Living with Diabetes and Lapband

Their scales weigh differently than mine, which is nice. They show 5 pounds lighter.  I have lost some weight but not much.  I had to treat several lows.

I have been adjusting my insulin dosage and hopefully that will get better.  I also dropped my calorie plan from 1700 to 1600 and plan to go to 1500 next week.

That should give me a bit more cushion for treating lows.

My blood sugar has been too high with 60-80 units a day until I went on Jenny Craig.  Now my blood sugar is too low, and ranging 40-50 units a day.  So the biggest thing now is to get the insulin tweaked correctly.

I started on Jenny Craig Monday lunch.  We’d faxed a permission form to my Endo on Saturday, they indicated to Jenny Craig that they would return it on Monday morning, so they called and I was able to start.  My scales say I’ve lost around 3 pounds in the two days.

I like that I have a planner that I just check off what I’ve ate.  That’s one way DietToGo could fix things.  I didn’t really see that kind of tool.  I also like have those extra meals around.  Last night, when I just had to have something else, instead of pulling out random junk food, I pulled out a DietToGo meal and ate some of it.  Tossed the rest.  I do have another week coming today.  My husband is eating some of those meals too.

I’m on the 20/20 plan and my consultant has been quite available to ask questions – so it’s all good.  No – just check the website when I have a question.  She actually answers it.

Food is good but expensive.

First, the people on the Facebook Group are down right snarky.  I called one out for cyberbullying Friday.  Seems more people complain than encourage or uplift.  You try to make things better and you get bullied.  While I got some positive reinforcement from the employees of Diet to Go, it didn’t off set the snarky.

Second, support doesn’t support.  When I made a legitimate complainant – the nutritional information isn’t on the meals, I get this:  go out to the website.  Okay, so it’s Sunday at noon, and I need the carb counts on a meal.

I go to DietToGo.com 

Login to MyDietToGo

I see Week 3 (oh, it’s Week 2)

No back button so I have to click “Next Week”

Now I’m on Week 4

Click “Next week”

Now Week 5

Click “Next Week”

Now Week 1

Click “Next Week”

Now Week 2

Oh, I made a meal substitution so it isn’t showing, so I have to find the missing meal, and redo the substitution. 

I can FINALLY click on nutrition and finally get the carb count.

Not counting the time to find a device that will let me do this (it’s even this way on the mobile device) – now my meal is cold and unappetizing.  Especially if it’s ground turkey.

I’m supposed to be getting a spreadsheet. Hey, print out all the information needed on the labels, not just the minimum requirement. 

The second best answer is not to roll off the meals until two weeks after they expired.

All easy fixes.

There is still the shipping issue.

There is one last local solution – Jenny Craig, which I visited on Saturday.  Bad news, if you are a diabetic, you need to go by there, have them fax your doctor to get permission, and wait until he gives it.  I remember why I’m not on it now, the doctor I had wanted me to get a lap band, probably for some type of kickback and wouldn’t sign.  I am pretty sure this doctor will sign. 

I agreed to try Diet To Go food for one week after being contacted by them.   They sent me 15 free meals. 

Other than that I’ve been treated just as a regular customer.

I’m very pleased with their food and their service – there are a few glitches which I am sure they can iron out.

I haven’t lost weight, BUT I have been feeling better.   Their meals produce a very smooth blood sugar.  The meals work well with my lap band – I am a little too full after some of them, but I can work that out.  My gastric system is working much better.  I have issues where I alternate between constipation and diarrhea and I go to the bathroom more normally.

I like the 5 day schedule.  Sometimes working with premade meals just don’t work out well, this week I plan to put a few meals in the freezer and alternate them out.  Especially since I might try a large agility fun match in another city.

The biggest drawback seems to be the cooler – it can’t be recycled, but so far, I’ve been able to find them homes with NextDoor.

I’ve looked into local options and can’t seem to find one.

I’ve been on their new Balance-Diabetes plan.  I am going with their 2 meals a day/5 days a week plan starting today.  With my lapband that should be the best option.  Breakfast rarely works well with the lapband, and that was true with theirs. 

Cons:

The whole shipping thing.  However, neighbors are wanting the coolers.

Nutrition information isn’t on all the packages. This is a BIG deal for diabetics.

Some of the food is difficult to microwave and the directions aren’t clear.  Those are the foods with out nutrition information.

Pros:

Food is good.  Even the breakfast is working.  Food is medium easy to eat which is a good thing.  And it tastes good, but sometimes too spiced.

Blood sugar is smoother.

I had Egg Cheese Pesto pizza.  I’m usually not good with solid food in the morning, but this worked well.  Baked apple as a side which the Facebook group complains about.  It liked.

My blood sugar has been fairly smooth according to the CGMS.  No big excursions.  I still have trouble with evening eating, but will be working on getting better food in the house for that.

Dinner tonight was Portabella Lasagna.  It was good.  It was only 20 carbs and was lasagna accompanied by vegetables.  It was very filling and quite good.  Easy to eat with the lap band.

I've decided to get a second weeks food.  Husband is going to buy his own food as they don't have a dinner only plan.  The cooler situation is a bit unwieldy.  I'm looking for some place to take it for recycling.  A neighbor is picking up this weeks cooler.

My blood sugar has been very smooth.

I am disappointed that the nutrional information isn't in MyFitnessPal or Fitbit log.  I called the 1-800 number about it, and they suggested I use the website.   I'm not sure where I was supposed to go --it's been a few hours and really not finding it.  I'm going to keep pushing on this. 

Still waiting on DietToGo, but I did get an email that it is coming tomorrow.  And I’m over scheduled tomorrow but it will work out.

I tried the Nutrosystem food at Walmart.  A really nice idea, but I ended up taking the box back.  It was marked as good until November 2016, and the bagel in it looked moldy to both me and the sales clerk that handled the return.  That warrants a technology post.  The box was around $42.00 with tax, and contained 4 meals for each day – 5 meals total, but suggested lots of extra food.

I like the MyFit food but it’s hard to eat.  I’ve had two chicken meals with white meat chicken that took me about 30 minutes to chew.  Also a bit heavily spiced to make up for the lack of salt.  Frankly I do fine with a lighter level of spice.  Each meal contains protein and vegetables but I still feel like I need fresh produce.

I have been getting good emails from DietToGo.  I just went out and read the latest.  I also played around with the order website.  It’s a well designed website –even though they are using  mostly bootstrap.  I can’t be too critical, I broke down and using it myself.

Their facebook group has been good too – though so far, mostly got information on shipping. 

I had the Eggplant Parmesan which was very good.  Easy to eat for this lapband girl.  Concerned about the carb count at 45.  However the breakfast count was good and my blood sugar has been relatively smooth.

It had Eggplant Parmesan, pasta with a side of vegetables.  I had taken everything out of the cooler about 10:00 am and it was still partially frozen which made it take a while to cook.

So far, I'm very happy, though the meals don't seem to be in MyFitnessPal.   

Much easier to eat than any of the myFitFood and also then the Snap Kitchen appeared.  The mix of main dish plus vegetables made it feel like a real lunch. 

My Diet to Go food arrived today. The whole shipping process made me nervous. I got a shipping label on Monday. It said the food wouldn't arrive until Thursday. A check through the Facebook reassured me as that was common practice and they had shipped to Texas successfully before. The only person who had an issue happened because apparently FedEx had delivered to the wrong place.

My food arrived right after the attended shipping center opened. It weighed 28 pounds and was a large well labeled cooler . There should be a photo attached. Recycling it might be an issue.
My city recycling pickup doesn't take styrofoam.

In top was a plastic bag containing wristbands and reading material. There is a booklet explaining the program. There are several miscellaneous flyers including one with healthy snack suggestions.

The top two meals were thawed but very cold. They were breakfasts that might have come unfrozen. I am eating the first cereal and yogurt which I don't think would freeze well. It tastes good. The carb count is a bit high at 48 grams. The cereal is labeled cinnamon walnut cereal and the yogurt is Chobani Simply 100 peach flavor.

So far so good!