So I did really well during my first week of 5 for 5. I earned 22 points, though I haven't given myself my reward yet. Nevertheless, I'm pretty happy with my progress. So this week I'm changed things up a little. Here are my 5:

1. Get out of bed before 8:30. This is almost the same as last week, except I pushed up the time 1/2 an hour. I'm try to get it to 7:00. Again, I know it makes me sound incredibly lazy, but, remember, the majority of my activity occurs at night time.

2. Drink 1.5L of water. My dietician made me add this, and she was right to do so. I have to admit that this was the thing I have been struggling with the most this week. And it's what I've always struggled with. As it nears my bedtime, I'm trying to figure out how to fit in another 1/2 L of water. *sigh*

3. Wear pedometer and walk at least 3000 steps. I increased my steps a little and will definitely increase them next week. I want to make it to 10,000 eventually.

4. Take medicine on time. OK, well, I replaced the snack item with this one. I still need to keep track of the snack thing, but I decided that the medicine thing is more important right now. And I'm doing pretty well with it. EXCEPT for the day that I didn't pick up my prescription from Target until mid-afternoon and then didn't get home until almost dinner. I guess I really need to order those refills a little earlier, don't I?

5. Walk the dog. No change here.

I'm struggling a little more this week, but I'm doing OK. I think I'll make my 20 points. I'm already smelling that cute little MP3 player . . .

Do you think this bag is worth $395???

I've heard it before that diabetics are more prone to depression than the general public. However, I don't think that I've read an article that explained depression quite as well as this one.

Serious, clinical depression is extremely tough to explain to people who have never experienced it, but the bell jar metaphor posed by poet Sylvia Plath back in the 60’s strikes me as good as any: the sensation is as though there is a thin film between you and anything good in the world. My therapist calls it wearing ‘shit-colored glasses’, where nothing looks good and nothing appears worth working for.

Wow. This really hit home for me. I would never have explained it that way, but I completely understood it. Since I've been in and out of my own personal black hole lately, the timing couldn't have been any closer to perfect. And I was glad that the author was optimistic but still realistic in her article.

You can’t choose to get out of a bad depression, but you can decide to give attention to people who love you and who assure you that better days will come. You can’t cure your diabetes, but you can decide to follow your exercise, eating and drug treatment plans as best you can.

And that's what I'm choosing to do. Even though I don't feel like it and really, really, really don't want to. Thanks for writing, Ilene Raymond Rush.

I'm always looking for ideas of how to keep myself on track with my health and how to keep myself motivated. So I thought this idea from a blogger on dLife was a really cool idea. The basic concept is that you choose just five things every week to focus on for five days of that week. Every day that you reach a goal, you give yourself a point, for a possible total of 25 points per week. The author rewards herself every time she reaches 20 points per week. She also had the idea to give herself a treat when she reaches 100 points.

I love this idea so much that I decided to try it myself. Today was my first day, and I think I did pretty well. My 5 for this week are:

1) Get up by 9am. I know, I know. It sounds funny. But between the working at night, the late night phone calls, and the insomnia, this is really hard for me to accomplish.

2) Test my blood sugar twice daily. I can usually manage once a day, but twice is hard for me, for some reason.

3) Wear my pedometer and walk at least 2500 steps per day. This is a two-in-one goal. I don't really mind wearing the pedometer; I just tend to forget to put it on in the morning. As for the second part, I guess I underestimated my activity level. I thought that reaching 2500 was hard for me (though the ultimate goal should be 10,000 steps), which is why I set it so low. Now that it's the end of the day, I see that I managed to reach almost twice that today. I'll reconsider my numbers next week.

4) No unauthorized snacks! This has been my nemesis these past few weeks. I have no idea why, but all of a sudden I became ravenous and craved salt. And it lasted for nearly a month. I snacked like crazy. Today that ended, right? :)

5) Walk the dog. I need it; he needs it. 'Nuff said.

I also made a list of reward for myself when I reach 20 points per week (scrapbook supplies that have nothing to do with birthday guild), 100 points (electronics of some sort--I have a list), and 1000 points (vacation of some sort--I have a list of destinations). We'll see how long it lasts.

So far I'm doing well, but as the day went on, I thought of 4 more future goals that I could very well have had for this week. It's just a reminder of how many things I need to keep track of with this diabetes thing. *sigh* Yeah, it's not a piece of cake--or even just avoiding cake.

I'll keep you updated. If this inspires you to join me, let me know. :)

Who knew that Kate Spade made reading glasses? I sure didn't. But they sure are pretty. And pretty expensive. Maybe I'll add them to my list of "things I'll get someday when I actually have money." And, yeah, I think I do need reading glasses. I'll just have to start wearing my contacts again so that I can use the reading glasses over them. Boy, do I feel old . . .

If you know me, you know that I'm addicted to Bravo's Top Chef. Hey, it's food. It's people sniping at each other. It's arrogant, self-important foodies showing off their knowledge. What's not to love? So I was not surprised to learn that Top Chef has it's own drinking game. I was surprised, however, that I didn't know the rules. So when Chef Lee Anne Wong (from Season 1) blogged about it, I was eager to learn the game. Unfortunately, Lee Anne didn't tell us the rules, so I had to Google to find them. I managed to find them on another blog, where the blogger apparently did what I did. Tee hee. So here they are--the rules:

The Game

Break the group up into 2 teams--Judges vs. Contestants (or Cheftestants).

For the Judges, take one drink . . .

. . . whenever Padme says anything that she is totally unqualified to talk about. This usually ends up being anything that comes out of her mouth so be careful here. You might want to leave this one out of the game or you could end up passing out before the first commercial break.

. . . whenever Tom Colicchio makes a remark along the lines of “This is Top Chef not Top (whatever)”.

. . . whenever the guest judge happens to be a chef who’s probably not very well known outside of his cooking region. Take two drinks if he thinks he’s famous now that he’s a guest judge on Top Chef and feels the need to act like a jerk.

. . . whenever Gale Simmons mentions Food and Wine magazine, her real employer.

. . . whenever the guest judge is Anthony Bourdain. Take one additional drink for every pithy comment he says that the other judges are merely thinking.

. . . whenever head judge Tom Colicchio remarks about how he only cares about the food and not about whatever drama happens to be ensuing.

. . . whenever any judge asks a contestant what their inspiration was for the dish they’ve prepared.

For the Cheftestants, take one drink . . .

. . .whenever a cheftestant says something along the lines of “I don’t care if others don’t like me because I’m here to compete, not make friends”.

. . . whenever a cheftestant says they should have no problem with a particular challenge because it’s in their area of expertise. Two drinks if they fail the challenge.

. . . whenever a cheftestant attributes their poor performance to being so far away from family and friends. Two drinks when the show is filmed in Chicago and they happen to live in Chicago.

. . . whenever a cheftestant expresses concern that they’ve never had experience with an ingredient or appliance that anyone who’s worked in a restaurant should know how to use.

. . . whenever a cheftestant makes a “trio” of something. Two drinks if it’s a “duo” or “quartet”.

. . . whenever a cheftestant gets excessive with the adjectives in describing their dish. Two drinks if the adjectives sound like they came from a mid 1950’s copy of RedBook, such as “succulent”.

. . . whenever a cheftestant accuses another of stealing their ideas, style, ingredient, etc.

. . . whenever a cheftestant completely misses the entire point of the challenge. This includes, but is not limited to, the following: Serving poached lobster as your dish in a grilling challenge, creating an amuse for an entree challenge or using the featured ingredient as a garnish at best.

. . . whenever any plate garnish is purely decorative and inedible.

For both Cheftestants and Judges take one drink . . .

. . . whenever the product placement reaches obscene levels. Just like including Padme in the judges, this might be dangerous. Apply at your own risk.

. . . whenever all cheftestants express complete shock at finding out what a particular challenge will be. Two drinks if it’s completely unwarranted. “This challenge is cooking shrimp?! No!! I’ve never done that before!”

Since I don't really drink (for more than one reason), I don't know how soon I'll be playing this game. But it does sound like a lot of fun. I'll have to have a Top Chef party pretty soon. (If anyone is still reading my blog, remind me to post about my TC party idea.)

Last year I found out (I'm still not sure how) about the Great American Bake Sale. I was drawn to it immediately. Food and helping people. Unfortunately, I was unable to participate last year, but I think it would be great to try something this year. Anyone up for it???

This is Ferragamo's Varina Raffia Flat. Only $395. Is it worth it??? :)

I don't think I've ever been able to communicate effectively how frustrating it is to be diabetic. I need to stick myself in the fingers, take too many pills, and watch what I eat. It's this "watching" that can be the most frustrating. (Well, that and the fact that the media like to say things like "eating too much fat can cause you to contract diabetes." CONTRACT??? Are you freaking KIDDING me???) For one thing, most people think that diabetics can't have dessert and that we are horribly deprived because of that. For the record, a cup of rice is worse for my diabetes than a small piece of cake, and this is not the case for every diabetic.

The frustration with my inability to express what it is like to be diabetic is often helped by talking with other diabetics (my favorite message board is here) and by reading articles about diabetes. I found one great one recently. You can read it here.

To compensate for my inarticulateness (is that a word?), read the article and, if you wish, tell me your thoughts.

I got this latest Kate Spade ad in my email. I think their pictures are so striking--not always, but often. :D

Someone I met on Facebook sent me this article by Craig Ferguson on the death of his father. (Thanks, Annette!) It's a really good read, and I highly recommend it. Some of you might know that the day after Craig Ferguson's father died, he dedicated the entire hour of his show as a tribute to his father. It was beautiful and touching (and Emmy-nominated!).

My favorite part of this article was Craig's list of "5 Moments That Define a Man." Wow. Speechless.

Craig is more than just a funny guy. He's an articulate, thoughtful, sensitive man who never ceases to hold my interest.

I just wish I could meet someone like him that isn't dating a 23-year-old blonde skinny rich person . . . *sigh*

My cousin Rayri sent me a cool video via email a while ago, which led me to discover this site. Check out the video here. :)

Carmel sent me these cool pictures with this description:

Entries for an art contest at the Hirshorn Modern Art Gallery in DC. The rule was that the artist could use only one sheet of paper.

The pictures are creative and beautiful. Thanks, Carmel!

Here's an interesting interview with Jan Paulsen, President of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists. It's very informative.

Take a look at these statements from the candidates regarding U.S.-African relations.