Guess What? (w/ The Why Of I Part 3)

What Is At The Center Of The Spiral?
Guess what?

Horse butt!


A suggestion ...
If you intend to make a change ... hell, even if you're thinking of making a change ... start documenting things!
Call it whatever you want, whether it be journaling, making notes, taking pictures, writing shit down, etc.
You think you're going to remember, but inevitably you're going to forget something.
You aren't doing this to show to anyone other than yourself.
But you deserve to have as complete a record of your thoughts and state as you can.


The Why Of I ... I've Got Calling Cards From Twenty Years Ago (Part 3)
There I was, February 2015-ish, standing in Loblaws, reading the labels on bottles of fucking salad dressing, stressing out.

So, of course, I turned to Doctor Google.  I stumbled upon a site that made sense to me ... DietDoctor.com.
It was a blog run by a Swedish doctor, Andreas Eenfeldt.  He was advocating a nutritional approach known as LCHF - Low Carb, High Fat.  There was anecdotal evidence of success in reversing the markers of T2D.

I decided to give it a try.  All I was doing was making some changes to what I put in my mouth.  What did I have to lose?

As it turned out, a fuckton!

I started mid-February or so ... not sure of the precise date, because I didn't write shit down.  Hence my previous suggestion.

I had an appointment with my family doctor on March 25, 2015 (approx 3 months since I had last seen him).  I knew from religiously checking my blood glucose readings multiple times a day that my numbers were getting better.  Much to my surprise, my improvement was significant enough that I could stop taking the gliclazide (the harsher of the 2 diabetes meds) - immediately.

I was told I had this chronic, progressive disease that would require me to take more and more oral meds, eventually graduate to insulin shots, and would likely kill me due to its complications.
Yet I was taking less medication, not more.  My condition was improving, not deteriorating.  A metabolic state that I had cultivated through years of indifference was being reversed in a matter of months.  Mind totally blown.

And all I had done was changed what I put in my mouth.

-tak

Two In A Row! (w/ The Why Of I Part 2)

The Why Of I ... Can't Stand Rocking When I'm In Here, 'Cause Your Crystal Ball Ain't So Crystal Clear (part 2)

While in the hospital, I found out I had a number of related conditions - Type 2 Diabetes (hereafter referred to as T2D), hypertension, and high cholesterol.   My A1C was 8.0, and my bG was probably in the 9 range?  Don't really recall at this point.
I was told my T2D was a chronic, degenerative condition ; I was told about the dietary changes I'd have to make ; I was told about the meds I needed to take.  I was told a lot of stuff and it was rather overwhelming, even for a nerd like me.

I finally understood the nature of the big, fuckin' bear that I had poked.  Or, more accurately, had been poking for a long, fuckin' time, and I had pissed it off enough for it to start a'maulin'.

When I was discharged, I walked out the door armed with prescriptions for a number of meds:

• Metformin - for T2D; its role is to suppress the liver from producing glucose (aka hepatic gluconeogenesis - PubMed link).  It also improves muscular insulin sensitivity (PubMed link).
• Gliclazide (a sulfonylurea) - for T2D; its role is to force the pancreas to produce more insulin.  According to Wikipedia, it was shown to protect pancreatic beta cells from programmed cell death due to an excess of blood sugar in the blood stream.
• Atorvastatin (a statin) - for high cholesterol
• Ramipril (an angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitor) - for hypertension

Engaging with various health teams both in the hospital and out, I met with a lot of very nice, helpful individuals, who all told me variations of the same story.  This is not intended to be a rant against the *people* - I feel very fortunate to have been in the care of the people whose paths I crossed at my time of need.  However, the stories they told left me with the following messages:

• Fear sugar.  (it'll mess with your blood sugar, duh ...)
• Fear carbohydrates.  (sugar is a carb, so ditto ...)
• Fear fat.  (your cholesterol ...)
• Fear sodium.  (your blood pressure ...)
• Fear calories.  (gotta watch your weight ...)
• Fear your weight.  (gotta lose the poundage, bub ...)
• Fear neuropathy (which I do have)
• Fear retinopathy (which I do not have)
• Fear hyperglycemia (blood sugar too high ...)
• Fear hypoglycemia (blood sugar too low, a risk of the meds ...)
• Fear frequency.  (you should eat at least a little something every few hours to regulate your blood sugar ...)
• Fear portion size.  (if you're counting carbs a portion is 15g and usually it's ok to have 3-5 portions per meal, but as a new diabetic we recommend use the plate model, where 1/2 the plate is veggies, 1/4 the plate is protein, 1/4 the plate is starch, and a portion of veggies is what you can hold in 2 hands and a portion of protein is the open palm of your hand and a portion of carbs is roughly your fist and at this point I feel like I've just been fisted)

In other words, fear eating and fear living and fear just fucking existing.

And as we all know ... Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.

All of this came to a head for me sometime in February 2015.
I was grocery shopping in Loblaws, and I had just spent the last 15 minutes or so reading the nutrition labels on a number of bottles of salad dressings, trying to determine which one would be least detrimental, trying to balance sugars, fats, calories, etc.

Having realized I just spent 15 minutes reading fucking nutrition labels, I knew something had to change.
This is not living, this is not-dying.
This is no way to live the rest of my life.
Fuck this.
There has to be a better way.

-tak

Let's Get This Party Started! (w/ The Why Of I Part 1)

Time Is A Flat Circle ...
Saturday, July 16

Hmmm ... I didn't intend this to be a forum for recording of my runs/trots ... but what the hell.

• lap times : 7:45 (new PR!) ; 8:21 ; remainder between 8:40 and 8:50

The Why Of I ... am Neo (part 1)

Talk about burying the lede ... but it's time to start telling my story.

December 2014.
Worst fucking month of my life.
Long story short, I ended up in the hospital.    after years of focusing on everything but my health, the elaborate house of cards I had been building all that time finally came crashing down.
It was not pretty.
During my hospital stay, I was diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes.
You know, the chronic condition characterized by the body's inability to properly use insulin.  A progressive condition that may start with taking oral medications, but will eventually lead to insulin shots, and will likely lead to complications that will kill me.

And yet, walking out of the hospital, I was grateful.  Things could have turned out so much worse.

I dodged a metric fuckton of bullets.  And I would dodge a fuckton more.

-tak

Hi! ... atus?

Observationings

Sweet merciful crap, it's been over a week!  Sorry about the gap ... #notdeadyet ... weird that I'm finding it a little challenging to sit down and write ... part of that (ok, well, all of that) is my own damn fault.  I kind of want to tell everyone all of the things and be meaningful and profound and sincere and yadda yadda yadda, and as a result I'm ending up with all ideas, no execution in the pursuit of perfection.  In this case, doing is better than not doing, even if it's a short post.

Welcome to Imperfection, population : all y'all.


Late Night Double Feature Picture Show?

... seems a bit of a shame to waste that title on a couple of pics, but all's well that ends well.

Saturday, in Queen's Park, I think it was the 9th of July ...

The rain held off until I was done, so huzzah for that!

Tuesday, July 12th

Got off to a late start, so I didn't finish until sunset ... otherwise an uneventful evening in the park.

That's all I have for now ... laters

-tak

Not Exactly Wednesday Morning, Not Exactly 3 A.M. (But I Needed A Title)

A Brief Blog Update ...
I'm still thinking about how I want to tell my story ... whether to do so in a couple of long posts, or a bunch of shorter posts ... either way, I'll get something up soon

Also, if you have any questions, please ask away.


Run You Clever Boy, And Remember ...

The blue dotted oval is a weird Bluetooth-dropping zone of interference zone along Bay Street.
My headset gets staticky and my hrm drops multiple times.


Defficiency
(portmanteau, not typo … (or portmantypeau - a typo that can be retconned as a portmanteau?))

In the past, when confronted with some kind of foodstuff I found unappetizing, I have joked that I should just toss it straight in the toilet and save myself some grief.

... life imitates art?

CBC - FDA approves stomach-draining obesity treatment

I mean, seriously, what the fuck?
Standard disclaimer - I am not a medical professional, licensed anything, or science computer.
The article states "The FDA warns the device should not be used on patients with eating disorders ...".  Let's take that at face value for now.
That means valid candidates for this device likely have two choices:

• Get surgery to have a device installed, eat the same shit as always, and use the new device to remove some of the shit before it's digested, like the worst soft-serve machine in existence.
• OR, eat differently

That seems to be an obvious and rather easy decision.

If one somehow isn't willing to eat differently, then perhaps one has an eating disorder, in which case this device is inappropriate.  In fact, wouldn't a device like this be more likely to cause an eating disorder?  Isn't this assisted bulimia?  You've just installed a literal escape hatch!

...sigh.

This counts as a Monday post ...

Happy belated Canada Day!

Long weekend, so no long post after all ... oops ... on the upside, I had fun!  :)
blogspot puts an actual date on my posts, so I'm gonna stop putting the date in the post title.


Saturday In The Park, I Think It Was The 2nd Of July ...

(didn't even get around to posting a damn picture ...)

Late To The Party?  If So, Need To Make Up For Lost Time!

A friend of mine loaned me his cold brew coffee maker ... it's an Hourglass - looks like it was the first version of the brewer made by BodyBrew ; they've since tweaked the design and are calling the new version the BOD ... Here's a link to bodybrew.com
Couldn't be simpler ... add ground coffee, add water, let it sit on the counter 12 - 72 hours, and voila - coffee concentrate!  Mix concentrate with hot water for a tasty cuppa joe!
One warm Saturday, I had a little concentrate left, but wasn't feelin' a warm bevvy.  Maybe an iced coffee?  Opened the fridge, and there in the door was a chilled bottle of sparking mineral water.  Hell, why not?  Made a 50/50 mix ... and SWEET MERCIFUL CRAP!  It was DELICIOUS!  Kinda Guinness-y, sans alcohol, sans carbs, et plus caffeine!

Why the hell is this not bottled and available in convenience stores everywhere?.

-tak