good thing I opened that packet of paperwork before my doctor's appointment next week. Apparently I was supposed to get bloodwork done before showing up. Guess who's leaving for a 1:40pm blood draw today.

the last kidney doctor I went to was like:

"How you feeling?"

me: "alright, I guess."

doctor:"Good, give me blood and urine. See you in six months."

This is the same dude who I had been seeing before my primary care physician got acess to their lab work and discovered I was in the middle of CKD in December, nearly a full year after I started seeing this dude.

@da_667 Yikes!

@mattblaze life sucks, I didn't know how bad it was, but I'm more well-informed now. At last check, it was at stage 3 (stage 5 is full kidney failure, and requires dialysis). Which means the damage is manageable with extremely close control of diet, and in general being healthier.

I've lost 56 lbs since December, and have taking a much more active role in eating healthier things. So, I'm on the right track, and just hoping it isn't too little too late.

@mattblaze according to internet resources, the biggest thing I have to do aside from already managing calories, sugar, and fat to help improve my A1C and Cholesterol numbers, is managing sodium, phosphates, and excessive potassium. Sodium is the biggest hurdle, requiring a lot of preparation and planning to get no salt added variants of things that I enjoy eating.
@da_667
Low salt is the hardest. Its. In. EVERYTHING. As you already know. We Americans really like our salt.
@mattblaze

@chillybot @mattblaze seriously it is fucking hard. Especially for most fast food meals.

can't do queso
can't do deli meat
can't do sausage
can't do soup
can't do ramen

Have to be extremely picky, and check out the nutrition values for everything and make good choices.

@da_667 @chillybot @mattblaze happy to kick down more recipes for super easy to make stuff where you control all the ingredients!
@Viss @da_667 @chillybot @mattblaze same!
I'm not exactly Gordon Ramsey, but I know recipes!
@Viss @chillybot @mattblaze I'm taking any recipes I can get my hands on. Got a really good one for homemade vegetable stock, homemade boiled beans, got my stuffed bell pepper and chili recipes, ground turkey tacos, Ezekiel bread burgers, and Caribbean black beans.

@da_667 @chillybot @mattblaze if you can make one or two different types of bread, you can just skip the salt in that dough - its not required, and if you can make like, dinner rolls and a basic loaf? suddenly you have ...

ᶠᵒᵒᵒᵒᵈ ˢᵘᵇˢᵗʳᵃᵗᵉ

@da_667 @chillybot @mattblaze

once you can do burger/sausage buns, and loaves, suddenly stuff like tuna salad sammiches happen, and turkey/chicken burgers/meatballs. you can take your stuffed bell pepper recipe and prolly chuck turkey meatballs into that and call it a meatball sammich. it sorta turns into lego after a certain point

@Viss totally. my stuffed pepper recipe uses ground turkey, and cauliflower rice to substitute for brown rice, and everything is no salt added. I usually have a metric assload of leftovers and I'll usually just throw it in a bowl and turn it into a soup for the next day.

I'll usually have a full bowl of the dice tomato/ tomato sauce/ v8 mixture that makes for an amazing low sodium tomato soup on its own.

@Viss ground turkey, boneless porkchops, and boneless skinless chicken breast is life around here.

I'm definitely a foodie at heart, and I'm still living pretty well. Just with a lot more care.

@da_667 have you ever considered a chicken/turkey ballotine? it looks super cool, and its pretty easy to make :D

@Viss > looks up ballotine

I'd like to subscribe to your newsletter

@da_667 its dead simple. the hardest part is cutting the chicken/turkey into the correct shape. then you sorta stuff it with whatever you want, give it an egg wash (if you want a little crispy layer on the outside) and bake it. if you make one big enough, hey slice a bit off that and chuck it onto one of your dinner rolls, with some low sodium gravy or sauce or something and you got yourself a pretty fancy slider!

@da_667

AND I ALWAYS SAY:

if you can debone a chicken

you can debone a person!

so learn how to debone a chicken and practice a few times! You'll find a ballotine is way way easier to do if youre doing it to an entire chicken :D

i learned by watching chef pepin a very long time ago: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SN8xn152NXA

Classic French Technique | Jacques Pépin Debones a Chicken for Galantine

YouTube
@da_667 but i guess if youre doing a whole chicken its a galentine, not a ballotine? but same sorta deal. bones go out, moopsy style, noms go in, not.. uh.. moopsy style.
@da_667 fun fact: before 2021, i was planning a foodie infosec con in sf with a dozen people. the idea was that we round up some sponsors and rent a test kitchen, the folks who can do cookery all volunteer to do various bits of cheffery, and folks teach others how to cook and talk shop and share intel over kitchen faffery time. but it evaporated, sadly. woulda been a cool idea tho
@Viss that sounds amazing!
@da_667 right? i thought so too. but.. influencers.
@Viss sad it didn't work out. I think the closest thing we got to that is like... pancakescon? The idea that you do a double-feature presentation about a security subject you want to cover, then a life skills/hobby presentation you enjoy.
@da_667 yeah, i presented at the first one and made crepes, but after that suddenly every time i submit my submission got lost or was overlooked, so i quit
@Viss @da_667 There is a Hungarian metal song that goes like:

"Take a rooster
and cut its throat
get used to the sight of blood
you may need it someday"