Checking in.

So for the last week or so I’ve been out of commission (more or less) due to a head cold that then mutated into an asthmatic-style chest cold. I’m finally returning to feeling energetic again and am ready to get my booty back in gear, exercise wise.

Meanwhile, I’ve been having lots of carbohydrates & diabetes related thoughts running around in my brain, not just because one of my favorite people on the planet has recently been diagnosed with Type II diabetes and now has to rethink a lot of her food, but because my partner just so happens to be a Type I diabetic. There are lots of reasons I won’t get into (they’re not mine to discuss), but he’s been slack lately when it comes to monitoring his levels, etc. I’ve also been slack about my own carb intake.

While I certainly can’t force him to check his blood glucose levels as often as he should (or at all), or control every last thing he eats, I can start immediately paying better attention to all of the food I’ve been buying and the meals I’ve been preparing. I’m not exactly a harborer of junk food, but when in doubt I tend to fall back on carbs as the center of the meal. I guess this has been a lifelong issue; even when I wasn’t vegetarian / vegan I wasn’t a big meat eater. When I did eat some, it was likely wrapped up in bread or accompanied by assloads of spaghetti.

I have a new goal. I have no intention of eliminating carbs, because I’m not nutty like that, but I need to plan our meals around larger portions of veggies and the like. I’d like to make it as easy as possible in our home for him to make healthier choices. It’s stupid, because I obviously can’t control what he eats — even if I were a control freak type woman, he wouldn’t respond well to that — I feel guilty, like I’ve been letting him down and have been compromising his health by not being more aggressive when it comes to speaking up when I see him slack on his own well being.

I don’t want to be “do as I say, not as I do” with it, either, because I already know I need to cut back on the carbs. Just me bringing up the fact that next week’s menu was going to be a different sort of carby situation prompted him to mention he’s even felt he’s been slack, so… any good example and support I can give only leads to healthy benefits for both of us and him being around longer.