Books, Books, Never Enough!

***Note: 30-day challenge is clearly going to take more than 30 days. Going to use it when I'm at a loss for topics and want to write***

So, while we were in Phoenix, we had the opportunity to do a little paroozing through a Barnes and Noble (ah, a bookstore with choices!). Part of this was intentional to get more information as advised by one of the doctors I saw, and the rest was just because we could when having lots of time between appointments and it was 10 minutes away from the clinic.

We weren't quite intending on making an investment in books, but we did. We picked up:

• The 2010 Calorie King Calorie, Fat & Carbohydrate Counter (made by the same people as www.calorieking.com, an awesome resource. This is a nice purse-sized guide for anything and everything edible. We liked it because we usually end up going to the website after we eat out and realize a bad choice--now we can look beforehand. Perfect because I count calories and fat, and husband counts carbs for his diabetes. Used it this evening at Applebee's--saved husband from a 66g of carbs "under 550 calorie" meal and he was able to choose a more filling and lower carb meal)
• The Calorie King Food & Exercise Journal (My weight loss is doctor-supervised because I'm sooooo tired of weight watchers, etc, that just don't pan out in the long term for me, and I'm required to keep food logs. I think I have changed around my food log spreadsheet every single time I've visited her because I can't put together one that I like. This one is small enough that before I write it in it, I can copy a week's worth of pages and it will fit on the front and back of a standard sheet of copy paper since I'm too cheap to fork out $3.99 every ten weeks for a new one)
• The Mediterranean Heart Diet (Fisher; diet recommended by one of the Mayo Clinic docs--though, diet isn't the right word, as it's more eating for life)
• The Low GI Handbook (Dr. Jennie Brand-Miller, et all; This was a hard one to choose as Glycemic Index books by this group of authors are plentiful. We chose this one after looking at the while collection because not only does this book contain the book "The New Glucose Revolution" it has more recipes and examples that we can use. We may buy more of the supplementary books later if we like it--but glad we looked through many of them in person as several of them are encompassed in this one book as well--also recommended by Mayo Clinic doc)

These last two books look to be rather interesting and educational. We're not interested in fads or things that ultimately will not sustain/improve long term health. While eventual weight loss is my goal, and controlling his diabetes is my husband's, we don't want to be miserable in the process. This glycemic index stuff looks pretty interesting, as does the Mediterranean stuff (and seriously, getting to eat Mediterranean food--I'm all for it!). We didn't blow off the doctor's recommendations for these books as we initially thought we would, because once we sat down to decide if they were worth it, both are very adaptable to lifestyles and whatever eating plan you choose to ascribe to...they aren't just diet plans, but rather ways to make the foods you're eating work the best for you.

Lots of interesting reading ahead...I'm sure I'll let you know any great revelations that I find!