Are you so busy?

Rang up my friend last week ...the first thing she remember to ask me is
" Are you so busy that you did not update your blog?"

Another friend ask " why everyday I see your blog ...only happy cow year one??"

Another one ...my close relative ask..."oooi christina why you no write new thing for your blog liao le????".....

So am I busy ....not really...just a bit lazy to update my blog even though I haven't finished my cruise entry yet .... my trip to Padang Besar, trip to Kuala Perlis, my food adventure in Sungai Petani...hope I can get that done this week (semester break now ) and also I have no more PTK to study ( PTK exam this coming Wednesday)

So what have I been doing that kept me away from my laptop?
Firstly jumping up and down on the rebounder while watching TV



It claims that:

20 minutes of rebound exercise is equal to:

Jogging 3 1/2 miles in 32 minutes
Playing handball for 40 minutes
Swimming 800m in 16 minutes
Biking 5 miles in 18 minutes
Skipping for 15 minutes
Walking 2 1/2 miles in 34 minutes

To burn 150 calories, you can:

Walk for 22 minutes
Swim for 10 minutes
Run for 6 minutes or
REBOUND EXERCISE FOR ONLY 2 MINUTES!!!



The Most Efficient Form of Exercise Yet Devised by Man
The perfect wellness exercise in health and all-weather aerobics, just minutes per day. It helps to strengthen every organ in the body while reducing body fat; firms legs, thighs, arms, abdomen, etc. Increases your sense of balance and strengthens muscles over all. The rebounder provides an aerobic effect on your heart; it rejuvenates your body when it's tired and generally puts you in a state of health and fitness.

Now why I buy this rebounder...after the cruise , after holiday I met an old old, very old colleague of mine , he reminded me that I have become fat ( that was his exact word) and MUST lose weight even though my weight was only 78 kg. Hence I have to be determined and rebounding on this machine everyday, I am now at 76 kg. Anyway it is good to lose weight and to burn calories too...good for my blood sugar level too.

Another thing that kept me away from my laptop is my Nokia E66. With E66, I can chat to my 2 sons for free, can check my emails the first thing I wake up without depending on my laptop. I love my E66.

Alas....

My blood sugar has not been good ever since I returned from UK. During my whole month stay there , the readings were beautiful, always less than 6 mmol/L for my fasting blood sugar reading. That is why I could indulge myself with lots of cheese cakes, bread, chocolates and even icecream while in UK.

In January, my sugar reading was hoovering around 6 to 6.9, never below 6. Worst still being the festive season, it is food, food, nothing but food all the time.I have been taking leaves like Misai Kuching (貓鬚草) , sharp tail Pheonix (尖尾鳯) but the reading never fell below 6. For information, every morning when I woke up I made these 3 pots of drinks:


Hence last Saturday I decide to change course, I went to buy 12 kilos of guava and started to take guava juice again after a lapse of 3 months. And on top of guava juice I took raw petai , I took 8 seeds on Saturday and 8 seeds yesterday. and alas...this morning my fasting blood sugar is 5.6 mmol/L...

Accu-chek - cleaned and checked

Last Saturday I attended Accu-chek clean and check programme. I bought an Accu-chek meter at the beginning of this year to monitor my blood sugar level. This programme is one of Accu-chek customer service programme.

First they sent us an invitation card and ask us to RSVP through phone. We are asked to bring our meter along to Holiday Inn Level 3. On reaching there, they took all our meters ( around 80+) to clean and check. Gruesome findings and the Roche staff were quite shocked to find some meters even have ants inside , some lancets still have blood and some casings have blood too!! I believe some of those belongs to the elderly people.



While our meters are clean and check we all attended a very informative talk about Carbohydrate counting.While surfing the net to look for extra info on Type 2 Diabetics, I always come across terms like 1 serving, carbohydrates exchange and I really really don't know what does that actually means....not till Doris, the speaker told and explain to us in detail and in Malaysian context too.

1 serving just means 15g of carbohydrates:( we are only looking at carbohydrates because that is the culprit for blood sugar since all carbo becomes glucose after digestion)
Coffee cup

1/2 coffee cup of cooked rice = 1 serving
1/2 coffee cup of meehoon or mee or kueh tiaw = 1 serving
one coffee cup of porridge ( since it is more watery)= 1 serving
3 dessertspoon ( the ordinary spoon ) of oats = 1 serving
1 small potato = 1 serving
1 slice of bread( white, wholemeal,full grain) = 1 serving
3 pieces of cream cracker = 1 serving
1/2 chapati = 1 serving
1/3 roti canai = 1 serving
1 medium size apple = 1 serving
1/2 medium size guava = 1 serving
1 slice water melon = 1 serving
1/2 slice pineapple = 1 serving
4 rambutans = 1 serving
3 cempedak = 1 serving

For diabetics we can only take maximum 12 servings of carbohydrates a day

Breakfast - 3 servings
Lunch - 4 servings
Afternoon tea - 1 serving
Dinner - 4 servings

so for breakfast if we take roti canai 1 piece = 3 servings
if we take bread 3 slices = 3 servings
if oat for breakfast 9 dsp of oats = 3 servings


Lunch of 4 servings means 1 1/2 cups of rice + one medium apple = 4 servings
veggies, fish, meat - no carbo so can eat as much as you want!

tea time - 3 cream crackers = 1 serving for tea

dinner - same as for lunch

We also learn from Doris that the accepted blood sugar level for fasting is 4.5 to 6.1 mmol/L
non fasting is 4.5 to 8.0 mmol/L ( can only be be taken 2 hours after meal )
I have been hearing a lot about this controversial readings so it is good to get a confirmation from the real Accu-chek experts.

The best time for diabetics to take fruits is after meal and not before meal . The reason is fruits contains simple sugar which is easily absorbed by the body system so taking it before meal will shoot the blood sugar reading sky rocket high!!

Food that diabetics should avoid:
1. Mango
2, Dry fruits like dates
3. Milo ( even w/o sugar) cos Milo itself has sugar
4. Honey
5. Carrots

For durian lovers who are diabetics, the advice given is can eat but only eat 1 small piece a day then need to substract some servings from the meal.

I really learn a lot of things that morning. Thanks to Accu-chek.


P/s The one on the left was my former F1 to F3 Home science teacher. She has been on diabetic medication for the last 10 years already.
Makes me wonder: Are food lovers more prone to diabetics???

Choose how we live...

You know age is catching up when you get some extra "heaven dropped money" but you cannot eat all the nice nice food and sweet sweet things...sigh... Last week I got RM 300+ dividend from Koperkasa (Koopersi for Sarawak government servants) monthly subscriptions interest and share dividens but instead of enjoying nice food like this:



and this:



or even this:



instead I spent RM 120 on this:



and another RM 60 on 3 bottles of this:



and you also know age is catching up when after all the raya visits, stuffing yourself with curries and rendang



I need to take these 100% vegetarian "thunder tea rice" continously for three days to cleanse and detoxify my aging and near expiry date body system.



with the super green herbal soup:



and the result is this:



hence...

HbA1c

Just got back my HbA1c results: 5.7% ( normal range :<6%).

Congratulations to myself for all the efforts and preserverance the last 6 months .

In case you all don't know what HbA1c is : in simple layman terms it just mean how much glucose have stuck to your haemoglobin for the last 6 months.

As for medical explanation :In the blood stream are the red blood cells, which are made of a molecule, haemoglobin. Glucose sticks to the haemoglobin to make a 'glycosylated haemoglobin' molecule, called haemoglobin A1C or HbA1C. The more glucose in the blood, the more haemoglobin A1C or HbA1C will be present in the blood.

Red cells live for 8 -12 weeks before they are replaced. By measuring the HbA1C it can tell you how high your blood glucose has been on average over the last 8-12 weeks. A normal non-diabetic HbA1C is 3.5-6.0 %.

But I still need to stay far far away from sugary and starchy food for the rest of my life.

My last HbA1c was taken on 26/01/07 and it was 8.9% then. Yam...Seng

Morgan eyewear

I have been seeing distant objects blurr blurr for the last 3 months. I have difficulty in seeing cars' plates number in front of me when i drive.. cannot see people on the stage clearly during school assembly. I thought my long-sightedness has increased so in january i changed my multifocal lens ( which costs me RM 260) and it was clear only for a FEW HOURS and it was blurr again . I have benn comtemplating for a long long time this problem. I brought my specs back to my optician and after he readjusted it I can see near objects but still cannot see far objects. Allthe while I am worried that I got retinopathy beacouse of the high blood glucose. So last Thursday I picked up all the courage I have and go for a THOROUGH eye check by Dr Ling.


He put a thick heavy yellow solution into both my eyes and ask me to look up , down , left and right and it turns out that my retina is ok and my eyes is ok too so the fault is the optician has made my multifocal 100 degrees less.

Happy that my eyes is perfectly ok I head straight to Riverside Majestic to get a new pair of Morgan Eyewear....new arrival... costing RM 280 for the frame and RM 170 for the multifocal lens.

Front View: Nothing extraordinary



Side view: The leg is very unique and outstanding with a little heart shape


Unique point is the way the lens is fixed, The conventional type has the screw at the side but this is screwed in the middle part of the lens .


Anyway that made me half a thousand RM poorer .......................

What to do with charcoal??

I found out that charcoal has many benefits:

1. Eliminates electromagnetic waves
Charcoal absorbs electromagnetic waves that a TV, computer or a computer monitor release, so it is effective to have in the rooms where you have TV's or computers.

2. Deodorizing and cleans the air
Charcoal deodorizes and cleans the air; very good to use in your fridges, cupboards, bathrooms, cars and other areas to control unwanted smells.

3. Negative ions
Place some charcoal beside you when you sleep - in a nice attractive container.The negative ions will make you sleep better and wake up refreshed. Put some charcoal in each corner of your room, this cleans the air and makes the room very soothing and comfortable

so my friend manage to help me to buy these huge chunk of charcoal for me






hence over the weekend i was busy thinking how to decorate this black piece of wood to be put near my desktop and TV set ..... tata .. here it is . Nice or not the decor?

How healthy is my diet?

I am only 56% Healthy

My diet is healthier than the average American diet - but that's not saying much! I already know what's good for me. Just eat more of it.

so How Healthy Is Your Diet?

A day to remember in my history

For the last 2 days i have been taking freshly squeezed guava juice , 2 guava per time , 3X a day using the juicer. I started drinking guava juice cos one of my friend's mum also has high blood sugar once and my friend unfailingly juice the guava for her mum to drink and she reverse the D. I did ask her why not just eat the guava like that and i was told that it is quite impossible to eat that much guava a day. Got some truth also... since the most i can eat a day is only maximum 3.
I also do some google search on guava and diabetes and this is what i get



Guava Benefits

Controls blood pressure
Lowers cholesterol
Battles diabetes
Combats cancer
Protects prostate
If you thought oranges and other citrus fruits were the kings of vitamin C, you need to meet the guava. One guava has 165 milligrams (mg) of vitamin C, while one orange has a mere 69mg. This delicious fruit is also a good source of beta carotene, lycopene, potassium and soluble fiber.


Three Ways Guava Keeps You Healthy

Helps Your Heart
Guava can improve your heart health by helping to control your blood pressure and cholesterol. In one study, researchers gave guava to people with high blood pressure before meals for 12 weeks. By the end of the study, average systolic (top number) blood pressure dropped by 8 points and diastolic (bottom number) fell by 9 points.

Guava’s ability to lower blood pressure could be the result of potassium. This mineral is an electrolyte that is essential to electrical reactions in your body, including your heart. IT also keeps your heartbeat steady, and it assists your kidneys in removing waste from your body.

In addition, the study participants’ total cholesterol dropped almost 10 percent. Experts think guava’s cholesterol lowering effect may be due to its soluble fiber content. Soluble fiber softens and forms a gel that binds cholesterol and carries it out of the body.

The vitamin C found in guava might be a particularly effective antioxidant against heart disease. Studies show it raises good HDL cholesterol, and it helps prevent bad LDL cholesterol from becoming oxidized and turning into artery-clogging plaques. Vitamin C can also help keep your small blood vessels springy and healthy.

Curtails Cancer
Guava is a good source of lycopene. This carotenoid, which gives many plant foods their red or pink coloring, may help prevent cancer, as well as boost heart health.

The evidence for lycopene’s cancer-protective effect is strongest for prostate cancer, lung cancer and stomach cancer.


The vitamin C in guava may also protect your against cancer. Studies find that a high intake of vitamin C may lower your risk of developing colon, stomach, breast and lung cancers.

Treats Diabetes

According to folklore, guava has been used in Chinese medicine to treat diabetes for a very long time. And now, a recent study proves that it could lower blood sugar. The effect was not as potent as cholorpropamide and metformin, drugs commonly used to lower blood sugar. Nevertheless, it may be a natural way to help prevent diabetes.

As I am at the moment off my chinese medication so i decided to drink freshly blended guava juice for the last 2 days.. At the moment there are around 40 + guava in my fridge for my consumption for the next 5 or 6 days . Moreover guava juice is 1000X better than the 2.5 cups of bittergourd juice which I have been drinking for the last 2 months.I have to literally force myself to drink. The first cup of bittergourd juice is still OK and bearable , the 2nd cup - struggled , and the remaining half cup left is really forcing it down my throat!!!! But never mind don't complain at least the bittergourd juice has help me a lot for the past 2 months.

This morning i waited till 7 .30 am to take my bg reading and wonderfully wonderful it was :

Really so happy to see that reading on the meter cos it has been 6.1 then 6.3 then 6.1 and now ...5.6 which means it is in the normal range now and without medication

To celebrate we went out for breakfast ( haven't eat out for the past 2 months since i had a reading of 14.8 ) i ordered Hakka Lui Char Or Thunder Tea Rice ... which consists of tea and mint leaves with lots of veggies , of cos i ask the towkay to give me just a little bit of rice... need to cut down on carbohydrates

Just hope and pray that things will work out to be okay ......Everyday is a bonus day.....

Whose meter to follow?

Before i went to my physician to test my blood glucose this morning i tested it on my new Accu-chek meter and maybe i was stressed too cos this is only the second time i am using the new meter . It shows a reading of 6.3 mmol/L at 7.15 am against the reading of 6.1 mmol/L on 16th Jan ( 2 days ago) . So while driving to my physician I try my very best to relax by listening to oldies songs on the car radio....
On reaching the physician clinic my bg taken with his meter was 5.5 mmol/L. Hence the physician decided to put me off the Chinese medication for a week and see whether my pancreas will do its job. FYI i have been taking the medication since the day i was diagnosed with the high blood sugar of 14.8 mmol/L.
i am still trying to solve the mystery of why a range of 0.8mmol/L in a matter of 45 minutes. For us with high blood sugar every decimal numbers means a lot to us and affect us a lot too emotionally !

Happy Day

Went for blood glucose test again this morning-- Fasting glucose reading was 5.6 mmol/L. when I see the reading on the glucometer I was so happy ...now it is in the normal range after 25 days of exercise , special diet, bittergourd, cinnamon and the latest addition - misai kucing tea .. thanks to Soo Chiew who took all the trouble to look for misai kuching plants with leaves and sent the whole bouquet to my house... really touched by friends like that. Thanks to Rose too for helping me to look for the plants with roots so that the survival rate of the plant is higher. Thank You friends.
I was joking with my sister-in -law whose glucose reading was 5.4 mmol/L and she is eating durian everyday that i can start eating my favourite durian too .. no lar.. i won't ..... Just joking with her
In all probability i will be stuck with oat, cereal, unpolished rice , lots of veggies, guava , bittergourd, cinnamon, misai kucing tea for the rest of my life.
so all my readers out there do take care of your health...or else like me now ...is a complete change of lifestyle....do avoid those cola, 7-up and even 100 plus and those refined sugar, refined flour food...I have heard of so many 30 something young people who also have these high glucose in their blood and have a complete change in their food and lifestyle and medication for the rest of their life.. i also heard of a ST Teresa school teacher who is only 40 sth and now on insulin injection.

Latest updates

The Blood glucose reading on :

3-1-07 After a full blood test at BP , my glucose reading was 7 mmol/L

4-1-07 My non fasting glucose was 8.6 mmol/L

6-1-07 My fasting glucose was 6.0 mmol/L . So now i finally reach the healthy level... but it will be better if i can reach 5.5 mmol/L but I am almost there with a little bit more prayer and abstinence from carbohydrates and sugar.

My physician who took my glucose reading was so happy for me. Zillion thanks to him for his encouraging and consoling words which gives me confidence to continue his medication all these while despite of all the threats ( yes threats !!!) that i get from the doctors and the nurses at the poliklinik . They really scared me out of my wits......having sleepless nits over their remarks cos they wanted to put me on diabetic drugs.. most probably insulin straight away on the 29th December 2006. I pleaded with them to give me some more time and they all don't seem too happy with me....I really feel so lost at that time....

During the last 3 weeks i really appreciate the kind ,helpful and thoughtful people around me . People who waited with me for my blood result and that is the time where i really need human support and company .. really scared to find out the result cos as human we always tends to think of the worst.... Thank You to my friend who take all the trouble to buy me sugar free cookies for Xmas . Thank You to my ex- students.. (husband and wife) for the discounted glucose reading and the bottle of "san yaw" that you give me and the constant reminder that "you must take it teacher hor cos it helps your glucose metobolism"... thank you ex-students..Even the chicken seller at the Sungai Maong market is so helpful. He and his wife gave me " Misai Kuching" leaves to drink as tea cos it is very good for regulating glucose too. They painstakingly planted the plant , take the leaves and dried them under the sun cos the husband was diabetic too last time . And yet they are so generous to share with me the dried leaves free of charge ...

Thank you God for all the kind , understanding, consoling and encouraging people around me .

Another good news is my total cholestrol level .. 7.45 mmol/L which was super high on 29th Dec 2006 is now normal too at the 4.1 mmol/L and the 3+ protein in my urine is now negative .

Hope with God's help, things will continue to be fine for me.

Updates

Checked the blood glucose today: 7.2 mmol/L...good.... ideally 2 more to go...

Updates

27/12/2006- 8.6mmol/L....... 3 more to drop

Can I achieve that?
Will I achieve that?

What for breakfast and tea??

Latest update :



Just have my blood glucose tested at my ex-student pharmacy.. very consoling pharmist and very consoling readings too... 4 more to drop...hopefully can achieve it by the end of 2006.

So what have i been having for breakfast for the last few days?


Bitter gourd ( skin, flesh, seeds hempalang blended with half a cup of water ) very filling drink.. dont feel hungry at all after drinking it.,and interestingly after blending it is not as bitter as it is. Bitter gourd has wonderful benefits . It is said to contain the plant insulin.

Diabetes treatment using Bitter GourdAmong the several home remedies that have proved beneficial in controlling diabetes, perhaps the most important is the use of bitter gourd. It has lately been established that bitter gourd contains a hypoglycaemic or insulin-like principle, designated as 'plantinsulin', which has been found valuable in lowering the blood and urine sugar levels. It should, therefore, be included liberally in the diet of the diabetic. For better results, the diabetic should take the juice of about four or five karelas every morning on an empty stomach. The seeds can be added to food in a powdered form. Diabetics can also use bitter gourd in the form of a decoction by boiling the pieces in water or in the form of dry powder

For tea i took this :


yes, cinnamon aka kayu manis . From a stick of it, peel or break a bit, put into the teapot and pour hot boiling water into the teapot and drink as tea. Caution : Don't put too much cinnamon cos the strong aroma might make you giddy after drinking.

Because of the cutting down of starchy food so if hungry in between ,i munch this :


yes, cinnamon again cos cinnamon can lower our blood sugar too despite of the name kayu manis ...Cinnamon spice produces healthier blood

New life, New Diet and a New Orbitrac

Got a new Orbitrac to start a new exercise life at home--following the working from home concept.
Disadvantages of exercise outdoors
1, Weather permiting ..if raining.... cannot exercise at all
2. Time and petrol consuming to drive from home to exercise place ..be it
Amphitheatre or Resevoir park
3. Saftey-- counts a lot these days - snatch thieves, car thefts etc etc
4. No music to enjoy unless u buy an MP4
5. No mirror to look at like those in the Fitness centre

Contemplating of joining a Fitness centre but then in the end it will always be ending up as a fee paying member only but excuses like no time to go .. the time does not suit me etc etc etc

So decided to buy an Orbitrac - cycling + jogging fitness machine with my end of year bonus
Cycling half an hour will burn up 100 calories ...so l hour of exercises will burn away 200 calories...which is equivalent to the energy in 2 pears .....
Got to exercise ..hopefully to bring my super high blood glucose level down
15/12/2006- 14.8 mmol/L

18/12/2006 - 13.2 mmol/L

Took a Glucose Tolerance Test and the result will only be known in 2 weeks time , so in the meantime need to burn lots of calories to bring the blood glucose down.
New Diet:- to control the blood glucose I also took on a new diet call the "plate method".
One plate divided into 4 quarters...one quarter -rice , the other quarter protein like fish or lean meat..and the remaining half on the plates ...vegetables

No more coffee, no more nescafe three-in -one, no more kuih, no more "ABC", no more white bread and no more durians so many no mores..........
Hope and pray everything will be OK. What a great way to start 2007!