Yesterday I had to have a colonoscopy. For those that don’t live in the United States, it’s recommended that once someone reaches 50 that they have one to verify they don’t have colon cancer and to check for other stuff. I at least got to defer for a couple of years since I rarely go see my doctor for a checkup, but I finally got cornered so it was my turn.

Now, these are fairly common, but there can be issues here and there. They do knock you out, and you do risk a perforated colon, internal bleeding, and a couple of other things. So you can’t just shrug it off and say it’s nothing to worry about, though for the most part it’s relatively safe.

My issue is that I couldn’t get any real information from anyone as to just what could happen being diabetic. You have to fast, and with the medications I take, I’m supposed to have food with them. So, what would happen to me going through the process? That’s the main reason I made the video.

But there’s a few things I didn’t mention in the video while trying to keep it under 15 minutes. For one, By 4PM of the day I was fasting I started getting this massive headache, and that stayed with me almost the rest of the night. I couldn’t take almost anything for it because I wasn’t eating, though my wife did give me an Advil eventually and that took the edge off it.

I was really hungry all day, but wasn’t so hungry the day of the procedure for whatever reason. I still craved pizza, though we had fried rice instead since it was much lighter. That’s their recommendation, eat light and get used to eating again, so I ate small portions pretty much every hour because I was really hungry; today I’m getting my pizza!

They will ask you over and over what your name is, what your date of birth is, the last 4 digits of your social security number and what you’re having done. Initially I worried they didn’t know what they were doing until I realized that it’s a safety procedure that they’ve put into place to make sure that physicians won’t be doing the wrong procedures anymore, what with all those errors in Florida some years ago. They also kept asking me what I was allergic to.

After the procedure you’ll expel a lot of gas, and that makes them happy. This is one of those “dignity” things I mentioned in the video. There’s stuff we wouldn’t walk around doing in public that they’re expecting you to do. Thing is, there’s no smell because your entire system is cleaned out, and what they’ve done is pushed a bunch of air into your body through your rectum so it has to come out. And be thankful it’s coming out, otherwise you’re going to get cramped and it’s going to hurt. I had that problem during the virtual colonoscopy in the x-ray department, where you’re not under anesthesia and just have to lay there and take it. That’s when you’re on either your side or back; once you roll over onto your stomach, since they take the views from 3 directions, even adding more air wasn’t bad at all.

One last thing. In the video I said that I came out of the anesthesia pretty easily. Most of that is true. I felt clear headed and knew exactly what I was saying and what was going on. I even felt that if I’d had to I could have driven home, which it turns out is illegal once you’ve had anesthesia in New York for at least the day. However, when I had to get up and get into the wheelchair, I found that I wasn’t okay at all, and luckily I didn’t just try to force myself into the chair because I’d have fallen and the nurse wasn’t close to big enough to have held me up if I’d gone down. So, always respect the anesthesia.

I also mentioned that I was given propofol, the same stuff Michael Jackson was given by that doctor. Let me tell you, I understand why he would have wanted this stuff. Although I wasn’t happy with the pressure my head felt when it started to take effect, I feel like I slept well in that short period of time, and I ever dreamed; I’ve never dreamed while under anesthesia before. In its proper dosage it’s wonderful stuff, but I can also tell why one should never, and I mean ever, use it at home.

That’s all I have other than the video below, but if you have any other questions go ahead and ask. This is one of those things that, as younger people we avoid talking about because it kind of scares us, but once you reach the proper age you’re probably going to have to go through. At least I’m telling you what might be coming.

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Many of the regular readers of this blog know I’m diabetic. What a lot of folks don’t really know is that I run a group on Facebook for the support of Type 2 diabetics, which used to be called Adult Onset. It’s not called that anymore because unfortunately many kids that aren’t born diabetic are going that way as obesity figures around the world are increasing.

Last Sunday myself and another participant in the group decided we were going to try an experiment. The experiment was the brainchild of another member of the group who I’m not sure is diabetic or not, but he’s one of those health foods guys who loves, well, weird foods; yeah, I called it out. lol Anyway, he stated that if we drank only water for a week and didn’t change any of our other habits that we’d lose our cravings for sweets and desserts. He also said we could still eat whatever we wanted to, including desserts, but that by the end of the week we wouldn’t be craving it anymore.

By the way, to flesh this out, he said that diet sodas and any drinks with artificial sweeteners make us crave desserts because they make us think we’re having sugar without having sugar and suddenly our bodies want real sugar. I’m not really sure I go along with this theory, though I’d read it somewhere else, as studies are conflicting about it; aren’t studies always conflicting?

Y’all know I love my sweets. I’ve talked about my chocolate and love for my Doubletree cookies and peanut butter desserts and such. And of course I’ve talked about my love for cake and the way I must eat it properly.

I also love my diet drinks. Unlike a lot of people, I’ve always liked diet soda, except for Tab; did anyone besides Bobcat Goldthwait really like Tab? The day I was diagnosed as a diabetic I gave up regular soda and started drinking diet soda and other non-sugar drinks and never looked backwards except for the super-very-occasional grape soda; no one’s ever made a good diet grape soda.

It is with this in mind, as well as a mindset that’s always seen certain drinks going with certain foods, that I entered into this experiment. I’m always up for a good experiment as you know.

The first day went well. I actually like water, as cold as possible mind you, and I transitioned into it well. After all, like much of the rest of the country it’s been pretty hot here, and very cold water felt right.

The second day I ran into my first challenge, and it wasn’t a dessert craving but a mismatch of food and drink. I had a salad, and in my mind, salad and salad dressing and water don’t mix. I absolutely hated my salad so I only ate a little bit of it. However, though I always prefer diet soda with my pizza, that went fine. I still had dessert, but I wasn’t craving it.

Truthfully, that’s how the pattern went for the next three days. I was drinking a lot of water because I drink lots of liquids anyway. The guy who came up with the challenge, named Dave, started wondering if I was drinking too much water. You know this deal about drinking 64 ounces of water a day, or at least consuming that much because we get water from some of our foods? Phooey! I drink close to 128 oz with each meal, no matter what I’m drinking, and then I’m a casual drinker during the rest of my day. I always have been, even when I was a kid. He started worrying that I was washing nutrients out of my body and that it might affect the experiment. Hey, the experiment said drink water, not how much, so it was what it was.

The sixth day was problematic, and I know it was really mental. I had my first true dessert craving in a week and I knew what I wanted; yeah, that’s it to the left. lol I was also starting to really want to get done with the water thing, and I determined that I wasn’t going to fully hold myself to it on the seventh day. After all, what would one more day change things anyway, right?

On day seven I drank water up until around 7PM, when I ordered Chinese food. I broke down at that point and had 4 cans of Diet Pepsi Vanilla that my friend Scott had brought me; yeah, that was nice, and it totally enhanced my food. For me, the experiment was over, and I quit with only 5 hours to go. Earlier in the day I went to an outdoor tweetup with the heat around 90° and thus water was feeling really good because it was ice cold.

How did the experiment go overall? Well, not totally according to plan.

One, I really did only have cravings on one day, but I also knew I could eat dessert whenever I wanted so I’m not sure if my feelings were muted because of that.

Two, I gained 4 pounds, and I’m not quite sure how that happened. I didn’t work out all week, though, because of injuries I suffered the day the experiment started during a nature walk I partook of.

Three, I almost started to hate water, and that’s not good. At this point I’ve struck a nice balance between my diet soda, Wylers drink mix and water that I can live with. And I’m going back to the gym, having healed sufficiently to work out again. I need to drop what I gained and then drop even more.

Believe it or not we’re going to try the experiment again next week starting Sunday, but we’ll change up some of the parameters. One of those will be no dessert for 5 days; yeah, that’s all I’m promising for now. Another will be certain foods that we promise to give up; no potatoes, grits (that one’s for me), rice or pasta. I don’t have a problem with the pasta but rice… ugh. And for the 5 days no regular wheat, only whole wheat bread; there goes my favorite bread. We’re still debating on the Ritz crackers with peanut butter for my evening snack; I might lose that one as well, which means I’ll have to get creative on what I can snack on.

I’m wondering what Evelyn is going to have to say about this one; heck, I’m wondering what the rest of you think about experimenting like this and if any of you want to try this experiment with Greg and I; Greg’s the other guy who went along with me on this journey. Any takers?

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Diabetes is the fastest growing disease in the world today. It’s considered as a somewhat controllable disease for the majority of people because if most people could control their weight and live a healthier lifestyle they have a chance to stave it off altogether, or at least reduce their reliance on things such as medications.

I’ve written enough about my being diabetic on this blog to depress everyone. Yet I feel that I need to write about it again. So, other than the links I’ve included in this post, I figured I’d throw out 10 reasons why you really don’t want to be diabetic, and should think yesterday about starting to try to life a healthier lifestyle. By the way, you can be healthy and still get it for many reasons; just wanted to make that clear.

1. The testing. I have to check my blood glucose at least once a day, sometimes as much as 3 times a day. I used to have to prick my finger to check my glucose, and even 9 years later I would flinch whenever I did it; just couldn’t get used to it. Now I have a kit where I can check it through my hand. It almost doesn’t hurt unless I do it incorrectly. Still, I have to test and remember to test because of #2.

2. The numbers. In the early days, when I was first diagnosed, once I brought my glucose down I’d check and my numbers would look great and I’d think that maybe I’d just had an episode because I was eating badly. Thirteen years later, sometimes it seems that no matter what I do, I can’t bring the numbers down. And then, every once in awhile I bring the numbers down too far. So, it’s either the shakes or the lethargy; balance can be tough.

3. The lethargy. Let me talk about the lethargy a bit more. When the lethargy hits you it’s like you’re going to fall asleep and never wake up. Okay, it’s not always that bad, but it can be scary. If I happen to eat the wrong thing, I can become quite lethargic within an hour; sometimes within 30 minutes. It’s a good thing I work from home because there’s no stopping the nap. And sometimes, it’s going to be a major effort to wake up. My scariest episode was being down for almost 4 hours and having my wife have to help me wake up when she got home from work; at least I’ve made sure that’s never happened again.

4. The food. Food becomes tough to gauge, I have to say. If I eat broiled or baked chicken without the skin I can do fairly well, even if I put some sauce on it. Protein in general terms helps keep me more alert. But it’s not perfect, and no one can continually just eat protein. Gauging things like rice is a difficult thing; believe it or not, the same goes for a serving of mixed vegetables, which supposedly has more starch in them, and thus that helps make one tired. Trying to find the right diet can feel mind numbing sometimes.

5. The portions. Sometimes the food is fine, but trying to figure out proper portions can be a trip. When I lost some weight last autumn it followed my trying to eat more food at every meal, believe it or not. That worked, measuring and all, except I was only eating one thing at a time. So I could eat 8 to 12 ounces of chicken and that was fine for awhile. But I found myself hungry and dissatisfied. The counselor I was working with suggested adding some things to it. Those things gave me more energy, but I didn’t lose anymore weight; I didn’t gain any either. It becomes hard finding a balance in how much one can eat to sustain and how much one can eat to lose weight. And I’m not good at that.

6. Insulin. Yeah, I’ve jumped right to this one because I’m on insulin. It’s actually what’s called a slow acting 70/30 mix, but it’s still insulin. Because it’s slow acting it lasts longer than traditional insulin, but it also takes awhile to start working. Insulin actually promotes weight gain; isn’t that an interesting conundrum. So, you work hard to lose weight by portioning out food and going to the gym but if you don’t work out hard enough you won’t lose weight because of the insulin. And you can’t stop the insulin because you need help keeping your glucose down; isn’t that a trip?

7. Medications. There are oral medications one can take, but trust me they’re a crap shoot at best. I was put on 6 different medications before my doctor got me on the one I take once a day now, along with the insulin. But here’s the thing; if I forget to take it, and I do, it could take up to a week for it to start working as it’s supposed to again; ugh. This means that it’s almost impossible to get glucose down again, no matter what I do; almost, that is. Some medications have now been recalled because medication is always dangerous to someone; I’m glad I was never put on any of those, but you just never know when a study will come out and throw you for a loop.

8. Exercise. You have to exercise at some point to help bring your glucose down; there’s just no getting around it. But exercise can have this interesting thing that can mess you up. For instance, it turns out that one isn’t supposed to exercise if one’s glucose is too high; I ignore that one, which for most people might not be the smart thing to do. You could injure yourself if your glucose is too high by doing certain exercises, and since when glucose is high your blood flow isn’t great, pooling blood due to injury is a bad thing. When my glucose is high I only walk and do stomach crunches, no weights, so I figure I might be fine. But there are also times when I might push a bit too much without realizing it and my glucose drops drastically, especially if it’s warm or I overheat. It doesn’t happen often, but when it does, usually you don’t know it’s coming and suddenly you’re there. So, even exercise is a crap shoot sometimes.

9. Thirst & Bathrooms. Talk about a weird loop in one’s life. Diabetics can be abnormally thirsty sometimes. This means they drink a lot of water. Yet they can also have to go to the bathroom often, whether they’re drinking lots of liquids or not. Drinking too much water can force your kidneys to work too hard, and as a diabetic they don’t filter all that well so it puts a lot of stress on them. Not drinking enough water and going to the bathroom a lot means your body is losing fluids, of course, but that means you overheat and thus will have other issues, so you need to make sure you drink enough water. But you never know which one will come to pass sometimes. For me, I drink a lot of liquid in the evenings, and thus go to the bathroom a lot in the evening as well. If I drink tea or soda in the morning, I’m going to be going to the bathroom every 10 to 15 minutes eventually; it’s the oddest thing.

10. Fear. The more you learn about diabetes, the more scared you get. I’ve only touched on some of the simple stuff. But I have to be checked to make sure my fingers, toes, feet and legs aren’t starting to get numb all the time. If I feel a little bit of a tingle I wonder if it’s my shoes or the diabetes. My eyesight was what helped indicate that I was diabetic, and you wonder if your glucose is high for awhile if you’re going to drive yourself blind. Most diabetics leave this earth because of heart problems, and thus there’s that stress in worrying about things such as exercise or even shoveling snow, especially when every once in awhile you get a weird pain in your chest that you’re unsure of. Rapid heartbeats are scary; night sweats are scary, and I’ve experienced both. And you don’t even want to know about the chills that sometimes comes without warning, and there’s nothing you can do about them, shower, blankets, heaters, nothing except wait them out, which can take hours. Nope, not fun at all.

I implore you to be proactive on this bad boy. Go to the doctor and let them test you for it; getting it early is a big deal. Work on some kind of eating plan that avoids tons of carbs and sugar. Work out even a little bit, because it all helps. And learn more about the symptoms before you get it, then especially afterwards if you get it. Yeah, there are lots of things that say they can get you under control, even “cure” you. Nothing cures it, but it can be managed. However, if you can avoid it… do that!

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No Sunday question today because it’s an international movement day instead. Today is World Diabetes Day, where those of us who wish to participate write something about diabetes, and of course, being diabetic, I’m going to write something.

I’ve written on this topic a number of times, mainly as it pertains to my life. So, to start off, I’m going to share all those previous links here, just to get them out of the way:

World Diabetes Day – 2009

Some Diabetes Information

National Diabetes Month

World Diabetes Day – My Story

A Bad Day In The Life Of A Diabetic

Sugar Alcohol Problems

Diabetic Depression

On Insulin But Not Dependent (from my other blog)

This year’s theme is supposed to be about healthy lifestyles. Well, I’m still going to do it my way. First, let’s talk about things I haven’t talked about before as it pertains to me. Some of these things I can’t prove are related to my diabetes in some fashion, but the timing makes it seem likely. For one, I’m tired often. Over the last 8 years, I feel more tired all the time. Thing is, I don’t sleep more than 5 or 6 hours in a row most of the time, even after I got the CPAP, and I’ve learned that there are times when I wake up feeling pretty good, yet hours later I still feel I need a nap. That didn’t happen before I was diabetic; I only took naps on Sundays back then. Now, sometimes I need to take a nap before I can eat, then want to take another after I eat; strange.

Next there’s hair. The hair on my head has always grown fast, and that continues. However, I now have hair on my chest, hands and arms and a slight bit on my back and shoulders. I never had hair before I started taking diabetic medications in 2003. Now, maybe hair starts growing in certain places as one gets old, like ears and the like, but once again, the timing is suspect. I also shave more; I never used to have to shave more than every 4th day, but now I sometimes need to shave every day.

And my memory isn’t as sharp as it used to be. Now, that one easily could be age and all the things I have on my mind, but it’s strange. I’ll look at someone and not remember their name, and I’m talking about people I just finished talking to that I’ve known for years. I get up from my desk, heading to the kitchen, and will get to the living room and stop because I can’t remember where I was going or why. Now, eventually everything comes back, but it’s still freaky.

Next the healthy part. This was going to be a separate post, but I’ll toss it in now. About 2 months ago I went on a metabolic eating plan to help me with my weight. I’ve been going to the gym now since the last week of May, and I hadn’t lost any weight; I’d actually gained 9 pounds. Since I started this plan I lost all the weight I’d gained and a little bit more. When I was flying back and forth to Ft. Lauderdale last month I noticed immediately how much more comfortable I was sitting on the airplane; sweet! I’ve lost 4 inches off my stomach and some in other areas as well; I’m kind of a happy guy. The weight continues to be my biggest issue (oxymoron), but I stick to the plan during the week, except for meetings, and I get to go off a little bit on the weekends; I can handle that.

Medications… well, that’s dicey. When I remember to take them I do well. My glucose readings have been very good since I went on the eating plan, sometimes to the point where after working out I’ve gone too low and have to immediately eat. My doctor took me off one of the medications, which I see is a positive step forwards. But I still have to remember to take what I have; yeah, I’ll work on that.

Diabetes runs in my family, so I always knew it was coming for me. It doesn’t run in a lot of families, and yet the number of people who are becoming diabetic is growing in leaps and bounds. Some doctors have estimated that by 2050 half the population will either be diabetic or be showing diabetic symptoms; might as well just call you diabetic. If you look through some of those links above you’ll see it’s not easy fighting this thing, or even dealing with it sometimes. But as I wrote in that motivation post some days ago, I try to find something to motivate me and then get back on the plan. And having a friend of mine pass away on Thursday at the age of 42 due to weight issues is enough motivation for me to continue trying to be better when I’m supposed to be.

Everyone’s supposed to be wearing blue today supporting the cause. I don’t always live up to those things (I certainly don’t on days when we’re supposed to wear green or pink because I don’t have those colors), so I’m not going to be out looking for everyone to be wearing these things. All I’m going to say is if you’re not feeling well for a long period of time, especially after eating or drinking something sweet or with a lot of carbs (alcohol), get yourself checked out. The sooner they catch it, the sooner you can get on a program that, if you follow it, can help you live a much longer life After all, just 30 years ago people didn’t live much past 55 with diabetes; these days, if we take care of ourselves, we can live a nice long life without losing a limb or our eyesight.

I’m thankful for that.

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In April I asked this question on a Sunday; Do You Take Care Of Your Physical Self? I gave my answers, but I can’t say that I was overly happy with myself and the answers I gave. Truthfully, I think I’ve done a lot of stuff, but nothing close to what I should be doing.

So, I decided to join a gym. Okay, it wasn’t as easy as that. As with everything else in my life, there’s a mini story to it all.

Two Fridays ago my wife came home, upset because her gym was closing, and the one the guy had transferred her account to, since she was paid up through April 2011, was about 20 minutes away, and she didn’t want to have to go that far to workout. For probably the 10th time I suggested she visit the gym I used to belong to for about 5 years in the late 80′s and early 90′s. Back then it was called Sundown; now it’s called Gold’s Gym, and it’s about 5 minutes away, only because of stupid lights because it’s maybe a mile and a half from the house. For some reason my wife has always hated the idea, but this time she was amenable to going to have a look.

As soon as we got there I could tell from the outside that things had changed. There was a sports therapy building next to the gym, but the sports club is where the gym used to be. We walked in and things were drastically different. I learned there had been a fire in 1994, a year after I stopped going, and they changed a lot of things around. It’s way more open now than it used to be, and that’s not a bad thing at all.

This is what you see when you first walk in. It’s the front desk, but it’s also a juice and smoothie bar. You can buy both healthy and non-healthy snacks in the machine, though not too many non-healthy choices are given. You can also buy muscle building stuff that I’m not paying any attention to; I don’t need to get bulk at this point in my life.

The place has a rubber track you can either walk or run on. It has tons of treadmills and walking machines. They have a lot of Nautilus-type machines geared towards building muscle by pushing weights, though some are for toning also. They have a large free weights area, something I used to do in the past but I think I’m going to stay away from them this time around, at least for six months or so. They have workout classes with some of the latest routines like
Zumba; no, I won’t be doing any of that either. Supposedly they might have some stretching classes, but I didn’t see that on the schedule. I really need stretching more than almost anything else. And they have these other machines that work more with your own weight than true weights; my wife and I use those most of the time.

And they have these things, a pool and a hot tub. I don’t swim, and even though the woman told me it was only 4 1/2 feet deep, that’s just not happening. The hot tub might be something else, though. She said it’s kept at 103 degrees Fahrenheit, and my mind can’t figure out if that’s comfortable or not. I love Jacuzzi’s, so I’m thinking I might like the hot tub, which is only 3 feet deep, but I asked if I could wear a shirt and shorts in there, since I don’t have swimming togs, and I’m not sure I want to expose the world to this body just yet; she said yes. Now all I have to do is get over this thing about sharing a large tub, and you can see it’s large, with other people in it; I don’t necessarily roll that way. The woman there said she’d actually walk me into the pool if I ever get the urge, but I just can’t see me getting the urge. Bad memory of pools, and the last time I was in one was October 1976; ugh!

We started with a 7-day pass to see if I’d even go to the club, and I went 6 days out of 7, though a few of those days I barely made 30 minutes, and one day, Sunday, I made 10 minutes because I twisted my knee and it wasn’t getting better trying to walk it off. We then decided to officially join on Sunday, and now we have a contract for a year. I’m going to work hard on making myself go at least 3 times a week, and my wife loves working out, so if I have to wait until she gets off work to go, so be it. But as it gets warm I also know I’m going to want to get walks in at the lake. No matter; I know I need to exercise this summer while I’m home, and if I’m paying for it, I’m hopefully going to get it done.

These days I border between being outright sore and being really uncomfortable. I don’t feel good after working out, and I don’t feel juiced; sorry Zig, but those endorphins aren’t quite popping for me yet. But I’m going to try. I have a guy working with me for 60 days to see if I show measurable improvement; man, I hope something changes. I need to do this; I’m 50 and diabetic, my doctor says I need to lose weight, and I need to help the medication work.

Okay, your turn; what are you gonna do?

Esprit by Spirit ET-8 Folding Treadmill Price – $1804.05

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Suffice it to say, many of us aren’t doing all that we can to get ourselves into optimal shape. I’m sure Aaron is probably doing well at it, but for the rest of us, we’re sorely lacking in almost all of these areas; someone tell me I’m wrong.

Most of you know I’m diabetic. Some of you know that I don’t always do well with it. I have had some good times when I’ve been able to fully control my diet, and if I can get myself to exercise more then I do better also, but I’m not the best at any of this.

Here are my issues. One, even I get sick of eating the same thing every day here and there, in which case I go off the eating plan. Two, when I’m depressed from the diabetes, which means I’m in an “I quit” mode, it’s hard to get out of because one doesn’t know they’re in that mode.

Three, I hate exercise; plain and simple. Whenever I exercise, I end up feeling worse than I did when I began. I don’t mean the huffing and puffing; I can handle that. I mean physically my body hurts, my feet hurt, and all I feel is tired, not energized. I used to feel energized after playing sports, which I could do for hours on end, but exercise just doesn’t do it for me. That, plus now I’m having foot problems, and I’m fighting my instincts which tell me that sneakers shouldn’t cost $150, especially since I bought a pair for $50, but I might have to move up in quality to protect my feet, which is something else diabetics have to be careful of; sigh.

Four, I hate doing all of it alone. My wife is way beyond me; she’s doing that P90X program, or whatever it’s called, and says that when she works out with me she’s getting no benefit from it, including walking, because it’s not intense enough. Yeah, I could still take her if I needed to. lol

And five, I’ll own up to this, I have a sugar addiction, which isn’t a real addiction as far as I know, but I just can’t stay away from sweets. Okay, more chocolate than anything else, since I’m fairly picky about things I eat, including sweets, but still it counts.

So, those are the “buts”. Here’s what I have done, or try to do. I have cut way back on how much I eat, without seeing any results. I think it’s probably the result of the insulin, which I was told would encourage me to put on weight.

Though people don’t believe it because I talk about it all the time, I actually have cut down on how much dessert I eat. My wife helps greatly with that one when she’s around. When she’s not… well, I have good days and bad days. This past week, with her on a cruise and us not being able to talk to each other, has been challenging, but I haven’t overindulged. I won’t quit desserts, though.

I’ve pretty much cut pasta out of my diet. I may eat it once every couple of months, or if my wife is feeding a bunch of people for something and she makes it as the main meal because pasta can go a long way. Pasta shuts me down, and is actually worse than sugar. I’ve reduced my rice intake as well as breads. My friend Danny, the food doctor who answers nutritional questions, has actually created a pasta that reduces the carbohydrates by more than 1/3rd, which is a good thing, and is working on getting it marketed. He’s given me some samples, but I haven’t had the opportunity to test it yet, which I will.

As it’s starting to warm up, I’m starting to go for more walks. However, last Sunday I went for a walk at the lake, walked an hour, and my feet weren’t happy with me all week; hence the talk about new sneakers. I did get new inserts and have tested them on the trampoline, with lousy results; sigh.

And I’ve started my back stretching exercises to help alleviate some back pain I’ve been experiencing lately. It’s the residual from shoveling this winter instead of hiring someone else to do it; nope, not getting any younger.

Anyway, that’s how I’m taking my shots at working on my physical self. What about you?

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By now, everyone’s heard about diabetes. This is a tough disease to deal with sometimes. There are some folks who think this is pretty easy to do; just change how you eat. Well, it turns out it’s not quite that easy to do permanently, and when you change up, sometimes bad things happen.

At least I know about it. I was reading a story a couple of days ago where a basketball player on the Georgetown team was just diagnosed with it. He was having stomach problems and finally went to the doctor about it, and there you go. Now they’re saying he might miss some games; how bad can it be if he has to miss some games?

This kid is in great physical condition and got it; how the heck is someone like me, out of shape and on insulin, supposed to control it all of the time?

Well, I could, and I do well from time to time. I’ve written about my eating plans and when I can stick to them they do work. When I don’t, though, things can start messing up in different ways.

One thing I go through here and there is something called diabetic depression. I seem to get it when my glucose levels are high for at least a couple of weeks. I don’t always know it immediately when it’s coming on, but probably should know that if my glucose level is high for at least a week it’s time to go back to the drastic eating plan.

What does high mean? Truthfully, though there are mandated highs or standards by the government, each person has their range where they feel good or bad. The U.S. has a standard between 80 and 120; I feel good between 110 and 150. When I start getting under 110, I feel like I’m borderline dizzy, and when it gets below 100, I’m no good at all. Hitting 44 after a walk one day, when I couldn’t even drive home, was probably my scariest moment. By the way, as Sire once mentioned here, other countries have different numbers they use, and I guess if they stay under a 4 they’re considered as doing well; I don’t fully get it, but I just wanted to be somewhat clear.

This obviously means anything over 150 is high, no matter how you look at it. If I’m around 170 or so, I don’t panic at all. But when my readings get around 200 and stay there, or higher for awhile, there’s trouble a-brewin’. In the last two weeks, since that’s the average a glucose monitor will give you, I’ve been averaging 219; no, that’s not good. Three days ago I awoke to a reading of 320, and that was after being awake 2 hours without eating anything. The day I wrote my post on possibly giving up blogging, it was 244 after a couple of hours; nope, not good. I’ve had only two readings under 200 in the past two weeks, and both were afternoon readings, not morning readings. I’ve come close to 300 a few times; that’s not good either.

I tend to get depressed. When I get depressed, I want to quit some things, and overdo others. I’m a dessert hound; I admit that. But it’s not just desserts that drives up the numbers. Carbs is the monster. I’ve had pizza a few times. My wife made spaghetti on Sunday and I had some, then had some on both Monday and Tuesday. I’ve eaten a lot of McDonald’s fish sandwiches over the last week or so; yeah, that commercial got to me. I’ve had cake, cookies, and hot chocolate also, and I can’t say in moderation either. Once the numbers get high, you stop caring, and you go hog wild.

Luckily, my life has always been about coming to grips with something at a certain moment and deciding it’s time to get back on the straight and narrow. My wife is out of town this weekend, yet I’m working hard on being good. I can’t claim perfection, because I acknowledge that I do need her help, but I’ve gained a little bit of control, and hopefully by the middle of next week I’ll be back into the 150′s or lower.

I was talking to a friend of mine Wednesday night at a networking event. He was telling me his mother was diabetic, and he never realized how hard it was to plan meals and try to stick to an eating plan. I’m not going to say this is harder than giving up cigarettes, but it’s different. You stop smoking, at least you have other things you can go to that you enjoy. Sure, you might overeat for awhile, but you’ll get used to that. With diabetes, supposedly you can never go back to eating what you like, or at least how you like, and there’s nothing to replace it. Well, there’s poker, but when I play poker I don’t tend to eat, and my wife wouldn’t like that any better than me playing poker every day. She’s like that. lol

Anyway, just thought I’d share that, so if every once in awhile you see an odd post or two, you might have an idea of where it might be coming from. Doesn’t mean I might not be thinking about something here and there, but at that moment the thought process might be influenced by something else. And, just for clarification, not everyone gets depressed. There are so many different symptoms people will exhibit. I’m lucky that my vision hasn’t been affected this time around.

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Today is World Diabetes Day, the day when diabetics and those who treat them hope to spread the word as to just how bad this thing is. It’s the fastest growing disease in the world, and it’s not just because people are eating badly, eating too much sugar, or overweight. Well, a part of it might be eating badly, but those aren’t the only reasons.

Since last year’s post on World Diabetes Day, when I told my story of how I learned I was diabetic, I have written a number of posts highlighting some of the issues diabetics have to deal with. Truthfully, when it comes to eating plans, it’s not about being diabetic so much as it is about starting to watch what you’re eating most of the time, and controlling your diet so you’ll feel healthier all around. In the three weeks since I went on my new eating plan, my glucose is way under control, with medication of course, and I’ve lost 5 pounds. Yeah, I’ve done some exercise, but not as much as you’d think I should be doing.

I wrote two other articles dealing with diabetes, although one of them might have applied to others who hadn’t thought much about it. That one was about sugar alcohols, and how many people have a resistance to them, and thus explains why they have problems eating many foods that say they’re sugar free. The other one was telling you about my worst day of the year as a diabetic, when it seemed like my world was ready to crash. Okay, that’s pretty dramatic, but suffice it to say it was a scary day.

So, what would I wish for on this day? The reality is that there are a lot of people walking around with diabetic symptoms who haven’t gone to get tested. Often, if you’re not paying attention to the signs, by the time you do get yourself checked out you might end up in the hospital for a few days. I have known way too many people who say they weren’t feeling well, or were having problems with their vision for weeks on end, then finally went to see a doctor, only to discover they glucose was in the 400′s or 500′s. One person I knew had his glucose at 679; it’s a wonder he was still walking around.

The higher numbers will get you admitted quickly, because at those levels you’re a walking time bomb. It could take a lot of work to get their glucose levels down to at least close to normal, where you can put someone on regular medication and start talking about changing one’s diet. I know there’s a lot of you reading this blog who aren’t feeling great, or might be a little bit overweight, or possibly even more. We, as I have to include myself in this one, are predisposed towards diabetes. It also ran in my family, which means I should have known better.

The wish, therefore, is to go get your blood tested for this. It’s a simple test, and most cities or communities every once in awhile have a blood glucose drive, where they’ll test it for you. It’s free, easy, and it’s better to know early than late. If you don’t have such a thing, go to your doctor and ask for the test. It’s inexpensive and fast, and at least you’ll know and can do something about it.

Two weeks ago, I wrote a post titled Starting A New Eating Plan. I knew it was time to do it because I had lost control over my diabetes numbers. The problem with diabetes isn’t one bad day; it’s many bad days in a row, because that’s when bad things start happening to your body.

Something I didn’t talk about in that previous post was where my numbers had been, compared to what I needed to shoot for. Here’s some figures for you. The American Diabetes Association says one’s glucose level should be between 80 – 120 mg/dl, or milligrams in a deciliter, which is 1/10th of a liter. Too much information? Well, let’s just stick with the numbers then. Anyway, the high figure used to be 140, and I like to try to shoot for between 110 and 140 because I just feel better in that range. When I start getting too close to 100, or lower than that, I start shaking or getting light headed; that’s never fun.

Anyway, the day I started on this new plan, which was two days after my diabetes clinic, the Joslin Center, had told me to increase the amount of insulin I needed to inject twice a day from 30 units to 40 units of 100 milliliters. That’s a bunch, because when I was first injecting, I was only at 15 units. My glucose figure had a 2-week average of 225. Just a few nights earlier, I had recorded a reading of 365; that kind of thing is scary, and it was after I’d eaten pasta earlier in the evening.

The eating and exercise plan started Monday the 26th. By the 29th, my afternoon reading was 110; 30th, my morning glucose reading was 130. I even lost two pounds. I felt pretty good going into the weekend, as my wife and I decided I get Friday nights and all day Saturdays off. After all, it’s hard to stick to a tight eating plan without a break here and there. I ate whatever I wanted last weekend, but I didn’t overeat, and I didn’t do much damage to myself, which was nice.

That Sunday, I went back on the plan, but I changed up some. Instead of straight chicken and mixed vegetables I added hamburger and salmon and spinach into the mix. I also added some ham slices for a sandwich instead of a full meal, and also allowed myself a quick snack, if I needed it, of a piece of wheat bread with peanut butter on it, and a much thinner layer than I would have had before the eating plan.

Last week my glucose numbers continued to fall, to the point where I had to cut back on my medication. One morning my reading was 110; phenomenal for me. Two days, though, my readings were under 100, once at 87, the other time at 97. Remember those shakes I mentioned earlier? I knew on those days that I needed to cut back on my medication, but I also had to eat sooner than 3 hours, and mix in some of the snacking I’d talked about. I didn’t lose any weight during the week, but as I said in my initial post, the goal really was about reducing my glucose levels. My average for the last two weeks had come down to 151, and I’m happy with that since my readings were a little higher over the weekend. But during the week, I only had one number over 140; wow!

So, this does prove that, when all the chips are down, one can modify their diet and bring down glucose levels. It also says that people can probably find some of their own maladies and, by changing their diets somewhat, modify some of their issues. Kind of like how, by changing my mother’s diet a few weeks ago, we were able to reduce her high blood pressure to almost normal.

Of course, I’m still not off the hook here. All I’ve done is given the medication a chance to work with me. But being able to reduce how much of the medication I’ve had to take, it means that my program is working, and probably if I decided to give up my fun nights, I could probably reduce it further. But I’ll never eliminate the medication completely, and if I gave up my one night, I’d probably have problems sticking to the plan as well. For now, I’m a happy guy.

By the way, notice I call it an eating plan rather than a diet? I think the terminology is important as well. People have problems sticking to diets, but having an eating plan, which includes some “free” days, makes it quite tolerable indeed. It may only be semantics to some, but I see dieting as something much different than what I’m trying to do. I may be crazy, but I’m getting the results I want, so it’s working for me.

On Friday night, while my wife and I were having a general conversation, and I asked her if I could tell her something without her going too far one way or the other in her reaction. She said yes, knowing that, because it’s me, it wasn’t going to be anything overly dramatic, but that I was serious about something.

I told her that I hadn’t been feeling all that well lately. As a matter of fact, it’s probably been since just after my birthday in early September. I’m diabetic, and over the past couple of months I’ve struggled with my glucose. I had been okay, not great, but okay, until my mother got kind of ill, and I had to go take care of that. I’ll admit that I’m also under a lot of stress, and that certainly didn’t help things any.

So, no, I haven’t been feeling all that well. And I know why I haven’t been feeling well. See, there’s two things I have to do to feel well, and if I’m not doing both of them, then I don’t feel well at all. One is I have to eat right. The other is I have to exercise. Oddly enough, I can actually eat well and feel pretty good, but I don’t lose any weight. However, exercising doesn’t overcome feeling bad because I’m eating badly; that’s not fair, but that’s life.

We agreed that, starting today, I would go back to an eating plan, with caveats. Breakfast will be some kind of eggs. After that, every meal I eat, when I’m home, will be chicken and vegetables. And the amount of chicken has been measured. I know because I cooked everything Sunday and put it in containers. The plan is to eat every 3 hours or so, hoping I’ll be able to hold out at least that long before eating again. I’ve done this twice before in my life. Once, I lost a lot of weight. The last time, my glucose came down, but I didn’t lose any weight, even though I exercised twice a day. I’m thinking I can track it to the alfredo sauce, which is what I mixed the chicken with when I did this same eating plan in March of 2008.

One thing that hasn’t happened is that I haven’t gained any weight. But things are shifting, and I don’t feel good. What that means, from a diabetic, is that I feel my blood coursing through my body. You’re not supposed to feel that. You’re not supposed to feel the pounding of your blood when you try to go to sleep. That means your heart is working too hard to pump the blood through your body. When your glucose is up, your blood thickens, and thus it’s harder to push through. Also, if it’s high for a long time, that will start messing with other areas of your body. One day, back in July, my eyesight was affected when my glucose shot way up; that was scary.

So, here’s the eating plan. Sunday through Friday afternoon I stick to my eating plan. Friday night, since we usually do something, I get to come off it, but not to overdo anything. Same goes for Saturday; controlled behavior, but I can eat foods outside the norm. Then on Sunday, back to eggs for breakfast, and chicken and vegetables the rest of the day. That’s mixed veggies now; I don’t eat weird veggies now. And, at some point, I might have to mix some rice in there, for a little bit of carbs. We’re not supposed to totally take carbs out of our diet, though some of those mixed vegetables should count.

As for the exercise, the guarantee is to exercise at least once a day for at least 15 minutes. I have a trampoline, and if I watch one of my documentary DVDs, I can get it done. I put on the timer to make sure I get there. And, as I get used to it again, I should be able to do a bit longer after awhile. Actually, for me, it’s usually mental; just can’t wait to get back to work. But I’m going to follow my 4- week work plan, where I’ve given myself a special permission to take care of my health. It’s part of the Get Clients Now program by C. J. Hayden, but I’ve modified it to help me get other things done.

So, there you go. By the time you see this I’ll hopefully have eaten some breakfast, and I’ll be ready to start my trek towards feeling better. If the past is any indication, I should start feeling better by Thursday, and my glucose should start responding in a positive manner. I can do this; anyone want to join me?

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Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2011 Mitch Mitchell