Chocolates, Sweets and Alternatives

I really must go tomorrow or Thursday, and quit stalling, for my blood test. I have been stalling for a few weeks since my primary care guy ordered it. See, I gave up chocolate for Lent and I still have a few days to go. But I did not give up sweets.

So, I've been dealing with my chocolate withdrawal with Brach's jelly beans, little mini-go-cups of Golden Oreos, and stuff like that. 

There are alternatives but I was ignoring them. I fell back into bad habits again. For about a year and a half after my live-in nephew died, I developed some great eating habits. I've stuffed my upright freezer with great slow cooker meals. And I chose fresh fruits and veggies over candy and cookies - most of the time. Now, it's the reverse. Most of the time, I've been eating the candy and cookies.

So, I need to do this and get it over with. The sugar test covers a three-month average so there's no way I can stall that long with him.

Meanwhile, I once again began stocking the healthier choices. I love red beets and discovered they help high blood pressure. They are also delightfully sweet and I love chopping a can of sliced beets and tossing that into a recycled peanut butter jar and into the fridge. Then I take a heaping tablespoon or two and drop that into a 1/2 cup of non-fat yogurt - that really is sweet and yummy.

The thing with eating sweets in the form of fresh fruits and veggies is that, yes, they contain sugars. But those sugars are natural and they metabolize at a different rate than cookies or candies do. Along the way, chewing those foods is far more satisfying with a smaller amount than you'd expect.

Today, I cut up a cantaloupe into bite size chunks and put that into the fridge, too.

I made out really well last week. On Saturday, I hit the 99-cent Only store. For $13.99, I got: 6 oranges; a pound of small but solid yams; cauliflower; cantaloupe, mushrooms; dried cranberries; raisins; bag of small avocados; 2 cans sliced beets; pound of large strawberries; 2 boxes of Fiddle Faddle (sigh); a bag of trimmed radishes, and a bag of celery hearts.

The oranges didn't look pretty but they were solid and a decent size. They turned out great - juicy and sweet. I use the mushrooms in my daily omelets (1 egg, scrambled and poured over a base of thin sliced raw sweet potatoes, and whatever else I have around). The cranberries and raisins I use in my every-other-day whole grain hot oatmeal. I'll wash and cut the radishes into quarters and eat them as a side or a munchie off and on with bite-size cucumber pieces.

So, I've got stuff in again. And I am hoping it is not too bad a test result this week. I don't want to have it any higher than the last one - if it doesn't rise at all, in any category (sugar, cholesterol, tri's), he won't push for meds, which I am trying to avoid beginning.

Oh, and this morning, I took some defrosted chicken leg quarters, cut them in half, and tossed them into the slow cooker. I had half a bottle of bbq sauce in the fridge and tossed that on top. I'll package them as one-serving main meats into my freezer before I go to bed.

I'm trying to do right, but Lord knows (and yep, He knows) I'm only mortal and only human and I truly, truly do love my sweets and do love my food.

I'll just keep on trying. When we fall down, it's no shame so long as we get back up and keep trying, I figure.