SO~ Thanksgiving went well and my girl has done a fantastic job at adjusting to life with insulin resistance! She and I made sugar-free desserts and she was able to eat foods that were low- or no- sugar, and from the day of diagnosis to Christmas, I'd say she had lost about 8 pounds!!! And all just from eliminating most of the sugar from her diet! I'm so proud of her!! And seriously folks... if you have never looked at the sugar grams of the average foods that you consume, I dare you to look! You'll be just as shocked as I was! An easy swap that we made throughout the holiday season that fooled even the kids and teachers at her school: pre-packaged sugar-free cake mix from Pillsbury! There are only two flavors of cake and just the chocolate sugar-free frosting, so we always chose the butter flavored cake and chocolate frosting. The first time I bought it and brought it home, I had the 'sister' match to it in the cabinet already - same brand, same flavor. I checked the sugar grams just for kicks and giggles... are you ready?....
19 grams of sugar per serving!!!
PER SERVING!! And be honest... you know you cut slices larger than what the suggested serving size really is - everyone does! I was flabbergasted and disappointed in myself that I had never bothered to check. Well, we had a lot of sugar-free cake/cupcakes over the holidays because it was quick, easy, and yummy! We took cupcakes to school and the kids and teachers loved them - you can't even tell it sugar-free except the frosting seems really thick, but other than that - delish!! We also took a yummy chocolate cookie recipe, made a few swaps, and PRESTO! A wonderful low-sugar cookie!
About her grades~ She immediately brought those Ds and Fs up to As and Bs, which I was SO VERY proud of her!! Sadly for her, it wasn't enough to keep her on the A-B honor roll. She made the very first C of her life on a report card... and it was one point from a B. The disappointment she felt for herself was far more than any punishment that I could have given her, so we had the ol' 'you have to try your very best all the time in order to keep your grades up' spill. She gets it.. and is trying her hardest all the time!
Christmas~ It was nice, laced with a bit of uneasiness {nothing of which I can talk about right now}. The fabulous Hannah made it wonderful for me though! She is so funny and sweet! I'd like to think we gave her a pretty awesome Christmas as well! She had been wanting a set of American Girl dolls {Felicity and Elizabeth} and they were being sent to the historical vault, so it was now or never.. so she got them and was overjoyed!! Made my day just to see her so excited!! She also wanted her own video camera... and thanks to a great deal at CVS, Santa made that happen! ;)
We did a lot of fun things this Christmas, including going to a local 'character breakfast' and that was really neat! Our favorites were Dora, Ariel, and Pochohantas and Johnn Smith. The characters all did such a wonderful job! My precious baby niece brought a whole new layer of wonderful to our Christmas this year, too!! She is such a joy!
Well... after all that, here are some photos from the holidays!
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