With a bit of help from our friends......

Yes, my £100 Challenge ground shudderingly to a halt.........the reason....Lovely Hubby has been diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes.  

Luckily lots of what we had in store is still suitable for him, and me, we are in this thing together every step of the way.  Our homegrown goodies are now even more important to us.  The supermarket shop takes minutes, there are so many aisles I don't even look down.  But I decided that we didn't need the added complication of keeping tabs on the housekeeping money.  So I officially declared the Challenge over at Week 5 with £27.27 still in the kitty. 

We swept through the store cupboards getting rid of anything that was just sugary for sugars sake, 'Hundreds and Thousands', other sprinkles, strawberry syrups and the like that you drizzle over your  icecream.  If you think about it why add them anyway, simply crush some real strawberries over the top of your icecream (the low fat stuff of course) a healthy and cheaper alternative.

Of course this is no death sentence, it is a wake up call, a banner being waved at us telling us that we have to embrace our lifestyle even more, to eat natural foods and enjoy them.  Instead of chocolate bars and sugary cereals we are now on homemade flapjacks and high fibre cereals or porridge, LH takes little tubs of nuts to work to nibble on instead of sweeties.

Nothing is completely out of bounds, we just have to be sensible.  I tried to be naughty yesterday, while he was at work, I opened one of our remaining bags of white mice, ate two and felt immediately sick!!  It just shows how quickly you can re-educate your taste buds and your stomach.  A slice of birthday cake yesterday (we went to a family birthday party on Sunday) set my teeth on edge, so sweet was it's lovely iced topping.

With a bit of help from our friends (and Blog readers....thank you Jennifer you have been a star), we have been pointed in the right direction.  The picture at the top shows some of the reading material at the top of my pile, I'm starting 'The First Year - Type 2 Diabetes' today, I got it from Amazon (as usual) I've linked to the page in case any of you would like to take a peek.  I also now have a little Amazon button at the top of my sidebar, brilliant short cut it's gets me straight to my favourite place after checking my Blog.....Lol !!

Jennifer, (and our Doctor) have also pointed us to a brilliant website Diabetes UK, a brilliant place to have all your questions answered, and also lots of useful recipes for any of you who either have, or have to cook for diabetic friends or family.

Now, I'm off to sit on the patio and grab a coffee and start my book, the animals have all been fed, everything is set up for the vets visit tonight to check over the travelling pigs, the chickens are making their usual cacophany of squawks and shrieks as they lay their eggs, the dogs are barking at every passing bird or bee but I am about to switch off and take an hour for myself.  Just me, my book and a big mug of lovely coffee.

Have a good day, enjoy the sunshine if you have it, this could be Summer!!

Sue xx