Author: raffi

Having gotten sick and tired of our bathroom scale (two consecutive measurements off as much as 5lbs) we bought a balance beam scale (like the ones you see in the Dr office).

This morning, I weighed myself and then calculated my BMI . 24.86!

:party:

I hit the normal range on the chart.

:thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

Oh ya, I’m "normal" (at least in this one small way)

:dancing2:

And this after our church’s winter feast last night!

:dancing: :dancing: :dancing:

The feast is another reason to celebrate, with home made bread at the table, unknown dressing on the salad, stuffed baked potatoes, and a dessert table that could not be ignored, I figured I would just try to limit the spikes.

I might be a little obsessive, but I tested every 1/2 hour after starting and I never saw a number above 98! I even compared that meter’s reading to another one this morning to make sure it was not suddenly reading way off.

:eating: :five:

Let’s hear it for moderation and a pancreas that still has a little spunk left.

Thanks for letting me happy dance in here. I promise to try to be "normal" in the rest of my posts.

I saw the Dr. today. 6 months post DX 3 months post stopping my meds. I had blood drawn on Tuesday and was talking to the Dr. today to go over the labs and let her know I had stopped the meds.

The good:

The Dr. was thrilled with my progress and take charge attitude. She thought I had lost enough weight (touching the normal/overweight line on BMI), I think I should keep doing what I’m doing and not worry about more weight loss for a while yet.

The labs were within normal ranges right down the line (LDL slightly up for normal but good for someone with D).

A1c: 5.7
Fasting: 89
HDL: 50
LDL 119 (VLDL: 11)
Trig: 53

After looking at me and talking over what I had been doing, she said I should be teaching a class. 🙂 She really wanted to know some details since few of her patients have had this kinds of success.

She was quite surprised when I said I was not trying to loose weight. I had just started eating right and the weight was coming off. With that, she did not finish the warnings about many people who loose weight and put it back on again.

The Bad
All three of my meters registered lower than the lab taken just before my blood was drawn.

Contour: 82
Wavesense: 85
TrueBalance: 88

OK, this is actually not too bad, all three were close to each other and within 10% of lab.

I’m a little disappointed with my a1c, not that it is bad, just that it is higher than expected from what I have seen with my meter and higher than the Bayer a1c I took that morning to see how close they were (Bayer was 5.3). Still, I’ll take it.

Looks like I could bring up my HDL and lower my LDL more.

OK. looks like I’m having to reach to find something bad, should have tried a different subject line. 😀

No Ugly
I had no idea how the Dr. would react to my going off meds without talking to her first. The long and short of it was after hearing I’d been off for 3 months with an a1c of 5.7 was she said you proved you could do it.

I also found out that she is as annoyed as I am about the high carb diets pushed by the D educators and ADA. She also seems to be up to date on news in this field.

It was a very good appointment.

What a day, you’d think I was diabetic or something…

My BG was 70 when I got up and I was doing my normal breakfast thing, moca followed by plain yogurt when I get to work, and on the way in (less than 1/2 the moca gone) I started to feel a bit shaky. This being a new one for me I did not know if I was going high or low or just coming down with something. Normally, I can loose up to 10 points off my BG after breakfast and Rarely seem more than a 10 point rise.

When I got to work I tested and got 98, that’s the first time I’ve seen a 30 point rise from 1/2 cup of moca (no yogurt yet). I decided to set the moca aside and have my yogurt, I felt I really did need something. 1/2 hour later I was at 123, but the shaky feeling was subsiding. 1/2 later I was at 78! and 1/2 hour later at 80. Pre lunch, but post plain yogurt snack, I was at 93. 45 minute pp and I was at 72? Lunch was 1/4 cup of rice, some meat and a salad. What is going on today?

A couple of hours after lunch, I took my normal walk. Even though I was feeling OK after the walk, I though things were odd enough today to check. First reading was 56! I have never seen something that low, so I tested again from the other side of the finger and got 68. OK, that a bit low, but decided it did not need treatment.

I do realize that none of my numbers where terribly high and none (except maybe the 56) were terribly low, but I don’t normally move more than 20 or 25 points. If it were not for the fact that I felt a bit off, I would assume the meter was freaking out. I will have to see what my other meters say when I get home. Also, I stopped taking any meds almost 3 months ago, so I’m controlling only via diet and exercise.

I guess this is more of a rant against the gremlins than a plea for help, but this is my first dance with the little buggers since I my DX.

I recently realized that Kahlua has quite a few carbs. 😡 I have been making the occasional White Russian, and even though it has not been spiking me, I thought I’d look into low carb Kahlua substitute. The following is attempt #1, I modified a recipe I found on the net. I think attempt #2 will use smaller amounts until I get things the way I want…

2.25 cups of water, coffee for about 4 cups of coffee ground to a powder. 8 servings of stevia and 2 cups of Vodka.

Boil the pulverized coffee in the water (at least 1 minute after it hits a rolling boil). Let the coffee settle a bit and then pour about 2 cups worth into the 8 servings of stevia. Let cool and add to 2 cups of vodka.

For a first attempt, it was not bad, but I found it a little too sweet and a little too strong on the coffee flavor. Next time I will try about half the coffee and 2/3s the stevia.

Does anyone one else have a recipe they like?

Last year, for my birthday (~7 mon pre dx), I had one of my favorite meals. BBQ ribs and rice. There might have been a salad, I don’t remember. I ate a plateful of ribs and rice covered with extra BBQ sauce. I had a couple of pieces of cake and a few scoops of ice cream for dessert.

I had recently been having trouble with a new pair of jeans (36") that seemed to have been manufactured on the small side. I dreaded going to the bathroom at work, because it was not trivial to get them closed up again. No big deal, they’d stretch soon enough.

Yesterday was my birthday again and I had the same meal, kind of. The plate of rice smothered in BBQ sauce became 1/4 cub of rice that I mixed in with my normal veggies. The ribs became a single, very tasty, rib and I did eat a bit extra by having salad as well as my veggies. I decided I wanted to have the normal cake and ice cream, I wanted it to be a pretty normal time for the family. I had 1/4 cup of ice cream and a thin slice of cake. Wow that seemed like I had really splurged, but testing several times after the meal showed I never got over 119 and was down to 107 by 3 hours PP.

My wife game me new jeans for my birthday, these are 34". They close up just fine, they might even be a bit roomy. My inlaws gave me a shirt L (my XLs were getting snug last year) and it fits great.

So, did I feel deprived? I honestly did not. I felt better after eating. I had "the same" meal and I do not seem to have harmed myself. Too bad I did not have a clue before I pushed my body over the edge.

With a change of diet and the accompanying weight loss, I have seen my morning fasting numbers come down from being too high (never below 120 and often above 130) to a range I’m very happy with (80s to sometimes 90s).

I usually have a 12 hour or so fast since I eat around 5:00 PM and get up around 4:30 AM and eat within an hour or so. As my morning numbers have come down, I have noticed something a little odd with my post breakfast numbers. I usually get a post breakfast drop in BG of 10 or so points. My typical breakfast has 30-40 grams of carbs and my 1 hour test is usually in the 70s to low 80s. At two hours I’m usually back to 80s to low 90s.

What I think is going on is that by pre breakfast numbers show me how well I’m dealing with my liver’s glucose dump and my post breakfast numbers are showing the liver turning off and how well I’m dealing with the carbs in my breakfast.

What I’m curious about is if I’m doing myself any harm by fasting so long since I have higher numbers from the fast than I do from breakfast. Since those numbers are in a good normal range, I’m thinking it should not be an issue, but I don’t want to abuse my pancreas any more than I already have.

I have been reading a bit on the forum about fish oil most of which is related to cholesterol. A few people have mentioned it is supposed to help BG, but most seem to think it does not do anything.

Since I am seeing a rather notable change (mostly in preventing spikes, not so much with lower numbers) when I take fish oil, I’m curious if anyone else is also seeing the same.

It is quite possible that the fish oil and my consistency in taking it has nothing to do with what I’m seeing, but the two times I have seen my numbers go from a bit wild to very smooth have coincided with taking the fish oil constantly for at least a few days.