Leveling up

[Gus-gus]

Hey there everyone!

 

I'm pretty new to NF and only heard about it recently, so I haven't even been lurking very long. A little about me:

 

I'm 24, 6'2", 206 lbs, only a few years out of college working a 9-6 job in a research lab. About 12 years ago I was diagnosed with Type I diabetes, and was always a super skinny kid. After that, I started getting into long and short-distance running as a way to keep myself in shape and control my blood sugar. Later on in high school I added weight lifting and strength training and was in great shape and strength.

 

Once college started, I fell out of my good habits. Eating was pretty much lots of carbs, chocolate, fried food, etc. and working out became a hassle. 6 years later I tell myself I'm not in bad shape, but the fact is I'm not where I want to be.

 

I've been staying up late, wake up just in time to run out the door for work without breakfast, buy whatever the work cafeteria has, eat tons of brownies and drink about 2 liters of diet soda every day (sometimes an actual 2 liter when I order a large papa john's pizza). I only sometimes test my blood sugar levels and my last HbA1c was about 9.3, which equals out to roughly 220 (normal range is 80-120).

 

At this point, I decided I didn't like the way I was living my life. A little over a month ago, I started weening myself off of soda, and have now been 3 weeks without, instead drinking water and tea. The reduction in caffeine also led to me getting much better sleep (who'd have thought?). At that same time I decided to start cooking for myself in order to save money during lunch, and working on healthier food: more veggies, actually having three meals instead of just one massive meal and a bunch of unhealthy snacking before bed.

 

So far, that's been going well, but I was wondering if there was more I can do and I found out about NF. I've been reading up and started the paleo diet a week ago, and as soon as I can get the hang of planning out my meals, I plan to start strength training. I've also been keeping a much closer look at my blood sugar levels and have noticed a VERY dramatic trend as soon as I switched to paleo compared to before. My levels have been much steadier, have not had any high peaks (a few lows, but this is likely due to the lack of carbs compared to before), and I can feel changes in them much easier than before.

 

My current goals: continue testing my blood sugar levels, continue cooking paleo meals for myself. While I'm going to bed earlier than before, I'd let to go to bed even earlier so that I have time to start working out in the mornings, shower, and cook breakfast without rushing to work.

 

Longer-term goals: reach an HbA1c around 6.0 (~115), reach about 12% body fat (probably in the mid-20s atm), and get 8-9 hours of sleep regularly while still having enough time to work out in the mornings and make breakfast/lunch.

 

I'll post some pics and metrics later on.

[pro§pect]

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