2018 Year in Review

Wow, I can't believe 2018 is almost over!  I feel like the year totally flew by!  So today I'd like to take a look back at the goals I set for 2018 and talk about what happened with them.

My goals for 2018 were the following:

1. Walk 5000+ steps on five days of every week 
2. Eat "out" one time a week MAXIMUM  (out = restaurant, fast food, or freezer deep fried food)
3. 60 minutes of non-walking every week 
4. Weight to 190 lbs

Unfortunately I failed at all of these goals. :(

For goal #1, I lost my Fitbit back in July, so I had no way to track my steps.  Unfortunately I knew I wasn't going to make the goal anyway - at that point I had successfully walked 5000+ steps for 5 out of 7 days during the week on only 6 weeks of the 29.5 weeks that I tracked my steps with my Fitbit.  So even if I hadn't lost it, I was on track to failing this goal.

For goal #2, I didn't come up with a plan on how to track eating "out."  So I failed it right away by just not bothering with it at all. :(

Goal #3 was a more interesting one.  I was failing it hard at the beginning of the year, but then in the spring I signed up for the Betty Rocker 30 Day Challenge and suddenly I was meeting my weekly workout goal of 60+ minutes a week.  Everything fell apart in the summer (it's too hot to work out up here - I am planning on setting up an area in the basement for working out next summer so hopefully that doesn't happen again) and I had a really hard time getting back into things.  But then I signed myself back up for a second round of the 30 Day Challenge and I am currently back into working out for about 10-20 minutes when I wake up on most days.  Over the course of the year I successfully worked out for 60+ minutes a week for 16 out of 52 weeks.  That's not a success, but I definitely did better with it than I did with the walking!  

And finally there's goal #4.  Looking back over the last year, I basically maintained my weight.  Yes it went up a bit, and down a bit.  But overall it just kind of hovered around the same few numbers.  

While I totally failed my goals this year, an interesting thing happened on this blog: 2018 saw my most posts out of any year since I started this blog back in 2007!  I actually beat that first year by almost 20 posts!!!  

So that was 2018.  Tomorrow I'll set some new goals for 2019!

Weight Update for Dec 20 + Done the 30 Day Challenge!

Alright, to start out, here are today's numbers:

weight: 207.6 lbs
fat percentage: 45.1%
hydration: 37.7%
muscle: 27.0%
bone: 10.7%
cal: 2332

I've made an effort to eat a little healthier this week, knowing that Christmas is coming next week and I'll probably be eating a bit more than normal.  I've also had some issues sleeping this last week (plus was hung over the other day), so I really want to make sure I've got a good nutritional foundation as my body gets better.

But in other news, today I finished the 30 Day Challenge!!!!

I followed along this time and made my own Challenge board (well...paper) - last time I was just tracking it on an actual calendar.

I should have finished a few days ago, but I knew the last workout was a Tabata set, and I really wasn't looking forward to it.  So when I didn't sleep, I decided to take the day off from working out.  Then when I was hung over, I was going to do a gentle yoga workout instead (but that didn't happen, so I just took a second day off).  So today I made a point of getting up and finishing the Challenge once and for all!

I also took a final progress pic (I took it before completing the workout today):

I don't see a whole lot of difference since starting.  So like last time I made a picture comparing Day 1 to Day 30:

There's definitely a little more definition in my stomach (and my abs don't seem to stick out as much as they did in Day 1).  But whatever - however I look, I definitely feel a bit stronger, particularly in my arms.  And more importantly I've brought working out on a mostly weekly basis back into my life, which was my goal for doing this challenge again!

I did learn a lot doing this challenge a second time.  I'm really not a fan of the explosive workouts that Betty Rocker really favours.  Sure, doing one every here and there is fine.  But on a regular basis I am much happier doing yoga and pilates rather than HIIT.  I also found that I have a hard time getting through these workouts injury-free - I had trouble with my right knee pretty much all the way through the challenge (hilariously, it was okay today after the multi-day break I happened to take, that my knee felt okay).

So I'm glad to be done the 30 Day Challenge. I'm now really looking forward to going back to my exercise DVDs, which is what I did last spring when I finished the Challenge the first time. :)

Walked Into a Door Frame :(

So yesterday when I got out of bed, I walked into a door frame, which knocked my new Freestyle Libre sensor off the adhesive. :(

You can see it sticking up a bit in this picture.

I honestly never ever notice myself hitting door frames unless I have a Libre sensor on, then it seems like it happens all the time.  I've never hit it so hard that it's knocked the sensor off the adhesive before though!

I tried to push the sensor back onto the adhesive, but I guess when I hit the door frame the sensor got pulled out of my arm.  I left it on for about an hour, but every time I tried getting a reading with the monitor, I was told "Glucose unavailable. Please try again in 10 minutes."  I eventually pulled it off my arm, and sure enough, the sensor was bent.

To make everything worse, after less than a day with this sensor on, I could already see the beginnings of a skin rash. :(

It's faint but it's there.

In light of that, I decided to put the Clobetasol on a day before and an hour before putting the next sensor in (I'll be putting the new sensor on soon).  Hopefully I won't walk into any door frames with this one!!!

Weight Update for Dec 13 + New Sensor!

First, here's yesterday's weight update:

weight: 209.6 lbs
fat percentage: 45.1%
hydration: 37.7%
muscle: 27.0%
bone: 10.7%
cal: 2343

Those numbers don't surprise me because I have been eating like crap all week.  We're getting close to the holiday season and I've found myself making more plans to eat out at restaurants (and just not wanting to say no to people in regards to getting takeout or whatever).  Plus there's been treats at work which I haven't been able to say no to (today didn't help either because I was super tired).  I have to get through tonight (a Christmas party with appetizers) and Sunday night (I made plans to go out for dinner or get takeout with someone prior to their going home for Christmas), then I really, really need to just stay home and eat here (preferably healthier food) until the 24th.  

It's funny, but in a lot of these cases I haven't found the food to be super great.  Sure some of it is tasty, but I've felt like I would have been happier without a lot of it (particularly the fast food I've eaten this week).  I also just generally feel a little crappier and I know it's 100% because I've eaten richer foods all week.  So getting back to normal is going to make me feel so much better.

In other news, I saw my doctor about the skin reaction I keep getting thanks to the Libre sensors (and after that last one fell off thanks to the Betaderm). He gave me a new prescription to try, Clobetasol.  This one comes as a spray, so we're hoping the adhesive will stick better than it did with the Betaderm cream.  I just put a new sensor in today so we'll see how things go over the next few weeks!  I'm hopeful that we're getting close to finding a solution - my skin didn't react nearly as badly after the Betaderm cream.  The rash that I showed you on Monday wasn't as bad as others have been.  Plus by Wednesday it was looking so much better:

Here's what it looked like on Wednesday night (with ointment on top).

 Today the skin is still flaking off, but it is healing up well:

Here's what it looks like right now. 

Oh, and I also forgot that I ordered vet tape at the suggestion of the Freestyle Libre rep over a month ago (he thought it might work better for me than Tegaderm was because it is breathable).  Apparently that's still on its way and should arrive by Dec 20th.  Hopefully I see it soon!

Sensor Fell Off :(

Yup, that sensor that didn't want to stick to my arm because of the Betaderm Cream finally fell off on Saturday.  It lasted a week, which was exactly what I had guessed when I saw it sticking up.  Although I should note that it didn't fall off because of the Betaderm Cream - it fell off once again because it didn't have any good skin left to stick onto.

You can still see the sharpie marks, too.

I'm making another doctor's appointment to see about other options. :(

Weight Update for Dec 8 + 30 Day Challenge Week 3 Picture

Okay, I'm going to give two sets of numbers from earlier today.  The first was taken after I got up:

weight: 209.4 lbs
fat percentage: 44.9%
hydration: 37.8%
muscle: 27.1%
bone: 10.7%
cal: 2342

and the second one was right after my 15 minute workout:

weight: 208.2 lbs
fat percentage: 44.6%
hydration: 38.0%
muscle: 27.3%
bone: 10.7%
cal: 2336

The only difference between the two was that I worked out and I had a few sips of water (which probably accounts for the slight increase in hydration).  Absolutely nothing else changed.

I wanted to show you this to demonstrate how much your weight can fluctuate over the course of the day.  These two measurements were taken only about a half an hour apart.  Realistically, even though I had a few sips of water during the workout, I lost some water weight due to sweating (and yeah, by the end of the Day 22 workout, I was definitely sweating a bit!)  Even though I don't remember what exactly happened on the 29th, there's a good chance that if I didn't misread the scales, I worked out then weighed myself afterwards, too.  I also know that my weight is going to fluctuate based on what I've been eating, and even what time of the month it is.

This is why I don't like to weigh myself a lot (I try to stick to once a week, or twice a week at maximum) - I'm trying to use my weight as a rough indicator of how I've been doing over the last week, not as the be-all-and-end-all measurement.  

Anyway, enough of that.  Here's my Week 3 picture (taken yesterday):

I'm not really noticing much physical difference from when I started the 30 Day Challenge, but that's okay (although my arms do feel a bit stronger than they were).  My whole goal was to get myself exercising on most days again, and that's been happening. :)

No Weight Update or Picture Today

It's the tail end of my period, so I'll weigh myself and take a picture for the 30 Day Challenge over the weekend! :)

New Sensor with Problems Already!!!

Alright, so I put a new Freestyle Libre sensor in earlier today.  I followed my doctor's advice and put some Betaderm cream on last night, then again today an hour before putting the new sensor in.  I marked my arm with some sharpie to make sure I put the sensor on the place with the Betaderm cream.

But when I put the sensor on my arm, I discovered there's a new problem: the sensor adhesive doesn't want to stick to the skin that has Betaderm cream on it!!!!!

You can see the sharpie mark right by where the sensor is sticking up on the right.

I am so frustrated right now!!!! 

I suspected this may have happened at the beginning with the last sensor too, but I wasn't sure because I didn't know if I had put the sensor on the same place as all the Betaderm (hence marking my arm with a sharpie to make sure this time). 

Well, I put a bandaid on top of the sensor to help hold it in place and I guess I'll see what happens from here.  If this one behaves remotely like the last one, I'll be lucky to get a week out of it.

So frustrating!!!!!

Who's a Good Boy?

I came across this article and I wanted to share it: "I THRIVE: Who's a Good Boy?" It's about a dog with diabetes who found his forever home with a person with diabetes.  I cried reading it, it's such a feel good story!

30 Day Challenge Day 15 Completed!

lol, I guess I could have waited to post my picture until I was done today's workout.  But now I am officially half way through the 30 Day Challenge!!!

When I woke up today my back was feeling a lot better, so I felt confident attempting the Day 15 workout.  Unfortunately it was a Tabata style workout (I haven't had much luck with Tabata-style workouts, because I hurt my knee during one last time) and I was concerned that I may hurt myself more.  I already feel like a bit of a wreck between pulling a muscle in my lower back over the last few days and having my knee give me trouble on and off since I started this Challenge (I had some trouble around Day 7 and depending on the exercises I keep feeling it).  So I took it super easy today, doing heavy modifications of all of the moves just to get through without doing more damage to anything. 

One thing that's kind of nice when you take a day off from the Challenge is that you can see what the next day's workout is going to be thanks to the next day's email subject line.  I'm really looking forward to tomorrow's Full Body Stretching (and hopefully it will get me ready for the next day's Total Core Domination, because that may be hard on my back too!)

But for today: I'm done! I'm going to take it easy on my back and knee for the rest of the day and hopefully be in even better shape tomorrow!

30 Day Challenge Week 2 Picture

As promised, here's my picture for this week!

Hilariously I'm wearing exactly the same things as my starting picture! lol

Weight Update for Nov 29

Here are my numbers for the week:

weight: 209.0 lbs
fat percentage: 44.6%
hydration: 38.0%
muscle: 27.3%
bone: 10.7%
cal: 2339

I was going to take a Week 2 pic today, but I'm going to do that tomorrow instead.  Yesterday I got interrupted while doing the Day 14 workout (I made it through two of the three circuits), so I ended up coming back later in the day and doing all three circuits again, rather than just the one I missed.  Then today I woke up with a really sore lower back, so I decided to take the day off from working out just so I don't make things worse.  I'll take a picture tomorrow :)

UPDATE:

After originally posting this, I went to weigh my cat (I'm trying to watch his weight too) and I magically lost a pound.  Here are my new numbers:

weight: 208.0 lbs
fat percentage: 44.3%
hydration: 38.2%
muscle: 27.4%
bone: 10.7%
cal: 2334

I have no idea how this happened (unless I misread my initial weight)!

Freestyle Libre Sensor Fell Off

I accidentally hit my latest Freestyle Libre sensor, which loosened it from my arm.  I was already having problems with this one sticking from the get-go (possibly because the adhesive doesn't work with the Betaderm cream?)  I put band-aids on it to help it stick initially.  It seemed to be sticking so I took them off (or just kind of cut one off because it didn't want to come off the sensor easily).  Then earlier today I noticed that another part of the adhesive was coming up so I put another band-aid on it there.  So I'm not surprised that nudging the sensor knocked half of it off my arm.

The sensor wire thing itself was knocked partially out of my arm.  I tried pushing it back in with the intention of putting something like Tegaderm over everything and checking in a bit to see how accurate it would be, but pushing it in hurt so I made the decision to just take the whole thing off.  Here's what it looked like underneath:

It's oozing arm goo and looks way worse than the last few did with Flovent.  It's honestly no wonder it wasn't staying on - there really wasn't much unaffected skin left for it to stick to.

I'm very upset about all of this.  I've only been using this sensor for 6 days (so it's been on my arm for 7).  So of course I haven't prepped another site yet (with the Betaderm my doctor said to put some on a day before then an hour before I put the new sensor on, and this sensor was still supposed to last another 8 days).  I'm thinking I don't want to put another Libre sensor on yet anyway because my other arm is still healing from the last sensor (most of the dead skin is flaking off now, but it'll probably be red for a long time still).

I'm also upset because I was really hoping the Betaderm would be better than the Flovent, not so much worse!  It is possible I put the sensor in the wrong spot though; unlike the Flovent, Betaderm dries clear so you can't tell where exactly you put it once it's applied..  So I might try one more time once things have healed up a bit more.  We'll see I guess - I'm getting so fed up with the mess these sensors are leaving on my arms!!!!!!

Last Sensor with Flovent

I meant to post this earlier in the week, but here is a picture of my arm after I took my last sensor off:

There were two hard blotches that ended up opening yesterday to leak a bit of fluid. :(

Needless to say, this was my last sensor using Flovent.  My doctor gave me a prescription for Betaderm cream to try instead because it's a bit stronger than Flovent (I have a Betaderm ointment which I am using to help heal these up; my doctor said the cream will be better to put under the sensor because it will dry faster than the ointment).  He told me to put some on a day before I'm putting on a new sensor then an hour before; the hope is that will really help prep my skin.

It's been a few days since I've had the new sensor on with the Betaderm cream, and I'm a bit concerned about what's happening.  My arm has been super itchy since I put the sensor on (but I'm not sure if that's because I've got new skin trouble or if the sensor is on some old spots that hadn't fully healed).  I guess I'll find out once this sensor comes off. :(

Weight Update for Nov 22 + Week 1 Pic

Well, here are my numbers:

weight: 209.6 lbs
fat percentage: 45.3%
hydration: 37.6%
muscle: 27.0%
bone: 10.7%
cal: 2343

I'm not really sure what's going on here.  I know I haven't been keeping super good track of calories lately, but I also don't feel like I've been eating all that badly.  So I guess I'll have to wait and see what happens from here.

It's also been a week since I started the 30 Day Challenge!  So here's what I look like right now:

In my mind I don't look significantly different from a week ago, but maybe some of the changes are happening on my back where the picture doesn't show?  

Now it's time for the Day 8 workout! I'm glad to see it's yoga.  Yesterday was a lower body workout that was a bit hard on my knee, so getting to stretch everything out will feel really good! :)

Weight Update for Nov 15

Not really sure what's going on but here are today's numbers:

weight: 208.4 lbs
fat percentage: 44.9%
hydration: 37.8%
muscle: 27.1%
bone: 10.7%
cal: 2337

My weight is a bit higher than it has been in awhile.  I'm not entirely sure what's caused that (possibly I need to sleep a bit more? I've been making an effort to eat a bit healthier these last few days so that's the best I can think of?). 

In other news, today was day 2 of the 30 Day Challenge and it was a tiny bit easier to get up this morning to work out!  The workout itself was a bit hard because I really am out of shape, plus it feels like a cold might be coming on (hopefully it isn't though!)

Here We Go Again with the 30 Day Challenge

After thinking about it a lot, I decided to sign myself up again for the 30 Day Challenge.  I feel like I need the push to get myself exercising again and getting daily 15 minute workouts really helped me last time.  My whole reason for signing up again is to rebuild the exercise habit I had prior to the summer (and getting a bit stronger is always a plus, too!)

So today was Day 1.  Here's what I currently look like:

That looks pretty much exactly like Day 1 on the first round.  (Actually, after comparing the two a bit more, I do look slightly better right now than I did then).

I'm really proud of myself for getting through today's workout.  Even knowing that the workout was waiting for me in my inbox, I still had a heck of a time motivating myself to start it; it seemed far easier to lay in bed or sit around doing nothing (which I know isn't exactly good for you either).  I'm hopeful that this will pass soon and getting up to do a workout will once again become a habit. :)

Lots of Lows After Basal Changes

Yesterday my doctor suggested some basal changes.  As I said I was going to, I implemented the overnight basal change only.  So here are the results, comparing the night before I made the changes and last night:

The number one problem is that immediately there are a whole lot of lows, so the exact change that he suggested didn't work.  But the line looks a lot straighter, so there is definitely merit in what he suggested - I'm just going to have to tweak the numbers a bit.  I'm hoping that if I lower the basal a touch it'll keep my glucose in the blue all night.

Big Basal Changes

I had a doctor's appointment today.  Previously I've been keeping an old-school log book, but last time I saw him he asked me to bring the printout from Carelink.

Now I haven't mentioned it here in awhile, but I have a lot of basal rates right now.  Back in December 2016 I had 16.  I had more than that for awhile, but have since brought it down to 12.

Well my doctor didn't like that.  He wants me to bring it down even more.  Specifically he wants me to have only one overnight and only one through most of the day.

I admit, I feel very uncomfortable doing this because I arrived at all of these basals from doing some basal tests and using sensor data (most recently from the Freestyle Libre when I'm not having skin issues with it).  I also feel really uncomfortable with the suggested changes to the afternoon.

So here's what I'm going to do:

• I saved a copy of my device settings with the old basals so I can easily go back to them if I need them (but if I don't need them, then that's okay).
• I'm going to implement the overnight basal he suggested
• I'm going to do a whole bunch of basal tests, hopefully starting tomorrow
• My priority is actually the evening right now because I've had lots of highs
• I'm going to leave the afternoon basals as they are until I get through that area
• Once I get the evening straightened out, I'll look at the overnight 
• unless this change causes major problems, then I'll have to prioritize overnight I guess
• Once that is straightened out, then I'll look at the afternoon change he suggested
• for the record he said to make my whole afternoon from 11am to like 5:30pm 1.0 units an hour
• I'm due to see my diabetes nurse in January. I'll let her know at that time what is going on and get whatever help I need at that time
• If I'm having trouble dealing with all of this though, I'll contact her sooner

I think that's a pretty good game plan for the immediate future.  We'll see how it goes!

*Also for the record - making the changes he suggested to the overnight area has brought my basal rates down to 9.*

Weight Update for Nov 8

This is a few days late, but here are the numbers:

weight: 206.6 lbs
fat percentage: 45.2%
hydration: 37.6%
muscle: 27.0%
bone: 10.7%
cal: 2325

That was me surviving my period and eating rather unhealthily for a few days (although I also ate unhealthily that night, too).  I've been super stressed at work and haven't been sleeping well this week, so I'm not really surprised to be having trouble staying healthy.  But after binging on Thursday night, I made the decision to try to strengthen my 4 Pillars of Health that Betty Rocker talks about (sleep, nutrition, stress management, and exercise).  This last week in particular felt like all of them were falling apart so I'll have to work on all four.  

For the rest of the weekend I'm going to try to focus on stress management.  I need to work on the things that are making me feel overwhelmed here at home, while also trying to come up with ways to manage the stress at work right now (unfortunately a lot of the stress is coming from the unknown future at work, so this is something I can try to manage but I won't be able to solve it on my own).

Navigating Holiday Treats

This year I feel like I did an okay job getting through Halloween.  Yes, on Halloween night itself I ate a bit more than usual.  But I tried to keep my choices a bit healthier: I ate those veggie straw chips, and a small bag of that Reese Mix that combines peanuts, pretzels, and Reese chocolate.  I love the Reese Mix, and thought it was an okay alternative to eating straight up chocolate.

But with Halloween over, there's a bigger event on the horizon: Christmas.  Unlike Halloween, Christmas seems like a more prolonged season of treats.  In part that is because the season is longer: depending on if/when you have a Christmas party, the season may start in late November.  Then if you're like my family, who celebrates Ukrainian Christmas, the season may end in mid-January!  That's potentially two full months of Christmas stuff!

I'm happy that at least right now there's a lull in the festivities between the two.  I want to take this time to get back on track with both eating and exercising so I can feel better (and hopefully have a strong base before Christmas starts derailing me).

Also, I found this a bit too late for Halloween, but Betty Rocker has some tips for navigating Holiday Candy which is helpful, too. :)

Weight Update for Nov 1

Well, this last week has been a bit rough food-wise.  I've eaten way too much and then had to deal with really high blood sugar levels.  So I'm not surprised that my weight has gone up a bit:

weight: 206.2 lbs
fat percentage: 44.0%
hydration: 38.5%
muscle: 27.6%
bone: 10.8%
cal: 2324

I feel like I can't catch a break right now when it comes to eating; lately there's always something else on the go that involves food.  Even this week, with Halloween done, I was thinking that I'd have relatively smooth sailing for the rest of the month.  But nope, there's a big breakfast that I'm invited to tomorrow.  I should have said no because I'm not even hungry first thing in the morning.  Plus I'll probably end up eating too much on top of that because I think it's a buffet.  At this point I'm going to have to do my best to navigate everything tomorrow and hopefully everything will be okay.  On the plus side though, I'm planning on walking to the event, so that little bit of exercise should help a little bit!

Betty Rocker

Last spring, I signed myself up for Betty Rocker's 30 Day Challenge.  I crushed it; getting the daily workout emails kept me on track and motivated.  At the end of the challenge, I started doing my own workout with the many exercise videos I have.

But then summer happened.  I think specifically, my place got too warm to workout (I live on the upper floor of a house and the heat definitely rises).  I had a plan to get a mat of some sort for the basement so I could take my workouts there, but just never got around to it.  And so the summer passed and I completely fell out of my fitness routine.

After the 30 Day Challenge was over, I continue to get emails from Betty Rocker.  I let them all pile up since May, so I spent a bit of time going through them all.  I love how her messages continue to be so positive and full of love.  Check out a few that I really liked:

• The 4 Pillars of Health - this one is great for showing you what really matters (and what to focus on if something happens to one of the four so you can stay healthy)
• It wasn't a blog post, but in one of her emails she talks about pressure and how it's okay if you miss a workout or whatever - don't beat yourself up over it, just do something to get yourself moving back towards your goals (and she stresses: not ALL the things, just SOMEthing) ;)
• You Are Awesome - this is an important message that everyone should read.  We need to stop comparing ourselves to others!
• How "The best of you is like the best of me - unique, doing her best, and #perfectlyimperfect ️"
• Forget "All or Nothing" - this one talks about small swaps you can make to build a healthier life for yourself.  You don't have to do it all at once.
• Your "Imperfections" Are Welcome Here - this one was particularly important to read because here was her response to someone who fell off the fitness bandwagon.  Sure the reasons are different, but this is exactly what happened to me.  So if, like Jess or myself, you've fallen off the fitness bandwagon, please read this - it'll make you feel way better (and help you get back into fitness!)
• Opportunities in Disguise - this describes a really neat tool Betty Rocker uses to deal with anything difficult.  I'm going to have to try it!
• This one isn't on her blog right now, but she talks about how you attract what you are, not what you want.  So it's your responsibility to take steps towards becoming the person we want to be so we can attract like-minded people.  It's rather empowering to think that you can change who and what comes into your life like that.

One thing that I really like about Betty Rocker is how positive she is.  Her main messages are about being happy and healthy, on the inside and out.  She's huge on being the best we can be, but loving ourselves with all our flaws.  Going through all of these emails has helped me feel a lot better about myself and how I fell off the fitness bandwagon.  Hopefully they will help me pick myself back up now, too! 

I also took a quiz I found on her site and found out that I'm a Cheetah - my time is precious and I can get overwhelmed by things, so I need to focus on making an efficient solution for both working out and eating right.  I got a couple of tips for what will be important for me to focus on, both for physical and mental health.

She also sent out a fantastic sounding recipe for Avocado Bean Dip that I'm rather excited to try! :)

Fitbit Found!!!

Holy crap - I found my Fitbit!!!

Someone found it at work on October 15th.  I found it in the lost and found and brought it home to see if it would sync with my account.  And it did!  From what I can tell, a Fitbit will only sync with the account it is linked to, so this has to be my Fitbit! :)

What's really neat is that it still has battery power, even though I lost it back in July.

Now that I have it again, I figure I might as well start wearing it again, right?  I still won't be caring about my exercise goal of attempting to walk 5000+ steps on five days out of every week since I haven't been tracking steps for the last few months (and I wasn't going to make that goal anyway), but I might as well try to get myself walking a little more, right?

Weight Update for Oct 25

So this was unexpected: the numbers have not changed AT ALL since last week.

weight: 205.4 lbs
fat percentage: 44.3%
hydration: 38.2%
muscle: 27.4%
bone: 10.8%
cal: 2319

Oh well.  At least I'm maintaining my weight, right?  :)

Hydro Cortisone Not a Good Barrier for Me

Last week I mentioned using hydro cortisone to hopefully protect my skin from the Freestyle Libre sensors.  It didn't work.  After the first day of having the sensor in, my arm started to get really itchy underneath it; I knew things weren't going okay.  Then last night the sensor started coming off.  I put a couple of band aids on to hopefully hold it in place, but after having a shower I knocked it completely off.  Looking at the skin underneath, it's not at all surprising that it came off; the skin is once again angry and there was some dried yellowish goo once again.

So inspired by that spot in the middle of the last skin patch, which upon reflection is probably the one spot where I used an alcohol swab over the Flovent, I applied Flovent and alcohol swabbed the whole area.  The new sensor is in and warming up; hopefully this one will go better than the last one did!!!

Skin Results from Last Sensor

Alright, so here's what my skin looked like when the last sensor came off:

This is me looking down at it. The more angry and gooey part is the top of my arm, the less angry section is closer to my elbow.

It was rather gross on the top part (it was leaking in part like the Sept 19th one was), but for some reason it was only a little bothered in the bottom part.  There was also a centre spot that was completely fine.  So I have no idea what was going on here.

I had to get a new Flovent, which wasn't ready in time for me to put a new sensor in, so I used a layer of hydro cortisone as a barrier.  I haven't tried that yet, so I was interested to see what happens.  Unfortunately my skin started itching within a day of having the new sensor in, so I don't have high hopes for hydro cortisone helping (which is okay anyway - I wouldn't want to use it long term since it can make your skin thinner).

Weight Update for Oct 18

I feel like I've been eating absolutely like crap since the weekend.  And it kind of shows:

weight: 205.4 lbs
fat percentage: 44.3%
hydration: 38.2%
muscle: 27.4%
bone: 10.8%
cal: 2319

I have been a bit more active though over the last little bit.  I'm really struggling to rebuild the exercise habit I had last spring, which completely fell apart during the summer when it got too hot.  I've managed to do a short workout two days this week so far, so that's a good thing; I'll have to push myself to get back to doing a short workout on most days.

Hilariously, today I did the cardio sculpt workout from Prevention's Shortcuts to Big Weight Loss.  And wow do I suck at coordinating my arms and legs at the same time.  I found repeatedly that I could do the footwork, but as soon as I added in the arms everything fell apart!  Lol oh well, at least I was still moving, right?

Weight Update for Oct 11

Last week was my period so I didn't bother to weigh myself then.  So here are my numbers from today:

weight: 203.2 lbs
fat percentage: 43.4%
hydration: 38.9%
muscle: 27.9%
bone: 10.8%
cal: 2306

Wow!  I'm especially happy with these numbers because over the weekend it was Thanksgiving.  I ate a bit more than normal over the weekend (and then have been eating leftovers all week).  This is also the lowest my weight has been since July; prior to that it was under 204 lbs in December 2017, but it always rebounds back up within the next week.  So let's see if I can keep this up for longer (or even better, continue the downward trend!)

Just to make a note of it for future, here are the other times I was under 204 lbs as noted on this blog:

July 11 2018
Dec 9 2017
July 18 2017

And I've been tracking my weight on this blog with my scale since October 15, 2015!

My Sensor Just...Failed?

Well that was unexpected.  I've been having so much problems with the Freestyle Libre sensors falling off my skin or causing rashes on my skin that I was completely unprepared for a sensor to just fail.

I've had issues with this sensor from the beginning: it was reading as a few mmol/L below what my regular glucometer was reading.  I thought it was going to sort itself out over the first few days, but it consistently got worse, reading as "Lo" for large amounts of time when I very clearly wasn't low.  Yesterday it was so bad that it read 6.5 mmol/L when I was higher than 14!  At 2am this morning, the sensor finally failed, telling me to replace it.

I left it on overnight, and just phoned Abbot Diabetes a little while ago.  They're sending me a replacement and told me it was okay to take it off now.  So here's what my arm looks like after about 2.5 days with the sensor and Flovent:

This sensor was only on for half of the time that the last one was on for.  I'm hopeful because my arm wasn't itchy under the sensor yet.  But it's still got the beginnings of a circular mark from where the sensor was so I'm not really sure what would have happened if it had stayed on longer.  I guess I'll have to try it again and see what happens next time.

Attempting Another Libre Sensor

So yesterday I put another Freestyle Libre sensor in.  

Earlier in the week I spoke with my diabetes nurse.  She in turn had talked to the Freestyle Libre rep, who had recommend I try spraying Flovent on my skin prior to inserting the sensor.  I'd never heard of Flovent before, but it is primarily used as an inhaler for people with asthma.  Apparently it is sometimes recommended for people who have skin reactions to the adhesive their insulin pump infusion sets.

When I went to insert my sensor yesterday, I wanted to see what people said about using Flovent first.  I honestly couldn't find much more than this Tu Diabetes forum post, which mentioned using it, and this FU Diabetes post that recommends cleaning the site then spraying the Flovent on.  I couldn't 100% remember what my Nurse said to do (beyond letting the Flovent dry completely and that it will leave a white film on my arm), so I went with the advice from the FU Diabetes post.  So now I'm over 18 hours with the new sensor on and so far my skin hasn't had that telltale itchy feeling that it's been getting when it starts to react, so hopefully this is going to work! (I am a bit concerned though that the sensor readings have been really out so far, but hopefully that will fix itself within the next day or so).

Oh, the rep also recommended I get vet tape to affix the sensor in place on my arm for activity.  It's supposed to be really cheap and easily available at a pet store.  So I went to a pet store last night and they didn't have it. :/

The girl did recommend getting hockey tape though, saying it is the same thing.  I'll have to do a bit more research on it before I try that (and I'm going to try phoning around to all the other pet stores to see if they have any).

Wrong Size Insulin Pump Tubing :(

I am so sad.  I normally buy the 43 inch tubing.  This time I accidentally bought a box of 18 inch tubing (plus shorter needles).  It's fine through most of my day, but the tubing is way too short for sleeping and other things.  :(

I need to suck it up until the box is done, but I'm so sad about this.  Diabetes Express (who I usually order my supplies from) changed their ordering page so I didn't notice or change all the options.  I'll have to be way more careful during my next order.

Weight Update for Sept 27

I feel like I've been eating absolutely horribly over the last week so I was a bit afraid to see what the scale had to tell me:

weight: 205.2 lbs
fat percentage: 43.7%
hydration: 38.7%
muscle: 27.7%
bone: 10.8%
cal: 2318

That was a pleasant surprise: nothing changed from last week. :)

Aftermath of the Tegaderm Fail

So my arm was getting a bit itchy where the last Freestyle Libre Sensor was (the one from Tegaderm Fail). Sure enough, it's reacting too. The bottom circle patch is from the original rash (it's mostly healed now but still not 100%) and the top one is what happened after having the sensor with tegaderm on my arm for only 12 hours.

In light of this, I'm thinking I'm going to be letting everything heal before attempting anything else (well unless my diabetes team tells me otherwise - I have to phone them tomorrow to talk about this).

Tegaderm Fail

Well, I had a major failure with the tegaderm plan: after walking to work, the tegaderm the sensor was on fell off.  I think that was partially because everything was too high on my arm (it seemed to be in a spot where the muscle moves a lot).  On the plus side, even though the Freestyle Libre sensor was only on my arm for maybe half a day, the skin underneath seemed fine. So I think the next thing I'm going to try is putting the sensor on a piece of tegaderm then cutting the tegaderm so it's a little bigger than the sensor.  I'll secure it all with a second piece of tegaderm over top (with a hole punched for the top of the sensor..

I'm going to wait to try this though until I hear back from my diabetes nurse; I emailed her about this plan last night and want to see what she says.

Weight Update for Sept 19

I decided to weigh myself today since I will be getting up too early to weigh myself tomorrow:

weight: 205.2 lbs
fat percentage: 43.8%
hydration: 38.6%
muscle: 27.7%
bone: 10.8%
cal: 2318

I've eaten like crap all weekend (way too many chips, which also made my glucose go way too high) so I was glad to see I mitigated the damage.  I'm happy to say that most of the chips are gone and I'm trying to get back to eating more normally (although I'm still struggling with that a bit: today there was a meeting at work and I ate two donuts.  Not the smartest plan in the world, but I kept them in my calorie allotment for the day so it should be okay).  I have to get through tomorrow (which is going to be a day long eating fest I think: it's lots of meetings at work) then hopefully it'll be smooth sailing from there.

Looking Down on My Arm

Here it is under the light of day. I think this is the worst rash I've had yet. It looks the worst right around the edges too so I wonder if my skin was reacting to the Skintac too?

More Arm Troubles

Well I pulled another Freestyle Libre sensor off today.

I noticed after the first day or two of putting this sensor in with Skintac that my arm was itching. I was hoping that it would be okay. Well a few days ago part of the sensor came off my arm. The skin underneath looked a little red but I was hopeful it would be okay. I tried putting a bit more Skintac onto it to hold it down; when that didn't work I put a bandaid to help (I bought a new box of them specifically for things like this!)

Earlier today, the other side started falling off. There was also some dried gooey yellowish stuff on the edges of the sensor adhesive. I figured that might be dried up Skintac (I've never used it before so I have no idea what it should do/look like) and wasn't too worried. I put a second bandaid on to hold it down. 

From there, things deteriorated quickly. The sensor stopped working - it told me I was Lo when I very clearly wasn't (blood glucose at the time was 8.0 mmol/L). This sensor hasn't been super accurate (it's been about 1-2 mmol/L off all the way along), but I knew this wasn't right. Also the new bandaid suddenly had a wet spot on it; the goo was actively coming from my arm (not dried Skintac). So I pulled it off and sure enough, my arm was disgusting underneath. I'm really glad I pulled everything off when I did; who knows what it would have looked like if I'd left it on for another 6 days.

So now I have a new plan: I'm going to try using Tegaderm as a barrier between my arm and the sensor. I used a hole punch to punch a hole through the tegaderm for the needle; I really hope I lined it up correctly (you can see some lines I drew on the Tegaderm as I tried to line everything up). I'm hoping this works since the problem last time seemed to be from the Libre adhesive, not the Tegaderm. 

As to my other arm, I've cleaned it up as best as I can (it really stings when I touch it right now) and put some cortisol on it to help it heal. Hopefully it will feel better soon!!!

Skin-Tac Arrived

I mentioned that I ordered Skin Tac last week after my skin reacted to my Freestyle Libre sensors.  The Skin-Tac arrived on Monday, so that night I put another sensor in.  I had no idea how I was going to get the Skin-Tac on properly so I watched this video by Michelle Lord:

I attempted to make the donut like she suggested but I don't think I did the greatest job; I'm a bit worried that I didn't get a good enough layer of Skin-Tac on my skin because after a few days of wearing the sensor my skin started getting itchy underneath it.  But we'll see what my skin looks like when this sensor comes off!

Weight Update for Sept 13

Well I've been off from work all week.  I've had some pretty active days (on Wednesday I walked 50 minutes in the afternoon, then another hour later in the day).  But I also haven't been eating the best (I've been hanging out with friends and family which seems to inevitably mean food).  So here are my numbers from yesterday:

weight: 207.0 lbs
fat percentage: 44.3%
hydration: 38.2%
muscle: 27.4%
bone: 10.7%
cal: 2328

I weighed myself this morning too just to see if there was a difference but the numbers were really similar so I didn't even bother to write them down.  

Weight Update for Sept 6 and Sept 7

I weighed myself yesterday.  Unfortunately it was the tail end of my period, so my weight was still a bit higher than normal:

weight: 207.8 lbs
fat percentage: 45.9%
hydration: 37.1%
muscle: 26.6%
bone: 10.7%
cal: 2333

Now that my period is done, I weighed myself again today (even though I knew i should probably wait a few more days). Here's what I got:

weight: 205.0 lbs
fat percentage: 44.0%
hydration: 38.5%
muscle: 27.6%
bone: 10.8%
cal: 2317

In other news, my skin is an absolute mess right now.  I thought I had broken out in hives, but it turns out I have a crap load of bug bites all over my legs!  So now I'm dealing with that on top of the rashes from my last few Libre sensors.

In terms of the rashes, they are healing.  When I went to the doctor about the bug bites, she gave me a prescription cortisol cream to help clear them up.  I haven't put a new sensor in yet because I wanted to wait for my arms to heal up.  I'm also waiting to get some Skin-Tac, which I'm going to try using.  I've heard that the Skin-Tac works as a barrier between skin and the adhesive, so I'm hopeful that will help!

Oh, and a random extra tidbit I got from my diabetes nurse: you can't cover the Libre sensor completely - you have to poke a hole over top of it so air can get through.

The hole in the tegaderm needs to match up with the hole on top of the sensor.

I was rather annoyed with Abbott (the company who makes the Freestyle Libre) for not saying anything about this to me when they were recommending I try using tegaderm.  But oh well, at least I know now.  What I don't know is if poking the hole in the tegaderm will help stop my skin from breaking out or not.  But at least I now know how to properly cover a Libre sensor.

Skin Reaction to Libre with Tegaderm

So a few days ago, the sensor I had covered with tegaderm came to an end.  I pulled the sensor off and found my skin underneath was a gross, scaly mess!

The red rash was exactly the outline of my sensor.  I've never experienced anything like this before with the Libre, so it must have something to do with the tegaderm holding it down (but it's not a reaction to the tegaderm because the skin surrounding where the sensor was is totally fine; plus I've used tegaderm in the past to secure sensors like in this pic and never had a problem with it).

I went looking online to see if other people have experienced skin problems/allergies with the Libre.  On this thread that I found, it sounds like quite a few people do (and tim2000s (reply #7) even mentions that the reaction seems to be worse when the sensor is held down by something like tegaderm).

I should note that I almost lost a sensor a few months ago because I was gardening for about five hours and my arm got too sweaty for the adhesive to stick properly.  I couldn't find tegaderm at that time, but I put a regular band-aid over the sensor to hold it in place and didn't have a reaction.

So now that I've had this reaction, I'm going to try just using tegaderm while I'm swimming; I'll make sure to take the tegaderm off as soon as I'm dried off. Hopefully that will help me avoid a skin reaction again!

Weight Update for Aug 23

I feel like I've been eating like crap over the last week or so.  I've had a harder time logging calories (I was going to start again on Monday, but that hasn't really happened - I may be in need of a break before trying again in September).  So I felt a little bit hesitant to step on the scale.  But it was fine: 

weight: 204.0 lbs
fat percentage: 44.5%
hydration: 38.1%
muscle: 27.3%
bone: 10.8%
cal: 2312

Tegaderm Update

As I already mentioned, the tegaderm (and my sensor) survived my adventures paddle boarding! But after that adventure, the tape started peeling a little bit around the edges.  It really degraded over the last few days, so I decided to pull it off of my arm. This is what it looked like just before I pulled it off: 

It lasted five days though - not bad! I'll definitely be using tegaderm whenever I'm planning on doing a lot of activity (especially swimming!)

Libre Survived Paddle Boarding with Tegaderm!

On Thursday I mentioned that I was going swimming this weekend.  Well yesterday I ended up kicking things up a notch: I didn't just go swimming, I went paddle boarding! 

Back in December of 2016, I was in Florida for a couple of weeks and I saw a few people paddle boarding.  It looked like a lot of fun and I wanted to try it.  My sister-in-law and I were going to rent some paddle boards last summer but it never ended up happening.  So I've been wanting to try it for awhile and just never had the chance.

Last Tuesday, the two of us were out at my friend's camp swimming and it came up again.  It turns out my friend was planning on buying a paddle board for fun anyway!  So yesterday I went with him to pick one out and bring it out to the camp.  He let me try the paddle board out while he was fooling around with a windsurfer that's out there, too.  I have to say: the two don't go super well together because every time the wind came up it was harder to stay balanced on the paddle board, but the wind surfer needed the wind to work properly! 

I ended up paddle boarding for about an hour straight.  My glucose actually stayed pretty perfect the entire time (Libre said 6.2 mmol/L at the end of the hour).  And the tegaderm held the Libre sensor in place beautifully!

Weight Update for Aug 16

Whoops, in the middle of all the excitement about my Libre sensors, I forgot to post my weight update for the week:

weight: 206.2 lbs
fat percentage: 44.3%
hydration: 38.2%
muscle: 27.4%
bone: 10.8%
cal: 2324

I'm not surprised that my weight is a little bit higher since I've been eating a bit crappier lately (and not really tracking my calorie intake very well).  Realistically now, I'll probably be doing whatever for the next few days (I work earlier than normal tomorrow, which means I'll be eating more; plus I've got a swimming day out at camp again and won't be tracking calories very well), then try to get back on track at the beginning of next week. Have a good weekend everyone! :)

Hurray for New Libre Sensor + Tegaderm

Hurray - I've got Libre sensors again!

Sensor on my arm + tegaderm

I also got the box of tegaderm that I ordered from Amazon today.  So I put a piece of tegaderm over top of the new sensor (more accurately my mom put a piece of tegaderm over the new sensor - I would never have been able to put it on myself).

I didn't realize just how much I rely on my Libre now until I was forced to go without it.  The last few days have been kind of horrible not having it.  I found myself having to force myself to do glucose - it just seemed like so much effort having to pull out my glucometer and do a test, especially when I was at work or out walking.  The last time I felt like this was when my insulin pump died and I had to go back to injections for a few days.  I actually had a really hard time getting through the hour long warm up period because I was so impatient to get the new sensor working again!  These last few days have really showed me just how amazing and life changing the Libre really is. :)

So now that I've got it paired with tegaderm, I'm hoping I can enjoy some more activity with my Libre!  I've got plans to go swimming again this weekend, so we'll see how well the sensor holds up now!

Fitbit is Gone :(

Well, it's been a few weeks and my Fitbit hasn't turned back up.  So with that in mind, here are my last few months of statistics:

June: 155,080 steps taken, 29 days tracked, 5347.6 average steps a day
July: 117,973 steps, 23 days tracked, 5129.3 average

I had 6 weeks out of 29.5 weeks that I tracked my steps with my Fitbit.  So I definitely failed my first goal of walking 5000+ steps on five days of every week (and was set to fail it even if I hadn't lost my Fitbit).  I found that it was pretty easy to hit that number on four days out of seven, but getting that fifth day was always really, really tough.

I have to say though, being without my Fitbit was really weird for the first few days.  I've had it with me almost every day for about two and a half years, so it definitely took some getting used to being without it.  But three weeks later, I honestly don't really miss it.

It's been an interesting few years, seeing how many steps I've actually been taking.  I've found there are days where I feel like I've been super active but in reality I've barely done anything.  I know that having a Fitbit encouraged me to walk to work more, and even without it I intend to keep walking whenever I can.  But I found that it didn't help me overall be more active - if you're worried about steps, you don't always focus on other activities that are good for you, too. So with that in mind, I don't think I'm going to be replacing it. I may change my mind one day, but for now it's time to move on.

Libre Sensor Fell Off :(

It was a beautiful day yesterday, so I went out to a friend's camp for the day.  I spent the afternoon hanging out at the lake and swimming.  I knew that the Freestyle Libre sensors are only okay in the water for 30 minutes, so I was super careful not to stay in the water too long, and to dry up before jumping back in.

Unfortunately, at the end of the day I was changing out of my bathing suit and I hit the sensor.  The sensor flipped off my arm; I guess the adhesive was weakened from all the time outside.

I phoned the company today, and I am happy to report that they're going to replace the sensor for me.  They also recommended that I get some Tegaderm to put on top of it.  I almost lost a sensor a few months ago (the adhesive started falling off after 5 hours of gardening - I apologize because I forgot to blog about that adventure) and they recommended that I get Tegaderm then; I went to a few local pharmacies and they didn't carry it. :(

So when Tegaderm was recommended to me again, I told the representative on the phone that I was having a hard time finding it in town.  And she suggested that I get some off of Amazon!  I honestly hadn't even thought about getting some from there!  I wasn't sure what size to order, so while looking for more information I ended up watching these two videos, which gave me all the information I needed (including just how durable Tegaderm is when it's protecting a Libre sensor).

and part 2:

So I ordered a box and they should be here by the end of the week. I'm looking forward to trying this set up out over the weekend!

It's been super weird not having a sensor on my arm today (the one that fell off was supposed to last another 8 days and it was my last one - more are on the way, but they won't get here until tomorrow).  I can't wait until I can get myself plugged back in!

Weight Update for Aug 9

Just a quick weight update for today:

weight: 204.6 lbs
fat percentage: 43.7%
hydration: 38.7%
muscle: 27.7%
bone: 10.8%
cal: 2314

I'm happy to see that I'm back on track after my period.  :)

Also this is a bit random, but what's with all the .7's today?  The fat percentage, hydration, and muscle all ended in .7.  It's not a big deal but I thought it was a bit weird.

Weight Update for July 26 and 30

Alright, so last Thursday, here were my numbers:

weight: 204.6 lbs
fat percentage: 44.9%
hydration: 37.8%
muscle: 27.1%
bone: 10.8%
cal: 2314
I was glad to see that my weight continued its trend downwards a bit more on the 26th.  Unfortunately my fat percentage increased a bit; I'm not at all sure why that happened. 

I can't remember why, but I decided to weigh myself on the 30th, too.  And here's what I got:

weight: 207.2 lbs
fat percentage: 44.6%
hydration: 38.0%
muscle: 27.2%
bone: 10.7%
cal: 2329

I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw that my weight jumped up a few pounds AGAIN....but then my period unexpectedly started. This month it's a few days earlier than expected, so that explains the weight gain.  I won't be weighing myself again now until after my period is over.

I Lost My Fitbit :(

So sad news: today I lost my Fitbit! :(

I suspect I knocked it out of my pocket as I was walking to work.  I realized it was gone when I got home during my lunch break.  So I went back to work to look for it (and ask if anyone had seen it), but had no luck.  After work I retraced all my steps, and no luck with that either.  So no more step tracking for me right now. :(

Weight Update for July 19, 20, and 22

So last weekend I didn't really watch what I ate.  I went camping with my dad for a night, during which we ate a lot of pepperoni and other meat (I actually felt a bit sick by the end of it - it's more meat than I normally eat).  Before that I didn't track what I had eaten (I did a basal test on Saturday afternoon, then was at my parents for dinner); a few days after I got back from camping I went out to eat with friends (I stuck to the salad bar, but may have consumed more calories than I thought?) I didn't think I had been eating that badly over the whole couple of days, but then I saw this when I weighed myself on Thursday the 19th:

weight: 208.0 lbs
fat percentage: 44.7%
hydration: 38.0%
muscle: 27.3%
bone: 10.7%
cal: 2334

Crap! I thought.  But I know that your weight can fluctuate a bit, so I decided to try again the next day and got this:

weight: 206.2 lbs
fat percentage: 46.5%
hydration: 36.7%
muscle: 26.3%
bone: 10.8%
cal: 2324

The weight was going in the right direction, but the fat percentage was high and the muscle percentage a bit lower than it had been.  But those numbers were taken at 8:30am; I usually weigh myself in the later morning.  So today I tried again, more at my usual time:

weight: 205.6 lbs
fat percentage: 43.7%
hydration: 38.7%
muscle: 27.7%
bone: 10.8%
cal: 2320

I'm glad to see the fat percentage has gone down since the 20th (it's apparently actually under what it was 11th).  Likewise the muscle percentage is back up from the 20th as well.  And of course my weight is heading back in the right direction (not quite where it was at on the 11th, but still).  

Weight Update for July 11

I didn't do a weight update last week because it was my period.  I was going to do one a few days ago but have been struggling with lows in the aftermath of my period.  Today was the first day that I didn't wake up low, so I made sure to weigh myself.  And boy was I happy with the numbers!

weight: 203.4 lbs
fat percentage: 44.1%
hydration: 38.4%
muscle: 27.5%
bone: 10.8%
cal: 2308

I've continued to count calories using My Fitness Pal; because I am on insulin and do go low sometimes, I can't always stay in the target calories My Fitness Pal suggests (plus, you know, I'm human, and sometimes end up eating more than planned, particularly when I'm out with friends).  But I'm doing my best and it looks like it is paying off.  I really like using My Fitness Pal because I'm using it to help me count carbohydrates as well (that's actually my bigger motivation to keep using it - the calorie counter it has is just sort of a bonus, keeping me more aware of how much I'm actually eating).

Surprisingly, my muscle percentage is staying around the same; since being sick I haven't been working out (plus the aforementioned problems with lows have hampered me getting back into that, too).  I'm doing a basal test this afternoon, so my hope is to get myself back into it over the next few days (I'm not going to lie, since stopping it's been hard to motivate myself to get back into it).

Sick! + Weight Update

I've been sick all week. :(

It got to the point where I was nauseous and couldn't/didn't want to eat.  Today is the first day where I actually do feel better, so that's progress. :)

I weighed myself today because I wanted to know how I'm doing.  I haven't been very active and I was concerned I might be losing some muscle:

weight: 206.0 lbs
fat percentage: 44.5%
hydration: 38.1%
muscle: 27.3%
bone: 10.8%
cal: 2323

At least according to my scale I seem to be doing okay.  I'm hoping by the end of the weekend I'll be feeling well enough to get back into my workouts!

Weight Update for June 21

So here we go:

weight: 207.4 lbs
fat percentage: 45.4%
hydration: 37.5%
muscle: 26.9%
bone: 10.7%
cal: 2331

Down a little bit from last week, which is good.  I still feel like I've eaten a bit too much (Father's Day was last weekend, which was a bit of a bigger meal).  Something was wrong in my stomach on Tuesday - not quite sure what happened there, but things seemed better Wednesday after taking it easy.  I was lucky too - I did ok through most of the day, but ended up eating cheesecake at the end of the day with a friend - thankfully that didn't make my stomach worse!

Weight Update for June 14

So I was out of town for a few days (and am on vacation from work right now).  Now that I'm back home, it was time to weigh myself:

weight: 208.8 lbs
fat percentage: 45.4%
hydration: 37.5%
muscle: 26.9%
bone: 10.7%
cal: 2338

I'm not surprised at the weight gain.  I feel like I ate waaaay too much food while away.  I didn't log anything on My Fitness Pal either, so I honestly have no idea what I ate.  

I've got some more dinners to deal with this week, but now that I'm back home I'm going to go back to tracking what I eat.  I was thinking about trying to fit in a fasting day, but I have some yard work I want to do today so I might wait until next week to fast.

Changing One of My Pump's Insulin Sensitivity Factors

Every time I need to change one of my pump's insulin sensitivity factors, I seem to have a really hard time understanding what the heck is going on. This happened the last time I had to change one, too. I spent hours trying to understand the numbers and how to change them, reading articles online and going over the chapter in Pumping Insulin. And today I think I figured out why I have such a hard time: most of the advice I find is talking in mg/dl, while I know (and think in) mmol/L!

This is even true of Pumping Insulin. Overall the book is pretty good about giving you the equivalent mmol/L in the text. But the table that talks about changing your correction factor (Table 12.7) is completely in mg/dl.

I made this discovery when I stumbled on a pdf from Medtronic that talked about setting the Bolus Wizard. The pdf showed me how to make an initial insulin sensitivity factor (ISF) calculation with mmol/L using the "100 rule" (insulin sensitivity = 100/daily total = mmol/L / unit of insulin). Plugging in a few of my numbers gave me the aha moment I needed - suddenly I was dealing with numbers I understood.

So with that knowledge in hand, I looked up the conversion for mg/dl to mmol/L and set about converting all of Table 12.7 in Pumping Insulin. So now I'll be totally ready to go the next time I need to make an ISF change!

And in case you're wondering, you convert between mmol/L and mg/dl using 18. (mmol/L × 18 = mg/dl; mg/dl / 18 = mmol/L).

Weight Update for June 10

I was curious so I decided to weigh myself today.

weight: 206.0 lbs
fat percentage: 44.0%
hydration: 38.5%
muscle: 27.6%
bone: 10.8%
cal: 2323

I've eaten waaaay too much over the last few days (after overeating on Wednesday, I had a nacho party on Thursday, then ended up eating ice cream and pizza unexpectedly on Friday).  So I'm glad to see that things are going okay.  :)

It's my birthday this week though, so I probably won't be getting back to super healthy eating until the following week.  We'll see though!