Email! I get Email!

Found this in my inbox this morning:

Hi Dana,

I've been using your awesome cookbooks for years and I just today discovered your blog. I also just today found out that my cholesterol is out of control for the first time in my 52 years. I'm sure it would have happened sooner had I not been leading a low-carb life. But my husband was diagnosed with throat cancer last November ~ and all of my eating rules went right out the window. Who has time to cook meat when you're going to daily chemo and radiation treatments, working full time, managing the household, and taking care of your sick husband? Warm up a bowl of brown rice and call it dinner. Thank God I didn't get fat on the outside, but my blood got all fat on the inside.

So - my doctor in her infinite wisdom did not send me a prescription for some nasty ass drug. She said "change your diet and exercise and come back in 60 days." Now that's what I'm talking about.

So - I am on a serious mission to prove that lowering cholesterol through a low fat diet is a lie. And I'll be using your blog every day to help keep me focused and motivated. Proving them wrong is more motivation that how great I'll look and feel when I'm done!

Thank you - and I'll let you know how it goes!

Debi

This, folks, is the stuff that keeps me going. Welcome back to the Wonderful World of Low Carb, Debi. I think you'll find it actually reduces your stress. After all, when you're dealing with something this difficult, who needs crazy blood sugar swings? Dealing with a crisis with steady blood sugar is like fighting a flood while standing on solid bedrock instead of shifting sand. You're still fighting the flood, but at least you've got your feet under you, and something firm to stand on.

A couple of suggestions for easy food: Make a roast or a double-sized meat loaf when you have a free few hours, then stash it in the fridge. It's just as easy to warm up meat as it is to warm up rice. Soup is another good choice, though with the warm weather coming it's not as seasonal a choice.

And my favorite food in a crisis is eggs. Eggs, eggs, eggs. Takes five minutes to fry eggs. I can make an omelet in 3, as I happen to know, 'cause I've done it in that time slot on television. (Though, to be honest, I had the guacamole made and the cheese shredded ahead of time.) Keep hard-boiled eggs in the fridge, too, as grab-and-go protein. Episode 14 of my podcast, due to go up in the next 24 hours, has my hard-boiled egg technique detailed in it.

With the hot weather coming on, consider smoothies. They go down easy when real food seems too much to face. Too, you can whip one up, put it in a car cup, and head off to the hospital or work or wherever else you need to go.

Hope this all helps. And I very much hope your husband is okay. I know the whole community is pulling for him, and for you.