Turnips and Cauliflower

I've mentioned using turnips as a potato substitute before. dLife has a recipe for a mashed potato/turnip mix. The same idea works with hash browns.

At the same link they have a suggestion for substituting some cauliflower for some of the macaroni in a macaroni and cheese dish. I'm going to have to try it.

I ordered some Dreamfields Pasta, Healthy Carb Living, Elbow Macaroni, 16-Ounce Box (Pack of 6) and I'll try the cauliflower substitution as soon as it gets here.

Gaining weight

I got weighed at the doctors office the other day. I'm gaining weight, up to 217 pounds. That's bad, really bad.

I've been careful with my carb intake and things like sodium, but I haven't been paying attention to calories. That has to change. I really need to get down to something more like 170. I have to get serious about losing weight.

My hypertension problems are such that I have shortness of breath and lack of stamina so I can't really do more than what they call moderate exercise (30 minutes of physical activity a day). I can do that, but not all at one time, and that about does it for the day for me. At least until I lose some weight and maybe get some stamina back.

I found some guidelines on calories and weight loss.

It says to establish a baseline calorie need for weight maintenance by multiplying your weight by 15. That gives me 3,255. Let's just call it 3,200. Then they recommend a target loss of 1-2 pounds a week by reducing the maintenance level by 500-1,000 calories.

So they suggest I should target between 2,200 and 2,700 calories per day. Of course once a lose a couple of pounds I can progressively lower that calorie target.

Okay, I'll start counting calories.

Diabetes and depression

Diabetes Mine talks about depression and diabetes.

Fiber and carbs

A post on keeping fiber in your diet without the carbs.

Heart and diabetes

One of the risks associated with diabetes is an increased risk of heart problems. Diabetes causes circulation problems which can lead directly to heart problems.

Since I developed diabetes I've also begun experiencing high blood pressure and most recently high cholesterol, both precursors to heart disease. That's bad.

I've been having problems with a lack of stamina and shortness of breath after minimul exercise for about 6 months now, shortly after the high blook pressure problems begun and even before the high cholesteral problems showed itself. I've had a couple of EKG's and they havn't really seen any problems shown by those tests, but the shortness of breath is pretty extreme and not going away from the various meds I'm on.

I think I need to make another doctor visit and insist on a stress test, which monitors EKG changes while you exercise on a treadmill. This really needs to get fixed.

Water

It seems that food that are high in water tend to "fill you up", you won't eat as much.

That would make something like a cucumber/tomato/onion salad a pretty good choice for lunch.