2019 in Review

My 2019 goals were:

1. Eat out only once a week or less.
2. Try 1 new recipe every two weeks.
3. Exercise 60+ minutes (not counting walking) every week.

Don't forget, a success meant meeting the goal 80% of the time.  How'd I do?

Goal #1 was a fail.  Out of 50 weeks (I reviewed this goal in the middle of last week, and since I'd already failed by too much it didn't matter how I did for the rest of the week or this week), I successfully ate out only once or less for 33 weeks, which gave me a 66% success rate.  

Goal #2 is a weird one.  Strictly speaking, I failed because I didn't make a new recipe every two weeks.  But through math, I made a new recipe on 20 weeks of the year, which was super close to a success (77%!)  And if we go by new recipes I made through the year, which was 26, I actually succeeded 100%!  So even though I failed at the goal the way it was written, I'm still quite happy with what I did through the year with it - I made a lot of new recipes. :)

And that brings us to goal #3. I started the year out really strong.  I stumbled a bit in the spring, but got back to it, until everything fell apart in the summer.  I don't think I really wrote about it, but in July my doctor didn't like the number of basals I had programmed in my pump and wanted me to change them.  Due to that, and my diabetes care team wanting me to try the doctor's suggestions for far longer than I wanted to, I was scarily low for several weeks.  By the time I got everything back under control to the point that I could function without being terrified of going low, I had lost my exercise habit.  :(  I've been really struggling to get back to it in the aftermath of my terrible (diabetes-wise) summer. :(  

So due to everything that happened, I only worked out for 60+ minutes (not counting walking) for 22/50 weeks (I reviewed this in the middle of the week last week, and since I'd already failed the goal I decided to just post the results from the incomplete year), or 44%.  :(

So that was 2019.  Tomorrow I'll set some new goals for 2020!

Meditation

I read a book on meditation a few weeks ago.  Apparently there are all kinds of health benefits to meditating, so I've been giving it a solid go.  I've actually fit in two 15 minute meditation on most days; on the few that I didn't (like on Christmas), I still managed to fit in one.  So I'm quite proud of the fact that I'm sticking with it so far.

I don't know if I'm seeing any health benefits yet...but I definitely feel like I've got more energy!  After meditating I feel like I can fit a lot more in than I used to.  Meditating has also helped me get going after waking up in the morning.  I'm not a morning person, so getting myself out of bed is always a hardship.  But if I can drag my butt into a chair and meditate for 15 minutes (or on the few mornings when I've had a REALLY hard time getting going, I've just meditated in bed), I suddenly have the energy to get going for the day!  So whether or not I see any other benefits from this practice, this alone is totally worth it. :)

Weight Update for Dec 25

Merry Christmas and Happy Boxing Day!

I know, I know, I shouldn't have bothered weighing myself on Christmas Day, but I really wanted to know how things were going (after eating waaaay too much on Christmas Eve).  So here are those numbers:

weight: 215.8 lbs
fat percentage: 47.4%
hydration: 36.1%
muscle: 25.9%
bone: 10.6%
cal: 2379

Yup, need to be careful through the remainder of the holidays! Hopefully I won't gain more weight (and make things a bit harder for myself going in to the new year).

On the plus side though, I've got my skis waxed, I'm excited for snowshoeing, and I'm planning on returning to swimming in the new year.  :)

Weight Update for Dec 3 + Basal Test Update

Just a quick weight update from earlier today:

weight: 214.2 lbs
fat percentage: 46.8%
hydration: 36.5%
muscle: 26.2%
bone: 10.6%
cal: 2370

I've managed to do a couple of workouts around some basal tests (workout Sunday + a walk, basal test Monday, workout today + a walk).  Plus I've been carb counting pretty accurately over the last few days thanks to my scale (just not Sunday at dinner, I had to make an educated guess there) and eating a lot more vegetables than I had been over the last while.  All of this has been coming together really well - today I was tired, but feeling really good! :)

Unfortunately I'm not quite sure what's going on with the basals.  I've had to reverse some of the changes that I made because my glucose hasn't wanted to drop below about 9 for the last few days.  I have modified one of my ISFs and carb ratios though to hopefully help with that - we'll see!

Weight Update and Overnight Basal Test for Nov 30

I wanted to see how much of a difference one night could make.  I admit that I had some chips yesterday evening (they were in the coffee room at work and a flavour I really like).  After work I did some running around, and didn't eat dinner until a bit later than normal (finishing up just before 8pm). Dinner was home made turkey rice soup and some sour dough bread.  So it was a bit starch heavy, but nothing really horrible (like more chips).  I wanted to see what things looked like overnight, so 7:43pm was my last bolus. 

When I weighed myself today, these are the numbers I got:

weight: 215.2 lbs
fat percentage: 47.3%
hydration: 36.2%
muscle: 26.0%
bone: 10.6%
cal: 2375

So wow! I lost almost two pounds and one whole fat percentage point, just from getting a good night's sleep and limiting snack foods.

In terms of the overnight basals, I can see that something is going on between midnight and about 2am, when there's a sudden random drop before everything stays relatively level.  

I know that these levels are a bit higher than they should be, but I was just looking to see how much of a line it was - the fact that my glucose stays relatively straight means the overnight basals should be fine if I can get my glucose lower before I go to sleep around 2pm. This is what I was expecting to see (because other nights have looked relatively stable too), so it was nice to get that confirmation.

I was originally planning on eating a meal around now, and doing a basal test over the evening to see what's happening then (the evenings are always the hardest time of the day for me to test - plus I've been going high a lot during them).  But instead I decided to keep going with this afternoon to see how things look until about 5 or 6pm because I've seen some random highs start around 3pm over the last few days.  Hopefully then I can test the evening over the next few days to try to get that sorted out too.  

Weight Update for Nov 29

Wow, okay, everything is kind of going wrong right now...I've been eating horribly all week (lots of treats in the break room at work, plus I was hanging out with a friend a couple of nights and just couldn't stop eating snacks).  I haven't been very active, I haven't been sleeping well, and my stress level has been high (it's kind of been one thing after another).  I was almost afraid to weigh myself, but I did it:

weight: 217.6 lbs
fat percentage: 48.6%
hydration: 35.3%
muscle: 25.3%
bone: 10.5%
cal: 2389

Because so much is just off right now, I'm going to try to get a good night's sleep tonight (and stay away from unhealthy snacks). Tomorrow I'm going to also make sure I fit some sort of workout in (even if it's just for 10 minutes) and continue to try to eat healthier.  Hopefully by the end of the weekend that will help me feel better and get me back on track!

I also bought myself another cookbook which I'm excited to try - it had a really easy healthy dinner in it that I'm going to try making tomorrow (I need the avocado I bought to ripen a bit, otherwise I would have tried it today!)

Weight Update for Nov 7

Not too much to report this week.  Here's my weight from this morning:

weight: 212.6 lbs
fat percentage: 46.1%
hydration: 37.0%
muscle: 26.5%
bone: 10.6%
cal: 2361

I've eaten some Halloween treats (at other people's houses - I've managed to keep my house relatively free of treats) so I'm not surprised that my weight hasn't gone down, but it looks like I'm maintaining my weight from the weekend, so that's good.  :)

I'm also expecting my period to start soonish, so that may make a difference, too.

A Confession and Some Weight Updates

This is really embarrassing...but I haven't been able to sit cross-legged in months. I don't remember when I first noticed it, but it was definitely during the summer in the aftermath of my terrible July.  I haven't written about the specifics here before, but basically my doctor's recommendations (which I was 100% against) completely messed me up, making me go low constantly to the point where I was terrified to do ANYTHING remotely active.  And it was all because he didn't like that I had a bunch more basal rates programmed into my pump than most people do (even though it was working for me just fine).  That was the month where I lost my exercise habit, and have struggled since then to just get back to being active.

While my weight hasn't gone too far up, I've definitely gained a few pounds, which are probably contributing to my inability to sit cross-legged.  Here's my weight from Oct 24:

weight: 214.0 lbs
fat percentage: 46.9%
hydration: 36.5%
muscle: 26.2%
bone: 10.6%
cal: 2369

I didn't write it down, but there was another one in October where I was 215 lbs. :(  Not great.

But along with the weight gain, because I wasn't active, I think my muscles or ligaments or something lost their stretchiness.  I've read that that can happen to people with diabetes, that they lose motion if they're not active. And I guess thanks to what happened in July, that's what has happened to me; now I'm unable to stretch my right thigh well enough to sit on the ground with my legs crossed  (the left one doesn't seem as bad as the right).

I've been really struggling with this over the last month or so, torn between wanting to do SOMETHING to help my body while also, deep down, just feeling despair.  What's the point, if my doctor is the one who got me to do this in the first place (and my diabetes care team went with the doctor's advice and wanted me to keep using his recommendations, even though they clearly weren't working and making my life hell?)  These are the people who are supposed to be helping me, not making me unable to function during my daily life!!!!

To make matters worse, I started noticing that I just wasn't caring as much with my meals. I think the tipping point was this last week (ironically, Halloween, which is when there's candy and chocolate and other treats EVERYWHERE).  I pigged out on cookies at a friend's house at the beginning of the week, plus ate a ridiculous amount of cheeseballs (a giant tub was in the coffee room at work all week and I love cheeseballs and cheezies).  It was so bad, that on Halloween itself, I used all my willpower to not eat any treats (or more cheeseballs).  I succeeded, but the next day had a major relapse: I ate a few chocolate bars at work (due to a low) and spent the rest of my shift fighting eating more, only to hang out with friends after work and binge on treats for dinner (I 100% felt like I just had no willpower left at that point).  I know I'm horrible at resisting food that's in front of me (or that I know is there). And this week just took me well beyond my limits. :(

But on a positive note, I've been focussing on eating healthier this weekend.  I have no treats in my house (I did not buy any Halloween candy that was on sale), have been drinking green smoothies for breakfast, and made a healthy soup for dinner last night (it was full of vegetables - I threw a homemade vegetable broth into my crockpot with sweet potatoes, carrots, a bit of spices, and a shallot, adding a bit of milk at the end and blending it together - it turned out really good!)  Because it's Halloween, I haven't managed to cut treats completely from my diet (I went to a Halloween Party last night and went low, so ended up binging on treats as a result), but I made a point of getting trail mix for both home and work so I have a healthy snack to munch on (I got the trail mix from a container rather than from a bulk bin because the container had the nutritional information, which is great!)

Even though I'm not eating 100% healthy, what I've been doing is already paying off; here's my weight from earlier today:

weight: 212.6 lbs
fat percentage: 46.4%
hydration: 36.8%
muscle: 26.4%
bone: 10.6%
cal: 2361

This was also the first week in a long time that I managed to do over 60 minutes of exercise that wasn't walking (plus I walked to work a few times, too)!  So that's great progress towards getting my exercise habit back! :)

Weight Update for Oct 10

I wasn't planning on weighing myself this week because my period is immanent, but I've also been a bit more active lately and trying to eat a bit better, so decided to anyway.

weight: 212.0 lbs
fat percentage: 46.5%
hydration: 36.7%
muscle: 26.3%
bone: 10.6%
cal: 2357

Yay - the activity and healthy eating is paying off! :)

Weight Update for Oct 2 + One Day Last Week

I forgot to update this blog last week with my weight, and now I don't know which day I weighed myself.  So here's those numbers:

weight: 213.4 lbs
fat percentage: 48.3%
hydration: 35.5%
muscle: 25.5%
bone: 10.6%
cal: 2365

And here's today's:

weight: 213.4 lbs
fat percentage: 46.6%
hydration: 36.7%
muscle: 26.3%
bone: 10.6%
cal: 2365

I've been trying to get myself to exercise a bit more (I totally lost my exercise habit over the summer), and it looks like I'm starting to see a bit of improvement: my fat percentage went down by 2% since last week, and my muscle percentage went up by almost 1 full percentage point! Hopefully I can keep building on this success!

Weight Update for Sept 11

lol, so this wasn't the smartest time to do a weight update...I weighed myself yesterday then my period started.  Oh well!

weight: 214.4 lbs
fat percentage: 47.2%
hydration: 36.3%
muscle: 26.1%
bone: 10.6%
cal: 2371

Weight Update for Sept 5

So things haven't been going very well in terms of me being healthy. I haven't been working out like at all, and I've kind of been doing whatever for food lately (I don't even know what I've been doing to be honest - I ate a ton of cheese last week and bought pepperonis, I had one week where I ate out 4 times, that sort of thing...plus I've had a few days where I was ravenous around 4:30pm, which resulted in me eating waaay too much and my glucose going high in the process). But this week I'm hoping to set the reset button so to speak. I've got a week off of work, so I'm hoping to push myself back into working out most days and eating healthier.  I kicked this off with a basal test today. I was a bit worried that it's too close to my period starting, but nothing seemed hugely out of whack; I'm only making a minor adjustment to my afternoon basal rates, so that was promising).

I also weighed myself on Thursday. Here are those numbers:

weight: 213.2 lbs
fat percentage: 47.3%
hydration: 36.2%
muscle: 26.0%
bone: 10.6%
cal: 2363

This is around where I seem to have been over the last few weeks, so I'm not too worried about those numbers. I do find it interesting though that the fat percentage is slightly down from last time and the muscle is slightly up. 

So here goes nothing - hopefully I'll be able to get myself back on track!!!

Weight Update for Sometime in July, Aug 1 and Aug 22

Whoops, I'm quite behind on posting here.  I weighed myself three days over the last month or so.  One of them was in July sometime (I didn't write down the date):

weight: 211.2 lbs
fat percentage: 46.6%
hydration: 36.7%
muscle: 26.3%
bone: 10.7%
cal: 2352

Then I weighed myself Aug 1:

weight: 213.8 lbs
fat percentage: 48.5%
hydration: 35.4%
muscle: 25.4%
bone: 10.6%
cal: 2367

And finally again today:

weight: 214.6 lbs
fat percentage: 47.7%
hydration: 35.9%
muscle: 25.8%
bone: 10.6%
cal: 2372

Those numbers are definitely moving in the wrong direction! :/

Unfortunately I haven't been taking the best care of myself. I don't think I've been eating *terribly* (well, other than over the last few days). But I haven't been very active at all. I need to remedy that, but have been struggling with little motivation (and I've been super tired lately). I'm not quite certain how I'm going to get myself out of this slump. :(

Weight Update for June 29 + July 5

Whoops, a bit behind on posting these:

June 29:
weight: 211.8 lbs
fat percentage: 47.3%
hydration: 36.2%
muscle: 26.0%
bone: 10.6%
cal: 2356

July 5

weight: 212.4 lbs
fat percentage: 49.4%
hydration: 34.7%
muscle: 24.9%
bone: 10.6%
cal: 2360

I'm a bit worried about the accuracy of my scale; on July 5th the first time I weighed myself, the numbers came up as:

weight: 199.6 lbs
fat percentage: 43.0%
hydration: 39.1%
muscle: 28.0%
bone: 10.9%
cal: 2286

I tried it again because I thought there was no way I could have lost over ten pounds in less than a week!  

There won't be a weight update this week due to my period.  

27 Years!

Oh my gosh, today is the anniversary of when I was diagnosed with diabetes.  I can't believe it's now been 27 years!!!! 

I'm super excited - my parents found a book on athletics and diabetes that I'm not familiar with.  They ordered it for me for my birthday and it will hopefully be here soon.  After the success I had after reading Getting Pumped earlier in the year, I can't wait to see what other advice this new book will have.  Hopefully lots that will help me with my goals of staying active and healthy with diabetes. :)

Anyway, cheers to 27 years, and hopefully many more that remain complication free!

Weight Update for June 25

Wow, where did June go?  I can't believe it's July in less than a week! 

I'm also kind of wondering where my healthy habits went, too.  June is my birthday month; I took my birthday week off of work and went on a vacation with my family, then came home and celebrated.  It was a much needed break, but I ate like crap (lots of munchies over that whole week), and sort of stopped exercising (although I have gone on a few bike rides).  Those habits seem to have followed me as I went back to work.  So here's the damage:

weight: 214.6 lbs
fat percentage: 47.7%
hydration: 35.9%
muscle: 25.8%
bone: 10.6%
cal: 2372

Honestly not *too* bad - my fat percentage hasn't gone up too much, and my muscle is in the same ball park.  

I think the worst thing is that I'm looking at a long weekend that might be promising more of the same, especially if I choose to go to camp.  I'm also not feeling 100% right now, so that's not helping either.  

But I am in the middle of a basal test.  It's been awhile since I've done one and I wanted to see how the afternoon is doing.  As always the worst time of day to do one for me is the evening; I think I might plan to do one on Friday night if this one looks good (and so far it's looking like I'm just making a minor change, so that's great). :)

Weight Update for June 6 + 7

So I weighed myself yesterday, and this is what I got:

weight: 213.0 lbs
fat percentage: 47%
hydration: 36.3%
muscle: 26.0%
bone: 10.6%
cal: 2362

I don't know what's going on (well, besides the fact that my period is expected within the next few days and that on Tuesday I ate a lot more than normal due to getting up early for work and going out for lunch and dinner).  

So I decided to weigh myself again today and see if there was a difference.  There was.

weight: 210.4 lbs
fat percentage: 46.2%
hydration: 36.9%
muscle: 26.5%
bone: 10.7%
cal: 2348

So that's what I'm at right now.  Other than having to deal with a bunch of lows due to being more active (I've been biking this week!) I think I've eaten a lot healthier since Tuesday, so I think that's made the difference. :)

Weight Update for May 29

I knew I probably wouldn't have time to weigh myself today, so I weighed myself yesterday instead.  Here are the numbers:

weight: 208.8 lbs
fat percentage: 45.1%
hydration: 37.7%
muscle: 27.0%
bone: 10.7%
cal: 2338

I'm very happy to see that both my weight and fat percentage has come down since the 24th and 25th! I've made a really big effort to eat more fruit and less processed junk. I even managed to stay away from the chips in the coffee room at work!  I'm especially proud of that - I'm normally really bad for eating things that are sitting out in front of me.  Hopefully I can keep this up. :)

Weight Update for May 24 + 25

So I weighed myself yesterday.  This is what I got:

weight: 211.2 lbs
fat percentage: 46.0%
hydration: 37.0%
muscle: 26.5%
bone: 10.7%
cal: 2352

I've had a bit of a rough week (I wasn't feeling well part way through the week, and after that I haven't slept very well most nights).  So out of curiosity, after a good night's sleep last night, I decided to weigh myself again today:

weight: 212.0 lbs
fat percentage: 47.2%
hydration: 36.3%
muscle: 26.0%
bone: 10.6%
cal: 2357

Yeah...definitely appears that my weight is currently going in the wrong direction!

I know that I need to get back to working out.  I've had a heck of a time getting myself up and out of bed (but again, I haven't been sleeping well, so of course it's difficult to get up and out of bed!) So right now I'm not quite sure what to do other than try to get enough sleep.  Oh, and I've made a point of stocking my fridge up with fruit so I have lots of healthy snacks to help, too!

Weight Update for May 16

My period is over, so here is where I'm at now:

weight: 209.6 lbs
fat percentage: 45.7%
hydration: 37.3%
muscle: 26.8%
bone: 10.7%
cal: 2343

This week, my mom and I also went to a yoga class.  I haven't done a class in forever!  It was rather nice having that class atmosphere again for a night.  

I took yesterday off after the class, then today I was able to get up and do a workout this morning, which was great!  I'm feeling pretty good this week as a result. :)

Weight Update for May 2

I meant to post this last week but forgot.

weight: 209.0 lbs
fat percentage: 45.1%
hydration: 37.7%
muscle: 27.0%
bone: 10.7%
cal: 2339

Not much change from the end of April.  

There's no weight update for today because I'm in the middle of my period.  We'll see how things are going next week!

Weight Update for Apr 26

Wow, I felt like I hadn't weighed myself in awhile, but it turns out I totally weighed myself last week, too!  So here's what I got today:

weight: 209.0 lbs
fat percentage: 46.8%
hydration: 36.5%
muscle: 26.2%
bone: 10.7%
cal: 2339

I'm thinking I'm going to start doing a weekly weight update again.  I know I said I wasn't going to focus on my weight as much this year, but I feel like the weekly check-in used to help keep me on track in terms of thinking about my health and yearly goals.  

Thinking about my goals, I kind of fell off the band wagon.  I had three weeks in a row (Apr 1-7, 8-14, and 15-21) where I ate out two or three times a week.  I also haven't tried a new recipe since Apr 1-7th, and I've been exercising for less than 60 minutes a week since the middle of March (with the exception of Apr 1-7th).  I have still been walking a bit during that time, but walking doesn't count towards my weekly 60 minute total of exercise.

I also had an interesting thing happen the other day at work.  Someone brought in a giant tub of cheeseballs.  I took a bunch home and ate most of them as a snack yesterday.  While I love cheeseballs, they just weren't very satisfying anymore; I felt so much better when a few hours later I ate a home made taco full of black beans.

So I need to make a more conscious effort to get myself back on track.  I'm not sure why, but I've been having a really hard time getting up in the morning (and so not wanting to do any kind of workout).  I'll have to see if I can get myself up a bit better, or else come up with some sort of plan for later in the day (or on days when I work first thing in the morning).

Weight Update for Apr 18

I weighed myself yesterday (since it was after my period), and here are the numbers I got:

weight: 209.0 lbs
fat percentage: 45.0%
hydration: 37.8%
muscle: 27.1%
bone: 10.7%
cal: 2339

So that's good, my weight and fat percentage have come down a little bit since the beginning of the month.  I'm also really glad to see this happening since this last week hasn't been good, eating-wise.  It was a friend's birthday over the weekend, so I went out for dinner.  Then on Monday and Tuesday I was doing some training for work and ate out for lunch on both days.  I also haven't gotten enough sleep over the last week (thanks in part to the training, since I had to be up early on both days compared to when I normally get up). 

Weight Update for Apr 4 + Dexcom!

I weighed myself earlier in the week and just forgot to post it.  So here are those numbers:

weight: 209.6 lbs
fat percentage: 45.9%
hydration: 37.1%
muscle: 26.6%
bone: 10.7%
cal: 2343

I'm not really surprised that my weight has increased a bit, along with my fat percentage.  Over the last few weeks I've been eating out more than normal (only once a week so far, so that's in line with my year's goal, but that's still more than in previous months where I ate out once or twice a month, compared with weekly).  My workouts have also lessened since Mar 18th - on that week I did 10 minutes (but lots of walking), and on the following week I did only 30 minutes (again with a bunch of walking).  Today I just finished a big stretching workout, which brought my total workout minutes for the week up to 60 (in line with my goal), but I did a whole lot less walking.  So I need to try to get myself more active through the week.

I also really feel like I've been eating like crap lately.  Like yesterday when I pigged out on chocolate all day long (that was partially because I was super tired, and so really hungry, but also because I didn't plan well enough to bring healthy snacks with me).  I think in the coming weeks I need to make sure I'm getting enough sleep (where possible), and otherwise bringing snacks with me rather than relying on junk food in the coffee room at work. 

But in other news, last week my Dexcom G5 arrived!  I got it up and running last night, so the first sensor hasn't been on for 24 hours yet.  I tried getting their app working on their phone, but something went wrong and it stopped loading.  Thankfully I decided to get a receiver, too, so I'm just using that right now (which totally works for me).  My thoughts in getting the receiver was that my work won't want me on my phone all the time (plus it would be a temptation to check my phone for other things while at work), I don't want to be on my phone all the time, and when I go camping during the summer I definitely won't want to be on my phone the whole time.  Plus having a second method to view the results is always better than just having one method. 

I've been super impressed with how accurate the G5 has been so far (the first few times I looked last night, it was within 0.2 mmol/L of a blood sugar test, which is phenomenal during the first day!)  I was also very impressed with how easy the sensor was to put on, even with the scary-looking inserter (thank goodness I started getting over my fears of using the inserters back when I had Enlight sensors a few years ago). 

I should also note that when I was purchasing my sensors, I was chatting with the Dexcom rep about the trouble I had with the Freestyle Libre, and he told me he knows of no one who has had skin trouble with the Dexcom.  That's very exciting all on its own!  I hope that remains true for me as well, but only time will tell with that.

Weight Update for Mar 24

I didn't really take care of myself last week.  :/

Over the weekend, I did an activity that was super fun, but left me super sore for a couple of days.  It actually took me by surprise just how sore I was - I mean I survived skiing this winter without getting sore, and even after my first snowshoe of the year I wasn't this bad! 

So I did some stretching/yoga one day, but overall had to just let my leg muscles recover.  By Wednesday or Thursday, I was back to walking (but I could still feel it after about 10-15 minutes walking). 

Unfortunately, in the middle of all of this, I wasn't getting enough sleep and wasn't eating very well.  I had one day where I managed to shovel in 3 doughnuts (unfortunately I wasn't really thinking about them being around and hadn't planned for them at all.  I know I'm really bad for shoveling food in when it's in front of me and that's exactly what happened here).  Then I ate some leftover cake from last weekend. 

By the time Friday hit, I was exhausted and just feeling like crap.  So I took a lot of time this weekend to myself to kind of get caught up on things (I went through a ton of email newsletters I'd been ignoring, and flipped through a couple of cookbooks I checked out from the library).  I didn't make any plans yesterday so I could just stay home and veg.  I also made myself some healthier dinners and snacks in the hopes of getting myself back on track with healthier eating.  At this point I'm still feeling tired, but overall I'm feeling a lot better than I did earlier this week. :)

So with that in mind, I decided to weigh myself to see how things are going on that front:

weight: 206.8 lbs
fat percentage: 44.44%
hydration: 38.2%
muscle: 27.4%
bone: 10.7%
cal: 2327

Not bad.  Now I just need to make sure I get enough rest so I'll be feeling refreshed and ready for the new week. :)

My Period + Green Smoothies

I know I've talked a little bit here and there about my period.  But here's the low down on it: I've always gotten a heavy period (I need both a pad - I use overnights - and a tampon - a heavier one - to get through the heavy days comfortably).  I've also gotten cramps on the first day or two for as long as I've had my period.  To deal with the cramps, I originally had to take Midol (otherwise I was miserable and it was hard to get through the day), but I didn't like the idea of being on medication every month.  After trying a few things out, I discovered that drinking raspberry tea helped me deal with the cramps.  So that's been my period for years: down raspberry tea during the first few days, and use lots of pads and tampons to get through everything.

After doing the 30 Day Challenge the second time, I finally decided to give green smoothies a try.  Betty Rocker is a huge advocate for drinking green smoothies because they're full of lots of great nutrients.  I was a bit hesitant to start drinking them because I wasn't sure what a good liquid base would be for someone with diabetes - milk didn't sound good to me with spinach, and I definitely wasn't going to use any juices.  I ended up finding coconut water, and thought that would be a good thing to try it with.  I've since found that regular plain water works just as good (but you might need a sweeter fruit like mangoes or raspberries with plain water because the resulting smoothie isn't as sweet otherwise).

Now, green smoothies can look really gross, especially depending on what you put in them.  I've found that throwing raspberries in turns the smoothie into a weird brown colour that doesn't look at all appealing (but still tastes really good!) I've been making my green smoothies with spinach because I really like the taste.  I've also tried romaine (which was weird), and kale (which was okay but not as good as spinach in my opinion).

After eating a ton of green smoothies (last month I bought a huge bag of spinach and ended up having to have a green smoothie daily to use it all up), the weirdest thing happened: when my period started, I had no cramps!!!  It was honestly such a weird sensation that I didn't know what was going on at first because I always have cramps!  The first time I thought it was a weird fluke, but nope: this is now the third period I've had in a row that was cramp free!  And the only thing that I've changed diet-wise is that I'm eating more spinach thanks to green smoothies! :)

Weight Update for Feb 28

It's the last day of the month! I can't believe it - where has February gone???

Anyway, here's my weight update:

weight: 208.2 lbs
fat percentage: 44.6%
hydration: 38.0%
muscle: 27.3%
bone: 10.8%
cal: 2336

Ugh.  It's so frustrating to be going back up slightly with my weight - I seriously thought/hoped it was moving slowly downwards. :/

Last night I stumbled on the weight loss program of Dr. Goglia.  I took his free assessment and was told my metabolic type is that I'm fat/protein efficient.  So that started me on a whole round of Googling metabolic types and trying to figure out what that all means.  Assuming that is true, I most likely have an endomorph body type and am better suited to eating fats and protein.  I think I'm going to send an email to my dietitian to learn a bit more about this (and just to see what she thinks about the whole thing).

Weight Update for Feb 16

Before heading out snowshoeing yesterday (and before getting ready/eating), I decided to weigh myself:

weight: 205.8 lbs
fat percentage: 43.8%
hydration: 38.6%
muscle: 27.7%
bone: 10.8%
cal: 2322

Even though I had a week of dealing with lows (and not exercising much), I've been feeling pretty good and these numbers reflect it: I've lost a bit of weight and fat percentage, and gained a touch of muscle.  So that's pretty exciting!  

What was even more exciting was that I wasn't sore after skiing on Friday and snowshoeing yesterday.  Considering that was my first time skiing for the year and I've only been out snowshoeing once this year (Jan 1st, so a month and a half ago), I thought that was pretty awesome! :)

Best Skiing Success Ever!!!

So I didn't mention it earlier, but the other night I read Getting Pumped! An Insulin Pump Guide for Active Individuals with Type 1 Diabetes by Michael Riddell. I've had the book for some time and just never got around to reading it.  Well now I really wish I had read it sooner - following Riddell's advice, I had my best night of cross country skiing ever!  I used basically the strategy I've used before, but tweaked it a bit thanks to some suggestions from the book.  Normally I started off with a really high glucose in the hopes that it would get me through an hour of skiing.  Today I managed to start off at about 8.8 mmol/L, and my glucose stayed around the 8-9 mmol/L range until right near the end of the ski.  It was awesome - I felt so good!!!!  I seriously didn't think this was possible! :D

Crazy Lows :(

Oops, I forgot to post this....

Last Wednesday and Thursday were a bit of a nightmare thanks to my blood glucose going low A LOT.

On Wednesday, I walked to work.  When I was just about at the parking lot, I felt the G4 buzz, giving me a low glucose warning.  I'm not sure what was going on, but it took almost an hour for me to get my blood sugar level back up to a comfortable level (and to feel better).  Later that day I went low two more times (when I got home during my dinner break, and later during the night), but both I was able to treat very quickly without any problem.

Then on Thursday, the lows continued.  I went low again when I got to work (but I was able to correct it much faster this time), and again when I got home during my dinner break (I think this one was also thanks to all the shovelling I had to do - again, treated it without a problem).  Then while back at work, I ate dinner around 6:30pm - my glucose was fine, and I knew the carbs.  But for some reason I went low within about a half hour, and couldn't bring my glucose back up no matter what I did!  I ended up eating an obscene amount of food (which included most of two 710 mL bottles of regular pop), and my glucose wasn't over 5 mmol/L until almost 10pm!  (Thankfully coworkers drove me home from work!)

So starting on Friday, I decided I was going to try to figure out what was going on.  Over the following six days, I did A LOT of glucose tests.  I fixed some areas where I was going low, and unexpectedly found a few others.  As of today (Feb 15th), I thought I had most of the problem areas ironed out, but then I unexpectedly went low at a few other times today.  So it's still a work in progress, but I'm not doing as many tests right now because I need a break and wanted to actually go out skiing and snowshoeing this weekend.  I'm going out skiing tonight because I want to see what exactly happens (and I currently have the Dexcom G4 sensor to help me out).  So we'll see how things go....

Weight Update and Trialing the Dexcom G4

Alright, so I was sick last week (I felt a cold coming on, but thought I'd be okay - then at work on Thursday night I got super cold and that brought out the full blown cold for the weekend).  I lost my entire weekend (I was hoping to go snowshoeing and skiing!) :(  To make everything even more fun (that's sarcasm), my period also happened over the weekend.

So my period is over and the cold is pretty much gone. So it's time for a weight update:

weight: 207.8 lbs
fat percentage: 44.7%
hydration: 38.0%
muscle: 27.3%
bone: 10.7%
cal: 2333

Very comparable to January 25th.

In other news, I am currently trialing the Dexcom G4.  My diabetes care team had a sensor for me to try - we're wanting to see if my skin will react to the adhesive or not.  I've had it on for a few days, and already I like its placement a lot more than the Libre - you wear Dexcom sensors on your abdomen, which means random people won't see it and rudely ask what it is.  (I really hated that about the Libre - a lot of people asked me, so I wore longer sleeves while going out or working).  We'll see how it goes over the next while. :)

My Last Freestyle Libre Sensor

After cancelling more orders of Freestyle Libre sensors, I had just one left from the last order I received a few months ago.  As I mentioned in my last post about the Libre, I made an appointment with my doctor to see if he had anything else to suggest I try.  He said we had gone through most of the topical steroids (and that Clobetasol was one of the more powerful ones, so if that didn't work, there wasn't really much else).  I told him about talking to my diabetes team (and that they contacted the Freestyle Libre rep); my doctor agreed that Benadryl wasn't the answer.  

As a last ditch effort, and since I had the one remaining sensor, my doctor gave me a prescription for a tacrolimus ointment.  Tacrolimus ointments are used to treat eczema.  On Saturday, I put some of the ointment on my arm, figuring I would put it on 10 minutes before putting the sensor on.  I marked my arm with a sharpie to make sure I knew where the ointment was.  After ten minutes I alcohol swabbed a patch in the middle, and got ready to put the sensor in as my cleaned skin dried.

This was around when things started to go wrong.  I somehow missed the alcohol-swabbed patch of skin, putting the new sensor kind of through the remaining patch of ointment.  Here's a picture to show you what happened:

You can see that the majority of the tacrolimus ointment is above where the sensor was placed.

Yeah, not ideal.  I think what happened was that I mistook one of the many moles I have on my arm as one of the sharpie marks.  So yeah, not exactly ideal placement.

So that night while attempting to sleep, I'm not entirely sure what happened, but I woke up with a sharp pain where the sensor was.  Then during Sunday afternoon, the sensor just failed.  I pulled it off and it was covered in blood (which is not at all normal for these sensors).

The sensor itself was also horribly bent.  So whatever happened during the night must have pulled it out of my skin or something.

This sensor was in my arm for less than 24 hours.  And once again you could see the tell-tale ring of where my skin was reacting:

What I find interesting about this one is that the ring is there even in the spot where there definitely was some ointment protecting my skin (in the picture we're talking the part closest to the viewer, on the left).  So I can pretty confidently say the tacrolimus ointment wouldn't have helped even if this sensor had lasted.

In a way I'm kind of glad this sensor failed when it did.  My arm continues to be itchy, and was kind of leaking arm goo in a few places (although that might be thanks to scratching it too).  Had the sensor lasted any longer than it did, my arm would have once again been a mess under it.  So at least this way, the sensor is off and my arms can now fully heal because I won't be shoving more Libre Sensors on them anymore.

Dancing

When I first started this blog, I used to enjoy dancing.  I'm not really good at it, but I think dancing is really fun.  I bought a bunch of dancing exercise dvds, like Dance Off the Inches and a few Crunch dancing dvds.  I also used to play DDR a lot, because it's a really fun workout. 

But over the last ten years (almost exactly - the last dancing post was from Jan 2009), I stopped dancing.  I don't really know what happened; dancing just stopped being something that I did for some reason.  :(

I did try zumba in 2013 and 2014, but didn't really talk much about it for some reason.  That was probably the last time I was regularly dancing.  I stopped (even though I enjoyed it) because I was frustrated that the instructor would sometimes cancel the class because not enough people showed up; that didn't work for me because I had to back off on insulin to get through the class.  If there was no class, I was left with my glucose going high and feeling like crap.

So after that I kind of just stopped thinking about dancing, but then earlier this week, I read a book where the main character danced a lot.  Her dancing reminded me more of martial arts (but I know martial arts can be compared to dance in a lot of ways, so that really wasn't a big deal).  While reading the book, I started wondering why I had stopped dancing; I started thinking that maybe I should start again.  For one thing, I haven't been doing a lot of cardio, and dancing is good cardio.  But more importantly, it was something I used to really enjoy. 

So I decided to try adding some dancing back into my life.  I still have all my exercise dvds, and DDR.  Plus there's nothing wrong with just throwing some music on and dancing for awhile.  So all this week, I kept thinking about doing some dancing; on Thursday night, I finally actually did some!  I put 10 Minute Solution Fat Blasting Latin Dance Mix on, doing two 10 minute workouts. Then yesterday I played DDR Universe 2 for a half hour and wow was it hard!  I haven't seriously played DDR in years (I've just played a few songs at the show's arcade every here and there).  The last time I played Universe 2, my weight was actually under 200lbs, so that was kind of shocking to see - I could probably move a lot faster as a result, lol!  As much as I know that I sucked (the game kept telling me afterall, lol!) it felt really good to play again. :)

I don't have a set plan yet for how much I want to be dancing every week; right now I'm just going to try adding it back into my life and see how things go.

Weight Update for Jan 25

Nothing too exciting, just a weight update:

weight: 207.6 lbs
fat percentage: 44.8%
hydration: 37.9%
muscle: 27.2%
bone: 10.7%
cal: 2332

I'm happy to see that my weight has gone down a bit after the holidays - it's back to exactly what is was on December 20th! :)

Bad News About My Libre :(

So I met with my diabetes team and showed them what's been happening since the fall with my skin and the Freestyle Libre.  They had no other suggestions for me, but were going to talk to the Freestyle Libre rep about it, to see if he had anything else to suggest.  Unfortunately no, not really - the only suggestion was to take Benadryl, use the flovent, and cover the sensor with vet tape (but not covering the hole at the top).  I've taken Benadryl in the past and it makes me super drowsy, so in my opinion that's not an option for everyday life. 

So I'm going to make another appointment with my doctor to see if he has anything else to suggest.  If not, I may stop using the Libre. I don't want to be damaging my skin like this (and risk my skin thinning because I keep having to use steroid ointments to heal the rashes), even if it does give me better control. :(

Weight Update for Jan 17

Here's my first weight update for the year! Now that I'm done all the celebrating from the holidays (and feeling better after being sick), I wanted to see how I was doing in the weight department.  I know I said I wasn't going to focus on my weight this year, but I decided I should still keep an eye on things (to make sure I'm not gaining massively). Plus I'm trying to watch my cat's weight, so I figured I might as well weigh myself while I was weighing him. 

So here's what I got:

weight: 209.8 lbs
fat percentage: 45.1%
hydration: 37.7%
muscle: 27.0%
bone: 10.7%
cal: 2344

A little bit up from last time, but that's okay - I did just make it through all the holidays and some illness.  On the plus side, I have managed to keep up with doing a small workout on most days, so that definitely helped me get through the holidays ok! :)

Freestyle Libre Update

Hmmm, I seem to have missed writing about my last sensor.

On Christmas Eve, I ended up taking it off.  I don't remember the details exactly, but it was starting to fall off and lasted about a week. 

That's what it looked like.  Angry, but not as bad as it has been at other times. 

I decided to give my arms a week off before putting a new sensor in.  I was going snowshoeing on New Year's Day so I wanted to have a new sensor in for that (it's so much more convenient checking your glucose with the Libre when you're outside than with a traditional glucometer).  I wasn't sure if it was a good idea or not, but I decided to try putting Clobetasol on an hour before putting the sensor on, then some Flovent on ten minutes before.  My reasoning was that the Clobetasol seems to be helping my skin heal up after the fact (the layers underneath the first one seem far healthier with the Clobetasol than with anything else), and Flovent seemed to make my arm the least angry when the sensor is actually on.

Surprisingly, that actually kind of worked.  Yes, my arm was itchy for most of the two weeks.  But the sensor stayed on through the whole period of time - this is the first two week Libre sensor I've been able to wear in a long time!

Look at that - far less angry than anything I've seen in months!!!

Hopefully it will heal up quickly, too.

For the next one, I asked my doctor if I could try Fluticasone because I had read good things about it online.  So I put a layer of Clobetasol down again first, then the Fluticasone on top.  Again, I'm not sure if that's a good idea or not, but we'll see how long it lasts and what my arm looks like underneath it once the sensor falls off (or finishes). 

I've Been Sick :(

Not too much to say right now because I've been sick all week. :(

I did manage to fit in some light exercise though (I wasn't in the mood for anything super strenuous).  I also spent the week mainly eating soup so I didn't go out for dinner.

2019 Goals

Happy New Year everyone!!!!

I've put a lot of thought into what goals to set for the next year.  As I said last year, I do better with goals that are broken down and measured in some way.  But I think I need more of a plan in place than I've had because last year I failed to keep track of my eating out goal, and I just didn't have motivation in place to get myself out walking (or to workout during the summer months when my place got too hot for the workout I did during the spring).

I also decided that I don't want to focus on my weight as much this year.  Instead I'd prefer to focus on living a healthier life.  So with that in mind, here are the goals I decided to work towards for 2019:

1. Eat out only once a week or less. 

I'm going to track this in my new planner.  I'm also going to buy a better white board for my fridge (the one I have doesn't erase very well) and I'm going to write when I eat out on it to help remind me (and hopefully help me say no to going out more often).

I'm a little worried about this one because I have a hard time saying no to people that I want to be hanging out with. I'm really hoping that committing to keeping better track will help!


2. Try 1 new recipe every two weeks. 

I have a lot of cookbooks with healthy recipes that I've never tried making.  So this year I'm going to actually try some of them!  I was thinking of making a new one every week, but that felt a bit daunting, so I'll give one every second week a try and see how it goes!


3. Exercise 60+ minutes (not counting walking) every week. 

I like this goal because it gets me doing things other than just walking.  Plus right now this will work out to being one Ten Minute Solution workout a day (with one rest day a week).  That doesn't sound too hard!  But I know I've had trouble staying on track with this goal (especially during the summer months) so I'd like to see if I can get through the whole year this time!

So that's the plan for 2019.  Like last year, I'm going to aim for 100%, but count success as meeting these goals 80% of the time (which is going to be important for the first goal because there are certain times of the year when eating out happens more often, like around the holidays and birthdays).  Hopefully I'll have more success with my goals this year than I did in 2018!