Reality check

[MikeZ]

Diet and exercise complacency has resulted in consequences for me. Since my initial diagnosis, (A1c 9.5), in March of 2015, my A1c numbers have been very respectable... only hitting 7.0 once and hovering between 5.5 and 6.7 since. Well, I guess I decided that I could go back to my old ways and, wow, was I wrong. These last 6 months have been incredibly difficult for reasons that I won't get into. But I quit hiking and going to the gym and took up drinking craft beer and eating whatever I wanted. I was expecting my A1c to be back up around 7.0 but I was way off. 8.0!
So, back to the regime that worked for me before. I hope to get back down below 6.5 within the next 3 months. For what it's worth, my routine will be:

low carb, high fat diet. No beer.
1 to 1.5 hour hike every day, mountain terrain.
1 hour in the gym 5 days a week.

The point of this post is to remind everyone, including myself, that good numbers are a blessing and are easier to come by for some than for others. I consider myself lucky that I should be able get back on track soon. I also consider myself foolish to pretend that this will always be the case. I know that I am fortunate to have the time and ability to do these things. However, I am 64 years old and it is getting harder to get out there and exercise... the day is coming when I'll be relying more on my carb intake to stay healthy.

Best to all!

 

[lovinglife]

Great post! Well done on getting back on the wagon

 

[MrsA2]

the day is coming when I'll be relying more on my carb intake to stay healthy.

I'm one of those who relies mainly on low carb. The only exercise I do is for fun, eg a walk with friends, dancing. Hikes and gyms are not for me, but keeping low carb is now a way of life and easy. Support from here has been tremendous and vital . Welcome back.

 

[Melgar]

@MikeZ I’m an exercise junkie and I live just up the coast from you in British Columbia, Canada. I tend to use exercise as my go to for controlling my blood sugars. Great job focussing your mind in bringing down your figures.

 

[Outlier]

A bit of a stumble here and there is part of life's experiment, especially when we have to overcome or endure serious difficulties posed by the outside world. You have seen where to make changes and have the right attitude to benefit from your learning. You have reset your parameters and have my congratulations for all you have achieved.

 

[Chris24Main]

Having the ability to admit you need to change up your game is a step that many people trip over - Good for you...

 

[MikeZ]

So here is my 10 day update. I've been low carb and carefully monitoring my diet. I'm back to my daily hiking and 4-5 days a week at the gym. Guess what. I only gained 3 lbs! ***?!?!? I'm hoping that this has a lot to do with my body storing fat or something while I adjust. In any event, I am not pleased.

 

[Melgar]

Do you think you maybe gaining muscle @MikeZ ?

 

[lovinglife]

Don’t let the weight gain make you doubt yourself and push you back into the bad habits you mention in your first post. Sometimes we have to play the long game. The important thing is how your BG is reacting to your positive changes. @Melgar has a good point about muscle gain. It may be helpful to measure yourself as well as weighing. We can lose inches but not weight at times

 

[Chris24Main]

@MikeZ - don't worry that the thing you want to happen doesn't seem to have happened in 10 days... every day you spend low-carb is doing your body a favour, and it does take some time to adjust...

The main thing to recognise is that if you have previously been predominantly high carb, because of the generally high insulin, your body is constantly in fat storage mode. Now, as a phrase, that's quite emotionally charged, but really, it means that our muscle (and fat storage) cells are primed to store any available fat, and not allow it to be broken down to be used as fuel. By fat, I mean fatty acids, and they can come from dietary fat, or carbs.. so for the purpose of this, it's really "any available energy not immediately used up"

When you go low-carb, high-fat... there is a period of adjustment because of the lingering effects of the hormones, but essentially you tip into fat-burning mode, which again is quite charged, but really just means the opposite state - your muscles are unable to stop releasing fat for use as fuel. Any excess is now available directly as free fatty acids (your heart predominantly runs on these), or your liver converts them into ketone bodies, some of which you expel in breath and urine - in fat-burning mode, you literally have a kind of "pressure-relief valve working (for any available energy not immediately needed)

Depending on You.. your precise journey up to this point, your genetics, your gut biome, all of that... you will have additional details (in other words neither I nor anyone else can predict exactly what will happen day to day for you) - but - you should not be too surprised that in the short term gaining overall weight is slow, when you tip your hormone balance into a state where fat storage is difficult.

If you want to know a little more about what is going on in your body - I'd thoroughly recommend a good set of scales which can measure fat and muscle composition - during my most aggressive phase of "regime-change" - I lost tens of kilos of fat, but at the same time, gained a little muscle - it's incredibly motivating (for me at least) to see, and test, what I think is going on in my body.

Good luck...

 

[jaywak]

Diet and exercise complacency has resulted in consequences for me. Since my initial diagnosis, (A1c 9.5), in March of 2015, my A1c numbers have been very respectable... only hitting 7.0 once and hovering between 5.5 and 6.7 since. Well, I guess I decided that I could go back to my old ways and, wow, was I wrong. These last 6 months have been incredibly difficult for reasons that I won't get into. But I quit hiking and going to the gym and took up drinking craft beer and eating whatever I wanted. I was expecting my A1c to be back up around 7.0 but I was way off. 8.0!
So, back to the regime that worked for me before. I hope to get back down below 6.5 within the next 3 months. For what it's worth, my routine will be:

low carb, high fat diet. No beer.
1 to 1.5 hour hike every day, mountain terrain.
1 hour in the gym 5 days a week.

The point of this post is to remind everyone, including myself, that good numbers are a blessing and are easier to come by for some than for others. I consider myself lucky that I should be able get back on track soon. I also consider myself foolish to pretend that this will always be the case. I know that I am fortunate to have the time and ability to do these things. However, I am 64 years old and it is getting harder to get out there and exercise... the day is coming when I'll be relying more on my carb intake to stay healthy.

Best to all!

Lesson learnt !

 

[Juicyj]

So here is my 10 day update. I've been low carb and carefully monitoring my diet. I'm back to my daily hiking and 4-5 days a week at the gym. Guess what. I only gained 3 lbs! ***?!?!? I'm hoping that this has a lot to do with my body storing fat or something while I adjust. In any event, I am not pleased.

Weight gain happens for many many reasons, do not just associate it with gaining fat, this is the mistake so many fall for, weight needs to be measured at the same time each day and gauged over weeks not days.

Hydration, muscle changes, stress, even eating more of the 'right' stuff can affect weight, along with emptying bowels, but do not be disheartened, you are in this for the long term not short term so ignore the scales, keep on the path and don't allow mind games to affect your mindset.

 

[MikeZ]

@MikeZ - don't worry that the thing you want to happen doesn't seem to have happened in 10 days... every day you spend low-carb is doing your body a favour, and it does take some time to adjust...

The main thing to recognise is that if you have previously been predominantly high carb, because of the generally high insulin, your body is constantly in fat storage mode. Now, as a phrase, that's quite emotionally charged, but really, it means that our muscle (and fat storage) cells are primed to store any available fat, and not allow it to be broken down to be used as fuel. By fat, I mean fatty acids, and they can come from dietary fat, or carbs.. so for the purpose of this, it's really "any available energy not immediately used up"

When you go low-carb, high-fat... there is a period of adjustment because of the lingering effects of the hormones, but essentially you tip into fat-burning mode, which again is quite charged, but really just means the opposite state - your muscles are unable to stop releasing fat for use as fuel. Any excess is now available directly as free fatty acids (your heart predominantly runs on these), or your liver converts them into ketone bodies, some of which you expel in breath and urine - in fat-burning mode, you literally have a kind of "pressure-relief valve working (for any available energy not immediately needed)

Depending on You.. your precise journey up to this point, your genetics, your gut biome, all of that... you will have additional details (in other words neither I nor anyone else can predict exactly what will happen day to day for you) - but - you should not be too surprised that in the short term gaining overall weight is slow, when you tip your hormone balance into a state where fat storage is difficult.

If you want to know a little more about what is going on in your body - I'd thoroughly recommend a good set of scales which can measure fat and muscle composition - during my most aggressive phase of "regime-change" - I lost tens of kilos of fat, but at the same time, gained a little muscle - it's incredibly motivating (for me at least) to see, and test, what I think is going on in my body.

Good luck...

I had stopped my daily BS testing a few years ago and now my test strips are all out of date. I ordered more last week and they arrive today. I did use a couple of the old strips last week and my 2hr fasting numbers were 115 and 127. I'm not sure how those convert to EU but they are not terrible.

 

[Chris24Main]

Not sure what it says about me, but I have a chrome tab constantly open on my phone with a unit convertor for blood glucose units...

So, that would be 6.38 mmol/L (115) - or equivalent to an HbA1c measurement of 38, which would be below the threshold for pre-diabetes of 42 over here.

Definitely not terrible... I would say excellent..

 

[MikeZ]

Not sure what it says about me, but I have a chrome tab constantly open on my phone with a unit convertor for blood glucose units...

So, that would be 6.38 mmol/L (115) - or equivalent to an HbA1c measurement of 38, which would be below the threshold for pre-diabetes of 42 over here.

Definitely not terrible... I would say excellent..

Maybe I'll keep using the old strips! The new ones might frighten me!

 

[MikeZ]

4 month a1c update:

from my original post,

"However, I am 64 years old and it is getting harder to get out there and exercise... the day is coming when I'll be relying more on my carb intake to stay healthy"

How prophetic! So my most recent a1c was 8.0... an improvement of exactly zero. I have been hiking and exercising and I did quit drinking beer. (I still drank a couple of mixed drinks at night). However I did not change my diet nor did I lose any weight. I spent a good part of yesterday contemplating if I wanted to enjoy life or stay alive. I'm not that bright so it took me a bit to decide. Anyway, I'm going to revert back to what worked for me in 2015.

Hopefully, I will have better new 3 months from now.

 

[MrsA2]

contemplating if I wanted to enjoy life or stay alive.

The 2 are not necessarily incompatible!

You mentioned "mixed drinks". Still OK to have spirits and soda water or neat. It's the mixers and juices that can be unfriendly diabetes wise. I console myself with a very nice single malt or vintage brandy...it's not a hard life

 

[MikeZ]

The 2 are not necessarily incompatible!

You mentioned "mixed drinks". Still OK to have spirits and soda water or neat. It's the mixers and juices that can be unfriendly diabetes wise. I console myself with a very nice single malt or vintage brandy...it's not a hard life

Well, my problem is that after a drink or two, I end up saying "what the hell" and eating a bunch of ****. I need to do a total reboot. Life is still good... just not AS good!