The GI Diet Blog and Board

If there’s one thing that gets bloggers such as myself excited, its added revenue, opportunities and a chance to increase blog traffic. PerPayPost has done it again! This time they are offering a $1000 opportunity to bloggers every tuesday starting this month. WOW! That’s awesome.

Since joining PayPerPost I personally feel that I’ve become a better blogger as a result. While there’s some ads mixed inbetween my GI Diet posts, the opportunities with PayPerPost keeps me writing and excited to be blogging in a more consistent manner. I’m also happy to introduce websites that have information, services or products that might be of interest to my readers as well.

$1000 “opps” are rare folks but this is meant to be fun and exciting. If you’re a blogger just starting out, check out PayPerPost to see if adding PPP to your site is a great addition to what is already a great blog. More often than not I’m keenly interested in finding opportunities to inform my readers. You could too. I got a little chuckle reading the blog at PayPerPost when they announced this $1000 promotion encouraging all of us bloggers to knock Colleen off the throne. Colleen, another fellow blogger has done well for herself with earnings close to $10K! May we all be so lucky as to earn that much.

Good luck fellow bloggers. Let’s all have a little fun with this.

Hey, what’s the point of having a blogging without having a few friends and fans out there eh?

For as long as I’ve been surfing the net, web awards have been around. They are a measure of pride for all your hard work and passion for writing about something you’re really interest in. So these blogging awards are no different. Blogger’s Choice Awards have a ton of categories, including Best Health Blog so that’s something I’m differently interested in. In fact if you happen to see my blog listed there and enjoy it be sure to vote!

And while you’re at it, take a look at some of the other categories including Freakiest Blogger, Obnoxious Blogger, even a ‘Hottest Mommy Blogger’. But I won’t be visiting the last category anytime soon. After all, I’m a married man and I do value my life. But I’m putting the word out there to others so you can enjoy those and more.

If you have a blog, feel free to nominate yours, and don’t forget to comment and vote on others. I love visiting other blogs from time to time for inspiration, sometimes a few ideas, and get a feel for how others are writing about their experiences. So lets have a little fun. Winners will be announced on June 2nd at PostieCon in Orlando FL

My wife has asked me several times why I don’t advertise my gi diet blog to our mutual friends. Now a good portion of our mutual friends are part of a greater social network originating from the internet (hey, these are the times). Considering we both met online and currently live apart (we’re bi-nationals, she’s American, I’m Canadian), it’s not odd for us to have our friends scattered across both countries. We sometimes rely on blogging amongst each other on other sites. For the purpose of feeling free to post whatever I want to here, I won’t state which blogging site that is.

That said, yesterday one of our mutual acquaintances proceeded to post about being led into temptation with a dozen Krispy Kreme Doughnuts. My writing style isn’t stellar on here, but when he wrote that a dozen krispy kreme doughnuts just happened to ’show up’ at his apartment, I almost lost it.

In order to keep my cool (and keep any semblance of peace within our circle of buddies), I won’t respond. I refuse to. I can’t do it anymore. I will only praise and virtually hug those who post about their efforts of improvement. Not sabotage.

It really is upsetting to me, because while I understand the temptation at an intrinsic level, I don’t go about posting it to my friends in search for what???? Understanding? a pat on the back? a “there there” dear.

Have I OD’d on doughnuts in my recent past? Confession: yes. I shared a dozen with a friend of mine about 18 months ago. In total, I had 5-6 doughnuts in one sitting. The last time I had a doughnut at all was maybe 3 months ago when my wife came to visit me (our guilty pleasure is for Tim Horton’s coffee drinks and a couple of doughnuts).

I don’t have as high blood sugar as my friend here, who by his own admission consumed 8-9 Krispy Kremes in one sitting. While I’m “borderline” diabetes (glucose intolerant), I haven’t ever had a reading higher than 12 in my life (or over 215 for my american buddies). Ever.

As for my friend, among others, including a long ago ex-girlfriend of mine, they’ve had diabetic conditions as bad as nearly going blind, or blurred vision, weight gain, intense mood swings, the urge to urinate more frequent than normal, the list goes on.

Look I’m not saying that if you eat a doughnut you’re going to ruin your diet, be it for glucose or weight management.

-But try and be smart about it.
-Be aware of what your body is telling you
- Try *not* buying doughtnuts by the dozen.
- If you’re going to buy treats at all, spend the extra money and buy treats one at a time. Don’t stock up. (this is what I do. if I’m going to give in to cravings, they’re not going to be easily accessible from the pantry. I have to get off my ass and go into town)
- choose healthier options. For the purpose of us trying to follow the GI diet: - buy nuts, a bag of multigrain chips, or if you’re in the middle of a serious sweet craving, look for calorie reduced or single portion sized chocolate bars.
- Eat a healthy meal after you “fall off the wagon”
- Try a protein option for a snack. A piece of cheese, pepperoni stick. These options may not be as healthy or part of a GI diet, but it might keep you away from those crazy fat-laden carby doughnuts.

Finally, I’m not perfect either. I must insist on that. As much as I follow a GI diet, and share recipes and suggest ways to make recipes even lower GI, I still cheat. But at least these days, I try to cheat with some awareness. If I choose to have higher carbs, a high GI or GL (glycemic load), I usually offset the GL of one ingredient by making sure I have a protein mixed in.

In the case of this morning, I made french toast with 2 eggs, milk, cinnamon, and a little bit of sugar because I’ve run out of splenda. My quilty pleasure with my breakfast was light syrup, which was a mistake because as “light” as this syrup is, it wasn’t sugar free.

There’s some good that came out of reading my friend’s post, even though I will remain silent in my views. I’ve decided that when my wife and I travel this year to see our group of friends at a party, I’m going to be on my very best behaviour. I’m going to hope that our hosts will have healthy options in their buffet, stick to those healthy options only (salads, meats, multigrain bread) have maybe a little more red wine than I normally have, and lead by example.

Leading by example when it comes to friends who sabotage themselves is perhaps the best statement I can make.

On my own blog however, I can’t stop myself from leaving this opinionated rant. I won’t.

It was 1994 when I first made the jump from online modem-to-modem services the likes of AOL and CompuServe to the latest craze: The Internet. It was a pivotal year when internet became truly global as more and more companies started offering internet services to the masses. It was no longer just about getting an email account, or researching for something online at your college or university library. It was about getting connected.

Blogging has become a staple in our internet environment. Although I’ve been blogging for 4 years, it’s only been the last few years where I found my passion, my voice in this endeavor. Now, I’m seriously not one to tout my own horn. However the more I wrote about my weight loss goals and successes on my personal blog (located on another site) the more my friends were inspired by my posts.

I didn’t really start blogging about my weight loss to be an inspiration. I mean sure, it was in the back of my mind that maybe I can help someone in my circumstances but more than anything I wanted to be accountable, seek out support of my friends and generally connect with other people facing the same choices I am.

I’ve since moved my story over to this blog to talk more indepth about my weight loss and the glycemic index. In other words, I found my voice.

In June of this year, there’s going to be a conference on blogging in Orlando, Florida. This sounds like an amazing opportunity if you’re curious about blogging and how to write about whatever topic you’re passionate about. I’m amused about their Rock Star theme to this conference because it’s so true: when you speak up, when you spread the word, you can invoke the passions of others to start doing the same thing. To date, I’ve had feedback from at least half a dozen friends of mine say that they started a healthier lifestyle just from reading my personal blog.

So if you’re a blogger or curious about what it’s like, and why people are doing it you might want to take a look at what this conference has to offer.

Be a Rock Star! As odd at it seems to me, I’ve become one within my little network. Maybe you can be one too.