The week between Christmas and New Year’s Day is the perfect time to reflect on where we’ve been and where we want to be.  Take a few minutes and look in the rear view mirror.  Make a list of what you wanted to do this year but didn’t.  Then make another list of what the barriers were.  Be honest with yourself.

Now let’s start fresh and make a commitment to write down what you want to achieve in 2011.  Find some pictures that illustrate what you want to happen.  Visualization of your goals can be a powerful tool .  Make a commitment to look at your goal list at least once a week and make weekly lists of what you need to do to complete your new achievements.

Start with a fresh mindset and “act as though it is true”.

If your 2011 goal is to finally get your A1C below 7%, then ACT AS THOUGH IT IS ALREADY BELOW 7%.    Take the actions you need to take to get it below 7%.  I’m here to help you achieve your goals.  Now get out some paper and a pen and let ‘s get to work!

To your perfect health!

Nancy Heinrich

The Healthy Diabetes Coach

Someone in your family may have been recently laid off.  There is not enough money coming in to pay the bills.  Friends are coming around with gifts of homemade cookies.  It’s colder than usual outside and you are skipping all your normal exercise.

Your blood sugar levels are higher than they usually are.  And climbing.  This is the formula for trouble.  It is also an opportunity to seize.

Stress increases your blood sugar. It’s time to activate your support system.  Call your accountability partner RIGHT NOW and talk about it.  Get help.  Don’t go it alone.  Christmas is a holiday that brings its own set of joy and stress.  If you have diabetes, the stress can be lethal.

Let’s celebrate this special time of year with our family and friends.  My recipe for Christmas Cranberry Muffins is my gift to you!

HEALTHY COOKING WITH THE HEALTHY DIABETES COACH  Christmas Cranberry Muffins*

Mix DRY ingredients together in a large bowl:

• 1 cup plus ½ cup brown rice flour
• ¾ cup Splenda
• 1 Tablespoon baking powder
• Pinch of salt
• 2 Tablespoons ground flax seed

Mix WET ingredients together in a small bowl:

• 1 cup skim milk
• 1/3 cup canola oil
• 1 egg

Pour WET ingredients into bowl with DRY ingredients, stir till mixed.

Stir in:

• 1 cup craisins (dried cranberries)
• ½ cup chopped walnuts
• ½ cup shredded coconut (optional)

Spray muffin pans with Pam, fill halfway with muffin batter.

Bake at 375 degrees for about 15 minutes.

Makes about 12 muffins.

*These muffins are great ANYTIME of the year, not just Christmas!

NOTES FROM NANCY: Whole grain flours like brown rice flour contain dietary fiber.  Most people eat less than half the dietary fiber they need.  Aim for at least 28 grams of dietary fiber a day.

Walnuts and flax seed are great sources of unsaturated fats (the GOOD kind of fat).

This is a GLUTEN-FREE recipe.

For more healthy cooking ideas, check out www.HealthyDiabetesCoach.com/coaching.

A recent article in Diabetes Focus, the health communication publication distributed by Publix Supermarkets, included an article called, “Sweet Scale?”  about the so-called Glycemic Index.  I get a lot of questions about the glycemic index in educational programs I teach throughout Florida and the United States.  What is this glycemic index?  Is it a useful tool if you have diabetes?

Let’s start with the facts.  The glycemic index refers to a database of numbers maintained by the Human Nutrition Unit within the School of Molecular and Microbial Biosciences at the University of Sydney in Australia.  Down Under they rate carbohydrates on a scale of 0 to 100 by their value of pure glucose.   The higher the number, the faster and longer 50 grams of carbohydrates in a given food will raise your blood sugar levels.  Of course, this raises the question of what exactly is 50 grams of carbs, but that is for another discussion.

I like what certified diabetes educator Christine Gerbstadt, M.D., R.D., spokesperson for American Dietetic Association (ADA) says about the glycemic index.  According to Dr. Gerbstadt, “There are pros and cons to the GI.  The most significant pro is that for a person with diabetes, if it is used correctly, it can help improve glucose control.  But you have to be willing to learn how to use the index so that you take into account differences in how a food is cooked, what is eaten in a whole meal and how your own body responds.  Then it can be very beneficial.”

The fact is each of us is unique and different from the person standing next to us.  What works for you to control your daily blood sugars may not work for your husband or your cousin.  From my experience working with people who have diabetes, for a select few people who cannot keep their daily sugars within their targets, avoiding or at least limiting foods that are considered high (70 or higher) on the Glycemic Index scale can really help them stay on track.  We all have “trigger” foods that either trigger us to overeat or trigger our blood sugars to go way too high.

If you , your doctor, and your healthy diabetes coach have not been able to pinpoint why your blood sugars are always over 200, then a lesson on the glycemic index of your favorite foods may just be the solution you’ve been looking for…

To learn more about controlling YOUR diabetes, check out the Healthy Diabetes Coach program.

Diabetes has many complications.  Diabetes is where there is too much sugar in the blood.  Poor blood sugar control can trigger nerve disease.  Whether you are 18 years old and just got found out you have diabetes because you are overweight, or are 70 years old and have had diabetes for ten years, poor blood sugar control can trigger nerve disease, also called neuropathy.

There are 3 main types of neuropathy (peripheral, focal, and autonomic) which affect people with diabetes.     Peripheral neuropathy is the type most people have heard of.  It can cause pain, tingling, weakness, or the loss of feeling in the legs, feet, toes, arms, hands, or fingers.   Peripheral neuropathy is what most people have heard about because the drug companies want you to know they can help alleviate some of the symptoms (but not the cause).  Focal neuropathy can come on rapidly and can also clear up.    Autonomic neuropathy affects what doesn’t require conscious thought.  It affects your digestion, sexual function, and bladder control.  There is something called gastroparesis, which is caused by damage to the nerves which control what happens to your food and how long food stays in your stomach before it moves into your small intestine.  This affects 5-12% of people with diabetes.  It’s also what you won’t hear much about from doctors and drug companies.

Poor blood sugar control triggers neuropathy, no matter what your age and no matter how long you have had diabetes.   If your blood sugars are always over 200, what are you waiting for?

Let’s get to work.  Preventing diabetes complications requires taking action.  Like learning what to eat and how certain types of foods raise your blood sugar more than others.  If your doctor is not talking with you about what neuropathy will do to you, then I recommend 2 things:  start interviewing doctors who will help you prevent neuropathy and start learning today about how to control your blood sugar.

I’m working to develop simple to use educational tools for you.  My belief is that if you have diabetes – or prediabetes – it’s easy to do the right thing when you know what to do.  To learn what to do, check out our groundbreaking course.

Thanksgiving Day.….

A day to give thanks for all that we have in our lives.  A day to give thanks for our family and friends.   A day to share our abundance with others.  A day to enjoy old and new traditions.

As you sit down to your Thanksgiving meal today, give thanks for living in a country where children can play outside without fear.  Give thanks for the choices we have every day.  Be thankful for having choices to make about what to eat.  Be thankful for the abundance in your life – friends, laughter, clean water.  Enjoy the simplicity of listening to your own breath while sitting quietly watching the cardinals in the back yard or the leaves falling from the trees.

I am thankful for so many things this year.  Let’s enjoy this day with family and friends.  As you sit down to your healthy feast today, remember to say a prayer for our American soldiers as they protect our freedom away from their own family and friends today.

My Thanksgiving Day healthy eating tip to you is this:  choose to eat small servings of your favorite dishes, including the carbohydrates like dressing, cranberry sauce, dinner rolls, and pie, instead of big servings.  If you want seconds, have them a couple of hours later, so you spread out the carbohydrates  throughout the day.  If it is not snowing where you are today, then start a new Thanksgiving Day tradition and take a family walk after dinner and before dessert.  The extra exercise will help balance out the extra carbs you’ll be eating today.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!