Taking Things For a Test Drive Can Be Hazardous to Your Health (2/20/10)

Starting Blood Sugar – 95 (Yah Baby!  Finally below the 100′s again!)

Food For the Day:

• Breakfast – (This will sound UGLY.)  Pancakes with macadamia nuts, bananas, coconut shavings…and REAL SYRUP!  And eggs with corned beef hash…again.  (Went out to breakfast…tried a new place and couldn’t help it.)
• Lunch - None really, See breakfast.
• Snack – Some smoked, salted almonds.  I really need to get rid of these.  I can just feel that the salt and smoke flavor zap all the health right out of the almonds…
• Dinner – Zankou chicken (Middle eastern chicken restaurant).  Grilled chicken and steak, some basmati rice, tahini, and salad.  Definitely not enough salad.

Midday Blood Sugar – 157 (Decided to test myself 2 hours after the crazy ass breakfast.  157 sounds bad, and its really not, so stop freaking out mom!  its actually right where you should be 2 hours after a meal.  I guess this means I can eat this everyday!)

Ending Blood Sugar – 124 (Not too bad.  Dropped back to within normal levels, >140.)

Exercise:

Hour of jiu jitsu.  (Was going to rest, then ate breakfast and felt enough guilt to make me force myself to go.)

Analysis:

This morning I went and got my blood drawn to find out my Hemoglobin A1C.  This is a test that measures your blood sugar over a period of 3-6 months.  From what the doctor described, your blood cells have a shelf life of about 6 months, and then they die and are replaced by new ones.  During that time, the glucose attaches itself to the blood cells and stay there.  Basically, it gives you an idea of what your blood sugar looks like over a longer period of time.  Also, it stops people from cheating on their glucose meters.  I’ve heard that some people try and eat really healthy the last day or two before they got their blood drawn, I’ve realized that if you manipulate the times that you test your blood you can affect the blood sugar readings on a daily basis, to make it look better.  However, I have no idea why you would do this.  I guess some people treat their doctor like their parents and just don’t want to look bad in front of him/her.  I don’t care what he thinks.  In the end, the only opinion that matters is my own.  If I choose not to follow his advice and do whatever I like, its not like he’s going to yell at me and send me in the corner, that’d just be weird.  I feel its important to keep accurate data for myself, if only to know what can and will happen when i eat certain things.  This, I believe, will give me the freedom that I so desperately am seeking at this point.  I hope to at some point have enough control over my blood sugar that I can eat whatever I want, whenever I feel, because I will know the outcome of my actions.  One thing that I’m finding is that I don’t eat often enough on the weekends.  I tend to eat big meals, and snack way less.  I’m wondering whether or not this might have an affect on my blood sugar levels.  I’m pretty sure it has an effect on my night readings, but it probably affects my morning readings as well, since I consume larger meals for dinner.

Day 19 – Gotta Go Down Before You Can Go Up(2/19/10)

Starting Blood Sugar – 133 (Ugh…going down but still high.  Kind of like my illness.  Still feel sort of sick, but better than Wednesday.)

Food For the Day:

• Breakfast – Friday, went out to breakfast.  Corned beef has, eggs, and some hasbrowns.  Did not taste like Cheerios, thank God.
• Snack – Some peanuts, and other random nuts.  Time to buy some more, and healthier, nuts.
• Lunch - Some middle eastern beef with a little vegetables.  Not even really a meal, more like a snack.
• Dinner – Half a sandwich and some barley salad.

Ending Blood Sugar - 116(The exercise, I’m sure, led to this.)

Exercise:

2.5 hours of jiu jitsu.  I was completely burnt afterwards.

Analysis:

Blood sugars high in the morning, lower in the evening.  I took a midday test at 4 to see what my blood sugars were like.  I was feeling a bit light-headed and almost hypoglycemic, or so I thought.  The reading was 118.  Have to wonder why my readings are normal, but I get the feeling that I’m low, that is definitely something to ask the doctor.  Did a large amount of exercise, which helped out with not only my blood sugar, but with my illness as well.  I’m one of those strange people that really feel the need to “sweat it out”.  Probably not the best thing to do, but I always feel better afterwards.  I’ve yet to feel anything close to hypoglycemic during any of my exercise.  In fact, I wanted to ask my doctor about this because in years past, I’ve exercised after not eating for an entire day, and not felt any of the symptoms of hypoglycemia.  I wonder if its just my body, or me just being stubborn.  Sugars are getting back down and controllabe which is good, but I need to start paying more attention to my diet, to see when is the best time for me to eat my sugar.  I might at some point try testing myself once an hour, purely to get an idea of how my blood sugars go up and down in a day.  Not going to be fun, but it will be interesting to see the results.