How'm I doin'? birthday reflection

A year ago, shortly before my birthday, I got a diagnosis of diabetic peripheral neuropathy. On top of the amputation of half a toe in 2012 -- the diagnosis scared the hell out of me. I was asymptomatic a year ago, but by Christmas some stabbing pains were occurring in my feet. I'm fortunate that the shooters are only once a day or so. I take a "medical food" of folate. Maybe it's helping. Maybe the neuropathy would be worse if I weren't taking it.

A year ago, I decided to change my approach to eating. I had already gotten serious about better nutrition but I committed last October to veggies up, white rice, bread and pasta out, fruit up, protein balancing. No desserts, and of course no candy, potato chip or cake snacks.

I get a treat of a slice of french bread and half a slice of whole wheat with my delicious lentil salad at Le Pain Quotidian. Once a month, I get a slice of pizza and a spinach salad at Pete's. If I get a delivered pizza -- I eat the whole thing. So Manny and Olga's no longer visits me.

I've really learned what it feels like to have stable blood sugar -- it feels good. I snack on protein -- a slice of cheese, and veggies, or a was a crisp bread cracker. I don't like the latter SO much so I am not tempted to keep on eating them.

Tonight I took a walk after the rain to get my fitbit miles up to 5. Ran into a former neighbor, Susan, walking her dog. She's a researcher in diabetes. We had a nice long talk about it.

Government research on diabetes has fallen off, not a good thing. But knowledge about diabetes awareness is up on the street, through organizations such as the Diabetes Awareness Ribbon -- https://www.facebook.com/TheDiabetesSite?fref=ts.

There are other groups, but the Ribbon encourages people with type 1 and type 2 diabetes and pre-diabetes to tell their stories. There's nothing like a real teenager struggling with insulin injections while trying to be a normal high schooler or a real young mother suffering from complications from type 2 while working to raise three toddlers to make the link.

The link is between what we eat and how much we move and the incidence of diabetes in our country. Susan told me that India has now surpassed China in the occurrence of obesity in the population and with it, the incidence of diabetes.

This week, I was walking along Wisconsin Avenue. Four Georgetown freshmen were going the same way. "We've got to go to the cupcake place," said one, and the others agreed -- all except one girl. "Not me," she said, "I've got pre-diabetes."

I apologized to her for intruding, but I told her how much I admired her resolve. We talked about our families a bit, walking along...the incidence of diabetes, the amputations, the kidney disease. We talked about our eating and exercise commitments. We said goodbye and blessings at Sweetgreen.

Increasingly at restaurants these days, the wait staff isn't at all surprised at customers' wish to substitute another vegetable for white rice. Three years ago, a favorite Bethesda Chinese restaurant just couldn't grasp the concept.

So how'm I doin' as my birthday nears? I feel very good. I feel pretty much on top of my situation., with God's help. I am delighted that my friends will eat the dessert at my birthday celebrations.

I feel so annoyed and jealous, sometimes, yes, at the guys at work cheerily eating potato chips...I want to pound the bags into crumbledom. But we cannot expect the world to change for us, so I struggle to smile and control myself. That would be so rude! But it would be fun. (Cut me a break, I'm a snackaholic.)

My last A1c test (August) of the average blood glucose level was 5.4, very solidly a good reading. I was #2 again today on my fitbit leaderboard. (Boy, does that change. I'll likely be 8 or 11 in a week. This is a competitive bunch of walkin' fools.)

I'm still 8 pounds away from my healthy weight goal, no change in 2 months -- but no gain, either.

My name is Connie, I'm almost 73, and I'm a DCD -- a diet-controlled diabetic.

Thank you.

The full truth, though

  

I forgot...or something.



I did eat a good number of Gosia's cookies at the party and the day after.

Especially watching Pride and Prejudice with Colin Firth -- http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0112130/

Because they were there.

Because they were good.

Because I have no control.

It was not fatal.

My doctor was pleased

Had my 3-month checkup for blood glucose today. It will take a few days to get the results, but Dr. Mohamadi was happy about my weight loss -- 9 pounds since April. His nurse, Tamika, was very supportive, too.  It really helps to have a good medical team in your corner.

I'm now 8 pounds away from my goal, in the first tier of healthy weight, leaving the overweight tiers. Tamika brought out the body mass index chart and showed me that my goal was right in the center of the target tier.

Whether once achieving my poundage goal I will set a new one at the bottom of the 1st healthy range for me I'll decide when I get there.

My broad goal in losing weight is to keep the pounds off when they come off -- cuz the little devils are so resistant to leaving me. Parting is not sweet sorrow  -- it's pah-leeeeeeeeeaze go.

Ah, aging.

(Please enjoy the black-eyed susans that I saw on one of my daily walks. Thank you, Rudbeckia hirta.) I'm averaging almost 4 miles a day.

Also, I did read the Traci Mann book, Secrets from the Eating Lab: The Science of Weight Loss, the Myth of Willpower, and Why You Should Never Diet Again. 

Her warning against the body's inevitable longing to regain lost weight was sobering.

We all know it's true because we've all done it. Lost, then gained. Lost, then gained.

This is being a great summer -- I'm really happy about my progress and even better, I feel really good!

Keeping the blood glucose under control really does produce a feeling of stable energy.

(Here's the Big Cedar gang on July 4 -- Ben, Nick, Jolanta, Bob, Sophia, Maria, and me.)

I'm doing it by eating oatmeal and berries for breakfast, a salad with a protein for lunch, and maybe for dinner another protein like ground turkey burgers (no bun) with two vegetables.

Between-meal snacks like an apple and a little cheese or nuts.

A slice of bread when eating out, otherwise no bread at home. Bread is my downfall. Wasa crispbread in the cupboard so I don't freak out wanting bread. I don't like it so much so I'm not drawn to overeat it.

No sweet rich desserts. On the 90^o days, Trader Joe's Fruit Frenzy Bars, fruit juice popsicles. 130 calories, 30 g sugars -- yeah. But I seem to be able to handle it at this point. The pancreas seems ok with one sicle.

Grape, tangerine, and blood orange. Or raspberry, lemon, and strawberry.

Had a lovely visit with my cousins over the 4th of July on Big Cedar Lake a half hour west of Milwaukee.


Handled all the holiday goodies pretty well. There were lovely salads and plenty of delicious protein -- barbecue. Yum.

Beautiful morning walks around Big Cedar -- Kettle Morraine country, where the Wisconsin Glacier went through scouring and most interesting terrain east of the Gran Canyon.

And lovely Wisconsin prairie lands.

Morning yoga class one morning with Emily and Mary Pat.

And most exciting of all, a welcome to little Isadora Violet Drake-Hames, here with Great-Aunt Lila, Auntie Gosia, Baba Grandma Jolanta (which means Violet in Polish), and mom Kasia.

A good week. Walked a fair amount, average 3.1 miles a day. 

How much more delightful it is in this beautiful spring! 

This is McCrillis Garden, Bethesda.

I'm in the middle of the pack among my buds on FitBit Friends...ahead of my son-in-law Alex for about 12 minutes (yes!) though that ended. 

Friendly competition is just fun, not a strong motivator. It's a supporting motivator. 

What does motivate me is steady and even good blood glucose levels -- 107 or so on waking, 88 two hours after a balanced meal -- protein, vegetables, good grains. 

And I can feel in my flesh and blood and my brain is aware of it -- I can feel the balance of good glucose levels. 

I started seriously staying away from sugar (sensible on salt, sensible on fat) in October. By now this being able to recognize blood sugar balance is a fragile young habit. I have to protect it. 

Candy, cookies, cake, chips shoot up my bodily feeling. When the energetic feeling begins to fall, I chase the "up" again with more candy, cookies, cake, chips. 

The digestive guru, the pancreas, has to put out more insulin...until one day it can't. 

My motto is:

Don't stress
the pancreas.


http://www.pancreapedia.org/reviews/anatomy-and-histology-of-pancreas

This week, a new book whose author was interviewed in the Washington Post made some good points about the value of trying to control eating -- dieting. 

Deliberately, I don't call what I'm doing dieting. I call it healthy eating. 

I don't know if I'll read Secrets from the Eating Lab: The Science of Weight Loss, the Myth of Will Power, and Why You Should Never Diet Again. 

But the Post account of the book by Traci Mann, professor of psychology at the University of Minnesota who has been studying eating habits, self-control and dieting for 20 years, was enlightening.

 Some intriguing points:

-A warning about the honeymoon period after losing weight. Why the weight so easily comes back on. "I just lost 20 lbs!" yet 6 months or a year later it's crept back again. 

-A realer deal about the diet industry.  While programs like Weight Watchers can do some good, making the good last is the challenge. "Failure" fuels the diet industry. 

-Traci Mann cites three causes of diet ineffectiveness -- neurological, hormonal and biological.

-A brain problem is that when trying to lose weight, attention is overly alert and responsive to food cues, making resistance harder. 

-A hormonal problem is that loss of weight including body fat means loss of hormones that help control appetite. 

-A biological problem is that metabolism slows down. Over the long term (once the honeymoon is over), the body learns to operate on fewer calories, the ingested calories left over after the slower ops tends to be stored as fat.

-The unfairness -- injustice, really -- of blaming people for being overweight and obese.  This point really needs to be be made over and over. It's not to throw up our hands and surrender, but it is to stop blaming people and look for better ways to help everybody. 

Calling for those trying to come to a healthy weight to simply use willpower ain't it. 

A particular issue for me is the attractiveness of sweet, fat, and salty food. Here's what she says:  

"Let's say you're in a meeting, and someone brings in a box of doughnuts. If you're dieting, now you need to resist a doughnut. That is going to take many, many acts of self-control. You don't just resist it when it comes into the room — you resist it when you look up and notice it, and that might happen 19 times, or 90 times. But if you eat it on the 20th time, it doesn't matter how good your willpower was. If you end up eating it, you don't get credit for having resisted it all those times. In virtually any other arena, that would be an A+, but in eating that's an F."

I've got a real problem with "sustained resistance" to chips, pizza, scones, pies, cakes, candy, etc. An interesting tangent is that I can resist all lunchtime or at a party, and have so much attraction to sweet/fat/salty food "built up" that in the past, 6 hours later I'd drive to the Safeway, buy ice cream, cookies, and eat all. 

Having stable blood sugar helps me keep from doing that these days.

A question I'm asking lately is: Will this (anything) help me or hinder me? Will it help me fight against diabetes taking over? If not, get lost. 

Good numbers

Just had my annual physical. Good news! I lost 4 pounds from last August. Over all winter, from September to today, I have not gained as I did a year ago (17 pounds up in 2014). I've taken off all of the 17 but a pound and a half. 

Since October, when I got a diagnosis of diabetic neuropathy, I haven't had any sweets (except for fruit) and I've limited quick-metabolizing carbs. 

No deprivation -- I get my lunch treat at Le Pain Quotidian, lentil salad with half a piece of good whole wheat bread and a slice of really good French bread. 

I plan to keep this up -- balanced eating of vegetables, good protein, fruit, grains -- until October and see what the results are. 

If it's become a reliable habit, I'll work to keep it up. 

At my physical, the results were very promising. 

The best news is my A1c test for blood glucose levels over the last quarter -- 5.5, down from 6.1 (normal is less than 5.7 but for diabetics up into the 6's makes 'em happy). 

This trying to eat in a balanced way is paying off. So is losing weight and more exercise. 

Cholesterol 170, down from 192 last August; bad LDL 80, down from 98; good HDL 71 up from 58; triglycerides 93, down from 154. Thyroid and vitamin D good.

I'm not wild about exercise, but I'm walking more and getting to the Fitness First gym one or two times a week. 

Competing with fellow FitBit friends and family is fun! Two, four, up to seven miles a day.

Springtime makes walking a joy!



Four pounds lost since last August isn't a lot. But it's fantastic for me not to gain. 

Since high school, I've gained and lost, gained and lost. Everybody knows that's not good for the heart. 

When you get older, it's harder to take weight off. I'm about 15 pounds above a healthy weight -- and healthy weight is my goal. 

The relationship between weight and heart disease and diabetes is my warning to halt yo-yo eating. 

I'm finding that eating in a balanced way feels good. And the results of eating in a balanced way make me feel good!

Surviving and thriving in the holidays, 2014-2015

Almost the 12th day of Christmas, signaling the end of the holiday season. Epiphany, the arrival at the manger of the 3 kings, is celebrated today; when it's celebrated on Jan. 6th, that's the 12th day.

A wonderful Christmas, Hanukkah, solstice season this year, full of family, friends, and frivolity.

And this is my big test winter in the Glucose Garden. Last year I gained 17 pounds from September to April. Taking off weight when you get older is a bear. It's just not like the days of my youth when pounds came on easily and came off easily, too, with a revved up metabolism.

So in early October, when I got a diagnosis of diabetic neuropathy, I took on the fear of God, so to speak. No more fooling around.

I've cut out sweets. I've cut out processed foods. I eat vegetables, fruits, and protein. I limit carbs and what carbs I eat are healthy ones. I'm limiting sodium and caffeine. Breakfast is oatmeal and fruit. Lunch and dinner are 2/3 vegetables and 1/3 protein. A morning snack and afternoon snack are fruit and a little cheese for protein, or nuts.

No deprivation. Foods I like, but foods that are good for me, good for diabetics.

Learning to say no.

My friends who are Sweet Takers who will take out of my hands and away from my pantry the sweets I am gifted with.

The 17 pounds...all but 3 of it is off. Still overweight, 20 more is resolved to go to reach a healthy weight.

What is good, over this "holiday season," starting with Halloween and its candy glut, Thanksgiving and its sides and pies surfeit, and Christmas with its cookies, is that I have not gained weight.

In fact I continued slowly ounce-by-ounce  over the holidays, to take off more of last winter's Big Gain.

This required a lot of Nos. No thank you. No, thank you. No thank you.

No no no no no.

And yes yes yes yes. Yes to steamed artichokes, grilled salmon, kale, green beans, mushrooms, turkey...and dates, pistachio nuts, almonds.

More exercise. My foot doctor in December challenged me to go to the gym 3 times a week.

I've almost been doing it. Bike riding now, machines later. Tai chi class and practice.

Walking more with the help of a Christmas present from my brother Pat and his family, a gift card with which I bought a FitBit.

I'm not convinced that a FitBit isn't a step-brother to a criminal ankle monitor, but it is useful.

It monitors activity as steps and miles. It records food eaten and water drunk. You log it in.

It monitors sleep too, but last night I decided not to keep track to that. Thinking too much about sleep is not conducive to restful sleep, I think.

It's very hard to take a selfie of a FitBit in action.

Its readout (at left, the shiny rectangle) flashes when you tap it but tapping and shooting a picture can't happen at the same time.

You can connect to friends on FitBit. Here's my friend Mary G, at right, at the Wolfington Hall Christmas party at Georgetown.

She's beating me every day in steps and miles, the little dickens.

I can't let her keep getting away with that.

Here's another good goal for 2015.