Pinterest Tested DIY Sugar Scrub

I cannot recall the exact place I first saw this but it was on Pinterest. A very easy DIY sugar body scrub! It makes your skin super soft and moisturized at fraction of the cost of store bought equivalents. I already had all the ingredients at home!

You will need:

• Olive oil
• Sugar- regular granulated
• Scented essential oils (optional) 
  

This is so simple I don't even measure it. I fill a small container with sugar and slowly add enough olive oil until the texture becomes paste-like. It's about a 2:1 ratio of 2 parts sugar and 1 part olive oil. 

I also have been adding tea tree oil for it's natural skin benefits and oil of rose for scent. Olive oil on it's own does not smell bad, but it smells like olive oil. I've also added vanilla to it before and any essential oil you like would add a pleasant smell. You only need a few drops 3-5 of tea tree oil or any other essential oils. Mix and use like crazy! It's cheap!

I also recently started using this on my face. This was after some internet searching to make sure it wasn't a horrible idea! It is amazing! My skin loves the exfoliation from the sugar and the moisturizer from the olive oil is doing wonders. I have large pores and always have treated my skin like it is oily, turns out I actually need more moisture! 

Diabetes note: Those horrible sticker sites from various diabetes related gadgets? This removes the leftover adhesive better than anything else for that too!

Sweet Stuff

Some of my favorite things from this week:

 

A good friend went to Hawaii last month and neglected to take me with her, but she brought back the BEST margarita salt a girl could dream about! The salt makes the margarita! I make "skinny" margaritas also known as "real margaritas". NO sweet and sour mix/sugar/junk. Just FRESH lime juice, tequila, and Cointreau blended or on the rocks. Deadly. Delicious. Low sugar.

 

Oh you know, just putting away laundry and finding a full insulin reservoir in my sock drawer. This happens to everyone right? 

 

My Dexcom being awesome and alerting me to a low. I have always thought I've been very good at feeling lows early and feeling myself drop. So far this week though Dexcom 3 Sarah 0, as in the Dexcom has caught 3 lows this week before me. Today it's been a little off, but most days obviously very accurate. Scary accurate. 

Thank goodness for OtterBox, because I'm a clumsy speech language pathologist. I drop the iPad more than the kids! That says a lot considering most of my caseload is 5 years old or younger. Also, notice my spooky dark office. Power outage for over an hour at work! Johnny also stopped by my office that morning as a nice surprise (when we had power). He was in his Paramedic uniform so I had my students talk about different occupations and ask him questions. When he stood up to leave a few of them freaked out with how tall he was, 6'2" by the way.

Students: "How can you be that tall? How old are you?"
Johnny: "How old do you think I am?"
Students: "41.....no wait 44!"
Johnny: "I'm 27"
Students: "You CAN'T be that tall at 27!, You gotta be at least 41!!"

This was hysterical, it made the day for both of us!!

 

My favorite things. Oh and a new car, no more stranded smoking engine for me! I'll miss my '96 Camry, but we are a clunker free home now and adjusting just fine.

Low Carb Miso Ramen Soup

The weather is getting warmer, however, for some reason I'm still craving soup constantly! This one has been so easy to make and it would be an easy recipe to individualize! 

Ingredients:
4 cloves minced or 1/2 tbsp garlic
1/2 tbsp olive or sesame oil
1/2 an onion diced
1 cup diced carrots
4 stalks celery diced
4 cups miso soup broth (or use dry mix packages or paste and follow directions accordingly)
1 1/2 cups water or low sodium vegetable broth (optional)
1 package Shirataki noodles
1 1/2 cups kale or spinach 
1 hard boiled egg (optional)

Directions:

1. Saute the garlic and onion in oil in a large sauce pan on low-med heat until onion is clear. About 3-5 minutes. 

 2. Add carrots and celery (add more veggies if you like...maybe mushrooms!) and cook for about 5-8 minutes. 

3. Add the Miso soup broth. I bought mine at Whole Foods, but I've also used the mix packets and my husband does a great job with the paste. I also add the optional water or vegetable broth at this point because I don't like salty soup, if you want more flavor omit or add less water. Simmer the vegetables in the broth for about 10 minutes or until they reach desired texture.

 4. Open, drain, and thoroughly rinse the Shirataki Noodles. A few notes on these: I love them! Not a normal noodle because they are made from some sort of yam and soy. I think they taste best as a ramen noodle in soup but have also enjoyed them with sauce. What do I love the most about them? Low calorie, which is a plus, but I really care about the carbs! So how many carbs? 8 carbs in the whole package and 6 grams of fiber! According to my last dietician you subtract half the fiber for a total of 5 carbs in the whole package!! Compared to 40 or more in regular pasta!! T1D (type1diabetes) heaven!! The thing I don't like? They have a very unique "fish" smell. This goes away once rinsed well and keep in mind to follow package instructions if you are going to use as spagetti. 

5. Add the yummy Shirataki Noodles to the broth with your kale/spinach. Heat on low about 3 minutes until noodles are warm and greens are slightly cooked. 

6. Pour soup in a bowl, add an egg if you want some extra protein and enjoy!

My estimated carb count, for the WHOLE pot would be about 30 carbs. I get 2-3 servings from this recipe so only 10-15 carbs per serving! 

Sweet Stuff

Highlights over this week. 

Getting nails done with the family. Bright spring colors!

    

New shoes from Target! I love the white lace look, but cleaning them is going to be an adventure!! I saw a lace version of Tom's last year and loved them. These were cheaper and actually I think they are even more comfortable. I might buy another pair in a different style they are so comfy! I was so excited about these I went to 3 different Targets before I found my size, and the last pair left. Love it when that happens!

 

My longest run ever. I definitely walked the last part. Eugene Half Marathon here I come!!

 

The Chihuly sculpture at my medical office. I lingered for awhile, love it when health places have nice decor like this! Love Chihuly! 

 

Low Carb Miso Ramen I made for dinner this week. Miso broth, low carb Shirataki noodles, carrots, kale, cucumber, onion, garlic, and topped off with a hard boiled egg! Yum!

Seven Days of Dexcom

My Dexcom CGM (device that monitors my blood sugar patterns) has software where you can upload the data to your computer. Unfortunately, your computer needs to be a PC. My husband and I find ourselves in a world of nothing but Apple these days. I'm slowly going to think of a way to get a hold of a PC or Windows in order to upload eventually. If you have one I can borrow....let's talk. :) 

I wouldn't need it so bad if my receiver would show more than just the last 24 hours of blood sugars. I want to keep track of the patterns over the days

So I'm waiting for them to develop a web based system overnight just for me. In the meantime, I've been trying to remember to take a picture of my Dexcom trend graph every night so I can look at it later. Humoring my geekiness, here are my charts over a weeks time. 

Friday: A normal diabetic day. That little arrow means my blood sugar is slowly rising. I kept an eye on it.

Saturday: "Bubble tea" day. My husband and I had a craving for bubble tea and drove across town to get some. I carefully studied the nutritional facts online and made a choice based on the carb count. Turns out this did not include the tapioca balls. We could not for the life of us figure out how much was in them. I have had bubble tea a million times, but it's been awhile, and this one really shot up my sugar. Lesson learned; no more bubble tea until I figure out the carb count. I'll probably just be skipping it in the future, so not worth the almost 5 hours of high blood sugar. Well, not this time. I might change my mind on that during my next craving.

Sunday: This one shows the nasty low overnight after I finally came down from my bubble tea high ("bubble tea high" ...ya I'm chuckling too). My blood sugar was finally looking good and I fell asleep on the couch while my husband was on the computer. He woke me up letting me know my receiver was alarming and to check my blood sugar. I haven't had a high of 300 for at least two months and then on the SAME day a low of ....46, I haven't been that low in even longer. Your typical diabetes roller-coaster. I probably should have seen it coming. Seriously though, no more bubble tea.

Monday: This day was all in range and well earned! Notice the little blank space? I had to replace the sensor, it takes about 2 hours before it starts detecting blood sugars and then all set for the next 7 days after that.

Tuesday: This day was actually all in range. The dexcom was off by a little bit. For the most part I've felt like it is very close. Some days it matches almost perfectly.

Wednesday/Thursday morning: I forgot to take a picture of the Dexcom Wednesday night because that was the day our car went up in smoke and then came home to a backed up sink. When it rains it pours! So I took this Thursday morning. 

Friday: Definitely a trend of post dinner highs. I've made some adjustments already.

These graph may look a little crazy and maybe even scary to a non-diabetic. For a type 1 these are very typical and those ups and downs very normal. A non-diabetics blood sugars vary in this fashion in a smaller range throughout the day as well. 

My husband and I attended an event over the weekend where we heard another type 1 diabetic joke, "The perfect blood sugars would be a flat line...but we all know what a flat line means in the medical world." I immediately turned to my husband and said, "that's not funny". It's still not funny, but I appreciated her pointing out the impossibility of perfect blood sugar graphs.

 A zoomed in version makes it look much different. Oh, and I treated the low.