Dietician Day

For the past week, I've been doing my own version of a low carb diet to work with the metformin. I started the metformin slowly, with just one tablet before bedtime. After two such days, I moved onto two tablets before bedtime. I haven't begun taking the second dose yet. In just one week, between specialist and dietician, my weight has dropped 2kg.

Today, Monday 3rd December was dietician day. What was interesting, is that she is Dutch, and lived in Central Africa for many years. When she returned to the Netherlands, guess what - she put on 5 kg in record time for no rhyme or reason. I always thought that Paul's weight has stayed constant because he was born in these latitudes; bang goes that theory. The endocrinologist is right: it must be genetic!

The dietician solved her problem at the time by going on a low-carb diet. She didn't say anything about medication, so it may be that if you know what you're doing, and you catch it early, diet may well be enough.

Essentially the diet she gave me to start with allows carbs only from vegetables, excluding most root vegetables. No grains. No starches. No refined sugars. Actually, for me that's not hard.

She also discussed the medication with me. The before bedtime dose is to clear out the system of spare insulin; the daytime dose is more of a hunger suppressant. In which case, is it a good idea to take it before dinner, as prescribed? Dinner is when I eat the least anyway, I am hungriest at lunchtime.

Take them at lunchtime, was her advice.

Thus armed, I went home to have lunch. The lunch guideline is:
* Generous portion of pureed vegetable soup (water, a stock cube and 500 g cooked vegetables, pureed)
* 50 - 100 grams of meat, fish, chicken, eg, nuts or cheese
* a salad with an oil and vinegar dressing
* 150 grams of fresh fruit.

Yikes! I'm hungry at lunchtime but not that hungry! Anyway, I took the two metformins as suggested, the first time I've taken the second dose since getting the prescription.

I made a broccoli and blue cheese soup, as I had a huge chunk of broccoli in the fridge. No stock cubes, I substituted freshly made chicken stock that I happened to have in the slow cooker. It may have been 500 g of vegetables, but Paul and I both had some for lunch, and there was plenty left.

Fail on quantity.

Then I tackled the lettuce in the fridge, added a couple of radishes, half a red pepper and a very small handful of leek sprouts, topped that with leftover chicken and used bottle wasabi/ginger dressing. We shared a banana for dessert. It's not an approved fruit, but it was there. Lunch for a king, portion-wise. I'm wondering whether the portions are designed for 6'10 Dutchmen or 5'3 me.

I had rabbit in the fridge which I cooked for supper with garlic and canned tomato. I also had a bag of "Hollandse Roerbak", the most boring vegetable stir-fry mix you can imagine. The vegetables I do not choose, they arrive on Fridays in a bag of organic vegetables, so it really is a surprise every week what I'm going to eat. I added the remainder of the red pepper and some of the broccoli florets to half the bag, and stir-fried that. I could only manage the very smallest portion of rabbit: I was still full from lunch!!

Recommended supper was
* Soup - chicken, meat or fish, with vegetables
* 100-150 grams of meat, fish, cheese or egg
* 200-300 grams of cooked vegetables
* salad with an oil and vinegar dressing

Somewhere along the way I was supposed to have a fruit portion before supper, but I skipped that. I find it hard to eat after 8pm at the best of times.

So that was Monday's meal. In summary :

Lunch:
* a large bowl of broccoli/blue cheese soup
* chicken salad
* half a banana

Supper:
* Rabbit Cacciatore with stir-fried veg.

No photos yet, sorry.