jstanlick refines the process

[jstanlick]

The last 2 challenges have been about me getting used to this whole diabetes idea and figuring out who to handle this sans medication. As a result, I've lowered my glucose numbers from the 200's down to around 105. I've also dropped 7 pounds after dropping 15 before getting this wonderful news exactly 2 months ago to the date. But, being a data guy, I've been tracking all of the data I can think of as well as reading every study I can find, watching tons of talks on diabetes and asking the nutritionist in my diabetes education classes a bunch of questions. I think I've got a pretty good idea at this point as to what works for me and what doesn't. I'm still open to other ideas and viewpoints and will still be trying some different things out, but I will mostly be zeroing in on what provides the best benefits to me. Why? Because, ultimately, life your life or mine is lived as n=1. Yes, there are tons of studies and stats suggesting one thing or another, but you have to live your own life. I had neighbor who was diagnosed with some kind of cancer in his nasal passages. The doctors told him that 95% of patients come through treatment with no more cancer found and go on to live many more years of life. Unfortunately for Jim, he was one of the 5%. Before he died he mentioned how he knows why doctors use statistics, but it doesn't really matter if the odds are 1 in 10,000,000 if you're the one.  So, I've found what I think works and I'm building my challenge goals around that.

 

Ultimately, I have new lab tests coming up in 1 month. I want to get my average blood glucose readings under 105. I'm not going to track that as a challenge goal. I've decided rather to track the process instead of the goal. I believe if I track the process the goal will take care of its self.

 

1. Carbs under 100 g. I'm not going to concentrate on sugar this time around or even net carbs. Just carbs. My numbers get better the lower my carb intake goes. I'm also not going to use an average for the week. Each day that's under 100 get +1 points, between 100 and 150 is 0 points. Over 150 is -1 points.
2. HIIT workouts 3x/week. These beat the crap out any high numbers I have. For example, on Tuesday before one of these workouts my glucose reading was 143 (highest reading in 2 weeks). Immediately after Tuesday's workout, it was 80. So, these certainly burn up a lot of excess sugar in the blood. The down side is that I'm completely spent afterwards and need some recovery time. So, only 3 per week. +1.5 pt for each workout completed.
3. Fiber over 30 g/day. I'm upping the ante and probably getting into supplementing. Why? Well, first of all 30 g is getting closer to what most people should be consuming. But, someone who is not eating grains really needs to make sure they are getting enough fiber. Plus, on days when this is higher, my blood sugar is lower. So, +1 pt for over 30, 0 pts for 22 - 30 and -1 pt for under 22.
4. Weightlifting 2x/week. These workouts seem to have a bigger impact on blood sugar than long runs or walking does. I'm much better at doing the long runs or walking. Hence, I have no goal for those things since I'm already doing a good job of those. +1.5 pt for each workout.

 

That creates 86 possible points with almost a 2:1 ratio of nutrition to exercise. Nutrition plays the biggest part in this so that ratio feels about right. Grading of this challenge will be as follows:

• 77 - 86 is an A (this challenge ends on my birthday and includes Easter so there may be a few days of lost nutrition points)
• 68 - 76 is a B
• 59 - 67 is a C
• 52 - 58 is a D
• 51 or lower is a FAIL

 

Additionally, there may or may not be extra credit granted to the overall score depending on how my A1C test turns out in a month.

 

Let's see how this goes.

[jonfirestar]

following along again. 

[jstanlick]

1 hour ago, jonfirestar said:

following along again. 

Always glad to have you along!

[Sloth the Enduring]

Interesting about the weightlifting.

When you do the fiber supplement, check the ingredients. Poly dextrose is some sort of lab grown food. IME inulin aka chicory is natural and works better.


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[jstanlick]

Interesting about the weightlifting.

When you do the fiber supplement, check the ingredients. Poly dextrose is some sort of lab grown food. IME inulin aka chicory is natural and works better.


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Thanks for the heads up! I would rather avoid stuff made in a lab.


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[Elastigirl]

You've been doing an awesome job at slaying the diabetic beast. Interested to see your continued demolishing of the beast.

[jstanlick]

20 hours ago, Elastigirl said:

You've been doing an awesome job at slaying the diabetic beast. Interested to see your continued demolishing of the beast.

Thanks!

 

That reminds me, while the overall goal of this is to continue to lower my glucose numbers, but it's not a goal of this challenge, if that makes sense. I think I'll have to update my goals a wee bit so has better continuity.

[jstanlick]

There we go. More background added. It's still zero week, but here's the week so far:

1. Carb points so far: 0, 0, 1, 1. Yesterday went very well. Today is going well so hopefully I get to add another 1.
2. HIIT points: 0,2,0,2. On track to hit this for zero week (which will not play into the overall grading)
3. Fiber points: 1,1,0,1. Today isn't going great, but there's time to make it up. So far this has been without supplementing.
4. Weight training points: 2,0,0,0,2. I can add today's workout in here since its already complete.

Not a bad start. Blood glucose numbers had one high reading (high for me lately anyway - I would've killed for a 143 back in January), but the average WTD is still at 102.4 which is under my 105 goal. The plan is to finish off zero week strong and take this challenge down starting on Monday.

 

Wait, not quite like that. More like...

 

YEs, definitely more like that. Poor panda.

[Xena]

I like that you've learned enough through the past challenges that it makes sense to simplify the tracking.

[jstanlick]

YAY! Welcome to Week 1!

 

Zero week was, well zero week. I decided to play around with a few things and the results were bad/good enough (depending on your point of view) to rule out some foods from my diet. How do I know? Check out these blood sugar readings: 88, 99, 85, 96, 103, 144, 98, 85, 83. Those are my readings since Thursday and you can see of these things does not belong. One of these things is not like the others. Guess which one was after my "diet experiment"?

 

Updates from zero week (which I'm not going to count in my final grade)

1. Carb < 100g/day: 0, 0, 1, 1, 1,0,1. For a total of 4 points. Missed Saturday largely due to my "experiment".
2. HIIT points: 0,2,0,2,0,0,2. I got that one in on the last day, but that was by recovery design.
3. Fiber points: 1,1,0,1,0,0,-1. 2 whole points. I looked at some supplements over the weekend and was bummed out by the ingredients lists. Some of them have a #1 ingredient of sugar. But, hey, it's pure cane sugar so that makes it good, right? I guess I'll need to do my shopping online to find what I'm looking for cuz this one did not go well for zero week.
4. Weight training points: 2,0,0,0,2,0,0. 4 points. Hit it!

So, my exercise goals are going well. I also had a 4 mile run over the weekend and I hit the 5K mark during that run at the fastest time in 2018 so far. So, the HIIT work and weight training work seems to be making me faster. Well, that and the weight keeps going done since the start of the year. It's a little easier to run faster when you don't have as much mass to move and keep moving  

[Xena]

Congrats on the 5k time! Pretty sure I haven't even done a timed 5 k this year. I gotta get moving!

 

I forgot what your experiment was. Or was that a euphemism for eating a bunch of cupcakes are something?

[jstanlick]

I forgot what your experiment was. Or was that a euphemism for eating a bunch of cupcakes are something?

Close. I was trying to see if a super thin crust pizza was as damaging to my blood sugar as the normal deep dish or hand tossed. I managed to successfully navigate a fish fry a couple of weeks ago without things going completely off the rails, so I was curious if I could hang with the kids on this one. The nutritionist thought “it won’t be good but the thinner the crust the better off you’ll be.” He was right — it wasn’t good. Well for blood sugars anyway. It tasted delicious!!


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[jstanlick]

I guess I've been doing a better job of keeping up with other people's threads than keeping mine up to date. Eating has been more of a struggle than I anticipated after zero week. I seem to have taken a few things for granted and lowered my vigilance a little bit, and my challenge goals have paid the price a bit. At least Week 1 isn't over yet and I have the opportunity to turn the nutrition trends around. Exercise goals have been going well however.

 

Updates for Week 1 so far:

1. Carb < 100g/day: 1,0,0,1. 2 points and Wednesday is the disappointing one. I failed to completely read some nutrition labels and made assumptions on the ingredients. They snuck some corn starch and other stuff into things I assumed were virtually carb free. I mean, I grabbed the non-flavored jerky to avoid the sugar from the BBQ and Teriyaki flavors. Why would people put that stuff in there?!?! Oh well. Lesson learned.
2. HIIT points: 0,2,0,2. This one is on target as I've got HIIT and recover planned for the weekend,
3. Fiber points: 1,1,-1,1. 2 points. At the moment I'm cursing myself for implementing penalty points. But, they're doing what I hoped they would -- getting my attention to change things before it becomes a trend.
4. Weight training points: 0,2,0,0. Lifting is on the docket for today, so this is tracking as expected.

So, my nutrition goals are a little lagging, but I did get some new gear that I'm pumped about. Under Amour was kind enough to send me coupons for logging on MyFitnessPal for 2 months straight. Between the coupons and the discounts on their outlet site I was able to get $200+ of gear for $60. Unfortunately, it's mostly cold weather gear and it SHOULD be warming up here soon. The good/bad news is that I still can wear it on outdoor runs. Although, the ColdGear compression leggings feel so good on my calves that I might wear them longer than I should.

[Sloth the Enduring]

Wisconsin can be cold for a long time.

Gotta be careful with processed food. They sneak gluten and dairy in everything , prolly the same with sugar and starches.


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[jonfirestar]

On 3/23/2018 at 2:40 PM, jstanlick said:

So, my nutrition goals are a little lagging, but I did get some new gear that I'm pumped about. Under Amour was kind enough to send me coupons for logging on MyFitnessPal for 2 months straight. Between the coupons and the discounts on their outlet site I was able to get $200+ of gear for $60. Unfortunately, it's mostly cold weather gear and it SHOULD be warming up here soon. The good/bad news is that I still can wear it on outdoor runs. Although, the ColdGear compression leggings feel so good on my calves that I might wear them longer than I should.

The good (bad) thing about winter is that it comes every year.  I'm sure you'll be getting pletny of use out of the gear. I'm pretty fond of my Under Armour cold gear. 

[Xena]

On 3/23/2018 at 10:40 AM, jstanlick said:

hey snuck some corn starch and other stuff into things I assumed were virtually carb free. I mean, I grabbed the non-flavored jerky to avoid the sugar from the BBQ and Teriyaki flavors. Why would people put that stuff in there?!?

 

So annoying!  But great to hear that your training is going well.

[jstanlick]

On 3/23/2018 at 5:59 PM, Sloth the Enduring said:

Wisconsin can be cold for a long time.

Gotta be careful with processed food. They sneak gluten and dairy in everything , prolly the same with sugar and starches.


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True on all counts. It's still not warm and I'm still using the cold weather gear. Where there is gluten, there is likely starch as well. Takes so long to do the grocery shopping these days as every ingredient label has to be read. I've even found that the ingredients change at times in the same product and it's not always advertised as now better or new or something.

 

On 3/26/2018 at 8:21 AM, jonfirestar said:

The good (bad) thing about winter is that it comes every year.  I'm sure you'll be getting pletny of use out of the gear. I'm pretty fond of my Under Armour cold gear. 

I used to think there wasn't much difference and that Under Armour just marked their prices up to increase their profit margins. Of course, that stance went well with my bias towards penny pinching. But, now that I have some of their stuff, it is actually better. Well, at least the ColdGear stuff. I haven't bought any of their other lines...yet.  

 

On 3/28/2018 at 7:48 PM, Xena said:

 

So annoying!  But great to hear that your training is going well.

Training is going well. The scale keeps going down and my 5K times keep getting faster. At the last race I ran in July, my daughter was asking what I'd need to do to get close to the top 5 in my age group. I said I would never be close to those times even at a local charity race like this one. I told her I'd have to lose enough weight to be where I was in my freshman year of college. There was no way I'd ever see a 5K time around 22:00 or lower. I didn't even think I could get much under 24:00. Yesterday I ran it in 23:14. Training is one thing that is going very well so far.

[jstanlick]

OK, I've been super crappy about keeping my thread up to date this challenge. So, this might be a bit too long, but oh well.

 

This week was a bit of a crazy one. I got talked into being the 5th grade Track coach and practice started this week. I also had 2 meetings with my first grade Cub Scouts and it's Holy Week. Not to mention the usual work requirements and general stress of preparing for an upcoming holiday and my wife and daughters' choir trip next week. So, yes, excuses, excuses. But, I have not neglected training or diet. The former is going swimmingly and the later is having its ups and downs.

 

I haven't missed a planned workout yet in this challenge and the effort is showing up in my running times and on the scale. I believe the 2 are highly correlated. My weight hasn't been this low since the first semester of my freshman year of college when I was on the crew team and we trained endlessly. Folks, that was in the Fall of 1990. And I believe more of my weight is lean mass this time around. I have no proof of that because I haven't done any bodyfat tests then or now, but I think I'm leaner than pictures I look at from then. Thus, in the last 2 weeks, I have broken my 5K PR twice. It is no longer my best time of 2018. It is my best time ever. At least that has ever been recorded. We ran a lot of miles on the crew team but we never recorded any times. That might be the only time I would have been close to these times. The scale yesterday said 189.5. That's 10 pounds lighter than it said January 1st, and I had lost 15 pounds the last 3 months of 2017 to get to that number. I think the nutrition is working too, but...

 

...my blood sugar numbers are not what I expected they would be. Overall, they are good and still improving, they are just improving in a way that I didn't anticipate. Last week the average number was 99.8, and this week is sitting at 97.0. I'm very excited that the average is under 100. But, it's not because of a lot of low numbers offsetting high numbers. The numbers themselves are becoming very consistent. There aren't some crazy highs out of nowhere, or some ridiculous lows that send me into a panic that I should go drink some fruit juice or something. They have all been within a steady 10 point range from 95 to 105. The highest spike was 118 and the lowest low was 85. Don't get me wrong, this is all great news. But, this is not how my numbers have been. They would be consistent for a day or two and then a big swing up or down and back again making the average seem okay and getting better. It's kind of like a sine wave that has been flattening out. I would like to think that is because of the changes in diet more than exercise.

 

Which brings me to the in-laws. They don't see why I should be on "such a restrictive diet if your numbers are so good. We know lots of diabetics who get along just fine without eating like that. They just adjust their insulin. I don't understand why you're not eating bread, pasta rice or potatoes. Those are all good for you. You shouldn't be so picky about what you eat." The Easter holiday is going to be so much fun this year.  I refuse to take insulin or even Metformin until it is absolutely necessary and there is nothing left in my control to alter that reality. When I can no longer make adjustments to my lifestyle to get my body to work properly, then I'll think about the drugs. As it stands right now, I can avoid the drugs and be in better shape by eating and exercising this way. So, I will be spending some time educating them on what diabetes actually is and isn't this holiday. Wish me luck!

 

Points earned so far vs the total possible for the challenge:

< 100 g/day carbs: 7/28

HIIT 3x week:10/24

>30 g/day fiber: 3/28

Strength training 2x/week: 8/16

[Sloth the Enduring]

Good luck with the in-laws. You’re getting great results; I don’t get why they want to mess with that.


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[Xena]

ooof! Track and cub scouts is a lot. But great that you'll be able to spend the time with your kiddos.

 

The numbers stabilizing seems perplexing but maybe is a good thing. Maybe your metabolism is slowly changing in response to your dietary changes? I'm not saying this is precisely what it happening, but I have read a little bit about training your body to use fat for energy rather than carb. If you are shifting more toward fat metabolism, I could imagine that the spikes could level out. ...but that's a question for someone who knows what they heck they are talking about.

 

The situation with the in-laws sounds very frustrating. It's amazing how much people feel entitled to comment on other people's food choices.

[mediaguy99]

Xena sent me your way, because I am working on cutting out or down added sugar in my diet.  I've got kind of high cholesterol and there seems to be a link between sugar intake and cholesterol... anyway....

 

Way to go on all the weight loss, the PR's running, and the lowered carb intake!  I'm trying to do much of that myself, though probably different reasons.  I'll keep you on my radar as you progress

 

[jstanlick]

On 3/30/2018 at 12:12 PM, Sloth the Enduring said:

Good luck with the in-laws. You’re getting great results; I don’t get why they want to mess with that.


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They're in-laws. They're supposed to meddle. It's in job description somewhere I think.

 

16 hours ago, Xena said:

ooof! Track and cub scouts is a lot. But great that you'll be able to spend the time with your kiddos.

 

The numbers stabilizing seems perplexing but maybe is a good thing. Maybe your metabolism is slowly changing in response to your dietary changes? I'm not saying this is precisely what it happening, but I have read a little bit about training your body to use fat for energy rather than carb. If you are shifting more toward fat metabolism, I could imagine that the spikes could level out. ...but that's a question for someone who knows what they heck they are talking about.

 

The situation with the in-laws sounds very frustrating. It's amazing how much people feel entitled to comment on other people's food choices.

I think the numbers are a good thing. Still very hard to tell as I'm rather a novice at putting all this together in practice and seeing how one thing affects the the other. I'm not sure if my carb intake is low enough to switch over to being a full time fat burner. Getting that low is really tough with with 3 kids in the house. Yesterday was Easter and there is chocolate galore in my house. Although, I am getting better at not craving the stuff. Which makes it easier to not eat it.

 

The in-laws are a judgmental lot and they've never thought a judgmental word that they haven't said out loud...or any other word they've thought for that matter. They are incredibly slow to accept anything that doesn't line up with their way of thinking. And their thinking doesn't follow any logic or pattern. For example, they abhor using medications and all the doctors want to do is prescribe stuff so they feel better. So, they refuse to take them. But, when it comes to me changing my lifestyle (mostly diet) "so drastically" -- in their words -- I should just take any medication and not worry about it.

 

 

17 minutes ago, mediaguy99 said:

Xena sent me your way, because I am working on cutting out or down added sugar in my diet.  I've got kind of high cholesterol and there seems to be a link between sugar intake and cholesterol... anyway....

 

Way to go on all the weight loss, the PR's running, and the lowered carb intake!  I'm trying to do much of that myself, though probably different reasons.  I'll keep you on my radar as you progress

 

Sadly, blood glucose, cholesterol, high blood pressure all seem to have linkages to carb intake and sugar is the one that gets in the blood stream the fastest. The good news is, all the research I've done digging into...well, research...shows that cutting down sugar and refined carbohydrates has a marked positive effect on all of those blood markers. I don't have a ton of n=1 proof as I just got the news on January 15th and I have had any new blood work since then. But, that's coming up in a couple of weeks and I'll be able to let you know.

[jstanlick]

Ah, the holiday weekend. It was nice. It was just Triduum masses and the immediate family at home. No extended family other than a few texts wishing a happy Easter and a phone discussion about when the boys could sleep over at the grand parents this week. Although, boy #1 seems kind of sick this morning with a fever and sore throat and last week there were cases of strep throat reported at the school. So, I'll be taking him to the doctor's later today to hopefully rule that out. However, if he has it, I'm not sure I can let the boys go to grandma's. She and Grandpa are in their late 70's. They don't recover as quickly from communicable diseases as the kids do. And, since the 2 boys do just about everything together, if one has it the other is sure to follow. I've got my fingers crossed that its just a regular bout of the flu. We've managed to make it all winter disease free, which is a major accomplishment any year, but this year in particular it seems. Everyone has been sick and we've managed to dodge it up to this point.

 

Friday ended up being a good day for food. No exercise that counts towards my challenge goals, but the dog and I did enjoy a nice leisurely stroll. Well, at least until a squirrel ran right in front of her and she decided to chase it. I think she almost dislocated my shoulder with the force she exerted on that leash. Then it was leisurely again.

 

Saturday included a long (5 miles), enjoyable, interval run. Well long for me anyway as 10K is about my limit distance. Then it becomes not so enjoyable. I know some of you serious running types are barely warmed up at the 5 mile mark, but my gas tank is starting to run on fumes around then. Food was right on the numbers, which was awesome.

 

Sunday was a day that I planned to not hit any of my nutritional goals. I mean, the morning filled with bad stuff -- but oh so good stuff -- for breakfast, chocolate in the house from Easter baskets and a dinner that took me most of the afternoon to make. But, since I was the one making it, I made a few ingredient substitutions in my favor. For example, the torte for desert had almond flour replacing white flour in the crust and Swerve Sweetener replacing the sugar in the filling. I've decided I really like the Swerve sweetener. It works really well (you can even carmelize stuff in it) and no one can taste the difference. The problem is the pocket book. 4 lbs of cane sugar will run you ~ $2.50. A 12 oz. bag of Swerve will run you $7. So, I either need to find a cheaper sugar substitute, pony up the cash or not even bother with replacing stuff. But, the end result is that while I planned on my carb intake being high yesterday and just living with 1 day, I actually hit all my goal numbers for the day. Pleasant Easter surprise there! And I managed a lifting session. So, it was about as good of day as I could have wished for.

 

So, halfway through this challenge, here are the totals:

• < 100 g/day carbs: 10/28
• HIIT 3x week:12/24
• >30 g/day fiber: 6/28
• Strength training 2x/week: 10/16

So, I'm a little ahead in the strength training goal and behind in the fiber goal. The carbs is going better at this point than I was counting on so I'm calling that a win up to the point.

[Elastigirl]

Good job  at keeping to your goals. I'll have to try Swerve. I use Truvia, which is a mix of sugar and stevia.  It's expensive too, but I figure that just keeps me from making sweets too often. Yesterday I just used plain sugar, and  the cravings hit me much stronger then. Next time I will use Truvia or Swerve 

[Xena]

7 hours ago, jstanlick said:

Saturday included a long (5 miles), enjoyable, interval run. Well long for me anyway as 10K is about my limit distance. Then it becomes not so enjoyable. I know some of you serious running types are barely warmed up at the 5 mile mark, but my gas tank is starting to run on fumes around then. Food was right on the numbers, which was awesome.

 

I consider you a serious running type. Shorter and faster is absolutely just as valid as longer and slower. You've been clocking some great times!