I've been really bad for not keeping this updated...I've written down my numbers for several days through July, but haven't always been great about writing the actual date for those numbers. So here are the ones I'm fairly sure about:
That was nice to see: I maintained my weight before and after my period this year! :)
My activity level hasn't been great over the last while, but that will be changing soon as I'm going back to work (and so will be walking to and from work). :)
Just a quick update on the skin issues I'm having from the Dexcom G6 sensors...my skin reactions are getting worse. :(
What it looked like right when I took the last sensor off. It turned even more red immediately afterwards. :(
But in good news, I was able to get through to a few people from their tech support who were able to help me. Dexcom is aware of the issue and currently investigating it; I don't know how long their investigation will last or what the outcome will be. But they did change the adhesive formula a few months ago (because people were complaining that the sensors weren't staying on for the full 10 days; the new formula is stickier, which also seems to be causing skin problems for some people now).
I'm also consulting with my pharmacist to try to get through the current skin issues (so I can hopefully use the Dexcom sensors now with less irritation). At his suggestion, I've started with trying some tegaderm as a barrier between the adhesive and my skin (I tried it with the Libre, but because the Libre sensors are on your arm, it fell off from all the movement). So far the tegaderm is staying on alright, but unfortunately it's looking and feeling like my skin is still reacting to it.
I had two bandaids to hold it in place when I first put it on. You can see the lines I drew to help me line the sensor up with the hole I poked in the tegaderm for the sensor.
Here's what it looks like right now. I removed one of the bandaids because I needed to see what the sensor was doing (and it was feeling a bit itchy underneath). The adhesive on the right side is actually on my skin (not the tegaderm) and you can already see the skin is turning red there.
I've also ordered Skin Prep, which according to the Dexcom Tech Support agents I spoke with is the most hypoallergenic of the three barrier creams they recommend. So that was really good to know. I'd already tried Skin Tack with the Libre (and it didn't work for that), so that's out. The third one is stickier for people who have issues with their sensors falling off, so that one wasn't recommended for people like me having skin reactions to the adhesive (it'll probably make things worse).
I'm not sure where the 3lb loss came from, but I'm guessing it's been my eating. I feel like I've been eating less, and what I have been eating has been healthier lately. :)
While this Dexcom G6 Sensor was on, I could feel my skin itching underneath. I was hoping it was nothing, but when I took the sensor off (it made it through the full 10 days), the skin underneath was patchy and irritated. Thankfully it's not as bad as the Libre was (yet). But very upsetting that it happened at all. :(
I immediately phoned Dexcom, but their support was no help whatsoever (they told me to talk to my doctor or pharmacist; my doctor and I already tried everything when my skin started reacting to the Libre sensors). I then emailed my nurse asking what to do and whether I should attempt another sensor or not. She recommended that I try it and see what happens.
I didn't end up putting a new sensor in until the next day, giving my skin some time to heal (plus I started moisturizing where I was going to put the new sensor in, on the off chance that might help). I tried another sensor from the same box, but for some reason that one failed immediately. I phoned Dexcom back, and they're sending me a new one as a replacement (we have no idea why this one failed, he asked me a ton of questions and I did everything right when putting it in). At that point, since I have a second box, I took a sensor from that; the new sensor is working fine so far (and no itchiness yet!)
My dad recommended I look online for other people who may have had problems with Dexcom (and what their solutions are). So I hunted around a bit, and stumbled on a post from This is Caleb on the subject; in the comments of that post, someone said they solved their skin irritation by just cleaning the site with soap and water (and letting it dry), rather than using alcohol wipes. The alcohol dries the skin out too much. So I'm thinking I might try that for the next sensor to see how it goes (along with continuing to moisturize the area a lot!)
I now suspect that I originally lost the weight because I wasn't feeling well at that time. But now that I'm feeling a bit more back to normal (these aren't exactly normal times, so I don't say I feel completely back to normal), I must be eating more like I normally do and so I've put a few pounds back on. I also noticed I was eating a bit less vegetables, and the salads I've been making have used store bought dressings (and way more protein) than the ones I was eating in March...maybe I'll need to get back to eating those kinds of salads and see if that helps?
I also haven't been very active over the last week or two. I really need to remedy that, but I've been having a hard time getting myself to be active every day like I planned. I'll really have to work on that this week!
Holy crap! Both my weight and fat percentage have gone down (plus my muscle percentage bumped up to 27%). This is the lowest my weight has been in almost a year!
I honestly think most of this is coming from my eating. I've been eating way more veggies (especially in salads) and a lot less processed food.
So with that said, my goal for the coming week is to get back to doing 150+ minutes of exercise (along with continuing to eat the way I have been!)
So here's the first weight update I'm doing since the covid-19 pandemic started (it's also the first weight update I've done since I updated my age in my scale):
Yes, both weight and fat percentage are down!!! I'm very excited by this (especially since I haven't been feeling well over the last few days and wasn't sure what that would do to me). Hopefully I can keep these two numbers trending downward!
Last week I did a super big ski, probably the most difficult trail I've ever cross country skied. The trail really kicked my butt, but I did successfully complete it (so yay for that!) In the aftermath of skiing (that is probably my last ski for the year because it's getting too warm now), I started doing some research for how much body fat and muscle is healthy. That was actually prompted by me watching a few TED Talks that have been on my Youtube Watch Later list for a loong time. This one in particular:
And this one:
I've been getting body fat and muscle measurements from my scale for years but never really paid any attention to them (beyond thinking more muscle = good and less fat = good). So thanks to these videos, I went looking for more information. For muscle mass, it depends on what chart you look at (for example, this link has a few different ones). For fat percentages, it depends on your goals (athletes will have less muscle than an average person), but around 20% seemed to be the statistic I found for women (which I believe Ogie Shaw mentions in that second vid).
So with that in mind, I weighed myself on Monday morning before 9am (which is a time I never, ever weigh myself - normally I weigh myself after 11am) and got some horrible numbers:
I'm not going to lie: I did not want to share these numbers. They're embarrassing. I know my weight has been creeping up over the last while but 220 is insane. Plus a fat percentage of almost 50%? Holy crap! Not good at all!
(But on the plus side, my muscle percentage is around where it needs to be).
On a whim, I decided to weigh myself yesterday at my normal time. Here's what I got instead:
While it's still not great, it's a lot better than Monday morning!
So I recalculated my BMI, which comes out to 31 with yesterday's weight (which means I'm obese). Plus my fat percentage is at 48.1%, meaning I've got over double the fat I should have. So that means I have a lot of work to do to get these numbers into a healthier place.
Over the last few years I've talked more about getting my weight down to a healthier number. But now I'm thinking I need to work more on that fat percentage too. To do that, I need to make sure I keep my activity level up (hitting my goal of 150 minutes of exercise is going to really help with this), plus eat healthier (the other two goals will help with that, especially if I step up trying new healthy recipes for dinners!)
One other thing that's going to help is if I add in some activity before bed. I remember hearing that exercise before bed makes it harder to sleep, but according to Healthline, that's generally not true. So rather than failing to fit in a workout in the morning now that I'm also trying to fit in a meditation, I'm going to try to fit in a workout later in the day. We'll see how that goes. :)
Alright, a little late, but here's my February goal progress:
1. Workout for 150 minutes a week.
Total success on this one! I think my worst week was either Feb 10-16 when I worked out for only 160 minutes. The other weeks saw 170 (plus two hours of bowling, which I didn't count because you're only active for part of that when it's your turn), 180, and 286 thanks to my family's Family Day skiing tradition (we were out skiing for about 4 hours, and I skied about 11 km that day!) I hope I can keep up this momentum now that winter is ending.
2. No eating chips, chocolate, and other treats at work (with the caveat that I can eat some sweets if I go low).
I didn't do as well on this one. I ate donuts one day (and a lot of them - someone even gave me donuts to take home and I ate them for supper too - not my best eating day!), and ate some cookies in the coffee room another day.
3. Make a new recipe every month.
I made two recipes this month - another muffin from Fuel Your Day, plus a big pot of soup. The soup recipe didn't turn out creamy the way I intended, but it was still pretty tasty!
So that's February. So far March is off to a pretty good start too (thanks in large part to some last minute winter activities) - we'll see how the rest of the month goes!
Looks like I've pretty much held steady since before my period. That's good - I've been eating crap the last few days (and that will continue tomorrow too). Hopefully I can get back to eating like normal on Sunday!
That's a bit better. I know I've been having some issues where I seem to be bingeing sometimes after work in the evening, so I'll need to figure out what exactly is up with that (and make sure I just have healthy snacks like fruit and vegetables on hand in case that happens again). I've also just felt mentally off over the last week or two, which probably isn't helping with those binges either; I think I need to slow down a bit to help improve my mental health.
I thought I'd do a monthly check in this year, just to see how my goals are doing!
1. Workout for 150 minutes a week.
The first few weeks I didn't quite hit that goal (well, one week I did thanks to shovelling snow). But since mid-January I've zoomed passed the 150 minute mark! Jan 13-19 I was active for 288 minutes, Jan 20-26 was 306 minutes, and last week was a whopping 390 minutes! Unfortunately I do think I'll be slowing down a bit from that. I feel like I've been way too busy over the last few weekends from skiing and snowshoeing and just really need some time to hang out at home without plans. So we'll see what happens in February.
2. No eating chips, chocolate, and other treats at work (with the caveat that I can eat some sweets if I go low).
This one's going extremely well! I ate some munchies in the coffee room at work on December 31st (which is technically not 2020!) ;) Then I had some cake on the 14th as part of a going away party (which I will admit wasn't a great plan - I didn't enjoy it, and I ended up fighting a high glucose level afterwards because my carbohydrate count guess was off). I had a few chips that night too (because why not at that point? I don't know, again, I didn't really enjoy them). Since that time I've completely avoided snacking in the coffee room. Last week I even realized that I'm not actively looking for munchies there like I used to. So definitely a win!
3. Make a new recipe every month.
I actually made four new recipes this month! They all came out of Fuel Your Day by Madame Labriski. I actually love having her cookies and muffins on hand as healthier snacks - they're part of what's helping me succeed at avoiding munchies at work, too!
So that's been January! Hopefully I can keep up this momentum for February, too!
Well, I made a mistake tonight. I've been eating really healthy lately, but ended up eating too much pizza and crazy bread earlier today (with some butter chicken thrown in too). Part of the issue was that I was also super tired (and I find it's often hard to stop eating when I'm tired). My stomach is not at all happy with me (too full, and everything isn't sitting well in it). I need to remember not to do this again - while things tasted alright when I ate them, they totally were not worth it.
This is a good sign though - my stomach is used to eating healthier now and doesn't really like fast food anymore. I'll be sure to give it more nourishing foods tomorrow (starting with a green smoothie for breakfast!)
I'm so excited - I've lost a few pounds, gained about 0.5% muscle and lost 1% of fat! This is almost all thanks to skiing and snowshoeing over the weekend (plus that I keep making snacks from Madame Labriski's Fuel Your Day - they're delicious and far better for you than store-bought junk food). I've got plans for more of both over the next few weeks, so hopefully I can keep up the momentum!
Well, weight is still moving in the right direction. But that fat percentage is alarming! That's the highest I can ever remember seeing it (and a full 2 points higher than it was on Jan 2. I definitely need to get moving more!
Thankfully it's not - I've lost a full pound since yesterday. With that being the case, I'll leave things alone for a few more days before weighing myself again. :)
I know, I know, this isn't a great time to be weighing myself. But I wanted to try to keep on top of things to see how I'm doing through the holidays. I've felt tired and a bit stressed from trying to cram everything into the last week. Plus I've been eating far more (and bigger meals) than normal. So first, New Year's Eve:
I've got to get through a few more big meals still, then I should be good for awhile. One of them is Ukrainian Christmas though, and that's going to be a really (starch) heavy meal (although I asked that we add more vegetables in, so hopefully that will help!!!)
I've been thinking on and off about my goals for this year for quite some time now. I knew over the summer that I was going to fail my exercise goal, so I wanted to try something a bit different this year (I have tried for the 60+ minutes of non-walking 2 years in a row now and failed both times). So with that in mind, for 2020 I'm going to:
1. Workout for 150 minutes a week. This will include walking. 150 minutes seems to be the recommended weekly amount for adults. So let's see if I can hit that when I include walking! (Hilariously, if I manage to walk say three times over the week, that's about 90 minutes, so this will mean I need to fit in about 60 more minutes of something else per week - kind of similar to the last few years, but I can just keep on walking this time!)
2. No eating chips, chocolate, and other snacks at work! This is a major problem for me - I snack on all sorts of things in the coffee room at work. I'm going to need to make sure I have healthy snack options there at all times, and that I avoid mindlessly picking on things just because they're sitting on the table in front of me. The one caveat to this is that I can (obviously) eat regular pop or candy or whatever I need to when I'm low.
I'll keep track in my planner of whether I eat any snacks on work days. Again, 80% or better is a success, so if I work 4 days a week on average, that's 208 days over the year; so I need to not eat any snacks on approximately 166 days of those 208 to succeed.
3. Make a new recipe every month. I know I can do this one! I want to take the pressure off of myself, and have a goal that will push me to try new things (and get me to keep using my recipe books) while also being easier to accomplish.
So that's the plan for 2020! Once again I'm going to aim for 100%, but count success as meeting these goals 80% of the time. Hopefully I'll have more success with my goals this year than I did in 2019!
I have had Type 1 diabetes since 1992. I started with insulin injections twice a day, then moved on to 4 times a day with the pens (which totally didn't work for me!) Now, I've been on the insulin pump for years and I definitely won't go back to injections!!!!
