Motivation

When someone tells me they cannot do something because they lack motivation, I wonder what they mean.   Do they truly lack motivation or is some other psychological force interfering?  Let's take the example of a diabetic who claims to be unmotivated to follow a blood sugar controlling diet.  There really are people who do not care what their blood sugar is doing.  They are genuinely unmotivated for many aspects of their health care.  There are people who want to control their blood sugar, but refuse to do it with diet.  They rely entirely on medications to keep their blood sugar in safe ranges.  They, too, are genuinely unmotivated to follow their diet.  Then, there are the people who want to follow their diet, but cannot make themselves do it.  They call themselves unmotivated.   They have the desire and their desire cannot be actualized.  They are inhibited and mistake their inhibition for lack of motivation.

The Truly Unmotivated Person
The first example, a truly unmotivated person, has little desire.  Mostly, they are indifferent.  With diabetes, indifference is a dangerous attitude.  The consequences are cardiovascular problems leading to stroke and heart attacks; kidney damage resulting in years of dialysis; nerve damage that impairs balance, muscle tone, processing waste through the intestines, and sensations in the feet; circulation blockages the require amputations beginning with a toe and ending with a leg.  None of the consequences impact the truly unmotivated.  Do they fear them?  No, they feel nothing.  They are indifferent. 

If you are reading this blog, you are not indifferent.  You have concern.  You have curiosity.  You want health.

You may have a diabetic loved one who is indifferent.  They are hard to understand, and they are impossible to motivate.  If you try to control them, they will find a way around your efforts.  They may even react with a backlash of outrageous, contrary actions to tell you to leave them to their own ways.  You cannot make someone care about something when they are indifferent.  To shut you up, they may act as if they care while doing what they want to do when you can't stop them.  They have their secret stash of sweets.  When they're out and about, they hit the fast food restaurants, the ice cream parlor, the pastry shop.  They order pizza and Chinese delivery, getting what they want without regard for what it will do to their blood sugar.  They take their medicine carelessly.

Brenda was such a person.  She died at age 46, leaving a devastated 14 year old son and a bewildered husband.  Brenda's obesity from childhood factored into her developing diabetes in her late thirties.  Her doctor advised her to loose weight.  She refused.   Oral medications quickly became useless in controlling her blood sugar, making insulin her only option early in the progression of her diabetes.  Her solution to blood sugar spikes from indulging in the foods she loved in the quantities she wanted was to give herself more insulin.  Worst of all, Brenda loved sweet cocktails.  Brenda insisted on having a pina colada or margarita or daquiri when she wanted one.  Fortunately, she imbibed in moderation, but, for a diabetic, sugary cocktails are poison.  Brenda wanted to have what she wanted.

Brenda's husband and son tried everything they could think of to help her curb her behavior.  Nothing got her to change.  Brenda's attitude was, "I want to enjoy life while I have it."  Fortunately, she spent only one year suffering from diabetic complications before succumbing to kidney failure.

See the next blogs for more on motivation.

I'm Back

I've been away from my blog since March and I miss the writing.  For a few weeks, I simply had nothing to say.  Then came busy-ness and changes that took priority over everything.  Nothing horrible happened, but demands on life and time require setting priorities.   My teaching duties in China took their place at the top of the to-do list.  My teaching is done on Skype and ooVoo.  It required a major upgrade in my computer and internet equipment to achieve the bandwidth speed needed for good connections with Beijing and Shanghai.  When the dust cleared, I had a new computer with a new operating system, a new email address, and lots of work to get programs to run on Windows 7, change user names and passwords.

Anything associated with my old email address, like this blog, challenged my meager skills.  The challenge motivated me to upgrade my computer skills along with my computer.  I learned how to again access this blog so I can keep on writing. 

Unlike my state in the spring, I have lots to say!

email address change

Dear friends, family, and colleagues,

 

I am closing my copper.net account and changing my email address to:  carolynweyand@gmail.com   The change is effective immediately.  For those of you who forget to change my email address in your contact list, the copper.net email will be active for one more month.

 

Fondly,

Carolyn

Carolyn A. Weyand, PhD
Psychologist/Psychoanalyst
1307 Antonine St.
New Orleans, LA 70118
504-895-2901

Spaghetti and Meatballs

Can you change the name of everyone favorite pasta dish, comfort food from "spaghetti and meatballs" to "meatballs and spaghetti?"  By rearranging the name, you convert the dish from a high carbohydrate meal of spaghetti, to a high protein meal of meatballs.  This little trick of thinking, what psychologists call "reframing" can help a person change their perspective which leads to a behavior change.  If you are thinking about eating meatballs, you will eat meatballs, and the spaghetti becomes the side, which is where it needs to be for people living with Type 2 Diabetes.

Vegetable Soup

If you're like me, you buy fresh vegetables that you don't get around to cooking.  Our good intentions, to eat healthy food, do get side-tracked.   At one time or another, all of us have thrown away fresh vegetables that have gone bad.

French cooks have a use for vegetables hanging around the refrigerator.  Those limp zucchinis and wilting greens may not be pretty, but they are still edible.  Of course, you must throw out vegetable that are moldy or rotting.  But, before they get to the un-usable stage, they look unappetizing,  These are the vegetables that a French cook will use to make soup.  Even lettuce goes into the soup.  I've tried it.  It's tasty.

Vegetable Soup is a simple, tasty way to get your veggies and sooth your conscience about wasting vegetables.  Here's how to do it.

First, make the stock:

Add to a large pot:
1 carton chicken stock or broth, optional
1 can diced tomatoes, optional
Water to fill pot half full
2 carrots, scraped and cut into bite-sized chunks
3 ribs of celery, chopped
1 onion, chopped
3 cloves of garlic
1/2 tsp salt
pepper to taste
Any fresh herbs hanging around your refrigerator, chopped

Bring to a boil, turn down the heat to keep the water simmering until carrots are brightly colored and give slightly to pressure from a fork.  Add water to keep vegetables covered.  Timing depends on size of pot, size of carrots and your stove's ability to simmer.   

Taste the broth and adjust salt as needed.  You adjust salt by adding more water if its too salty or adding a little more salt if its too dull.

While the stock is cooking, peel and cut up vegetables, any vegetables you have or like.  When the carrots are ready, add your vegetables  in the order of their need for cooking time.

Start by adding the hard, root vegetables or winter squash that need time to cook.  Let the stock come back to a simmer and cook them for a few minutes, until almost tender.  After the hard vegetables cook, add vegetables like green beans, bell peppers, cabbage, broccoli, that need less cooking.  Let them simmer awhile until they are bright colored and tender.

Last to go into the pot, the delicate vegetables that cook very quickly.  Mushrooms, chopped greens, chopped lettuce, scallions, summer squash, tomatoes are examples of quick cooking vegetables.  Toss them into the simmering pot.  Stir and give them a few minutes to cook.

If you have leftover vegetables in the refrigerator, add them to your soup with the delicate veggies.  They will heat while the the others are cooking.

This is also a good time to add seasonings.  Dried thyme, basil, oregano or your favorite seasoning mix will taste great.  A Cajun spice mix, Italian or French herb mixtures will be good, too.  I like spicy food, so I add a few dashes of cayenne pepper.

When the vegetables are cooked to your liking, taste for seasoning.  Adjust salt, pepper and spices to your taste.

Serve your soup hot.  You can add a protein exchange by topping the soup with an ounce of grated cheese or a quarter cup of cottage cheese sprinkled with a little Parmesan.    

Soup: How to make the best comfort food of all

Diabetics do best when they cook for themselves.  When we cook for ourselves, we can control the ingredients and make the food to our tastes and to our needs.

It's been cold, so naturally thoughts go to warm, comfort food.  Most comfort foods are starchy or sweet.. bread, pie, donuts, macaroni and cheese, mashed potatoes and gravy.  They are also high in fat.  For diabetics, the comfort these foods give is dangerous.  Even soup can be dangerous comfort with cream and thickeners.  If it comes from a can, it will also slam your system with salt.

Homemade soup is easy to make and tasty.  Soup for diabetics has four main components:  broth, the liquid part; vegetables, like onion, carrots, celery; protein, usually meat, but also soybeans, dried beans or peas or cheese; seasonings, you know, salt and pepper, herbs and spices.  Soup can be made from canned, frozen or fresh ingredients.  Here are soup making techniques.

Easiest Chicken and Mushroom Soup Ever
Anyone can whip up this soup in minutes with a few ingredients you can keep in your kitchen cabinet.  Serve with a small salad and you have a tasty, diabetes healthy meal.

1 carton chicken stock
1 can mushroom stems and pieces
1 can chicken

Empty contents of all ingredients into a medium sized sauce pan.  Add your choice of seasonings from the list below.  Heat over medium heat.  Stir to break up chicken pieces.  The ingredients are all cooked.  So, just heat them.   No need to salt, but you might want to add pepper. 

Jazz it up with your choice of spices.  Here are some seasonings to experiment with.  The amounts are starting points.  You can always add more of seasonings you like:

• 1/2 tsp dried thyme
• 1/2 tsp each onion and garlic powder
• dash of cayenne pepper, more if you like heat
• 1/2 tsp dried basil
• all of the above

Vary the basic recipe by adding other canned vegetables.  Diced tomatoes work well and basil is a good choice for seasoning when you add tomato.  Canned mixed vegetables have high carbohydrate vegetables, like corn, making them acceptable for people with good blood sugar control.   Green beans go well in this soup, too;  they go well with thyme.  Green beans and mushrooms together, seasoned with onion powder and thyme, make a tasty soup.  Experiment to see what you like best. 

Change the protein from canned chicken to canned shrimp, 1/2 carton of cubed firm tofu, or 1/3 c of canned chickpeas.  Use the same soup making technique to make an entirely different soup.  Think about adding 1/2 tsp of dill weed to this soup made with shrimp.   With chickpeas, top the soup with a teaspoon of grated Parmesan cheese. 

Tomorrow, I'll continue with soups that take a little more effort, but are still easy.
Fresh Vegetable Soup
Cioppino from the Freezer
Clam Chowder
Beef Stew

Three Little Things to Help Your Blood Sugar.. and keep you weight down

Anything you do that keeps your blood sugar low is likely to help you control your weight, too.  Here are some useful changes you can easily make.

1.  Drink Water
The best drink for us humans is water.  We need about 64 ounces a day.. 8 glasses.. 1/2 gallon.  Many of the things we drink instead of water load us with calorie and take water out of our bodies.  A example is beer.. lots of carbohydrates and calories.  The alcohol has a diuretic effect.  It extracts water from our tissue.  Drinking soda loads us with carbohydrates and calories, too.  Fruit juice comes from fruit, but it .. you guessed it.. carbohydrates and calories.  Coffe and tea, black, have no carbs or calories, but do have a mild diuretic effect.  Eliminate liquid carbs and calories.  Drink water, lots of it.

2.  Fiber Up
Most of us are getting between 10 and 15 grams of fiber per day.  We need more.  Fiber helps keep blood sugar low and a few other important things.  Fiber keeps our bowels moving.  It helps lower cholesterol.  Whole grains, vegetables and fruit are our best sources.   Oatmeal, made from quick cooking or steel cut oats, not instant oats, are a great source of fiber.  So is fruit.  With both, be sure to limit your quantity, because they are carb rich.

3.  Walk More
A daily walk does wonders for your health in many way.  20 to 25 minutes of walking burns about 100 calories.  Walking also helps your muscles utilize the glucose in your blood stream more efficiently.

Diabetes and the Blues

Many of us use food for comfort and most comfort foods are high carbohydrate, like mashed potatoes and gravy.  Ice cream and cheesecake are favorites for many people when the blues hover over us.  Chocolate, too, is a favored comfort food.  All of them are dangerous for diabetics.  When you have the blues, a spoonful of ice cream will not sooth.  It will intensify the yearning and make the blues worse.

Getting depressed, even mildly, is dangerous to our glucose control.  Most of us who have good control live a daily life feeling restricted and deprived of food pleasure.  We may be proud that we can keep ourselves healthy, but still.. we know we go without.  When we yearn for a little comforting indulgence, we know we will hurt ourselves to give in.

So, what can we do when we want to curl up with some comfort food?  The mainstream advice is to have whatever you want, just control your portion size.  Easy to say, hard to do even under the best of circumstances.  When the blues move in, a controlled port just feels like more deprivation.

I like soup.  Soups with unthickened broth, filled with tasty vegetables and chunks of chicken, fish or beef, give a warming satisfying feel.  A hot mug of bouillon can be a comfort, too.

Chocolate gives a lift to moods, its a natural antidepressant.  It works in your brain and in your mouth.  Dark chocolate is a good choice, if you must have something.  Sugar-free hot chocolate can bring a nice soothing comfort, just make it with water instead of milk.

There is no substitute for cheesecake or ice cream.  Even the no sugar added forms of ice cream have carbohydrates from milk and loads of fat.  Wish I could come up with something here.  Homemade cheesecake, made with sugar substitutes can be very tasty, but still are a load of carbohydrates.

And that's why diabetics get the blues.

It's working.  Getting my carbohydrates from vegetables is allowing me more satisfying meals.  I learned that I can eat a little bread without spiking my blood sugar.   

Here's how to find out what works for you.  Test your blood sugar 2-2 1/2 hours after eating to see what your food has done to you blood sugar levels. 

Remember, over 200 dl/mg, glucose is damaging nerves and organs.  Anything that spikes your blood sugar over 200 is dangerous.  Rice and white potatoes are in my "no eat" zone because carb for carb they send my blood sugar higher that foods of equal carbs.

Develop your personal "no eat" zone.  Test your blood sugar several times a day.  A dietitian's advice can help, but only you can personalize your food choices to fit the way your body uses carbohydrate.

Tofu, Good Food for People Living with Type 2 Diabetes

Tofu delivers high quality protein from a vegetable source, soy beans.  One half-cup serving of firm tofu, about 4 ounces or 1/3 of an average 14 ounces package, contains 10.1 grams of protein.   The recommended daily intake of protein is roughly 56 grams for men and 46 grams for women.

Here's how tofu stacks up against other protein sources.
     1/2 cup cow's milk contains 5.1 grams of protein
     one large egg contains 6 grams
     4 oz ground beef contains about 26 grams of protein


Tofu has few calories, 94 per serving.  Compare that to the 4 ounce hamburger patty with 331 calories; the egg, 70 calories; 1/2 cup of 2% milk has 60 calories: and 4 oz of cheese packs 320 calories.  You can think of it this way.  For every 100 calories, tofu gives you 11 grams of protein while ground beef gives you 8.9 grams of protein.  Meat has a little bit better fat to protein ratio than cheese.   100 calories worth of cheese is worth only 6.2 grams of protein.  The differences are in the fat.

Our one half-cup serving of firm tofu contains 5 grams of fat.  Low fat tofu is also commercially available, and contains 1.5 grams of fat per serving.  The fat in tofu is vegetable fat, soybean oil, and it is cholesterol-free.  Our 4 oz beef patty slams us with 15 grams of fat and 113 mg of cholesterol.
Another beautiful thing about tofu:  a half-cup serving of firm tofu contains about 227 mg of calcium or about 22% of the RDA.  Different brands and forms of tofu may have less.  Silken tofu contains approximately 133 mg, again depending on the brand.  Calcium is important for everyone.  For diabetics, it is essential for your body to make best use of blood glucose in your muscles

I Failed My Resolution: Here's Why

Michael Blumenfield, MD, psychiatrist friend, suggested I may have asked too much of myself to commit to blogging everyday.  He was right.  He spoke from experience.  He blogs on psychiatry:  PsychiatryTalk.com; and, with his wife, Susan, on movies:  FilmRap.net. 

Blogging everyday is too often for a busy person.   So, I amending my resolutions to something more realistic:  I will blog once a week, but not limited to once a week.  I can blog more often when I have the time.

Today's blog is really about re-evaluating your demands of yourself.  We all set our sights too high at times and need to learn to adjust when we have been unrealistic.  Our temptation is to accuse ourselves of failing, like I did in my title today.  In reality, the failure was in the original demand we placed on ourselves.  If you ask too much, the failure is in the asking, not in the doing. 

Type II Diabetes Requires Life Changes

Adapting to any chronic health condition forces us to make changes we rather not make.  Type II Diabetes isn't the only disease that is treated by dietary changes, medication management and demands for exercise.  The bright spot in what we must do for ourselves is:  We always wanted to eat healthfully and exercise more, but couldn't get ourselves to do it.  Now, we must. 

Each new year is a chance to have a new beginning

A new beginning means forgiving one's self for the mistakes of the past.  Take the lessons learned from mistakes and start over with a fresh approach to life.

I experimented with food this past year and made some dreadful mistakes that spiked my blood sugar to levels I am embarrassed to say.  What did I learn form these mistakes?  Rice, wheat and corn are dangerous to me.  I love rice, pasta, bread, popcorn, corn on the cob.. but not grits.  I learned that I cannot play with these grains the way I can with fruit.  I learned that a 1/2 cup serving of rice, about 15 carbohydrate grams, will raise my blood sugar higher than a 1/2 of an apple, about 15 carbohydrate grams, or 1/3 cup of chickpeas, also about 15 carbohydrate grams.

For the New Year, I resolve to get my carbohydrates from vegetables and legumes.  

Carolyn A. Weyand, PhD
Psychologist/Psychoanalyst
1307 Antonine St.
New Orleans, LA 70118
504-895-2901

A New Year's Resolution: How to make it work

I've been away.. literally and figuratively.  Spent time in Las Vegas, San Francisco and various points North of the Bay City, New York City, Washington DC, Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu and Xi'an.  (Yes, China, baby!)  Three weeks of teaching and touring.  While traveling, I neglected my blog, I'm sorry to say.

Today I resolve to blog everyday, no matter where I am or whatever excuses I might muster.  With a little imagination, a person can always find a reason to not do something.


Resolution Strategies That Work

For resolutions to work, people must have successes that reinforce their determination.  Here are some pointers for succeeding with your resolution.

The Specific Behavior Approach

I've just given an example of a type of New Year's Resolution that has high probability of succeeding:  "I will blog every day."  Its a clear behavior that is possible to achieve.  It is free of provisions or expectations or ideals or moral values or any other baggage.  Its just one thing to do each day, just one thing.  I didn't say how much I have to blog or even what I'll blog about.  (Since Type II Diabetes is a daily presence in my life, it effects everything and everything effects it.  Means everything I might blog about will relate somehow to T2D.)

Choose a particular behavior and be specific.   If you want to decrease your carb intake, for example, you might resolve to drink water instead of drinking soft drinks with sugar in them.  Pick a particular action and be as specific as you can be about your new behavior.  To tell yourself that you will exercise more is a set up for failure.  Your resolution is not specific enough.  Your resolution has to have more details.   How often is more?  What kind of exercise?  When and where?  Do you need equipment? a trainer? an exercise buddy?  What do you like to do?  What if you hate exercise?  Each of these questions is a finger pointing at a loophole in your resolution.  If you have a loophole, you will use it.  It's what people do.

Make the behavior change a small one.   Keeping a resolution requires motivation.  The motivation to keep a resolution doesn't come for your desire for the goal.  If the desire for a goal motivated us enough, we wouldn't need resolutions in the first place.  Keeping a resolution depends on the success a person has with doing what must be done.  If you ask yourself to do something you can do, you will do it.  When you do it, you will feel good about yourself.  When you feel good about yourself, you will stick to your resolution.  When you ask too much of yourself, the doing will be a struggle.  The bad feelings that go with trying too hard will erode any good feelings you might have.  Before long, the resolution is broken and you feel crappy about yourself.  That's how people are.  When you give yourself a small step to take, you are more likely to take it and keep on taking it.

Let's use the exercise example.  You want to exercise more.  A way to do that could be as simple as parking your car in the farthest spot you can and walking whenever you go to the mall, visit your doctor or shop for grocery.  That's a small change in behavior that can be accomplished.  You might decide to swim once a week; go to Jazzercise or Zumba once a week; take a tai chi class (In China, people go to their community park every day to do tai chi together.. young and old.) or a dance class.  Set yourself up to do something small, that you can accomplish.  You are more likely to stick with it.

The Global Change Approach

Another kind of resolution requires only one thing:  a theme.  You choose a theme, like friendships, productivity, or health.  Make your theme your guiding vision throughout the year.  You do things in life that fit with your theme and inhibit actions that contradict your theme.

Think of what you want to change about yourself in general.   Do you want to live healthier?  Do you want to be kinder?  Do you want improve your appearance?  Do you  want to be more productive at work?  Ask yourself, "What aspect of myself do I want to improve?"  Your theme must depend on behaviors that you can control in yourself.

Notice what I am not suggesting.  I am not suggesting you give yourself a goal to work toward.  Goals like loosing weight or getting a promotion or passing an exam cannot be tackled with a resolution.  Goals need a plan of action.  The plan of action is developed from an analysis of the goal's requirements and your resources.  You must do certain things to achieve a goal.  Goals have requirements with criteria like grades, job descriptions, or calorie counts that you cannot control.  They are realities outside yourself that you must adapt to in order to achieve a goal.  The behaviors to achieve goals are complex and many.  Achieving a goal is a great thing, but it is a plan thing, not a resolution thing.

Use your theme to guide your decisions.  Do what fits your theme.  Refrain from anything contrary to your theme.  Back to the exercise example.  You want to exercise more and want to put exercise into your lifestyle.  Unless you are of the jock persuasion, its unlikely unless you use a whip on yourself.  It will work until you balk.  When you can no longer force yourself to abide by the exercise regimen, you will return to the couch.  Being physically active is the theme that might be more useful.   An active version of your everyday activities will fit with your theme: Standing rather than sitting; Sitting rather than lying down; walking rather than riding; going out to a movie instead of watching television.

Addictions
A word of caution, beating an addiction cannot be done by resolution. Addictions require help from others to over come. A mere resolution is not enough to beat something as powerful as addiction. The type of addiction doesn't matter. An addiction to shopping or cigarettes or eating or alcohol or crazy lovers involves complex neural pathways and brain chemicals