We arrived in WV safe and sound yesterday and thankfully we were able to find all the meat we needed from the store to feed an army for a few days 😂
My Mom's entire family lives here so I got to see dozens of cousins and aunts and uncles last night when we got in. All 3 of my Uncles (my mom's brothers) have diabetes and have done different things to manage it over the years from medications to lifestyle and diet changes. (And like most of us have had highs and lows over the years with weight and sticking to what they know they are supposed to do). Based on the changes they have seen in Chris and my Mom all of them have done low carb/Carnivore at some point with fantastic results. They know it works and can how powerful it is when they stick to it.
My one Uncle had lowered his A1C, reversed his diabetes, and lost 40 pounds but then he went back to living life thinking he had fixed the problem (and old habits creeped back in). After a recent conversation with my Mom he realized he hasn't checked his sugar in a few years. He checked it one night and it was 315...checked again the next morning and it was 312. 😬 He also realized he had gained back 50 pounds of the 40 he initially lost. It was a big moment for him to realize this is a lifelong change, you can't just fix it once and go back to what you were doing before. He has been insanely strict for 8 days now, 0 carbs and walking 2 miles a day, this evening his sugar was 125. He still has to work on getting the weight off again and burning off some of that deep sugar store that accumulated but thankfully he caught it before it was too late.
It is shocking how quickly we can get off track and things spiral out of control when we think we can go back to some of our old habits. But the difference is we aren't starting from scratch again...we know what to do this time, we have done it before and we know what we need to do this time. Don't feel discouraged, just get back to the basics and you can get things back on track one day at a time. Also, hiding from reality is not helping. If you are avoiding the Dr or getting checked because you haven't been on track then stop, the damage is being done whether you want to face it or not. Take the info as a baseline and get your butt in gear!! You got this!!
Yesterday we surprised the kids and brought home a puppy!! They have been begging for one for years and we felt like the time was right to bring one home.
Meet Angus 🐕 He's a Golden Retriever/King Charles Cavalier Spaniel mix. He's 11 weeks old and currently weighs about 8 pounds, he should be around 35 pounds fully grown. I know it will be an adjustment for a while as he gets potty trained etc but we are so excited. 😂 Wish us luck! 🤪
Cheese is good! I ate a block of chipotle oven baked cheese with lunch yesterday and it was divine. I love it, but know that it halts any progress I'm making, and will even trigger eating in excess to where I'll gain weight. It's sad but I have accepted it. If I eat it in small quantities with a meal, it's ok, but I really have to work to keep it in check.
What's your favorite cheese? How do you incorporate it? Do you see negative results when eating it?
Happy Sunday! Sharing a video today from our week, one of the highlights. This was Wednesday evening church, normally they have a more casual prayer meeting where someone plays the guitar, but they were doing some construction in the fellowship hall so they had their prayer meeting in the sanctuary. No one was there to play the piano so my my Grandma did it, she's been playing the piano in church for probably 80 years.
For context, she's 88, she had a really bad fall 5 years ago now and hit her head and ended up with a lot setbacks, similar to having a stroke. She has a lot of dementia like symptoms also (I am sure related to her Type 2 diabetes), she really can't read music anymore, and she has trouble seeing well, and she needs to wear hearing aids to hear but hates wearing them, so on this night she didn't want to wear them. My 93 (almost 94) year old grandpa takes care of both of them on their farm. Anyway, on this night she sat down on the piano and led worship as people called ...
Happy Monday! We made it to Big Sky, Montana yesterday, WOW it's so beautiful!! It just feels like you are in a movie all the time. We grilled steaks and just spent lots of time outside enjoying the beautiful weather.
The house we are staying in is owned by LMNT, so it has all kinds of electrolytes and wellness goodies everywhere. Plus all kinds of natural soaps and laundry soaps etc. They host a lot of meetings here so one of the walls upstairs is a huge dry erase board so the kids are having fun drawing on it.
We sat in the sauna 🥵 and took turns doing the cold plunge. 🥶 Today we are going hiking and white water rafting.
How was your weekend? What is your non-negotiable for this week?
Happy Sunday! We made it to Idaho Falls last night, it was just a stop over place for us and we had no idea that it would be so beautiful. We got here early in the evening after the hot springs and had a really lovely walk along the river. The weather has been so nice!! We are only 3 hours from Big Sky so headed over there this morning, we are staying in a house there for 5 days. I am excited to stay in one place for a few days. 😂 We are super excited because the house we are staying in has a cold plunge, a sauna, and a gym.
What are your plans today? You doing any prep for the week ahead?
Yesterday we had a PACKED day and some really amazing experiences!! We started the morning in Page Arizona looking at the Glen Canyon Dam, which opens up to the beginning of the Grand Canyon. It looks like you're on a totally different planet!
We then headed up to Redmond, and stopped along the way to take a hike up to some Salt Caves. The drive alone was just amazing as well!
In the afternoon we took a tour of the Redmond Salt mine, WOW what a cool experience!! We went down 700 feet and were completely surrounded by salt! They have 29 miles of tunnels through the mine! I will tell you all about it on a future Livestream! But we all licked the walls and the kids got to mine for their own salt rocks!
We ended the day just south of Salt Lake City. It was a super packed day but thankfully everything went very smoothly.
Today is going to be much more relaxing, and the kids planned the perfect "Mom" day. A slow morning followed by a soak in some Lava Hot Springs this afternoon. ...
