Weekly Update November 26 2015

I missed updating last week because it was my period and I didn't want to weigh myself.  I guess I could have written an update without the numbers anyway but I just didn't think about it.  For this week, I was working on Tuesday, so I was going to weigh myself on Wednesday instead.  But then I forgot.  So here's those numbers (from a few minutes ago):

weight: 210.4 lbs
fat percentage: 45.6%
hydration: 37.4%
muscle: 26.8%
bone: 10.7%
cal: 2348

This really isn't good.  I have .1% less fat percentage and .1% more muscle percentage than two weeks ago.  Also my weight is back to where I started.  Even though I feel like I was more active this week (my mom and I did 40 minutes of yoga on Monday night and I can still feel it in my core, plus I went swimming with my dad on Tuesday and really felt like I had worked, although that is probably in part due to my lung capacity being crap right now and still feeling sore from yoga).

So realistically, I feel like I should be weighing the same as two weeks ago or slightly less.  It's possible I'm not doing enough activity during the rest of the week I guess.  But I'm thinking this has more to do with my eating habits.

I don't feel like I've been eating out any more than normal.  But I know I had lots of meals at my parents' house where I felt like I ate way too much.  One meal was mashed potatoes; I know I had a second helping, followed by some cookies (so that's pretty heavy starch).  I went to Subway with a friend (which was fine) before swimming, but then ate a doughnut after swimming, too (the worst part about that was the doughnut wasn't very good).  So I think for this week, I'm going to keep track of what I eat.  I'm going to try not to judge myself - I just want to get a picture of everything I'm eating to see next week if I can do better.  This is especially important because I'm coming up on Christmas soon, so I want to get a better handle on this stuff before then!

Possible Yoga Strategy

My mom and I went to a yoga class yesterday.  She had paid for a few classes and had one more class to go; I decided to go with her.

Now I know from the past I've had a harder time with yoga.  I know I can't just go and do yoga or else I risk going low.  So without really knowing what to do, I left my basal alone and did 75% of my bolus with dinner.

...and that seemed to work just fine!

Now there may be a few problems with this strategy.  For one thing, we got to the class a bit late and only did one hour out of the hour and a half it was supposed to be.  (We thought the class started at 6:30 but it actually started at 6).  For another (and this may have to do with the lateness of our arrival), I didn't really feel like I had done anything.  We did a few poses and whatnot then did the final relaxation thing.  So it's possible that 75% bolus at supper may not be good enough for a heavier class.  But it gives me a starting point from which to tweak.

My mom and I are going to be just doing an exercise video a week in the near future though (not a yoga class).  So I'll have to see how things go with that.  Hopefully this strategy will work fine and I'll be good to go!

Weekly Update November 10th 2015

Some really good news this week: I finally walked over 10,000 steps in a day!  Yesterday, according to my Firbit, I walked 12,650 steps!!!!  Amazingly, a lot of those steps actually did happen at work (although I walked to and from work during lunch).

Alright, here's the numbers for this week:

weight: 208.2 lbs
fat percentage: 45.7%
hydration: 37.3%
muscle: 26.7%
bone: 10.7%
cal: 2336

So it looks like I have managed to maintain my weight, but gained a bit of fat back/lost a bit of muscle.  While I went swimming, I know I didn't do yoga this week, so that may have had something to do with it.  But I have a plan for that!  My mom and I were going to do yoga on Sundays.  But this has completely failed so far.  We talked about it, and decided that Monday nights would be better for us.  So starting next week, we will be doing yoga on a night that works better for us!  Next week in particular we're going to a yoga class, but after that we're probably going to be just doing a yoga (or pilates) video at her place. 

Other than the activity stuff, this last week seemed particularly hard to get through.  Several other people felt the same way, so I think it may have been due to the time change.  So hopefully this week will be easier now that our bodies have had time to adjust.

Swimming Success!

So it looks like my new swimming strategy may have worked!  I started the day at 7.0mmol/L (12:50pm).  I did the usual 45% basal and 45% bolus with a meal (in this case lunch).  I was 11.4 an hour later, and 10.2 right before going into the pool.  I swam for almost an hour, and as soon as I got back into the change room I did glucose (8.6) and corrected (at that point my pump called for a 0.5 unit bolus because I still had insulin from lunch in my system).  About an hour later I was 10.2, and two hours later I was 9.0 - my glucose didn't go super high!  Last time I went from 8.3 to 13.7 an hour later, so this is a huge improvement! 

I'll be giving this another try next time.  It's possible I need to use a bit more insulin before hand (or a bit more afterwards), but this has been my best recorded success while swimming and I don't want to mess with things yet. :)

Life Weekly Update Oct 29-Nov 3

I noticed on Thursday morning, after writing the post about doing yoga, that at that point I had tied 2011 for the number of posts I'd written that year.  Out of curiosity I wanted to see what I wrote in 2011; I discovered that I had attempted to write weekly updates.  I really like the sound of that.  So rather than call these "Life Updates," I'm going to go back to calling them "Weekly Updates."

Here are the weekly numbers:

weight: 208.2lbs
fat percentage: 44.5%
hydration: 38.1%
muscle: 27.3%
bone: 10.7%
cal: 2336

Looking at last week I'm down about a pound and a half!  I've also lost a bit of fat and gained a bit of muscle.  So it looks like this was a good week!

I've already posted a bit about what's happened this week.  I went swimming for the first time since this summer.  I did a bit of yoga.  There was also a pub crawl on Saturday for Halloween.  I think I walked somewhere in the neighbourhood of 4000-5000 steps during that (unfortunately half of that was after midnight so I still have not made it to 10,000 steps in a day. 

Later today I'm going swimming again.  I'll post about that afterwards.

Need to Make Sure My Cholesterol Stays Down!

About a week ago I checked my voice mail and realized my phone had failed to tell me that my doctor's office phoned about a week prior.  When I phoned them back, apparently my doctor wanted to talk to me about my blood work.  Now I had just seen my blood work and knew that everything seemed fine.  The receptionist scheduled me in and told me it was nothing to worry about.  But of course it was at the back of my mind a bit all week.

Well today was that appointment.  I got my flu shot and then he pulled out a book of guidelines, which showed that when someone is 30 with diabetes, it's time to start worrying a bit about their cholesterol levels.  I mentioned back in Feb 2012 (when I was going on Accutane) that I tend to have elevated cholesterol levels (it runs in my family).  My endocrinologist has made note of it before, but stopped saying anything for the last while (which my diabetes educators said must mean the levels have been fine).  So hopefully everything is fine.  But now that I'm a bit older I need to make sure it stays down because I do not want to be taking medication for it!

So I took a quick look online.  According to the Mayo Clinic, exercising, eating healthy, and losing a bit of weight will help keep those levels down (so that means I'm on the right track if I'm already wanting to be healthier!)  They further recommended some foods that will help lower cholesterol.  So it looks like I'll need to add a bit more of those to my diet, just in case!