Hello! I've been behind on posts for weeks and have been catching up in batches, but it wasn't until today that I finally got to the end.

Speaking of midwest winters, today I looked at the Christmas weekend forecast for the Detroit area and pulled my puffy, sleeping-bag-with-arms coat out of the back closet, like an ancient soldier picking up the sword he'd laid down lo those many years ago. It's looking a tad brisk.

Yeah, I flew into Michigan on the 16th and I'm glad I'm not going anywhere for a while with the frigid temperatures and winter storm predictions.

The good: my Christmas shopping is done and presents are wrapped, my Yuletide story was posted ahead of the deadline, and I have approximately 1 1/2 days of work left this year.

The less good: went to my physical after Thanksgiving and my A1C levels are higher than they should be, so I've been trying to step up on exercise and different food choices to see if that helps. Also the previous 3 months before my physical were incredibly stressful what with the election, so I'm going back to my doctor in Jan to discuss options. Pretty sure the weekly diabetes med injections she mentioned I could be a candidate for are in short supply because everyone's getting their doctors to prescribe them for weight loss.

I'm struggling a little to eat the way I want to at my parents' house, even though my family has been on a keto kick for a while. We had keto lasagna last night, and just... no. No, thank you.

Stress can absolutely contribute to diabetes issues. Husband's pretty sure a terrible job he had is what kicked him over from pre-diabetes to actual diabetes.

Huh. There is further reorganization in my department. May or may not affect me. And our VP had something more to tell us today but he lost his voice so that will wait until later. Whee.

Still nothing from Toddson? I was trying to search the thread for the last time she posted, but I'm not getting consistent results from the thread search so I'm not sure.

Husband's pretty sure a terrible job he had is what kicked him over from pre-diabetes to actual diabetes.

Ugh.

I'm still pre-diabetes and working on reducing stress (ha ha *waves hand at the entire world*), but with that in mind, perhaps I need to start thinking about role transfers or exit plans before the 2024 election cycle.

I'm struggling a little to eat the way I want to at my parents' house, even though my family has been on a keto kick for a while. We had keto lasagna last night, and just... no. No, thank you.

That can be challenging. I'm not sure I want to know what keto lasagna is. When I was low carbing it, I'd make taco seasoned ground beef, add cheese and sour cream, and eat it with a spoon. It was delicious, but I wouldn't call it a keto taco. I never bothered looking for low-carb taco shells, as I figured they'd be cardboardy sadness.

There is further reorganization in my department.

I hope it works out in your favor, -t, whatever it turns out to be.

I'm not sure I want to know what keto lasagna is.

I know my mom sometimes makes lasagna with sliced zucchini instead of noodles, but it's always a case of "no lasagna noodles in the pantry but I have a lot of zucchini" than avoiding carbs. It tastes basically like a regular lasagna, but I miss the texture of the pasta.

I'm not sure I want to know what keto lasagna is.

This recipe replaces the noodles with sliced lunch meat instead of something like zucchini, or literally any vegetable aside from tomato sauce. Because vegetables have carbs, you see.

I'm fine with reducing carbs, but for me, keto is too restrictive to eat that way long-term.

This recipe replaces the noodles with sliced lunch meat instead of something like zucchini

I feel like this *might* work (taste-wise) with sliced gyro meat. Now that I think about it, I *really* want to try that.

This recipe replaces the noodles with sliced lunch meat

I'm making a confused face.

Any time I look at a diet like that, or the low tyramine diet my neuro suggested, I want to cry. Give up all aged cheeses?