Bagels on Friday!
Dear Friday Bagels,
I know you don't mean any harm. You're brought in by a fabulous office manager, all warm and tastefully arranged on a plastic platter in the kitchen. Egg bagels, pumpernickel, whole grain, poppy seed ... and the ultimate: everything bagel.
You are round and soft, anchored on either side by cream cheese and butter. You call to me as I sit at my desk:
"Kerri ... hey! Come over and maybe have a half?"
But Friday Bagels, you are not my friend.
Over the years, you and your bagel counterparts have gone from a more diminutive 40 grams of carbohydrate apiece to a whopping 80 plus grams. When I was a kid, my mom used to make mini pizzas on the smaller bagels.
Now, a bagel pizza is about the same carb count as a "real" pizza. And if I partake in Friday Bagely goodness, I'm dancing in the danger zone of high blood sugar.
Ugh. No thank you.
Friday Bagels, I've ignored you for weeks now. I get my coffee and walk past you, trying not to make eye contact with the lot of you. I stir some organic sweetener into my coffee while I think about your carby goodness, and then I basically have to run back to my desk to get you out of my mind. And by 10:30 am, when all but one stale 1/4 of a bagel remains, I can finally breath easy again.
Until the next Friday.
Friday Bagels, I am petitioning to have you replaced with a fruit platter. Or maybe just kept under lock and key until I find my will power each day.
Best,
Kerri.
I so do hear you there, Kerri! Breads are my downfall -- artisan breads and bagels worst of all! And worst about bagels is they don't even pretend to use whole grains... *sigh*... bagels with cream cheese and lox... And I don't have the option of "covering it with extra insulin"...
I too work in a great office with bagels and lox on Fridays. I eat them and always feel guilty. I love bagels... I just can't seem to walk by them... Any suggestions
Deb904,
You want suggestions about your not being able to walk by those delicious bagels at work on Fridays?
Well, I can't help you too terribly much there, but somehow I don't think "walking by them" is the issue here. Walking is good exercise and if you walk by the bagels, and keep going, there's no problem. :-) (That was an attempt at humor.)
My employer also provides Friday bagels. Because I have type 1 diabetes, I just take the appropriate amount of insulin for the bagel. Not that I feel so wonderful for a few hours afterward, but then again, any time I eat too many carbs or breads or deep-fried foods or... you get the idea... I don't feel so good... and that's my own initiative to take it easy. :-)
Type 2 is a different story. It's not like one should just take a little more of an oral medication just because they ate a high-carb bagel. For different reasons, type 2 in some ways is in fact more of a challenge to manage.
I can't tell you what you need to do, because I'm not a medical professional and besides, those bagels call my name from the break room clear across the office space to my desk -- I tried ear plugs, but they don't work. I still hear the call. But, I can very confidently say that if you eat half of a bagel, you only need worry about half the effect it would have on your diabetes. :-)
Seriously, find out how you could incorporate a bagel into your diet plan, and this is something a nutritionist could help you with. You CAN have that bagel, though it has some powerful carbs to deal with if you eat the whole thing at once, which in my meal plan would equate to four or five bread exchanges at a time (that's a lot at one time!). Just know how it fits within your meal plan. With the proper knowledge and use of it thereof, forget about the "guilt" which never did anyone any good. You'll figure it out, how to get what you want and not pay the consequences. Where there's will, there's a way.
Much respect,
Dantony C.
Hi:
Never eat bagels. I am a type 2 and I watch the TV show. I've managing and learning about this crummy thing called diabetes for 12 years now. But I no longer feel sorry for myself. I've fought it tooth and nail all the way and I'm beating it. We need good work on the emotional side effects of diabetes. All the type 2's I know suffer from depression.
I just put up a website and have decided to get very involved in the diabetes community. I am a freelancer but my disdain for diabetes has kept me away from writing about. But it is time to engage the beast head on!www.beatingdiabetes4u.com I linked to this site as well.
Bagels on Friday only, would be easy for me to avoid. Where I work in South Philly, there are Philly soft pretzels available somewhere in this building at least 4 out of 5 days a week.