“Who are you and what are you doing with Steph’s phone?” asked a friend when her text saying “What are you doing?” called forth the response, “Cooking supper.” Cooking has not been a great passion or even habit of mine for years. The last time I cooked consistently was six or seven years ago when I had to give Roxie rice and meat to control her seizures. I cooked every night then and people were generous in sharing moose and other meats, so when anyone asked me what I had for supper, I would playfully respond “Dog Food.” Meat and rice was good enough for her, so I made extra and ate with her. When we found a canned dog food she could stomach, we stopped sharing meals! LOL! Prior to that, since leaving home for university, eating out has been my game. Restauranteurs in every town know what I like and rarely needed to “take my order”. In one Chinese restaurant in Vancouver, I had the waitress trained to not to mention that I was there a second time in the same day with different people each time. She would smile and nod and lead us to my favourite table. When I went back, walking and not in my wheelchair, after years of being away, she recognized me immediately, grabbed me with a hug and went to get my hot pot order. All of the staff at the restaurant managed to steal over to my table at some point during that meal and welcome me home. Obviously, cooking has never been my jam and too many fast food drive thrus have been. In fact, when I was leaving Gander for St. Anthony, the landlord called with a warning that he hated cleaning ovens and my whole security deposit would be kept if I left the oven dirty. That threw my mom into a fit of giggles. When she could finally speak, she called the landlord and told him that if my oven was dirty after seven years of me living there, then it wasn’t clean when I moved in. In fact, it had only been turned on eight times in seven years and most of those were times mom was visiting and turned it on to be sure it worked! A couple of other times, it was turned on for craft night when melting something on a baking sheet was part of the instructions! I have been absolutely and completely blessed by the many friends in each town and congregation who have provided food and fellowship around the table - much needed food for the body and food for the soul! So hearing that I was cooking, you can understand the surprise that registered when my friend asked what I was doing! It is like a new Steph 2.0 is hitting the market with recipes, buying vegetables, and using coupons! Damage to my pancreas from side effects due to medications has made me a four-needle-a-day Diabetic and the lifestyle choices that imposes has made a huge difference in my schedule. Even so, I am settling into a new normal with the diabetes routine and eating rules. Scheduling and planning ahead to think about and prepare for proper food intake is quite a foreign concept in my lackadaisical, disorganized style of procrastination and flying by the seat of my pants. Don’t get me wrong, this style of work has always delivered for me in creativity, enthusiasm and Spirit-filled inspiration. The focus on my calendar has been food, but the scheduling has infiltrated my entire life. For the first month, friends had to put up with my incredulous queries about how people could eat so much. It seemed that as soon as I finished one meal with all the proper grains, greens and proteins, I was facing snack time or another big meal. For someone who often ate one meal a day in the car on the way home from a meeting that capped off a busy day of visiting or preparing worships or meeting with families and the community at the funeral home, eating three meals a day and two snacks was almost overwhelming. I’m not complaining about having the diabetes on top of everything else. The way I ignored my body and willfully subjected it to drive thru meals, irregular sleep patterns and little exercise made me a prime candidate according to the warnings we hear all the time about lifestyle risks. All things considered, I am managing this new lifestyle of order and advanced planning quite well. I am almost as good as Pavlov’s dog... I don’t salivate or drool, but when the alarm goes off on my phone four times a day, I dive for the cupboard or fridge and put something healthy into my mouth while poking myself with the insulin that will help digest it. All this food and still forty pounds of weight loss is quite a motivating perk! The other day, I was three quarters of the way through a slice of pumpernickel bread when I realized the phone was alerting me to a WhatsApp call, not telling me it was time to eat again. The lifestyle change has not only affected the way I eat, but every aspect of my life. One must rise early to fit in all the exercise, work and food expected, so my day starts consistently at 8-8:30 every morning. Again folks who know me know that mornings are the hardest when Rheumatoid Arthritis is a factor. Becoming a morning person has taken a lot of getting used to and it is good that I live alone. The animals and I are the only ones having to bear the grump of an early rise everyday. Who knows, with all these alarms and bells going off multiple times per day and my newly scheduled lifestyle, I may get these blogs sent on a regular schedule for production as well. I’ll go now and set that alarm for weekly! No doubt when it rings, I’ll make myself a snack before I sit to write! And I’ll phone my friend that thought I had been kidnapped, so she can be sure that the crazy response from the kitchen that day was in fact the new me - Steph 2.0!