When's the Last Time you made SUGAR COOKIES?

I spent the first 4 of my fifteen years as a diabetic (AT LEAST!) avoiding sugar. Remember learning to eat as a diabetic on two shots daily and the food exchange system? Remember how the sugar free substitute was always deemed the better choice? Well, old habits do die hard.

I started on the carb counting regime personally before my doctor even knew the term. The thing is, if you are 16 and you "cheat" on your exchanges, you figure out pretty quickly what happens if you don't take additional insulin for that food you just ate.

My parents NEVER hovered over my blood sugars. They pretty much let me take and hold the reins from day one. I was always in charge of what I ate and when, although my experienced mother was always available to answer questions if I had them. She always told me (maybe not exactly in these words) that I was the one that had to live with the diabetes and so I had to learn how to eat, how to exercise, and how to work with my doctors. She showed me so much by example. I swear, I watched my mom eat the same thing for breakfast for, well, my entire childhood! Raisain bran, two equals, and 1/2 c of milk (She even set the measuring cups in the bowl w/ the two equal packets out the night before! I wonder if she did that to counter any temptation she might have had in the morning to have something less tried and true...)

Ive moved on in the past five years to a much different eating style. Rather than focussing on avoiding the sweets (hello cravings!) Im focussing on the types of foods I am eating. I have shifted my focus from artificial sweeteners (and loads of diet coke) to natural sweeteners and whole foods.....I just never realized that things like soy grits and quinoa could be tasty, and something like cooking doesn't have to center on "diet" or "diabetic" food but can have more of a focus on natural food with whole flavors, where you can really TASTE what you are eating.....

We have also been truly blessed with new advances these past years. This fast acting insulin is a breeze...no more four hours for a PP sugar that is meaningful (unless you are on symlin that is, but that is another story!), No more taking insulin an hour before you eat just to try and avoid that PP high and mighty! Some of us even have pumps that help us take insulin with much less pain (no injection) for every little bite that passes our lips. We are better equipped to eat much better, with more flavor, and less negative effect on our sugars than ever before!

But.....

There is always that time for the occasional indulgence. And there are those memories I carry with me of being a child, making cookies with my mom, and how much darn fun it was to lick the bowl! So diabetes be damned (well not really, but in theory)! We made sugar cookies today!

Just that fact that they are not only cookies but SUGAR cookies makes the entire thing so satisfying....so 4 sheets of sugar cookies baked, and 2 cookies in my tummy later (1 hr PP sugar = 185, and this is without symlin!) I feel as though my life is complete....complete with my indulgences, complete with my whole foods, and complete with making yet another memory with my darling babies.