Today is a good day for spring cleaning, which for me means trying to return my place from serving as a rehab facility to normal living.

It's cool back to March temps, the rain has stopped, and what I need to fit in too is a nice long walk.

PT John Jowers said walking is the single best thing I can do.

I've been doing about 2 miles a day. Some days I walk to Friendship Heights instead of taking the Ride-On bus.

Now that spring is dropping in for a day or two (in between winter cold and summer 90^os), it's a really pleasant amble.




On Monday, I  went to the Tidal Basin and walked it, along with thousands of other cherry blossom tourists. What a joy!

When I worked downtown, I'd take a thermos of coffee and breakfast there by 5 or 5:30 am of so and catch the sunrise, along with almost as many blossomites as there were Monday at noon.

Fitting in good walks is an enlivening kind of exercise these days.

Today, taking a break from spring cleaning to iron my 3rd toe, to break the tissue down and flatten the toe, which has been wanting to rise up and to the left since the 1st of the year.



I saw Dr. Polun a week ago and he chided me for not pushing the tension of the DynaSplint up more.

So in my hour in the morning, hour at night, I have pushed the tension up to 3. In a week or so, I plan to push it up to 4.

I have been easy on myself about it, and I don't know if I'm making durable progress. It's a rental unit (Medicare and me).

After 13 months, I own the unit, but I don't want to spend the rest of my life splinted for a couple of hours a day.

Today, a day home, I'm fitting in a 3rd session at noon.

When I'm splinting, I can walk a couple of steps, but it's best to keep the foot elevated, pillow under the calf.

Two weeks ago, PT John and I talked about it and I decided to stop physical therapy. I can always go back if needed, but I graduated now.

Walking, continuing the toe rise, toe grip exercises, massage with foot creams (thanks Kasia and Gosia!), and tai chi, all will help keep things improving.

John said the lift-off of the right foot is better now than the left, the un-operated on foot.

The surgery improved the mechanical operation of the right foot.

Walking! What a great thing to do!

Back to spring cleaning? Or..."

The Tidal Basin peaked early this week.  I heard that Kenwood Forest, which isn't too far away, peaked yesterday.

Maybe I better take this splint off and go see.

A beautiful day, a nice 2-mile walk in Norwood Park and along the Crescent Trail, the first pitcher of sun tea of the year.

Robins and sparrows and grackles, oh my!

And good news from a friend.

Did not know that Dan was dealing with diabetes. He's dealing with it very well with a good plan to which he's commited.

I went to see Dr. Sener yesterday afternoon to get the results of the blood test I had last Friday. Back in December, my A1c metabolic blood sugar had hit 6.6% (that's diabetes; no longer pre-diabetes). Well, after three months of cutting carbs, exercising like a fool with a trainer; walking everywhere; losing 10 pounds (my clothed weight was 176#) ... the A1c had dropped to 5.8%. Wow!
 

Stuck it! I am so happy I could burst at the seams (must be all the iron pumping I am doing). Also, total cholesterol is 126; triglycerides are 116 (were over 200 in December) and LDL (bad cholesterol) is at 65. My good cholesterol is at 38 (highest in a long time), should be > 39.
 

But hey, it is all good.

 

A success story!

 

To cut carbs, I did not "count" -- just consciously avoided unnecessary breads, pastas etc. Don't make a meal of "bread."

 

Bread is my bete noir too, white bread, french bread. It's so interesting how the really culturally established eating patterns that worked for...millenia? have been overridden by overavailability and overconsumption of carbs. Rice, pasta, noodles, bread, Asian, Italian, German, everybody... So increasing vegetables and fruits, appropriately portioned protein, and cutting the above carbs that tax the pancreas -- takes planning and effort.

I do like the healthy balanced energetic feeling I get from eating this new way.

Dan says:

 

Cutting carbs was the key (I think). I do not count calories and carbs and such -- just pay attention to what goes onto the plate and then into my mouth.

My sister put my brother-in-law on a low-carb diet when he faced needing insulin to control his diabetes -- he lost 65 pounds; same for my minister -- lost 40 pounds.

Eating "Lean Cuisine," etc., helps -- the carbs are located on the side panel and try to keep them under 30 per meal.

My day starts with a bowl of Cream of Wheat and coffee -- had to eliminate juice (way too many sugars) and Raisin Bran Crunch (my favorite -- but even more sugars). On Wednesdays, I hit the proteins for breakfast with a trip to Brookings Institution (across the street) for eggs and sausages (maybe too much fat but cholesterol is not my problem) and on Thursday an egg and cheese panini on wheat bread). http://www.brookings.edu/about/history

I began taking lunch at Brookings cafeteria -- their mission is good tasting nutrition and is titled "Mindful." A well-balanced plate of lean protein (chicken or fish), two veggie sides and a modest serving of healthy carbs -- between 500 -- 600 calories.

For dinner: a big salad and a frozen dinner to supplement the proteins.

Evening while reading and watching TV it is tea and a yogurt and an apple -- no more oranges (too sugary). I was never one to snack around the house anyway.

Also, I work out twice a week with a trainer at the YMCA; walk to work (three miles) and yoga on
Monday nights.Hey, I did not say it was easy. Do I miss anything -- my orange juice in the morning. Gawd, I loved that stuff.

Hooray! Hooray good health!

Hey, Shugah! https://www.facebook.com/#!/photo.php?fbid=456286717777429&set=a.429769867095781.100913.429768337095934&type=1&theater

You're not going to overpower my pancreas.

Physical therapist John Jowers of the National Rehab Hospital clinic in Friendship Heights this week said one of the best things I could do is walk.

So I am trying to increase my walking. During the week, I think I'll walk the 3 blocks to the Ride-On bus stop on Wisconsin and Bradley, and then rather than taking the Ride-On, I'lll walk to Friendship Heights, another mile.

One of the challenges is making the time to walk, and do my PT exercises, and the hour morning and night with the splint sandal to push the 3rd toe down. And...practice tai chi moves. (Our teacher, Jeff, would like us to practice during the week, but he definitely is not heavy handed about it.)

This morning I overcame all resistance (after doing the hour on the sandal) and rousted myself to walk into Norwood Park, down the hill, along the path up to the Little Falls bridge, then back. 1.25 mile. Not bad.

This is not what it looked like. Today it is 33^oF, feels like 24^o, and "Locations nearby are reporting snow," says weather.com.

This is what it looked like a year ago (later in March) when my cousins Marilyn and Don Slusarski visited from Stevens Point, Wisconsin.

We had such a fun time!

I had a good time today just walking and not having to stop, and remembering Marilyn and Don.

Marilyn is a little older than I am and a curling whiz. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curling. She's a good model!


PT John J. said my gait was better this week. I am happy about that!

Also I can tell my stamina is better.

On Inauguration Day with my friend Claudia, I had to ask her to stop every 4 blocks for a little rest.
Figured we walked 3 miles that day, but there was a lot of stopping.

Another thing John said to do was to try and keep up with my friends when walking. All of 'em. 




I've been asking all of them to slow down, or go their pace and wait for me up ahead.

Now here's a fast walker I'm gonna keep up with one of these days, Mary G.

No grass growing 'neath those feet!

Another good model!

Balance -- feet, ears, eyes. Center of gravity somewhere in the center of the stomach.

Physical therapy for my healing right foot -- one exercise is standing on the right foot, raising the left behind, balancing.

Holding it for 30 seconds.

Standing at a windowsill, hands over the sill, tapping down on the index and 3rd finger of each hand as needed to steady me.

Easy enough to do by spotting, holding the spot with my vision, like the crook of tree branches.

Relaxing, breathing steadily.

And then I try it on my right foot, balance, spot, and close my eyes.

Then all hell breaks loose.

That's what it looks like, to the right. And I wobble, tip, lean, incline and just lose control.

Very disconcerting.

I realized my eyes behind my closed lids were roaming around in crazy darts.

I tried spotting behind the closed lids, finding a spot and concentrating on it.

Wonder if I'll get any better at this.  Wonder if I'll be able to keep balance?

Today I got new orthotics for my shoes. They're made of cork with foam and at the ball of the foot, the blue squishy stuff that we all use (Dr. Scholl's kind of things) to ease the pressure on our feet. 

Initially, they seem comfortable.

I like Lisa a lot. She's very careful and seemed to really know what she's doing about orthotics.

You are fitted for them by stepping in a box of pink foam. If you've been measured for other kinds of orthotics, you may know the gauze soaked in plaster kind of stuff.

The wet gauze is wrapped around your foot and a cast is made. This is much less messy.

So I checked my feet every hour to be sure there was no rubbing against the 1st, 2nd, or 3rd toes.  I even wore them during tai chi class today.

I'll break them in over the next few days. They can be modified at any time.

Lisa removed a bit of the "stalagmite" (my word) where it was touching the 3rd toe.


This is all very interesting technology!

Another guy at the Hanger office in Rockville had a prosthetic leg. A motorcyclist ran him down and took off.

The man, who is 60, likes his prosthesis but wanted it modified some because softball season will begin soon.

He plays on a team in Olney off Georgia Avenue. He's the youngest; everybody else is in their 80s, he said.

When I first called Hanger Orthotics, and the lady took the information over the phone, she was giving me a lot of info, too.

She asked: Are you a _____ patient? Or a _____ patient?

I had to ask her to repeat it several times. It sounded like baloney patient.

"Excuse me, did you say baloney patient?"

"Below-knee patient." (Versus above-knee.)

Yes indeed, I am a baloney patient.




Baloney illustration courtesy of the Safeway deli on Bradley and Arlington.

 

Though I overslept and missed my dental appointment yesterday morning, I made the afternoon A1C test at Dr. Mohamadi's office in the afternoon.

Will know Monday how it turned out -- what my average glucose level was over the last 3 months.

It may not be too bad. While I dove headfirst into my cousin Jolanta's Christmas cookies, my holiday visit in New Berlin, Wisconsin involved plenty of other good and good-for-us foods like her protein-rich seafood and goose. 


Generally I've been adding more vegetables and fruits, balanced with good protein. I feel better, and my daily blood glucose testing shows healthy numbers. 


                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                                        Yes, the sugar level shoots up on days of  pizza for lunch and dinner. Learning not to do that.

One thing that helps is eliminating or limiting starches (carbs). Remember how we were taught that a balanced meal was protein, vegetables, and starch?

For someone dealing with diabetes or pre-diabetes, the starches/carbs are a problem.

I've been learning to cook extra vegetables and add them so that I may be doubling the amount of vegetables I'd have eaten in the past. 

They replace the white rice, white pasta, white bread I would have had before.

I use fresh vegetables and frozen vegetables. Steam-in-bag veggies are handy.














The result is that after a balanced meal of protein and vegetables and/or fruit, low on carbs, or a balanced snack -- I feel good. 

It's a treat to go to a place like SweetGreen for a healthy salad -- even in winter.

Sugar and a slug of carbs bring a feeling of depleted energy, fatigue, as the pancreas struggles to shoot down the high glucose level.

I'm upping my exercise slowly, with tai chi class and more walking. Plan to do more as I get stronger.


Reading supporting books helps. I liked Al Roker's Never Goin' Back for its sensible ideas AND total lack of telling readers what to do.

Suggestions are one thing, but I believe we all have to find what works for us as we try to eat and live healthily in America, now the land of cheap fast, fat and sugary food all around.





Roker's book also has good recipes. Very amusing, too, and touching in his struggles.

http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/502587411

Another book that I think will be helpful, amusingly titled, is Why Quantum Physicists Don't Get Fat.

IMHO, I don't think it makes the link to  quantum physics that author Greg Kuhn wants, but it does express the power of positive thinking and feeling in a persuasive way. http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/530297332

An incisive explanation he offered was the false stories we tell ourselves before eating the doughnuts or cookies or candy or bag of dorritos:  (“I deserve them, I’ve worked hard, 1 or 2 or 3 won’t hurt”).

What follows are the shaming stories we declare after we’ve downed the doughnuts or cookies or ice cream or bag of potato chips: (“oh crap, I’ve blown it, I’m crap, my hard work of healthy eating is lost, might as well give up”).

His suggestions are helpful: eat only what we can tell ourselves believable, positive stories about, and to move every day as much as we can, with gratitude. Sound simple?

Really, it's mindful eating. Truly a good thing.

The key is not to put the book on the shelf on the “read” pile, but to do these steps, practice them.

I'm going to give it a try.

How I'm spending SuperBowl Sunday evening... This medieval instrument is called a DynaSplint, familiarly called a "shoe." The bar is spring loaded and the padded knob pushes down on...

 

For me, on the 3rd toe, which a couple of days into the new year started to move leftward and up. Maybe having to have a couple of bone spurs removed from the left side of the toe was a factor? The tissue, nicely healed from the Nov. 30 procedure, must still be malleable.

 

I'm supposed to use the "shoe" two or three times a day, 15 minutes a session, then upping to 30, 45, and hour. I'm at half an hour now. When the toe doesn't ache after an hour, then I increase the tension of the bar from 1 now to 2, etc.

Medicare and I are renting the DynaSplint by the week. DynaSplint is a company in Severna Park, Maryland. I like supporting Maryland businesses.

Jessica Plank is the rep who brought it to my place and showed me how to use it. I like her a lot. The DynaSplint itself, not so much.

But I think it is working.

That is the point.

Go Ravens!