Author: LTParis

So I am still in my 1st major experiment phase, trying different things to see "what works" and I had an interesting result with making my first sandwich in a month. I’ve had toasted rye bread before (1 slice) but today I took the plunge and made a sandwich. The result was:

88 mg/dl
122 mg/dl 2hPP
97 mg/dl 4hPP

So I was well within my zone and came down nicely, but was is safe? Is it based on percentages or raw numbers? What if I had a big meal that pushed me into the 150s but came right back down (that was my last pasta test)?

For the past year, and for the next two months, I spend 4-5 days per week in Virgina then travel to go back home in New York. Wash. Rinse. Repeat. I am sure this travel is part of the culprit that led me to a much worse eating habit that helped trigger my Diabetes.

Over the past couple weeks I have been trying to eat healthier with a low carb (20g per meal) diet (I hate the word diet, it seems so temporary). I have made some OK choices, and some meh choices:

Boar’s Head Honey Ham
Kettle cooked chips (I know not the best, but my body tolerates it, I will try to limit)
Arnold 100% Whole Wheat (no HFCS, just started back on a slice of toast this AM)
Eggs and Egg Beaters
Sausage
Salads with Chicken Added
Extra Virgin Olive Oil Balsamic Vinaigrette dressing

That has been the crux of my away-from-home diet. So I am trying to find easy foods to grab that are carb friendly, can be nuked if needed to be heated up, and gives me some more variety in my options.

So I seem to be having a banner day today but it almost has me concerned. Let me break it down and emphasize where I am very surprised at.

9:30am – FBGL 133mg/DL
9:45am – 250mg Metformin
10:00am – Ate eggs and Canadian bacon [4g carbs | 1g sugar]
12:05pm – BGL 109mg/DL
1:45 – Ate black forest ham and potato chips [19g carbs | 4g sugar]
2:00 – Worked out 45 minutes
5:00 – Saw my chiropractor, did shopping
7:15 – Ate a steak, veggies [14.2g carbs | 6g sugar]
7:45 – Ate 1/2 brownie and 4oz 2% milk [26g carbs | 6g sugar]
9:30 – 250mg Metformin
9:45 – BGL 89mg/DL (second test 79mg/DL)!
10:15 – BGL 89mg/DL

Total cals: 1048
Total carbs: 63g
Total sugars: 17g

So I had not intended to have only a 1000 calorie day. Between working from home and not had gone food shopping till early evening. Then to top that off I had 1/2 a brownie and milk and my BGL goes down?

a) Is it part in due because of the low calorie day?
b) Part in due to the exercise?
c) Part in due to the Metformin and testing soon after? I had never tested that close to my med time.
d) Part in due to drinking milk with it adding fat to the mix?

I am confused!

I have been using an somewhat older Freestyle Flash meter that my wife had gotten in her first pregnancy when she was running the risk of gestational diabetes (which she did not get). Anyways it seems that the Flash has been superceeded by a couple new meters, and of course there are other brands as well.

Is the Flash as good as the rest? Compared to the other freestyle line it uses the same blood sample as the newer ones, but you still have to code it which is not a big deal. I do all my tracking on a website (livestrong) so I don’t need trending or really anything but last reading recall just in case.

Should I look at any other meters for my future long term use?

General questions about A1c’s. It is my understanding that the A1c’s are a good "window" into a 2-3 month history of your BGL. My 10.1% reading just before christmas allowed my Dr. to estimate my BGL to be around 230 and a subsequent self test put me in the 245 mark.

So with my FBGL going down quite well I am curious how long does it take a reading today to factor in my A1c’s.

I called my Dr’s office today to reschedule an appointment and to ask him a question about increasing my Metformin doses (see my thread on that). So when we got to discussing my BGL’s the assistant told me that I was doing it wrong, that my testing should be right at the beginning of a meal, not two hours after.

I can see to get a good baseline at the beginning of the meal, but it makes no sense to me why not to test two hours after. This just seems flat out wrong.

I can’t test myself that often especially since I eat smaller, more frequent meals. I would be testing myself at least 11 times a day if that was the case. Originally the Dr just wanted me to test fasting and then after a meal, but I increased that to test my carb sensitives in foods to hone in my diet.

So I am on my 8th day on Metformin, and along with drastic diet changes and now incorporating exercise my BGL are getting better and better:

[big dots are my fasting BGL / Line to show progress path]

Right now I am taking 250mg in the day and 250mg at night. My Dr. right now has a plan to up my Metformin dosage up to 500mg in the day and 750 at night. I am starting to wonder if those levels will be too high for me or if as my Metformin dosage increase if I should include some grains and starches in my diet.

Thoughts?

I was experimenting with a couple different recipes to do something different with pork chops. Now some may stray away from Spaghetti Sauce but since it did not have HFCS I gave it a whirl.

4 Pork Chops, trimmed of fat
1/2 tsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 C Spaghetti Sauce
1 C Water
2 Tbsp Dried Basil
1/4 C Sun Dried Tomatoes
1/8 tsp Tabasco Sauce
Salt and Pepper to Taste

Sear Pork chops over EVOO on high heat in 10" – 12" skillet
Combine all ingredients except sun dried tomatoes, simmer 8 min
Flip pork chops, add sun dried tomates, continue simmer 10 min

So I am a few weeks in knowing that I have Diabetes (confirmed on Monday) and one thing I have noticed during this period is I have lost some significant muscle mass, especially in my shoulders (I had pretty broad shoulders) and in my calves. Seems the hyperglycemia has taken it’s toll on my body in that arena, and I have lost 15+ pounds in the past couple weeks (probably a lot of that muscle).

So I am about to start a regiment of exercise and weight training. My doctor says full steam ahead, and I have worked with weights in the past, but should I be focusing on the area where I have noticeable muscle loss first?

Also with my more rapid weight loss should I be adding more calories in my diet to try to equalize the rapid weight loss. Right now I am consuming 2200-2300 calories per day and on essentially a zone diet.

So over the past week I had been getting the classic signs of diabetes. First the extreme thirst and frequent urination hit me quickly, then I noticed I was getting a lot more exhausted (and I work very long hours, travel, etc). Some symptoms passed but came back yesterday. Today I got some keto-diastix and after 5 samples I have registered somewhere between > 500 ml/dl to 2000 ml/dl for my Glucose and neutral > 5 ml/dl on my Ketones.

To add a couple extra factors to this, right now I am 350 miles from my home and tomorrow is my 36th birthday. *sigh*. Plus I can hope I get to my general practitioner tomorrow so the diagnosis can be confirmed and what actions are required.

So I need to plan out some "emergency" meals to get me through the night and tomorrow which will help me do more good than harm but I am pretty much limited to fast food options. Can anyone recommend some options?