So very tired...

Interesting challenge, although, not one I'm envious of you facing.

Looking at your diet, in the What Have You Eaten thread, there aren't many veg in there. Is that what you actually eat (i.e. so little veg), or are those the highlights? You are patently keen to be and remain very low carb. What level do you pitch yourself at? And finally (for this paragraph....), as you are entering your busiest period, does that mean you are/will be more more active, or do you count all your beans (I think I read you are a bean counter) sitting at a single desk?

I also note you fairly regularly have pork scratchings as a snack. When, during the day/evening do you have those?

I'm mulling a couple of ideas, but your answers could be useful.

Have you incorporated coconut oil into your diet? Apparently due to its being a medium chain fatty acid it is metabolised differently & rather quickly. Many people claim they get a quick boost from it so it may be worth a try if you haven't done so already. I use it to make coconut/peanut butter/ cocoa fat bombs.

bulletproof coffee might give u a energy boost too.

I came across a couple of mentions in this Lada thread http://www.diabetes.co.uk/forum/threads/is-lada-hereditary.84699/ about how taxing the brain can drop blood sugars & thought they might be relevant to your current situation

This comment from Johnski
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It may sound strange, but there is another way sugar/glucose is burnt up and can lead you to hoping Hypo, that is using your Brain. This is proved and a medical fact but many Diabetic a Clinics and consultants never mention this. I do about 8 hours a day of computer work, reconstructing hard drives to get back lost information for Companies and Police cases, also when writing programs or looking for faulty code, this can burn up to 5.0 off my blood meter test and as my aim is 6.5 you can see how hypos can happen, as some days I don't do any a Computer work, just doing a normal day out and about I have to use a different pattern on my Insulin pump, altering both the background Insulin, Basal and alter my Bolus intake with food. It's the only way to keep within my permitted targets and prevent hypos which I use to get a lot more of each day. I've been on Insulin for over 50 years, and back then the brain wasn't considered as burning up energy, but it does, and can cause Hypos without people knowing why, if you do sport or any activity you know you will burn up more, when you are ill or have infections your blood sugar goes up, so why it was t realised that the brain working hard solving problems etc will obviously make a difference. I don't think or know if you use up calories, but it certainly affects blood sugars if used more than for light everyday things. One reason (not proved) I think that the stress of taking exams at school and Uni are sometimes responsible for diabetics needing to take some carbohydrate to keep their sugars up. My Consultant now says this has all been proved and can be shown on ward as a day patient if you burn higher than normal. I presume in layman terms you run,you burn up energy, so what feeds the brain? Just the same evidently. This is not of course the medical description but written, I hope, to be understandable. In my pump I only use quick acting Insulin, I was surprised as were people at the clinic with a pump user using long acting insulins such as Insultard as mentioned among others earlier, the whole idea of a pump is to prevent hypos and keep controlled generally for more problem or serious hypo people, long acting insulin couldn't work, as your Bolus is to match the food consumed, and Basal to keep your background level if you didn't bother to eat. How would you make long acting work properly pumping it in hourly?

& this one from Bluemarine Josephine

Hello Johnski,
You are ever so right and actually, my endo has warned me about this (because I work in a mentally strenuous field.)

Mentally active people or people who are, in generally, occupied in mentally active fields are more prone to lower blood sugar levels. Although the brain is an organ per se, in the field of neuroscience it is considered a muscle because it is basically tissue — like muscle — that can be called to action for any purpose. (it is for this reason that I.Q. is not strictly fixed but, can be raised through Brain fitness programs – fascinating, isn’t it!)

The brain continuously slurps up huge amounts of energy for an organ of its size.

Energy travels to the brain via blood vessels in the form of glucose, which is transported across the blood-brain barrier. When there is strenuous mental exercise, the local capillaries dilate to deliver more blood than usual, along with extra glucose and oxygen.

It is exactly like any other muscle exercise and, should probably be considered and treated as such.
A treadmill workout for the brain.

Regards
Josephine.



Are you testing when you're feeling tired?

safi

Did you test carrots to see their effect on you? I find raw carrots will spike me, but cooked carrots are fine. They're not nearly as carby as other root vegs, eg. 100g cooked carrots is only 5.3g carbs, compared with the same amount of potato at 11.2g and sweet potato at 15.2g. Butternut pumpkin is also lower at 7.5g/100g. Might be worthwhile adding some small amounts back and see how you feel?

Unless you have another health condition that requires you to stay in ketosis, I wouldn't stress too much about whether you are or aren't in ketosis - some of the "gurus" out there seem to think the flexibility of cyclical ketosis is healthier for us metabolically. If you're approaching your goal weight, adding a few more carby vegetables might help rather than hinder.

OK. Here goes from me. The things I would try - one at a time, or you won't know what works, or if indeed one counteracts on the other, if you get my drift.

If you are feeling tired at work, yet have your snack when you get home, you could try re-shuffling some of your eating, to perhaps deliberately have your little bag of scratchings either with your lunch or certainly earlier in the day? That way you may be fuelling the fire before the heat drops noticeably? You could also try that with some nuts. When I was trying to stabilise my weight, I added a "dose" of peanuts at lunchtime. I say dose as I did actually measure those, partly because they can be addictive and it's possible to munch through a mountain on salty peanuts whilst doing something else and not get any enjoyment, or hunger satisfaction, from them. For me, I used to use a decent sized egg cup, which held about an ounce. That's about the same size as most of the small individual bags (usually 30gr), but can be kept in a drawer at work, with a bag clip to keep them fresh?

Conversely, you may find your insulin resistance is significantly improved as you have lost weight. I know mine improved at lot as I skinnied up, and indeed, now my bloods run better if I don't go too low carb. My carb intake varies on a daily basis, as I record my food diary in the evening, after I have eaten, so that I have my food and enjoy it, rather than feel in any way guilty and maybe be put off eating my full meal if I felt it was "too carby". But, suffice to say, my bloods don't vary much, whether I eat 20 or 100gr in a day. All that happens is a slight change in the metabolic/blood bell curve, but no spikes, and I reckon the "volume under the curve" doesn't increase if I up the carbs a bit. If I have a lot of fatty protein, the line hardly rises, but the rise it achieves, stays there for an age. But, as I say, the volume under the curve is probably about the same.

I can't say I've ever striven for ketosis, and by the time I tested a few times, only using urine strips, any ketosis I was achieving was barely visible. None of this purple strips for me! Allegedly, as the body adapts to ketosis, it doesn't show so well in the urine. I haven't done any in depth reading on this, as it's never been mega important to me. I have always simply focused on blood scores, accepting the rest would likely fall into place.

May take has always been that if I can achieve normo-glycaemia, and maintain it (so far, so good!), I will be happy. I never set out to lose weight, and indeed didn't step on the scales for three months, post-diagnosis. My feelings werethat I could live with my then current body, if my bloods came into line, but would have been hacked off if I had focused on getting skinny, but still found my bloods to be in poor shape.

It is important to me that I stay slim, because it would appear from my own records that the old visceral fat didn't do me any favours, and my waist was the last part of me to really get tiny.

Good luck with it all. I've always said the trickiest bit is at the balancing stage, because then it is playing the see-saw game to prevent it becoming a yo-yo battle.

And have you been checked for the usual suspects - Vitamin B12, folate, D3 deficiencies, thyroid function?

Have you had your magnesium levels tested ? after I found that mine were on the low side I started to take magnesium supplements which certainly have given me more energy ,but if you do decide to try them make sure that you get a good supplement I take Drs Best 100 o/o chellated
CAROL

GeoffersTaylor said:

@Safi - Food for thought. Literally! Thanks for that.

@Indy51 - I didn't test carrots, so maybe I'll do as you suggest, although I prefer them raw.

I haven't come across "cyclical ketosis" before, so I've just done some Googling. I think you might have hit on something... I mentioned that I'm back in the gym. I've been twice this week and plan to go again today. I lift weights for my workouts, low reps at high loads, which is quite intense. It could be that I don't have sufficient stored glycogen to support that kind of workout, and that, not work, is potentially the reason why I'm getting tired. I can't say that the idea of having "carb days" is appealing; they might replenish my glycogen but I shudder to think what they would do to my BG. Maybe some targeted carbs before a workout might be effective?

I think l need to talk to a nutrition professional. But thanks very much because that's definitely something to consider, and I always feel better when there's a course of action to go look at.

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Take care mate. I can now eat fried chips (amazing) so my thoughts are with you. Like your style

.... and your direct comments. Mike

I came across this and thought of you ........ maybr if you're trying to stay awake you should find an alternative drink?

Home Remedy for Insomnia
Chamomile is wonderful remedy for sleep disorders such as insomnia. Simply make a chamomile tea 30 to 45 minutes before going to bed to treat sleeplessness.

"Skinnied up" brill absolutely brill

My two penny worth... I get tired after I come down off the caffeine high after drinking anything with caffeine in. I feel low and exhausted. So I stopped drinking drinks with caffeine in and feel much better.

Do you take a good multi vit tablet? It might help.

GeoffersTaylor said:

Sometimes, someone just needs to point out what should have been obvious! D'oh!. Yes of course I'll give that a go. Thanks

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I always try to look for actions that aren't overly complicated.