Pre- Diabetes

Not me. My moms. 

I am so upset.  I remember when I first started to limit sugar ten years ago.  She said, "That's crazy! Everything in moderation! Why are you using full- fat salad dressing and eating real eggs every day?"

And now my relatively slim, cancer- survivor mother was given the 35-55-55 rule, which is short for how many carbs to eat at breakfast, lunch and dinner.  (Incidentally, this is about how many I eat now, except on splurge days or special occasions.)

I want to help her.  She eats healthfully, I know this...because she raised me, and I grew up eating well-- at home, anyway.  But there was a lot of bread in our house, and "healthy" cereal, and oatmeal, and crackers. These days its fresh veggies from her garden and a piece or cornbread or rice. 

I set her up with myfitnesspal and told her to track everything for awhile.  For ease, I also suggested that she pick up a couple of books:

This:

and this:

Hey, she's a researcher too. To "wing it"  by just "watching her carbs" at this point is silly. 

I'm trying not to get too frustrated, but it bothers me when people have information and don't use it. Americans will research sales on Black Friday, or a way to win a video game, or Google the Oscar- nominated movies that we missed, hunt them down on Netflix or a local theater and go watch them.  But when it comes to our health...it's whatever bullshit quickie we see on Good Morning America.

She's my Mama, so I'm watching my mouth. A "pre-diabetes" tag isn't a condition-- rather it's a set of symptoms.  SYMPTOMS THAT CAN poof! be gone BY WATCHING CARBS AND EXERCISING. Cough. 

We'll see.

The Motherland-- with my Mother

I am going back to Africa.

My first trip was New Years of 2010, which we spent in Cairo watching the sun rise over the Sphinx and the pyramids.

{top, shoes- anthro; skirt- jcrew}

This time, I am going home-- literally.  The moms and I had our DNA analyzed, and we are apparently linked to a tribe from the Sierra Leone area. (Afterward, we mourned how depressing it was that we had to PAY to get an idea about our heritage...something so many take for granted. The issue of my heritage actually came up again during DNA testing for the BRCA genes, because ancestry on dad's side is sadly undetermined after a generation or two.) Since then I have been more than curious about West Africa.  Moms is retiring this year, and vowed to take the trip with me while she is still young and pert. 

twirly, twirly

Our trip is set for next month.  In the meantime, I am a-tizzy with visas, vaccinations, and malaria pills.
{I wonder how strange it would be to go running in Accra?}
 
I fully expect that it will change my life.

If you could go anywhere in the world, where would it be?

xoxo,
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