This week, I'm down a couple more pounds, for a grand total of 19 lbs so far!  On top of that, I think I've lost about 4 inches around my waist.  Nobody has particularly noticed yet though.

My a1c was 6.9.  Still waaaaay too high for my taste.  My doctor was happy with it of course, saying 'it's not bad.'  I'm going to switch to a dose of time release metformin before bed to see if that helps my crazy morning fasting numbers out a bit.

I apologize for being so lazy with the blog.  I actually have about 4 or 5 recipes I need to post.  I've just been pretty busy working lately and haven't wanted to look at a computer when I get home (I'm a computer programmer so get dazed enough by the glowing screen during the day).

My weight was jumping up and down like crazy all week.  Today, my weight was down 1 lb from last week, so weight-wise I'm moving in the right direction.  I have a pair of jean shorts that I'm using as my first pair of 'test clothes' that I couldn't even zip when I first started this journey.  Now, I can actually button them!  They're extremely tight and uncomfortable, but I'm happy with the progress. 

I've been working on the Wii Fit Plus almost every day, for 30-60 minutes.  I've been really amazed by how quickly I've improved on some of the exercises.  I'm really glad that we bought the Wii, because I feel like this is something I can actually stick with. Though, I think I overdid it yesterday.  I was in massive pain for most of the day, but I'm feeling okay this morning.

Yesterday, I was trolling the spice aisle at the grocery store for some good spice mixtures.  I was really disgusted to find sugar in almost all of them.  There was one seafood mixture that looked promising until I saw that it contained high fuctose corn syrup solids.  UGH!  I think I'm going to keep a list of unlikely places that I find the nefarious ingredient and post them.

I will try to get my lazy butt in gear and get some of my latest recipes posted this week. 

I've decided that my scale is conspiring against me.  You see, all week my numbers were way down.  Last Thursday I was down 5 lbs.  Then comes "official" weigh in day, and my weight jumps back up.  I believe I heard my scale maliciously giggling as I stepped upon it.

So, only a 1 lb official loss this week.  I'm actually feeling really bloated and rather ill today, so that might have something to do with it.  I'm slightly worried about swine flu symptoms.  I pretty much have all the symptoms, but I really don't think I feel THAT bad.  Then again, I'm very good at thinking I'm not really feeling "that" bad then ending up in the hospital over something or another.    I'm trying to be better about that sort of thing.  I'll see how I feel in the morning, but I might be dialing into work.

Only a couple more weeks until my next doctor's appointment.  I'm really interested to see how my labs turn out.

I can't believe it's been 2 months since I really decided to take control of my health again.  I've had a few slips along the way, but nothing disastrous that I couldn't recover from.  I've learned so much that in many ways I feel completely overwhelmed.  I went from believing that taking insulin meant that I was doomed and my life would be over to seriously considering asking my doctor to start using it.  I know I want to stop taking Januvia.  Too many studies are coming out linking it to complications, such as permanent sinusitis (I already had problems there and they've since become worse), pancreatitis (I've had a couple bouts of that), and CANCER!  If that doesn't make you want to run for the hills gibbering, I don't know what will.  I stopped taking the Actos my doctor had prescribed a while back, since I've since learned it reduces blood sugar by making even more fat cells to push the glucose into.  Yuck.  I really don't need my insulin to be even more efficient at storing fat--it does a good enough job at that as it is.

Some of the sites that have really helped me the last couple months are Blood Sugar 101 (and her associated Diabetes Update Blog), Dr. Bernstein's book and website, the Eades' website and blogs,  Jimmy Moore's Livin' La Vida Low-Carb site (especially the forums), as well as The Bionic Broad's Low-Carb blog.

As for the weekly update:  I only lost 1 lb this week, but I'm not stressing about it.  Aunt Flo is visiting, which always causes me to gain a few pounds anyway.  I was actually able to stay off the scale most of the week, so I didn't see any of the daily fluctuations to know if I was trending up or down.  I have lost 2 inches on my waist and hips in the last 2 weeks!  I took my A1C yesterday, and it came in at a 7.0%.  That's far from my goal, but a drop of 1% in 1 month seems like great progress.  My biggest issue with blood sugar control remains Dawn Phenomenon.  I just can't predict what will happen with my morning blood sugars, and it's really frustrating.

On another note, related to the pcos--my periods seem to have normalized.  I had started right before I began this blog and have started exactly each 4 weeks since.  Granted, 3 normal periods in 2 months is not a large number of samples, but I was going 4-5 months between periods before.  I had never heard of a connection between regular menstruation and blood sugar control, but I'm going to start researching it now.  Pcos has been linked to insulin resistance, but it would be wonderful to learn that regulating my blood sugar might also help regulate my female issues.

I have an appointment with my doctor early next month, so hopefully I will go in armed with enough information to get what I want.

I do  have several new recipes to post in the next few days, so keep checking back!

Another week has passed.  I only lost 1 lb this week.  I'm somewhat frustrated with my lack of progress, though I know I shouldn't be.  After all, 11 lbs in 6 weeks is still a decent rate of loss.

My blood sugar was pretty flat all week.  My morning numbers have come down but my numbers throughout the day were up a bit (not above 140 though).  I think part of it is that my mouth is still healing from the bone graft, so I've been in constant pain for the past 2 weeks now.  It's taking a LOOONG time to heal, though I was finally able to do some chewing on that side of my mouth today.  I think it'll be healed within the next 3 or 4 days (I hope!). 

I decided I would give the Eades' 6 Week Cure a try to jump start my weight loss.  I started this morning with a banana protein shake (their basic shake recipe with Davinci sugar free banana syrup added).  It was quite tasty and filling.  However, my blood sugar spiked to 185!  I'm not sure why.  The carb count for the shake was only about 3.  I would think if it was a spike from protein being converted to sugar it wouldn't have happened quite so quickly (since protein is supposed to be converted to sugar slower than carbs).  I ate normally the rest of the day.  I'm a little scared to try again tomorrow without knowing what the problem was.

Well, no weight loss this week.  I seem to be in the pattern of one week of loss, one week of nothing, which I suppose I can live with if it remains that way. 

I'm considering starting the Eades' "6 Week Cure" diet just to see if it prods my weight loss along a little better.  Obviously, I have enough weight to lose that it's not going to happen in 6 weeks, but they give advice on how to cycle the diet for longer term weight loss.  I've seen reports from people who had stalled who are now starting to lose again on this diet.  I'm more interested in the liver cleansing aspects that the diet presents, especially if this does prompt the opening of the fat stores, as well as better blood sugar and insulin levels.  Once you get to the maintenance levels of the diet, it's really no different from Atkins.


My blood sugar was a little weird this week, mainly due to the steroids I was on.  The first 2 days of steroid use, the sugars were running a little bit high, then dropped to a more normal rate after that.  My morning numbers have been great all week (110 this morning, by far the best morning number I've ever seen).  I'm not sure why the improvement, but I'll take it.  Hopefully, it remains this way.

I don't have the blood sugar averages for the week.  I'm still not feeling great (still too much tooth pain), so I didn't get my numbers transferred from my meter to my spreadsheet.

I'll try to post a bit more often as I start feeling better.  I definitely have a few more recipes to inflict on everyone!

Do you ever just have one of those days where you feel like everything is falling apart?  Today is one of those for me.  On the positive side, I lost 3 lbs this week!  On the unpleasant side... Well, I have a cavity... And a failing root canal...  And I'm having a bone graft done on my lower jaw tomorrow so that I can keep my teeth.  My dentist is convinced I have sleep apnea, and since Better Half says I snore worse than anyone he's ever known, I probably do.

And then my dentist says, "Do you have lupus?"  I say very firmly that I do not have lupus.  "Are you sure?" he replies, "Because that butterfly rash you have on your face is a major symptom of lupus."  Ugh!  I was tested a couple of years ago for it when I had some wonky test results, but the test was negative at that point in time, but geez, should I be worried about it now??

And on top of all that, I did my home A1C test yesterday, and my results were 8.0!  I don't really see how, since it was 7.6 a couple months back, and I have been monitoring my blood sugar so carefully the last month.  Since 50% of the A1C is supposed to come from the last month, where my numbers are rarely over 140, how do I end up with an 8.0?  I'm not going to take it again, since the tests are costly, but we'll see how it is next month.

So anyway, I'm a bit depressed and feeling sorry for myself.  Hopefully, I'll be able to cheer myself back up before too long.

Sorry for the delay in posting my week 3 results.  Better Half and I started playing the new MMO Champions Online and have been pretty busy with the shiny new game. :) 

No weight loss this week (boo), but my blood sugar is improving so drastically that I'm remaining positive.  I had one cheat (boo again).  In a fit of pure laziness, I dashed across the street to McDonalds for lunch on Sunday.  It was an interesting experiment.  My pre meal bg was 95.  My 2 hour reading after a McDouble, medium fries and a Diet Coke was 203!  Yikes.  Luckily, my bg was back down to 85 before dinner, so it didn't stay that high for too terribly long, but I learned my lesson.

My averages for week 3 were:

Day 1: 114, highest 136, lowest 102
Day 2: 118, highest 148, lowest 101
Day 3: 120, highest 158, lowest 100
Day 4: 127, highest 138, lowest 117
Day 5: 109, highest 138, lowest 90
Day 6: 117, highest 146, lowest 95
Day 7: 125, highest 203, lowest 85 <-- McDonald's Day

Clearly, the numbers have improved drastically from my starting numbers 3 weeks ago.  Again, my highs were always the morning numbers with the exception of the McDonald's day.  I haven't really figured out any rhyme or reason to controlling these morning numbers--they seem to do what they want to do.  Overall, they're still steadily declining (just at a fairly slow pace), so that gives me some hope that they'll shape up soon.  I swear I'm not dipping into Better Half's M&M stash in the middle of the night!

Keep watching.  Next week I take my first A1C test, which will be interesting.  I'm not expecting a drastic drop yet, because it will still have 2 months of "bad" in the average.

More recipes coming soon!

Not much changed on the weight front this week.  I lost 1 lb, for a total of 7 lbs over two weeks.  I wasn't watching calories as carefully as I should have been, and I know I had a few days that were pretty high (darn salad dressing).  Still, 7 lbs in two weeks is really something to be happy about.

Blood sugar wise, my numbers are continuing to improve.  I still haven't gotten a number under 100, but I'm not seeing many numbers over 140 anymore (except my MORNING numbers--argh), so that's definite progress in the right direction.  Plus, I have to keep telling myself that I've only been watching my carbs for 2 weeks. These averages DO include readings 45 minutes to 1 hour after my meals.  I'm trying to take about 8 samples a day so that the numbers are as representative as possible of my true average.

My averages for week 2 were:

Day 1: 130, highest 163, lowest 130
Day 2: 130, highest 149, lowest 115
Day 3: 125, highest 164, lowest 107
Day 4: 123, highest 153, lowest 111
Day 5: 133, highest 149, lowest 117
Day 6: 130, highest 136, lowest 102
Day 7: 114, highest 135, lowest 103

Again, my highest numbers for every single day were my readings upon waking each morning.  At least they are steadily dropping.  After I eat breakfast, I stay pretty steady throughout the day, barely peaking after meals.

I'm planning on continuing induction for at least 2 more weeks, so keep watching as I chart my progress.

I survived week 1 of induction!

After one week, I've lost 6 lbs.  More importantly, my blood sugar is definitely improving.  It is still far too high, but I'm not hitting any numbers over 200 anymore. 

My averages for the week were:
Day 1: 170, highest 214, lowest 140
Day 2: 156, highest 200, lowest 117
Day 3: 150, highest 194, lowest 116
Day 4: 135, highest 150, lowest 117
Day 5: 145, highest 160, lowest 131 (though these numbers are a bit off since I forgot my meter when I went to work so had less samples)
Day 6: 130, highest 148, lowest 115
Day 7: 130, highest 150, lowest 116

Clearly, the numbers are trending downward.  My Excel spreadsheet tells me my estimated A1C for this week is 7.1.  For every single day, the peak number was my morning fasting number.  Thank you Dawn Syndrome.  I've tried many of the suggestions for coping with this phenomenon to no avail.  For now, I'm going to stay the course and see if the morning numbers continue to improve along with the rest of the numbers. 

Aside from the numbers, I'm feeling much better.  I have more energy, my sleep is more restful and I'm not waking up 10 times a night.  The hunger was extremely nagging the first couple of days as my brain cried out for potato chips and a Snickers bar, but now I'm almost having to force myself to eat enough calories.  After I'd logged my food on Sunday, I found I hadn't even eaten 1000 calories.  On the surface, this might seem like a great thing, but I do not want my body to panic and decide it is starving, so I'm trying to keep a fairly steady amount of fuel for it throughout the day.

Onward to Week 2!