Each fall, The Tinker and I go to our GP and get an annual physical that includes some blood work. This is part of my company’s emphasis on preventative health care (and they offer us a sizeable discount on our health care premiums for completing a few simple tasks like the annual check-up).

The Tinker and I are well aware of the fact that we are both on the Santa-side of chubby, but it still came as a bit of a shock with the doc informed The Tinker that he is pre-diabetic, closing in on the full thing. His blood sugar has been at the high side of normal for the past few checks, and this year it sailed right on by – and so did his follow up lab.

So, weight loss and a pre-diabetic focus on our food are definitely in order. Oh, heck, it’s well overdue, but the blood tests have finally called our self-denial bluff.

I have some knowledge of “diets” having been on a zillion of them over the years, but I’m determined to make this more of a lifestyle change than a deprivation period. This means these old dogs need to learn some new tricks, starting now.

• New trick #1 – Meal Planning. Following my sister Carol’s lead, I need to meal plan so that we aren’t just sticking a frozen pizza in the oven at night because there’s nothing quick and easy in the house, with no forethought having been given (because there’s always a frozen pizza in the freezer).
  

  Um, the freezer needs a makeover in 2017.

• New trick #2 – Shopping. I need to shop differently, with an eye toward low-fat, high fiber foods and avoiding highly processed, sugary and fatty things (like frozen pizza).
• New trick #3 – Cooking. Can’t use the quick-and-easy method of meal prep (frozen pizza) as the go-to for dinner any more if we want to make real progress toward reining in The Tinker’s weight and blood sugar levels.
• New trick #4 – Beerless. Okay, maybe not beerless, but definitely a beer reduction. We already drink one of the lowest carb beers on the market as a “daily drinker” (Miller 64), but the volume of consumption needs to be cut back. Way back.
  

  We’ll be seeing a bit less of you this year, old friend…

• New trick #5 – Exercise. My job is sedentary – I sit and stare at a computer screen all day. The Tinker is more active, but neither of us get aerobic exercise. So we need to move more, and briskly.

There may be more New Tricks that we need to learn that I don’t know about yet – but over the next several months, I hope to be updating you all on what and how we are doing, some of the recipes that we learn and enjoy along the way, in the hopes that the first blog from us next year will be about how we kicked diabetes to the curb.

BTW, tonight’s dinner will be baked blackened salmon steaks with red-pepper quinoa and a mess of vegetables, maybe a salad, too. Any suggestions?