Lovely to have you for a friend.

Banana Bread
4 bananas
2 eggs
1/2 cup wheatgerm
1 cup oatmeal
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil (this makes the cake I bit oily for me, try 1.4 cup)
1/2 cup splenda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp each cinammon and nutmeg
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 375 degrees
Beat eggs in large bowl
mash bananas in another bowl and add to eggs
Add remaining ingredients and mix well
Spray loaf tin 4" x 8" and add cake mixture
Bake 40 to 45 mins.
Makes a moist crumbly cake.

Gail,
Did you change your diet/exercise program before going on medformin or did it natually get worse?

Hi Gail, I see you are also quite new to this forum. I'm only diagnosed a year so can't really say if I'm doing anything right or wrong - you were 5 years on diet and exercise. I'm a vegetarian and when diagnosed was normal weight and BMI, someone said it would have been better if I had have been an overweight person who ate all the wrong things and didn't exercise as there would have been a lot of things to change e.g. diet, lose weight, exercise, eat more healthily. As it was my GP told me uncategorically that I would not be able to control it with diet and exercise and would have to be put on medication.

I was also fed the eat plenty of carbs - just eat healthily. I read about the low carb diets but it looked just a bit too hard for a vegetarian to do (before anyone chips in - I know there are a lot of vegetarians and vegans doing low carb - but I don't think it is for me yet, plus they eat a lot of food that I don't like. So I looked around and came across David Mendosa's site www.mendosa.com which talks about the Low Glycemic Index/Low Glycemic Load of foods, so I gradually started adapting to this diet, I bought some cook books but haven't cooked anything out of them, I just adapted my own eating habits to include more low GI/GL food and less high carb foods.

As for exercise, I started walking, was very sporadic at the start but now do between 3 to 6 miles - 5 or 6 days a week weather permitting. I walk pretty quickly too otherwise it won't be doing me much good. I know I have other things to change in my lifestyle that will help.

The ironic thing is that I stopped smoking 2 years age, stopped adding salt to food 1.5 years ago, stopped adding sugar at the same time and for my efforts ------ I was diagnosed with diabetes.

I've just been placed on ACE inhibitors for high blood pressure (which I am not happy about). I was using a system called Breatheasy which is pretty much similar to the Resperate system without the machine and it was helping, then I got lazy and stopped and now am on tablets. I also have 6 months to get my cholesterol below 4, it is coming down slowly.

So, that's me in a nutshell Gail. What exercise and diet were you using? Did anything alter in the five years which may have caused an increase in blood glucose? Ask me any questions you want - we're virtual friends now!

Ziggy

Hi Gail!
Thanks for the add. "See" you in the workout check in!

HAPPY EASTER!

Canada hugh? Wow! No wonder you don't have spring yet! I'll try to send it up your way! Thanks for the comment on my poem!!