Tuesday, November 11, 2014

Day 6

Blood sugar:204 (140 pt drop in just a few days)

Breakfast
10 ounces grassfed beef
5 strips bacon

Lunch
6 ounces grassfed beef
1 yellow bell pepper
Ranch

Supper
Green salad
Ranch
6 buffalo wings (ordered 12, didn't care to eat more than 6...what?)

My head was fuzzy all day.  I've read this is normal.  My eyesight is also a little blurry.  Don't know what to think about that.  

Exercise
20 minutes yoga
5 intense minutes kettle bell. 

Sunday, November 9, 2014

Days 3, 4 and 5

So some things have gotten real. 

Thursday I was hungry.  Jittery hungry.  Ate well but was feeling the change.  Friday presented much less concern in this area.  Saturday hunger was GONE.  Totally gone. 

Friday went like this: (morning blood sugar 314, afternoon blood sugar 265)

Breakfast
4 eggs and cheese scrambled in coconut oil

Lunch
2 Jimmy John's #9 Italian Night Club unwiches.  This was good, but next time I need to pick a different sandwich to lower calories.  JJ will become a go-to place.

Supper
First challenge at dinner; new restaurant know for beer, with friends.  FUCK.  Beer.  Avoided it.  Totally.  They do an all day omelet situation.  Ordered mine with feta, smoked salmon, and bacon.  Chose the side salad instead potatoes.  I was happy.  It was delicious.  Win.

Then Saturday rolls around...(morning blood sugar 295)
Needed something on the move and fast so I ordered two bacon, egg, and cheese burritos from a fast food situation.  86ed the tortillas and all was fine.

Late lunch of an egg salad over salad greens at a veggie oasis.  Some taziki with cucumber to start.  Coffee with coconut creamer.  That was about 2 p.m.  Didn't really eat again for the rest of the day.  Went to a cheese shop and had a few samples, not more than 2 ounces.  Ate a handful of macadamia nuts when I got home at about midnight.  Was never uncomfortably hungry.  Felt great.  Such a weird things.

Sunday (morning blood sugar 245...progress is being made)
Still not really hungry in the morning.  Made an shitake mushroom omelet at about about 10:00 a.m.  Used some glorious butter and a Dutch Gouda. 

Decided to hit up an Aldi grocery store in another town.  Ordered an ice tea and a plain beef hotdog, 86ed the bun.  Around 2:30 p.m.  Three hours later I'm hungry and will move to make dinner in the next hour or so, but I'm not beside myself.

Seems like this is working.  OH...I got on the scale on Saturday morning.  I had my fingers crossed for 350.  I actually weighted 334.25.  I'm wearing jeans, a t-shirt, and a fleece that didn't fit a few weeks ago.  Great motivation.  Last winter at the height of my weightlifting and running I was a hair over 315.  I bought a kettle bell today and am going to start a 21 day challenge tonight.  I did this one last winter.  It is an every day thing.  I haven't been lifting so I'm going to do the beginners program. 

Thursday, November 6, 2014

Day 2: the rest of the food

Lunch
1 cup Greek yogurt
2 big pinches coconut
14 macadamia nuts
Cinnamon 

Snack
Cheese stick
4 oz trail mix (peanuts, raisins M&M)

Evening meal
Blue cheese wedge salad
6 oz sirloin
4 grilled shrimp
4 cherry tomatoes
Sautéed spinach

Pre meal blood sugar.  307. 

Day 2: 10 am, blood sugar check, food

Decided that it would be best to check my blood sugar levels through the day based on the high numbers this morning.

Breakfast
3 eggs scrambled in coconut oil
1 avocado
2 tablespoons homemade salsa (corn kernels)
grated part cheese

water

ice tea

morning meds after eating

2 hours later, blood sugar:  331

I noticed that my testing supplies are out of date.  Like 3 years out of date.  I don' know if this can result in false tests.  These are the kind of numbers I was seeing when I was first diagnosed.

Day 2: Blood Sugar/Blood Pressure and Meds

My daily medication regiment has been the same for some time:
1000 MG Metformin, morning and night
50 MG Carvedilol, morning and night
Lisinop/HCTZ 20-12.5 MG, morning and night
Simvastatin 20MB, night

Metformin for blood sugar.  Carvedilol and Lisinop for blood pressure.  Simvastatin for cholesterol.  I have never has cholesterol issues, but my Dr. has all of her type II diabetics on a cholesterol med.  I go in for blood work in a couple of weeks.  The results won't give me a hard baseline as I'll have been modifying my diet, but the numbers should give me some context and a place from which to measure progress.

Blood Sugar (7:00 a.m., 11/6/14, fasting)
340
316
356

I was so surprised by the first number, I tested 3 times.  I have not been monitoring or sugars for a long time.  I was med compliant yesterday and ate very low carb and low sugar.  Further motivation to continue monitoring and eating correctly.  Also something to watch as I go to the doctor in a few weeks.

Blood Pressure
129/90 pulse of 62
113/91 pulse of 63

I am pleased with these numbers. 

Reason to be concerned.  Those blood sugar numbers are significantly elevated.  Strong motivation for vigilance in diet and continuing to monitor.  Must be back on track.

Food plan for the day:
egg and meat omelet for breakfast
yogurt, coconut, and nuts for lunch
steak, salad, and veggies at dinner
snacks?
coconut oil in tea

Wednesday, November 5, 2014

Day 1: Part 2

Having recovered from my morning episode, I gave two lectures back-to-back in the afternoon and felt pretty good.  Not 100%, but well enough to engage the students.

Afternoon snack:
4 meat sticks.   A student brought these by.  I shared one with someone else and ate the remain four in two settings.  Her dad markets them.  Tasty.  I read later that brown sugar is used.  Not the end of the world.
2 cups water

Not sure I ever felt 100%.  Slight headache and tired.  Daylight savings time is impacting me and my caffeine input was low.  Also I didn't sleep well last night.  Too many variables to know.

Evening meal (7pm):
10 buffalo wings
several tablespoons ranch dressing
steak salad, no dressing
2 servings diet soda
4 glasses water

I left work late, didn't have the kids and didn't feel like cooking.  I figured this was the best I could do at the local pub.  Did not eat the bread stick.  Major win.  Turned down candy in the afternoon.  Another win.  Work meeting out tomorrow night.  Steakhouse.  Shouldn't be hard.  I am trying to eliminate soda.  I have continued to read it causes the body to respond as if the sugar was real.  Probably too much sodium.

All in all I feel good for the day.  A morning and afternoon snack will be in order.  Tomorrow morning I'll check blood sugar.  Decided to try swishing coconut oil around in my mouth.  I hear it is the rage.  I don't hate it so far.  

Eat Bacon Don't Jog: an experiment in eating. Day 1 morning.

Grant Peterson, of Rivendell Bike fame, has a new book, Eat Bacon Don't Jog.

http://eatbacondontjog.com

Over the course of the last week I've been visiting with him via email regarding the premise of the book.  I haven't seen a copy so I don't have a global perspective, but the part I'm curious about is the notion that to really control blood sugar one must not eat very many carbs.

I'll expand in future posts, but for now I'm beginning to keep some data.

Meds:  Typical dose (I'll add later)

Morning meal (7:30 a.m.)
4 eggs
5 ounces canned salmon
small handful of grated cheese


All together in a skillet.  Scrambled.  I could only eat about 3/4 of the bowl.  Just couldn't force more down.  Drank 2 cups tea.

Morning snack
I added 1 teaspoon of coconut oil to my thermos of white tea
2 cups tea
1 cup water

Lunch (noon)
1 cup fat-free greek yogurt
big pinch of coconut flakes
10 macadamia nuts
several shakes fancy Vietnamese cinnamon

Just before lunch I experienced what felt like a hot flash.  My face flushed.  My body temperature increased and my stomach felt ill.  I'd been hungry up to this point and intended to eat 30 minutes earlier, but was sidetracked.  Eating helped me feel normal.  A bit worried about teaching this afternoon.  I do not have monitoring equipment at school, but would be interested to take blood sugar during this episode.