vegetables tomorrow. I wonder what my blood sugar will be like in the morning. I didn't have my goal sheet complete until dinner time, so I guess tomorrow will be more of my first day with the new resolutions. I am trying to psych myself up. Here is to the new resolutions!