Category: Product Review

I’ve written before about what I carry all of my diabetes supplies in. It is a Philadelphia Eagles fabric pencils case that I found about 10 years ago. I’ve been using that thing for so long and it’s always been with me every where I go. But, recently, I felt like it was time to move on. I still love that case and I will not get rid of it, but I needed something that I could pull out at a business meeting and not be afraid that dried blood from one of the tens of thousands of tests that I’ve while using that bag would end up somewhere. So, here is my Myabetic Review.

So, full disclosure like always, I reached out to Myabetic and they agreed to send me a bag and I said that I would write a review about said bag.

Deciding Which Case

It was a tough choice because there was a few different options that I was thinking about choosing from and I wasn’t sure which one that I wanted.

I ended up going with the Kamen Diabetes Case.

Here are some pictures of the bag before I started using it.

I wasn’t exactly sure how I was going organize everything in the bag. The strips that I use have a differently shaped vial than most strips. So, I tested out a few different ways and I found the perfect set up for myself.

The thing that I love the most about the bag is the zipped, detachable bag for used test strips. I used to just put my used strips in the Eagles bag along with the meter, vial of strips, lancing device, pen, etc. This was extremely unsanitary and I know that.

My Final Set Up

See the pictures below to see how I finally decided to organize all of my diabetes stuff.

Insulated and Extra Space

I decided to put my meter and strips in the Velcro section and put the lancing device in the middle strap. I also put extra pen needles in the mesh zipper section. Where are my insulin pens do you ask?

Well, those are in the insulated section with a different zipper!

I LOVE this part. With my old Eagles bag, my insulin pens never had a temperature control. It was left in the car in the heat and cold multiple times and I’ve had to throw insulin out in the past.

So, this insulated section is just amazing.

There is also a small front section of the bag that I’ve been using for extra stuff. Instead of putting my keys in my pockets, I’ve been putting them in there. I work from Starbucks a lot, so I put have put my headphones in that section and other random things that I may need while I’m out.

My Initial Thoughts

So far, the bag has been great. I love it.

I had a business meeting the other day that I actually had to get dressed up for. So, this was the perfect opportunity to take my new leather diabetes bag with me and not the ole Eagles bag. It looked very professional and sat nicely on the table during the meeting.

The only issue that I do have is that the Myabetic bag that I have is a lot bulkier than my old Eagles bag. My old bag used to easily fit in my back pocket, so I could easily put it away and not have to carry it around.

This is not a huge issue because when I’m out I usually am also carrying a backpack with all the kid’s stuff, so I’ve just been putting my diabetes bag in there.

I highly recommend the Myabetic bags. Even though the ad below has a women’s bag / case, they do sell them for men as well, obviously.

Myabetic wanted to give a discount to all of you all. So, if you use coupon code: STOCKER10 you will receive 10% off your entire order!

Myabetic has a great back story that you can check out on their site. Their founder was diagnosed with diabetes when she was 24 years old. I highly recommend reading more of their story.

 

You may have read on here lately that I have been trying to lose weight for a long time. It is such a battle for me because I lose weight and then I just get tired of eating the same boring food over and over and over and then I get these urges and I just go balls to the wall and overeat and put all the weight back on.

I’ve been searching for low carb foods and recipes that aren’t just cauliflower this and cauliflower that. I’m fine with cauliflower recipes, but some times I just need something different.

I happened to come across Real Good Foods and I saw a bunch of people on Instagram posting about it. So, I thought, what the heck, let’s give them a try.

So far, I have tried the verde pork enchiladas and the pepperoni pizzas, both the snack size and regular size.

My quick, summarized review of them…

I AM IN LOVE!

Let me go into a little more detail here.

First up, the pizza.

As I scanned the nutritional label, I realized that there was just 4 grams of carbs. Well, for me, that’s not even enough carbs to give myself a shot of insulin. It would be 1 unit, so I just skipped the insulin because I had gone for a walk a little before trying for the first time.

With it being only 4 grams of carbs, I went to the ingredients. The very first thing I noticed, and loved, was that the crust was made of chicken.

That’s right, chicken!

Now, that might weird you out at first, but you have to absolutely try it.

To me, it tasted like I was eating chicken Parm because it had pizza sauce and cheese on the crust, and since the crust is chicken, it’s chicken Parm in my eyes.

Please check out the ingredients and the nutritional info.

My recommendations for the pizza are once you cook it in the oven for the 20 or 25 minutes like it says, put it on top of a skillet and grill the crust (made with chicken) for a few minutes as well. It doesn’t say to do this and you don’t have to, but I tried it and I liked it even better this way.

They are smaller size pizzas since they are individual, but they help me with my portion control. So far, I’ve had the pizzas for lunch by itself, for dinner with a side salad and as a late night snack during a late college football night.

The other Real Good Foods product that I tried was the verde pork enchiladas. It was taco night and I always just eat lettuce wraps every Tuesday, which I love, but I wanted to switch it up a bit and have something different.

The enchiladas are baked in the oven for about 20-25 minutes like the pizza and then I let them sit for a couple of minutes to let the cheese and everything settle. Plain, as is, they were awesome!

I added a scoop of sour cream and sprinkled a little more cheese on top and add a few dabs of hot sauce and they were perfect!

These also had 4 grams of carbs and the tortillas were made out of chicken.

I am just obsessed with Real Good Foods at this point.

I want to help you try these foods because I know you will become obsessed to, so here’s how you can save 10% off your first online order.

Just go to https://thelifeofadiabetic.com/realgoodfoods and enter coupon code CSTOCKER at checkout and you will get your 10% off. Also, for a limited time Real Good Foods is offering 4 FREE Mini Snack Pizzas with every online order.

Not interested in having chicken pizza crust? Well, they also have cauliflower crust pizza.

Here’s a list of what they offer:

Pizza Bite Snacks

 

Click Here to Order Snacks

Enchiladas

Click Here to Order Enchiladas

2X Serving Pizzas

Personal Pizzas

Click Here to Order 2X Serving Pizzas

Cauliflower Pizza Crusts

Click Here to Order Cauliflower Pizzas

 

*Images of products above are courtesy of Real Good Foods.

I was sent a Dario All in One meter to review last month, so I figured it was time to get my review up.

When I first heard about the Dario meter, my initial thoughts were:

Cool, I can use my iPhone to test my sugar.

Awesome, the strips and lancing device are all in one, so less items I have to carry.

That was all I knew about the product before I received it.

When I first received the item in the mail, I liked the white box that the meter and strips came in. It felt very Apple-ish, and one thing to know about me, I love my Apple products. The box was actually extremely difficult to open. I basically had to rip the entire thing open because I couldn’t just easily take the meter and other items out of the box.

Inside the box was was the meter, lancets, the device that goes into the audible jack and a sample vial of 25 test strips.

The instruction manual made it very simple to set the meter up. On one end of the device the test strips slip into an open compartment that has a white cover. On the other end, the lancing device is attached. On the other side is a button to push up and then the actual meter pops out and plugs into the audible jack on your iPhone.

Setting up the meter itself was pretty quick and easy and simple to do.

The next step was to install the Dario app from the Apple Store. Once the app was installed, I just opened up the app and followed the instructions.

The kit also came with these bags to put your iPhone in so that there is no contamination of blood. This is a great idea, even though I only used the bags for the initial first test.

The entire set up was pretty easy to get ready to test.

My first test however, was not the best, as you can see.

The kit also came with an additional 25 test strips, so I used the meter 50 times. I feel after 50 tests, that is enough to determine whether or not you like something.

I loved having the app automatically logging my BG’s for me and giving me a quick snapshot of my average results. As soon as I opened the app, it provided me with what my average blood sugar was. As you can see, I had a rough couple of weeks with blood sugars. Also, this is why meter BG logging doesn’t always tell the whole story because if my CGM said 120, I don’t test, so it skews higher.

Final Thoughts

Overall, I did like the meter. I liked the ease of use and having the test strips and lancing device all in one. It was less that I had to carry. In fact, I didn’t even carry my whole meter bag that I usually do because I could just keep this in my pocket and that’s it. I like being able to test directly on my iPhone.

The biggest downside to me was that I had to have my phone on me in order to test. I like to test in the middle of the night when I wake up to use the bathroom, but pretty much every time I forgot my phone on my night stand and had to go back out from the bathroom to get my phone in order to test.

I also did not like that I had to wait to open up the app in order to test. It would be nice for the app to open automatically once the jack was plugged in. But hey, those are things that would make the perfect device. Testing on the iPhone was great, so I am not going to complain about having to open up the app first.

I would not use the Dario meter as my full time meter, however I would like to keep some test strips as a back up meter. I like it for traveling purposes because it’s easy to just put in my pocket.

I would recommend this meter to people though because overall, I like it.

What would make this meter the perfect fit?

Truly be all in one. Meaning that the test strips, lancing device and the meter itself is all in the same device, no needing to connect to the iPhone. Then, once the test is complete, it can send the results directly to my iPhone via Bluetooth without me needing to open up the app.

Have you used the meter? If so, I would love to hear your feedback.

Please leave a comment or message on Facebook.