Christmas Swanlings

Despite the dire weather warnings and promises of storm fronts ruining Christmas today has (so far) been quite nice!

When I awoke this morning without a hangover (because I no longer drink) and without a sense that my trousers wouldn’t fit (because I’ve lost lots of weight) and without guilt (because I only ate virtuous things yesterday) I was in a pretty awesome (and festive) mood.

Today I’d fully expected that rain would de-rail my plans to walk over to my brother’s house for dinner – but thankfully this was not the case. As I strolled along the canal in the late morning listening to my music I was already in a really good frame of mind. Then – just to make things even better – I found some swanlings!

The view from the canal locally always cheers me up. Right in the middle of Warwick and Leamington it branches temporarily out into open countryside and you’d be forgiven for thinking that you were light years away from anywhere if you ignored the rooftops hidden by the tree line.

Three miles of canal and some quiet streets later I was seated before my Christmas dinner – which my sister in law had gone all out to ensure was roasted to the highest standards of Slimming World perfection.

She’s been contacting me (as has my brother) here and there over the last few days to ask whether I can have gravy or not, what type of meat I’d like and whether I’d be able to have certain types of veg, and if so how much I could eat.

Bless them both! 😄

In the end thanks to the miracle of spray oil and some mint sauce (the only non free or speed item) my Christmas meal of chicken, sweet potato, broccoli, carrots, parsnips and mushroom not only tasted delicious but came in at 1 syn.

Now I’ve eaten I’m going to zone out for a while in front of the telly!

(Author becomes a couch potato for a few hours)

We’ve been watching ‘The Vacation’ (IMDb link) and I have to say that despite not expecting to like it at all (and the reviews being universally awful) we’ve just managed to laff our asses off for a couple of hours. It may have something to do with the endless coffee I’ve been drinking – but I don’t care. It was smutty and crude and managed to hit my sense of humour funny bone in just the right spot.

I’m all warm in front of the fire now, and now the film has finished my sister in law has started playing Halo 5 online (much better than I can). My brother is chilling with his feet up and I’m thinking (less than enthusiastically I must say) about going home.

It’s dark and cold outside and consequently it’s a tough sell. This is the part of me that wishes he’d brought the car.

But a lazy bottom does not equal a thin bottom so this tubby little Santa is definitely not getting a taxi. I have to work off Saturday’s gain. It’s time to make a move.

(Author moves chubby bottom in the direction of home)

Ok – I’m back and I’ve just prepared and popped a few bacon, leek, courgette and mushroom crustless mini quiches in the oven for dinner. They should be done in 20 minutes or so – which is just enough time to finish up my post.

On the way home I started to feel quite odd. A bit light headed if I’m honest and not far from my house I began to wonder if it wasn’t the coffee, but instead was related to my blood sugar. As a type 2 diabetic I dont really have to worry about ‘hypos’ since the issue is blood sugar that’s too high, rather than too low.

Regular readers will know that I’m down from the four metformin and one glimepiride per day that I was taking when I started getting fit to just two metformin a day. I was in January planning to try to reduce it down to one per day and see what happened.

I think that time may be here – as my blood sugar reading when I got back was 4.4 mm0/l (it should be between 4-7 but its never normally this low) and I have to admit I felt a bit shaky. I think that once again my medication is pushing me lower than I should be, as this was the same point in my levels a couple of months ago where the doctor reduced my dosage.

I think I’m going to have to have a chat with my GP sooner rather than later and discuss the next steps. I’m not sure that I should just stop taking my pills altogether – but I’m beginning to wonder (wouldn’t it be AWESOME!) whether I can control my diabetes now with diet and exercise alone, rather than with pills.

If I can – what a fantastic start to the new year that would be.

I’ve been trying not to think like this so far as I don’t want to work myself up to something that physically may be impossible – but I can’t help it. Maybe, just maybe I can be (at least for a bit longer) be free of all these pills?…

Anyway – I think my mini quiches are done now, and I need to take them out of the oven.

I hope all of you out there in internet land have had a lovely Christmas day and that you got to be with who you love and care about. Also if you got some nice gifts then I have my fingers crossed that they were the ones you wanted.

Happy Christmas!

Davey