Happy New Year!!!

Okay, I'm a couple of days late - but what the hell...

We celebrated NYE one night early by going to one of Roger's Hippie DeadHead Shows: Bob Weir and Rat Dog; and Phil Lesh and Friends at Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in downtown San Francisco.

We hooked up with a couple of Roger's old DeadHead Friends and had a good time. I was still sniffling and coughing up a storm - but did manage to catch a contact high (to be honest, it was kind of unavoidable!!! The pot-smoke haze was incredible!!!)

The show was good. Roger had a blast. I hung-in there... Honestly, The Dead really *isn't* my thing. But since Rog has been so accommodating in converting over to Parrothead Status, I kinda feel obligated to play along, right?!

It was wise to do that the night before New Years, though. The drive up to SanFran is pretty harrowing on a good day! To tackle that on New Years' would be damn-near suicidal (although we've done it in years' past...)

NYE, we stayed home and watched some Gawd-Awful Fox Network Ring-In-The-New-Year in Vegas featuring some American Idol dude, some brief glimpses of Cirque du Soleil, and the highlight of the evening was "Kaptain" Robbie Knievel jumping the volcano at the Mirage.

The host of this debacle was Mark Thompson who attempted to drum-up Anticipation and Enthusiasm by, essentially, YELLING at the camera non-stop. For once, I found myself actually looking forward to the commercials (of which there were many).

About halfway through the program, my Tourette's started to kick in and I found myself yelling back at the TV "Shut the F**k Up!!!"

Honestly, it was sooooo bad - it was actually amusing. And yeah, we *did* have the Power of the Remote and could have easily changed channels. But it was sooo bad, it was kinda like wanting to slow down and look for carnage when passing a traffic accident!

Still, when it was all said and done, I almost regretted springing for a GOOD bottle of champagne. This occasion really did call for something more along the lines of André!

Actually, I didn't regret buying the Good Stuff - because I saved myself from a raging hangover!

So us Old Geezers managed to stay up past midnight. Toasted the New Year. Continued watching FOX until we saw Robbie successfully jump the volcano - then called it a night!

* * * * *

Warning: Health/Diabetes Ramblings Follow - so if this isn't your cup o' tea, "Move along... Nothin' to see here!"

Now we're a couple of days into the New Year. I did reflect, a bit, on 2008 and all the changes I've gone through (including - GASP - "Getting Old!"). Actually, with the Diabetes Diagnosis and all the pure hell I went through, I pretty much "lost" a year of my life - which really sucks! But along with the reflecting, I had to admit that I feel a whole HELLUVA lot better than I did one year ago. Especially when you consider that I spent the night in the ER on December 26-27, 08. And I was a Complete and Total Zombie until Mid-August '08 (Yes, it took THAT long to *start* to get things under control!).

So I'm certainly off to a better start, this year!

I've never been big into New Years' Resolutions. I kinda figure if you want to do something GOOD for yourself, you don't need to link it to a specific date, right? In fact, "forcing" change like that is almost certainly doomed to failure (but that's just the cynic in me!). Nevertheless, I acknowledge that my health has definitely improved over last-year-at-this-time. But I also acknowledge that thru the process of trying to get my diabetes under control, the pharmaceutical "experiments" my doctors were "practicing" on me - really did wreak havoc on my weight. I mean, it's really, really BAD!!!

So, that said, I've decided to attempt Militant Low-Carbing again. And since I'm NOT calling it a New Year's Resolution, I decided to START it today :-)

I did soooooo well on Atkins back in 1998. I won't delude myself into thinking I'll see the same "Dramatic" results I'd experienced the first time (90# lost in 1 yr - and kept it off for 3 yrs). But I really need to do SOMETHING!

I do have my BG#'s mostly under control now. The Humulin R U500 is working like a CHARM. Of course, I'm taking massive doses (75u/day which is equivalent to 375u of "normal" insulin). I had also been taking Novolog (appx 60-100u/day - on TOP of the Humulin) (Yes, sometimes I was taking close to 500 units of insulin a day - No Sh*t!!!). I'd take that to "cover" meals. Carbs, mostly. But I strongly suspect that the Carbs + Novolog were worsening the weight situation. So now I've cut back the carbs significantly and I'm finding I don't need the Novolog (except on rare occasions - like if I choose to eat like a normal person!).

Sooooooo.... Here goes! I'm starting on Atkins Induction Phase - "Old Style" (meaning I prepare ALL my own meals and don't buy any of that faux Low-Carb krep - including Atkins Bars/Shakes/Yada-Yada). Oh, and I'm back to logging all of my meals in my PDA so I can keep close-track of EVERYTHING.

Today, I consumed 20g of carbs (Total) and I'm feeling pretty Slow-Mo. I am determined to stick with it for two weeks and GAWD-I-HOPE-I-SEE-SOME-RESULTS!!!

I'm not sure if I'll weigh myself in the interim - or if I'll wait 'til the end of 2 weeks (I should *probably* choose the latter!).

Anyway, I'm keeping my fingers crossed. I gotta tellya, though - it was a helluva lot easier to do Atkins when I lived alone! This house has waaaaaaay too many illegal foods in it (but DH is a Carbo-holic, unfortunately!)

I'll keep you posted!