Month: March 2020

Goals

What am I working towards?

There is a lot to unpack here. In the questionnaire from Omada (still don’t have my circle setup yet) there was a question about why I was doing their program. I started that answer with a very simple statement. To live. There is a lot that goes wrong if diabetes goes unchecked. Ultimately death. So fairly motivating.

There was an article in Diabetic Living (Eat to Beat Diabetes issue) that focuses on building a Wellness Plan. There is a bunch of good information up front that I will likely internalize and write about as well. There is a section on goals and a series of questions to guide you in the process.

  • What does my ideal wellness look like in 1, 3 and 5 years?
    • In 1 year, I really expect to have dropped a significant amount of weight. My initial target is to lose about 90 pounds. I expect my AC1 and trigs to be in the normal range.
    • In 3 years, I will have maintained the weight loss, build endurance and muscle mass. Maintaining all of my numbers at this point.
    • In 5 years, I would like to have moved back out of T2D. Not sure if that is possible at this point, but I should know one way or the other.
  • What activities am I happily engaged in once I reach my ideal level of wellness?
    • I will be doing regular walks (possibly running) and hiking.
    • I expect my tennis game to be much improved.
    • All of this with a natural “flow” not herky-jerky.
  • How do I look, what am I wearing and what new habits have I adopted?
    • I will look smaller, with a proportioned body.
    • I have a pretty generic style of dress and may look to spruce it up a bit. Not sure what that might look like, but that is a good one to consider as I progress.
    • I will have adopted a normal pattern of eating the right type of food in the right proportions. I will have a very good understanding of what makes up the food I eat – anywhere.

What’s Next: Wellness Vision

Diabetic Retinopathy

There are days when I get up my vision is blurry and I might be overly sensitive to bright light. This normally starts to clear up by late afternoon/evening. I had no idea what was causing this and would just push through these “eye days” knowing it would pop back to normal.

Sometimes, it feels like there is a grain of sand in my eye as well. I’ve gone to an eye doctor a few times for this and they found nothing. They would ask if my eyes itched and I would reply “not really” and we move on.

Flash forward a few years and I realize part of this is allergy related. Seems so obvious now but it was quite a revelation. Armed with OTC drugs and nose spray things are better. There are days were it will still pop up, but not as frequently.

Today I woke up and am having a bit of an eye day. I write this hunched over my laptop so I can read what I’m typing. We have my kids cat here as well which might be a contributing factor. All of that aside, I was thinking about my high blood sugar numbers yesterday. Would there be any short-term impact to my vision?

Diabetic Retinopathy
Disease of the retina caused by diabetes that involves damage to the tiny blood vessels in the back of the eye.

So, I’m not sure, but maybe. There is definitely a long-term issue. But how much might be impacted by a high blood sugar day is not clear to me. More research is needed, but I will track this in the meantime.

Moderation

Today was interesting. My first day working from home (thanks COVID-19) and I didn’t eat lunch until about 3:00p. Well, by this point I was HUNGRY and got some Kung Pao Chicken from Pei Wei.

There is one close to work that I eat at a fair amount of time. I eat an original (vs. small) and usually a spring roll. Today I left off the spring roll because of my focus.

However, old habits and waiting too long to eat led to me eat the entire entree. I wasn’t paying close attention to feeling full. There is about 1300 calories in that dish – easily two meals. Focus is key. Listening to the body is critical.

Eating that type of meal at that time of the day meant that I was not super hungry into the evening. I did have a slice of bacon and an apple. Working from home also changed my blood test habit as well. I forgot and ate the bacon and then did the test. Because of the bacon and possibly the large meal in the middle of the afternoon when I did the test it was sky high.

This is most certainly a journey that needs a fair amount of attention.

Bananas

I was going to grab a banana on my way to work and thought let me check the nutritional values. In the past I have always been good with eating any and all fruit, by T2D is making me check my thinking.

So, I tool a little look at what’s in a banana.

And decided to do some research before eating it. Mostly due to the sugar. My understanding is that fruit sugar is better than refined sugar, but that seems like a lot.

Most of the sources indicate it’s ok 🙂 The warnings are about fruit juice and dried fruit. But moderation is the key. At some point today I’m eating that banana.

Status

Late Night

I tested my blood sugar this morning and it was lower than it has been for the last few days. What did I do differently:

  • Stayed up later
  • No fruit after dinner
  • 1 sugar-free popsicle (vs 2/3)

Tracking my intake will hopefully help me with awareness!

Dawn Phenomenon

I’ve only been testing my blood level for a week now, but have been a bit surprised when testing in the morning. The results have been higher than the tests before dinner. Since I have not been eating or drinking into the evening it was one of those things I needed to dig into.

What gives? Apparently hormones. Your body kicks things up a notch in the morning to make sure you have enough energy to get going. This comes from the liver, which acts like a glucose warehouse that works to release what you are using overnight. The challenge is if your body does not create enough insulin to let the liver know to stop or it can’t effectively communicate with the liver with the same result.

What can be done – track closely the food you eat and when as well as when you are taking medicine. Skill up and make the required adjustments. I am getting into this habit now. As you might expect this can be a variable process and takes time to get to the right levels.

Note: This is just the beginning of my research into this topic. It is very high-level and will likely need some corrections, but it gets me started.

Status

Omada

I was reading up on diabetes and came across the term Certified Diabetes Educator and that talking to one is a good idea. I checked at work and found that this is covered by my insurance. I registered, verified that I was a fit for the program and was enrolled. And it is a full program.

  • Professional health coach for 1-1 guidance
  • Connected devices (scale, blood pressure or glucose meter)
  • Weekly interactive lessons
  • Online community of peers

After getting accepted, I did a questionnaire to help them understand me, my goals and more importantly my commitment. I answered the questions honestly and without any editing. I should have saved the answers – would have been good to put here.

There is a lot to like about this program. Another level of accountability with the potential to learn a ton. And have professional resources to answer the questions that the academic information may not cover. Looking forward to seeing how this works. I’m debating to try to use the app now rather than waiting for them to send me all the info…we’ll see if I can wait.

International Women’s Day

Today, my wife earned a special Apple Activity Award for exercising outdoors for at least 20 minutes. It was in honor of International Women’s Day. She chose to do an outdoor walk. I went with her. We walked and jogged about 3 miles.

The image below shows the path we took. It was a little path by one of the lakes in the area. Each lap was 0.25 miles. Not ideal, but we alternated walking and jogging around each lap. Until the end when we did a few walking for cool down. The image below is from the Apple Health app. The app does a nice job of showing your stats and the fun items like this make you want to do more.

Just a note, I did not get the special award. Likely because I’m not a woman. I was happy to be outside with my wife … moving.

Update: The 2020 award showed up in my list.