"Hey, we call it LIVEabetes around here"

So one of the big changes we've been grappling with here at Northside Food Amalgamated Industries, is my husband's sudden diagnosis with Type 2 diabetes. The story is actually quite hilarious.

So, we decided to be grown ups and get life insurance policies. Part of that involves a check up to screen you for diseases. My screening came back as "fine, but lose weight". His came back as "We can't insure you unless you do something about your diabetes." Buh? We knew he had a family history of it, but we eat pretty healthy and he's lost so much weight in the last few years. (He is down to his high school weight., which means he's in better condition than when I married him. Rawr.) Mr. Northside hates doctors, so this screening was the first time he'd had any blood work done since before we got married.

So we got a copy of his blood work, and his blood sugar was obscenely high. As near as we can figure, he's been diabetic for awhile, but just wasn't showing any of the usual warning signs like thirst or lack or energy. He'd just started craving lots of sodas, so we were buying lots of Coke Zero, but that was our only sign. Thank god we got the screening, who knows how much damage could have been done before we noticed something.

Anyways, so I Googled all the terms and told him "Yup, you've got diabetes." and he told me that Wikipedia doesn't confer medical degrees and then he went to a doctor. She stuck him with a needle, checked his blood and said "Yup, diabetes." Ha ha, suck it.

So that was about 18 months ago. We've had to make big changes in how we eat every day. I don't bake nearly as often, we don't eat rice, pasta or potatoes every day and we've both given up fast food. I'm talking about it, so that those of you who followed this blog before will understand why there's a dramatic change in recipes. I will probably still post desserts and sweets, but most of what we're eating right now is vegetables and lean meats. Luckily, both of us like vegetables just as much as cake and consider well roasted broccoli to be as much of a treat as cheesecake. But it's still been a shift for us and I'll probably talk about it more in future updates.