tools

Double Take

I’ve decided to double track some key elements of my plan for the time being. The Omada scale does not send data back to Apple Health so I’m using the Withings as well. This will help calibrate the scale as well as get it tracked in the Health app. Today, the Omada scale was off by a lot. It may be the placement on the floor, and will check tomorrow.

The food tracker in Omada is conversational. You describe what you ate and then specify size and relative healthiness. Until I am comfortable with that method, I’m still adding to FitBit as it gives rough estimates on the makeup of the food. Omada is for the long haul, but the other helps build the muscle on food makeup.

Also, I dug out an old Fitbit Flex that I got free with a Windows Phone. About 6 years ago. Give or take. I want to use that for tracking sleep. Got it fired up yesterday and it worked like a champ. The band was a little strange from sitting in the box for so long. I rubbed off the coating and washed it. Seems fine. This will let me understand how I sleep.

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.

Stabbing My Fingers

I am getting used to testing my blood sugar. It’s a little tricky to get the right place on the finger that will generate a decent amount of blood. The depth of the poker (need to learn the real names of the equipment) matters as well. Too deep on small fingers is not ideal and too shallow on the bigger fingers won’t yield enough blood for the test.

Then there is the damn e-4 error on the Accu-Chek. This happens when you don’t get the blood in the end of the sample strip quite right. It really needs to wick the blood into it. I’ve used several of those getting the process down. Another week and I should be able to do it on auto-pilot.

The MySugr app makes it easy to capture and track. Next is really understanding what contributes to higher levels. Especially overnight. To help with this I started loosely tracking my food. I’m using the FitBit app to do this. Back in 2010 when FitBit was first becoming a thing, I used the food tracker extensively, It has a good database and is easy to use. This will help jog my memory when piecing together food/drink and blood sugar levels.