What to eat... Cracking the carb code

Finally, shorts weather! 76 today, 89 tomorrow.

With my condition, I do have to be careful about what I eat as a diabetic keeping my blood sugar level. Aside from the standard 2000-calorie nutritional guidelines, I wasn't given any specific rules or diet, nor I was not told I could not eat red meat.

My wife wanted to try a probiotic diet, which basically is a bunch of dairy-type foods like kefir and kombucha that essentially taste like different kinds of puke. Not happening. I am told there are pills for this, so I will take them instead.

Next is the ketogenic diet. I am incorporating some foods from this diet, like guacamole and nuts. Sadly, most of us are not seafood and fish eaters here, and a lot of seafood is full of polluted ocean water.

First of all, it's important to stay hydrated. I was told 64 oz. per day minimum. I have my water bottle by my side at all times. I am told caffienated drinks don't hydrate. An added benefit is that many restaurants don't charge you for ice water.

Soda, pop, Coke depending where you are located: I miss it, but avoid it like the plague. It is full of sugar and chemicals, and no one, diabetic or not, should drink it. Diet soda takes away the sugar, but is still full of artificial sweetener and other chemicals, and just doesn't taste that good.

What I am thinking the secret is to get foods with zero carbs, and foods with moderate carbs and high fiber. Fiber slows down the digestion process, delaying the delivery of blood sugar. Organic and natural ingredients make a huge difference. Target has a decent selection of organic items, but the best place to shop is Trader Joe's. Any product with the Trader Joe's name on it has all-natural ingredients. Their salsas, bean dips, guilt-reduced guacamole made with Greek yogurt are all delicious and reasonably priced. I am trying to avoid processed foods altogether. If the ingredient list reads like a chemistry set, I don't buy it. Also, any homemade food is preferable to a processed or frozen food, but even Trader Joe's frozen foods have no preservatives or crap in them.

Wegmans has some good stuff, but too many rude, entitled people crowd the store, cut you off and give you dirty looks.

What still kills me the most is limiting my pasta consumption, although Liam doesn't like pasta much either. At least a reasonable amount of whole wheat pasta is edible for me.

At Weis, I literally did what health coaches told me to do and walk around the outside of the store. I got a lot of healthy food. Also, we sampled a lot of local businesses' foods at our local grocery store, and ended up buying them, specifically nitrite- and nitrate-free uncured sausage and bacon.

Also, as much as I loved everyone's food, it is nice to have control of my kitchen again.