This is the information the program social worker brought us at our last support group. She doesn’t cite sources and I’ve read at least one study that said that the amount of serotonin released in response to carbohydrates wasn’t enough to cause cravings. Still, it’s interesting and has that “feels right” aspect to it. Or perhaps it just justifies my cravings.

Carbohydrates

• produce serotonin – a neurotransmitter produced in the brain, produces feelings of calm and sedate
• common foods: bread, rice cereals, pastas, potatoes, alcohol, plus fruit, sugars, candy
• carbohydrates include: sugars, starches, fiber
• sugar substitutes will not produce serotonin, so eating them will not give you the brain change that makes you feel better

Low serotonin affects mood, can cause the body to crave carbohydrates, in particular sugar, which temporarily increases serotonin and improves mood. Low serotonin can also result in fat cravings, increased appetite, and reduced satiety.

Sugar and fat, in particular coupled with the smell or taste of food, can stimulate dopaminergic activities or the “reward center” of the brain, producing enjoyment and good feelings. The reward center is associated with most addictive behaviors.

Protein

• Produces dopamine – a neurotransmitter produced int he brain, produces a state of feeling alert and focused

Dopamine is also produced through compulsive gambling, compulsive eating, compulsive shopping and internet addiction. It can be part of a state of relaxation that makes the person escape and feel better. Dopamine affects the “reward center” of the brain.

Fat

• produces endorphins – a neurotransmitter produced int he brain, results in a decrease in both physical and psychological pain
• people who have a lot of physical pain often crave fatty foods
• a history for depression, anxiety or unresolved distress may result in cravings for fatty foods

I read Zen Habits daily (through an RSS feed like I read most blogs) but every now and then, a post reaches through the computer screen and pinches me on the arm. Hard.

I think, as people with diabetes, we are constantly having to adapt to big events that challenge our nice routines and best laid plans. How do you get back on track? That’s got to be one of the hardest things we do. We all fall down once in a while but how do you pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and start all over again?

I’m lifting this right from the post but I highly recommend checking out the whole blog, his e-books and reading on a regular basis. You may not agree with everything – but there is a tremendous amount to think about in every post.

How to Beat the Major Disruptions

So how did I do it? How does anyone beat these disruptions and get back on track? A few things I’ve found to be useful:

1. Expect the disruptions and accept them as part of life. I’m not saying you should expect death or the loss of a job or other tragic things to happen at any minute, but do know that there will always be disruptions to your routine. Consider them bumps along the road, a part of any journey, and something that you just need to deal with and then get back on track. If you allow these bumps to stop you every time, you’ll never get to the destination. But if you know, from the outset, that there are going to be bumps, and you know that it’s simply part of the journey and that you have to overcome them, you’ll get there eventually.

2. Always remember your motivation, and get excited. Why did you have the routine in the first place? It must have been something important to you for you to have taken the effort to make it a part of your life. If you were exercising, you must have enjoyed it and had a pretty important goal or reason to exercise. If you were saving money, there must be a strong reason to do so. Always keep your eye on that goal, remember why you were doing it, and get yourself passionate about the goal again. If you get excited enough about it, you’ll go back. It’s when you don’t really feel like doing it that you have a hard time re-starting.

3. Find a partner or a coach or a class. This is just one of the best motivation tips for any goal, but it’s especially useful when you’re trying to get back on track after a disruption. Having a partner, for workouts or any other goal, is a great motivation to get started. It helps that I have my sister to run with, because when we make a date to meet in the early morning hours, I don’t want to miss that date and leave her alone outside while the sun has barely started its first cup of coffee. With business projects, it helps that I have a partner, or I might never get started again when I get sidetracked. A coach or a class are just as good motivators, though personally I’ve found a partner to be more convenient.

4. Start small. Yes, you’ve heard this from me so many times it might as well be a mantra. But it’s good advice for trying to get back into the swing of things. Don’t expect to pick back up exactly where you left off, whether that’s with exercise or diet or work or anything else. For example, if you were running 30 miles a week, you might start out with just 10-15 miles a week — run 3-4 miles, three times a week. Just to start out with. It makes it easier to start out, and it’s something you can adjust to easier. Once you’ve adjusted to this lighter schedule, increase gradually.

5. Allow yourself a break without reproach. When I moved to a new home last week, I knew I’d have to take a break from workouts and work. It wasn’t a planned break, but once I realized how busy I would be, and how tired my body would be from all the lifting and moving, I knew I’d have to take an unplanned vacation. And I told myself, “This is a good thing. My body needed a break from training anyway, and my mind needed a break from work.” And so I took the break, knowing it was good, not feeling (too) guilty, and knowing that I’d get right back into it as soon as the break was over.

6. If all fails, start the habit again, the right way. If you’re just having a tough time restarting, you might need to start back from the beginning, with the basics: focus on just one habit at a time, for 30 days, making it public, giving yourself rewards, finding a trigger, being as consistent as possible. All of these are the effective habit-change principles I talk about in my book, The Power of Less. I highly recommend you read the book if you need help forming habits, and sign up for The Power of Less 30-day Challenge forum.

I’ve noted that not only I am having trouble with the reward concept in our weekly goals. It’s one of the hardest parts of goal setting for me. I guess my head says I’m an adult and I ought to be able to just *do* these things that I know are good for me. A lot of times my “reward” seems to be simply not beating myself up over not doing something – not the best reward, especially since there’s a definite flavor of waiting to screw up so I can beat myself up.

In that vein, I was reading Geneen Roth’s column in the October (I think) Good Housekeeping last night. [note: some of her articles are archived online but I don't see this one listed] She wrote about not only how to stop bingeing, but not hating yourself when/if you do. My only immediate reward for not bingeing or grazing is not putting myself down for a behavior that is legitimately hard to break. Yes, the big picture rewards are important but they can feel really out of touch.

Geneen wrote about how to treat yourself after a binge:

Be unspeakably kind. In the empty fullness left after bingeing, the “I can’t believe you did this again, what’s the matter with you, you are a failure now and forevermore” voices sense a place to step in. And when they do, they roar.

Don’t let them. …Treat yourself as if you were doing your very best. Live as if you deserve to be here, regardless of what you have just eaten. And know that every time you remind yourself that you belong here regardless of what you weigh, you are speaking the truth.

And that is unspeakably hard and makes my eyes tear up to think about. Particularly right now I am afraid to screw things up. I’ve worked very hard to get the progress that I’ve made and I don’t want to resume old behaviors. Trust me, old behaviors are there just waiting to happen. My tendency is to blame myself and go even further once I screw up a little. “Well, I’ve already blown today,” I say. “I may as well……”

So, in the spirit of trying to change behavior and not have an all or nothing attitude, I need to remember that all behavior training involves successive approximations. Remember, we’re building on success, not setting ourselves up for failure. Therefore, in my reward plan which is loosely forming on crediting myself with $1 for something I want for each night I don’t graze or binge, I’m going to give myself half credit for stopping the behavior even if I got off track a little. I think that’s a good plan.

Oh, and yes, reward is incredibly important when changing behaviors. The moral superiority of being able to say “See, I did it” doesn’t really do enough for most of us. If the behavior has no reward you simply aren’t going to continue to do it. If you’re breaking a habit – like smoking – and your only reward is the jitters, cravings, and irritability – how long do you think it’ll take to return to smoking?

As if I didn’t have enough stress in my life I have twice (that’s right – two times) forgotten to take my bedtime dose of Humalog and my Lantus.  Once is excusable after all these months – after all no one is perfect.  But TWICE!!!!  Needless to say I’m not feeling my very best today.  And just to round things out nicely I want to pig out on left-over mashed potatoes or crackers, or chocolate or, or, or …  And if the physical isn’t punishment enough I’m feeling really stupid about now, too.  Calgon – take me away!

I’d like to wish everyone a happy holiday of their choice. I was going to post one of those holiday survival lists – but while reading and participating in the holiday giveaway over at Diabetes Mine, I think the thing that struck me the most was – Don’t stress so much about it!

The holidays aren’t a license to eat everything we want but diabetes isn’t a punishment that doesn’t allow us to ever eat something off plan. My best plan (you know, were I eating solid foods) would be to eat a little of my favorite foods, try not to go overboard and to enjoy myself with friends and family. It’s far too easy to turn what is supposed to be fun into a guilt producing, stress filled crisis – whether or not you eat off plan.

I hope everyone has fun!

Today was Dr. Endo day – I get all kinds of gold stars. Dr. Endo really makes me giggles sometimes, too. He said when he sat down that I was going to like my numbers – he had “cheated” and looked at them before he came in.

In the past 3 months, I’ve lost 45 pounds and decreased my a1c from 8.4 to 6.4. I’ve cut my metformin in half and decreased my levemir by over 1/3.

Next week is the surgery and I hope to keep making good progress. This feels a whole lot better.

You’ve all been with me through so much.  This weekend I got my first Social Security payment.  I will be receiving a check each month and now qualify for medicare as well.  My son-in-law is so pleased – he was afraid he was going to have to support me for the next few months while we waited for the government to do its thing and get all this started.  We were pleasantly surprised that it took only a couple weeks instead of 60-90 days!

Everybody sing and dance:  “Celebrate good times, Come on!” 

Well this is going to be an interesting post in if i can post this without taking valium.

A mob of galahs ( an aussie bird) decieded to have a later afternoon snak in my backyard. Now i have 3 different mobs of birds enjoing the fruits and hard labour of my back yard. The mobs are cockatoos, magpies and galahs. All this means is that i have updated my photo album in photobucket. Aussie animals section.

I just had a recent blood test and have my result , which in general were good. However i was annoyed what each thing meant so i found this site

http://www.labtestsonline.org.au/

Hope you find it interesting. It shows amercian and british standards of measurements

Have fun people

Summer is here with a vengence in Tucson.  Vengence in the form of a broken air conditioner and temps in the 105+ range.  Just days ahead of our annual monsoon beginning too.  Heat is one of the hardest things for me… I get so lethargic and moody.  Anyone else do poorly in the heat of summer?  What’s it like where you are?

After many weeks of blood glucose readings of 190 or higher my sugar is at 147 this afternoon. Hooray for me! I saw my bone doctor this morning and he gave me a clean bill of health on the broken hand. I walked to and from his office listening to Bobby Vinton all the way. Do you suppose that bit of exercise could have affected the reading? I was at 242 this morning before breakfast. Dr. said I don’t have to wear the brace anymore unless I’m planning some heavy yard work. I told him I thought the brace was a good excuse to keep me from doing heavy yard work. rofl Let’s dance, let’s sing, let’s CELEBRATE!!!!