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!