Living with Diabetes

Went for a party last night. The temptations were out there. I resisted but it was hard. I feel that this year the urge to let go was more than before. Maybe the harsh reality of living with the restrictions all year round is now making it harder to keep it up at the end of the year when the temptations are at their finest. I have another party to go tonight and I hope to keep my resolve.

I knew this was coming. Woke up to a sugar of 140. Body is sore all over. The pants are already feeling tight on the stomach. Looks like the tight control diet has to start before the new years party. Bummer, I was looking forward to a last splurge before the lean period. Well got to do what you got to do. Cannot let this go out of hand. I can either put the brakes on now and be all back to normal by the middle of Jan, or else it might be mid Feb before life is back on track. I sure am thinking hard about the new year resolutions.

I have been having a really good time during this Christmas. Lost of parties and get-togethers. Luckily most of them have lots of Chicken to eat. Folks are already aware that I will need protein so they make extra Chicken and some salad for me. Works out good. I am still only tracking my morning fasting sugars. The numbers are coming between 118 and 135. A huge spread, but then so is the variety and timings of my food intake these days. I am happy at how the body is doing. I know that January will be a hard month. The body will have to be retrained to a normal diabetic life. No more freedom to eat whenever I need to. Monitoring sugars 4 times a day. In another week I expect my appetite will have grown and I will have to go through some weeks of partial fasting to shrink it back to the size it needs to be. Also been craving sweets at the end of each meal. Not a good thing. I guess I could substitute with stuff made in Spenda or Equal. Also not getting good and continuous sleep. Has lead...

There are times when I wish that Diabetes had not come into my life. There were some things that were so much more easier before. Some of the things I yearned for last night - Ability to eat a nice sugars snack for Christmas at the mall. The taste of melting dark chocolate candy in my mouth Rice and sambar Eat idlis Pasta Alfredo French fries Mango chutney Peanut brittle A big glass of Orange Juice I console myself with this saying - "You cannot expect life to be the way you want it to be. You have to deal with it the way it is."

So I have been experimenting with diet for a couple of weeks. Not by choice but due to the circumstances. The sugars are misbehaving and I started to sit down and think about what I am doing. For about two weeks I have only been checking my morning sugars. Not and ideal thing but I will blog about that later. Morning sugars are trending all the way from 118 to 145. I started to note what I ate the night before. I am totally off carbs in the dinner time. No bread, rice, roti or noodles. Nothing. I stick to vegetables and protein. I found out that the more protein I have for dinner, the better sugar numbers I wake up with. I am still trying to sort out the science behind this, but it seems to work. The protein has be a good quantity though. Atleast one full chicken breast, a nice chunk of fish, a big serving of mutton (goat meat. Tastes like lamb), a big serving of tofu.

Been too busy for the last few weeks. Things are settled down and now I can get back to blogging. To start with, first the results of this months Doctors visit, the A1C came out at 6.7. It was good. I was expecting a lot lot more considering how little I exercised, but not too bad. What else is going on, I am beginnign to get some control after a bout with some cold and cough. I was very worried about how it will affect my sugars. It raised the numbers without any reason. I was uncanny to not be eating anything and still having numbers out of nowhere. But I kept my cool and told myself it is a temporary thing. I was beginning to have some sugars that were reaching closer to 120 in the morning, but then I started hitting 135s and even went all the way to 150. Next week I am going to eat dinner early - 8:00 PM and not eat anything carbs before going to bed. With some small amounts of moderate exercise, should be back in business. Have to get though this holiday season with suagrs in cont...

I have managed to get life back in control. It is a relief to have the sugars back into reasonable numbers. I was getting very tired of waking up to body aches and feeling lethargic the whole day around. IT sure is amazing what higher sugars can do to you. The holiday season is upon us. Just went through the Diwali/Eid celebrations for the Indian community. Lots of food and lots of sweets. I do not have trouble resisting the sweets, but when they get spread around in front of you, sometimes you just want a nibble. This is how I help to work it out - - Before getting to a party, always eat something filling. Have a can of diet soda. If the tummy is not growling for food, the choices you make are much saner. - Never spread out sweets etc in open view in your own home. If having a party, clean off the sweets and stuff and put them away as soon as the party is over. - EAt the meats. I particularly enjoy Eid for this as there is always some meat to have. Have to watch out for the rice and t...

Th sugar control is feeling very overwhelming. The same things I did and ate before now are leading to a mutiplier higher than before. I can never understand. Is it the cold, is it the stress, it it the exxercise, is it just the body going through its own issues.

The last month has been a major nightmare. Both the kids have decided to act up. Neither one of them seems to like to go to sleep. They do not want to eat, do not want to sleep and definitely do not want to be anywhere away from us. This has lead to sleepless nights, major depression, eating junk and eating and odd times. The sugars have gone through the roof. Morning sugars are heading in the 140's and most of the rest of the day I seem to be running in the 160-170's. Oddly the body seems to be adjusting to this and I no more seem to be having the high sugar symptoms - lethargy, itching etc. Don;t know where I am headed. I sure feel like a nice big piece of chocolate. I tell myself every morning that I will get things in control, but then it all seems to go to hell by the time the evening rolls in. Such high stress cannot be good, but hopefully it will pass. I dread going to the doctor this month. I bet my A1C's see a big jump. I really need help. Might be time to start ta...

Interesting, but this is what I observed in the last week. I have a pretty set routine on what and when I eat. My sugars were trending to be under 120 when I wake up. Then over a period of two weeks, got very busy. Spent most of the time driving around in the car, ate a lot more McDonald's and ended up running out of my cache of foods like the breads etc that I eat. So I started eating the bread that my wife eats, though I adjusted to keep the nutrition info the same. My sugars started creeping up. I starting getting a morning sugar of 150. My 2 hours after meals sugars was at 180-200. I got freaked out. I tried everything, even being more active, which was really hard as the body was reeling under high sugars and just wanted to rest. Finally got my bread from the store and sugars are now back to lower levels. I woke up to a 124 today. Not great but much better. So this is what I hypothesize - 1) When you start bring sugars in control, the body gets used to what you are giving it a...

I have been thinking about messages sent to us from various thing we read and listen to everyday. A couple of days ago I was reading the story of the rabbit and the turtle to my little daughter and was telling her the moral of the story...how slow and steady does win the race. It got me thinking, how does that philosophy apply to my life with diabetes? A rabbit signal highs and lows in your blood sugar. When you get a high, you have more energy (not true always) but you can get a spurt and then the slowdown. So being a rabbit is a signal of being on highs and lows and swinging like a pendulum from a rapid release of energy to a low where you have to sit down and rest. whereas a turtle would be a constant blood sugar. Not many highs or lows. A simple steady graph of sugar. Keeping things in relative calm and getting things down at a nice relaxed, but determined pace. I think these days I am a diabetic turtle . I want to keep things in control and continue achieving things.

The last few weeks my morning sugars are dropping. This is great considering where I was sitting for such a long time. I am actually able to see morning sugars under 120. This inspite lots of stress from work, home, relationship, kids and everything else you can think of. I guess it has been a time when life is trying to catch up. But in all the dark clouds, the under 120 morning sugars is a great silver lining. Why as I getting blessed like this - 1) I am being more active towards the end of the day. 2) Eating a bigger snack in the evening so that my body is not dying from hunger for dinner. 3) absolutely no bread during dinner. I am sticking to vegetables and protein during dinner. There is some carbs coming from the other foods, but no carbs. Definitely much lower glycemic indexes. 4) Some positive thoughts in the head before I fall off to sleep. I am just so tired by the time I hit the bed that I am lost really fast, unless one of the children decide to wake up and need attention.

Mother nature sure has a nice way of reminding you of your place and status every once in a while. Last week after the great doctors visit I was beginning to get cocky. I thought to myself, now I have a lot better control on diabetes, now I can live the rest of my life with no medicine. I thought in my head that I had it beat and am on top of it and dreamt of possibly reversing the disease. So while in this halo I went to the temple to celebrate a Hindu festival - Janamastami, the birth of lord Krishna. I sat there with my family watching other eat since I rarely eat at the temple anymore, too many carbs. Then I saw an acquaintance walk in using a walking stick. This guy was healthy just an year ago when I had seen him. I asked what happened and he said Diabetes. Still cocky I assumed that he must been having trouble since he was not watching himself. So I ask him what exactly happened. He said that he was keeping very good control on his sugars (strike one on my cockiness). Then he ha...

Before folks get all excited about this, no this is not because of any scientific study out there. This has been my experience. Before I got diagnosed with Diabetes a year ago, I had been loosing hair on the head at a very accelerated rate. It seemed like days of baldness were coming on really fast. Friends were beginning to comment on how my hair was going away fast. Some had theories like I was working too much, or that having kids was taking its toll. I know I will go bald eventually as my father is a baldy. I expect loosing hair slowly, but the pace was picking up. Then I ran into Diabetes and took control of diet and health. Then a month ago I noticed some of the fellow hair loosing guys comment on the fact that my hair seemed to be coming back. Most thought that I must be using some medicine, which I wasn't. Some cursory research into the look did seem like I was getting back a fuller set of hair on my head. It was weird. This is my theory about this. The hair is a indication...

Met up with my doctor yesterday. It was the three month checkup to see how I am doing. My A1C numbers came out at 6.4. I was very happy. It dropped from 6.8 the previous time to 6.4. The hard work is paying off. It was a good visit. Confirmed my belief that I am the right track. My sugars are still a little bit higher, but the diet and the minimal amount of exercise are definitely making an impact. We talked about my metfornin usage and I told him about not taking it. The doc says that I have proven that I do not need the medicine as yet so I can stay off it. He congratulated me on my tight control and was pleased. Told me to keep it up. Did warn me that I should keep things in control as traditionally diabetes is a progressively worsening disease and if a tight control is not maintained it gets harder to keep under control in the long run. One other piece of advise was to start an aspirin regimen. I have been thinking about this one tool. Especially since I found out that Diabetics a...

Listening to all the news coming from Lebanon, I started to wonder how do the diabetics take care of themselves in a war zone? Few things that will throw the careful life we diabetics construct around ourselves - 1) Having your house blown away with all your medicines. I guess you can be happy that you survived. 2) No idea where the next meal will be found. Have to eat what is available. No choice. Either you risk starvation or high sugars. I guess the choice would be to get your hands at as much meat as you can get. Know that the sugars are going to high. Try to go for raw vegetables if you can find any in a garden. Risk some starvation. High sugars are better than lows. 3) Constant stress. It would be an anxious and stressful time. The stress hormones are going to going crazy. There is really very little chance of keeping any control on your sugars. Overall not a pretty situation. My heart goes out to the folks that are currently going through this conflict, whether they are civilian...

[Enter your comment here] Has anyone ever heard about ELEOTIN before. I am interested, but very sceptical. This is going to need more research. As they say, anything that looks too good to be true .... Read more at www.asiawind.com/forums...

Just picking up around the house and cleaning up some of the surfaces and the sugar numbers are coming out great. It is amazing what a simple mopping of the floors will do to your sugars. None of this is very extensive exercise, but it sure is some. Reason I think cleaning up helps - 1) You get some exercise or else you would end up sitting around watching TV. 2) The act of cleaning gives a surreal pleasure to your brain. 3) Seeing a clean house makes you feel relaxed and good, which is a known way to keep the sugars in balance. So lets get cleaning...There is so much more to do....try not to get stressed....if you do not make the mess, you will not have to cleanup.....

Last week had a bunch of revelations forced on myself. I realized that my complaining about higher sugars was being considered a Pity me attitude. It was interesting. I obviously never thought of it like that. I always considered it my right to complain when I did not have everything in control. But when you do it too many times to the same set of persons, it starts to smell and taste like a pity-me item. And if it looks like one, smells like one, tastes like one, it is a Pity me. Some realizations that dawned as part of this process - 1) Things are always in your control. Do not let them out of your control and if you do, then do not complain about it later. 2) If you are overwhelmed by diabetes or any other disease, do speak out and complain. Just try to spread it out. Some ideas - - Compain to youself in the car, loudly. - Complain to family. - Complain to friends. - Create a blog and rant on it. This makes sure one single person does not get the brunt of al...

Last weekend we ended up going for a wedding in the family. It was a great Indian wedding. There was lots of food as usual and over a couple of days. I tried to do the best I can to eat things that will keep my sugars low - 1) Eat the meat. Lay low of the gravy 2) Eat the paneer ( Indian cheese for those who do not know what this is ). The sugars did great. It also helped that my two year old always wanted to be out and about rather than in the room full of people. I cam back thinking I have handled the weekend great. But the days following the weekend, my sugars started creeping up. I realized that the long term impact of eating the heavy stuff was - 1) The fat makes your appetite grown and make you want more. 2) I feel like I have gained atleast 3 pounds on the tummy and that cannot be good for the sugars. 3) It is going to take a lot of hard work to undo the two days of easy eating. What should I have done - Eaten the meat and stayed away from the panner. Tried to get my hands on v...

I got this question asked recently in one of the comments posted to my blog entries and it got me thinking. I am not sure why I am so much against taking the medicine to control my diabetes. So here are some random thought that come to mind - 1) When I did take Glyburide for a month I had three low sugar moments which were definitely not a pretty side to handle. I was a nervous wreck going to work and coming back always wondering if I have food and will I be able to catch the sign in time on the freeway as I drive. 2) Most medicines have side affects. Nothing is free in this synthetic world. 3) Looking at the literature tells me that once you are on the medicines you are sort of on a ladder systems. You have to keep changing them till you get to Insulin in the end. 4) I understand that eventually I might have to get to the medicines, why make a big hurry. I am not against medications. Infact I have been comfortable popping pills as needed. Just very nervous of being on any pill for a r...

I am always amazed by what people think about diabetes. The ADA seems to have done a good job of taking care of educating people in the US. There is still a lot of work to do, but atleast the general public is beginning to get an idea of what this is. But in the Asian American communicate I am amazed by what folks still think about this disease. Everyone still thinks that all this is a disease that is caused by SUGAR. The worst is when I meet people who have had the disease for some years and are still thinking that it is all about sugar. I see them eating white flour chapatis and potatoes and still hear them saying how they are controlling their sugar intake as they do not add any to their daily cups of tea. This really gets my goat. But educating them is not an easy task. I am seriously considering setting up a non-profit of my own and getting down to the process of educating the Asian-American and specifically the Indo-American community about this disease. So many folks at risk for...

Saw a link on the diabetes daily and made me think - http://www.diabetesdaily.com/content/2006/05/19/keeping-my-mouth-shut.php I have not hidden diabetes from people around me, but I do not go out there and make a visible spectacle of testing for my sugars. When I do test, I do it in the privacy of my own room. When I am at a party, I test in the bathroom. I believe that there is no reason to hide the disease, infact we should be open about it as more people need to talk about it. The more we all talk, the more the awareness for the disease and at times I have helped others who are trying to deal with the disease when it hits their families. There is so much ignorance about this disease and we need to come out and tell people about it. I also believe that we need not make other uncomfortable by checking the sugars in front of them. I am OK doing this in front of family. My 2-yr old daughter always comes up to me and tell me - "Dad, can I help". She sometimes playacts the act ...

This question came up in the comments in the last post that I did. Right now, I am not taking any medication. It is hard but I am trying to control my sugars just using diet and exercise. In this whole process I am finding that it is much easier to keep the numbers in check for the day, but the morning sugars are the hardest to get a handle on. Lately my target for the morning sugars is to have it under 120 and the sugars two hours after breakfast/lunch and dinner is to be under 150. So the numbers after the food are doing great. The one in the morning is going 50/50. Half the days I am over and half the days I am under. Still not able to figure out what exactly can I change to control this. To get better morning numbers, the doc has advised me to take metfornin. I have filled the prescription, but have not taken a tablet as yet. Something in me makes it hard to take the tablet. I think I was scared of the low sugar conditions that I hit when I was on Glyburide for a month earlier in ...

A1C was 6.8. LDL - 124 HDL - 38 I feel a little bummed about this. I was expecting a lower A1C. Also hoping for a better LDL and a higher HDL. But I am going to look at this positively, atleast it was not worser. The doctor was concerned that my fasting sugars are coming higher, mostly over 120. They are in the 130s most of the day. He thinks I need to consider going on some sort of medicine to be taken with supper that will keep my fasting sugars low by controlling the lever. I suspect this might happen is I cannot take control. I am experimenting with some dinner foods now. Maybe add some protein and reduce the carbs consumed in the evening. Also need to get exercise wagon started. Luckily with the summer here, it is easier to take walks, but that does not seem to help the night sugars. Walks and other stuff keeps the daytime sugars in control.

The time is approaching to go see the doc for the three month checkup. This is going to be the fourth visit for the year, which means that my diabetic anniversary is coming up. Kind of have mixed emotions about this whole year. In some ways it went really slowly and lots of adjustments in life with the disease. And in a lot of ways it went really fast and an year is already over. What do I expect, I expect the A1C to be around 6.5. What about the next year - 1) Have to reduce 10 pounds of weight. 2) Have to setup the bowflex and build some muscle. 3) Do more regular exercise.

Last week I got excited that I had managed to have a great week with sugars in control. I wanted to reward myself. But when I thought of how, I ended up thinking about eating something I really really like or missed since now I watch what I eat. A few more minutes and I could see how weird this whole things was. You reward yourself for eating good, by eating bad...hmmm This is a real thinker issue. What do I do now? All my life I have rewarded myself with some sort of food. I am sure it was something that started really early in childhood. Either it was something I created or something my parents inadvertently created in me. But for the last few decades that is what has been ticking my bones. Now, the great D is making me rethink the whole paradigm of rewards. My existing reward system has to be dismantled. What should I replace it with. Maybe I reward myself with a new exercise tool, nah, have too many of those already. Maybe a new electronic gadget. Unfortunately that can be a prett...

Last week I saw an article on the Diabetes Blog by Kristi - five-personal-accounts-of-reversing-type-2-diabetes Made me start thinking about whether there is a real cure for diabetes right now. The Type 1 folks do not really have any recourse right now. The Islet impantation seems to really promising. For the type 2 folks, seems like there is a lot of information out there. Most cases it seems like folks say that you can get rid of this disease if you loose enough weight. My feeling is that loosing the weight probably makes it better, but you can never ever get rid of the problem. Once you have diabetes, you have it for the rest of your life. You can change your lifestyle and keep it in control, but you can never get to the point where you can eat that large piece if cake and not have the sugar spike like crazy. The more I think, the more I realize that I do not want to be eating like I used to before I found out that I was a type 2 diabetic. Now that I know more, I would rather eat a...

Have been having a hard time coming up to write some information here to share with the other folks. Life has suddenly taken a turn for more busy, but I will start making time to make sure I start writing more information. There are lots of good ideas swimming in my head and just need to come in write them down.

The last week my sugars have been great. I think taking some extra fiber is paying off. I am still not getting enough exercise, but an definitely trying to relax and go with the flow of things. Life's oddities at home and work are still stressful, but I am able to remind myself that I need to relax as some things are beyond my control. The fasting sugars are still a little off, but definitely doing better than the first week of March. What are my targets - Fasting sugars 2 hrs after breakfast 2 hrs after lunch 2 hrs after dinner

Some days I try to come to a conculsion on whether my diabetes is in control? Who is in control? Is it me Is it my brain Is it my body Is it my pancreas Is it my diabetes I can't understand and I am sure there is no single answer. The way I feel is always related to so many variables for the day, week, month. Lately I have seen my weight start to go up, my sugar numbers worsen. But now with the summer approaching, I hope to get active again and take control of this.

Seems like life is becoming driven by numbers. I have a couple of friends whose life seem to be living by the price of their companies stock. They happen to have stock options and have bet the rest of their future on their stock. It is hard to warn people to be aware of the Enron trap when they see stories of riches coming from Google stock. These folks are euphoric on the days the stock goes up and really sad when it starts moving downwards. Coming back to my story. My life is now ruled by the sugar numbers. Not sure if that is any better that the stock numbers. I console myself with the fact that on the sugar numbers, I have a small amount of control. I try and get my sugar 4 times a day, One fasting, and then 2 hours after breakfast, lunch and dinner. The month started off great. On Mar 1st, I had and execllent day - Fasting - 112 Breakfast - 133 Lunch - 134 Dinner - 117 I felt great. It was the best start to a month that I could have hoped for. But today morning on 2nd, my fasti...

Why me? How come I have deal with diabetes so early in my life? What did I do wrong to deserve a life of constant vigilance of my sugars? There are days when you just have to lie in bed and here these questions for which there are really no answers. I guess the big problem is that there are no answers to these questions. Science can't tell us, as yet, what is the main reason for our diabetes. If only there was a test that can tell you why your system is not performing to its best abilities. The why me question is a particular brutal. My brain has two sets of reactions to it. On a good day, ones filled with eternal sunshine and my optimistic self ruling my life, I always tell myself, because I can handle it. I feel like it is just another test in this life and you have to do your best to pass it. I see how my life is changed for the better and now I watch what I eat, get some regular exercise and keep myself in better health than ever before. I think that I was given this disease to...

Kerri brought up a good question about what to do with the rapidly rising count of meters that we have. I have collected four in the last year, a Freestyle, two freestyle flashes and an Accu-check. I vaguely remembered that Cindy on the diabetes blog had talked about it a while ago. So I went looking and found something, though it did not make me happy as in the US the meters are mostly given away free to make the money off the test strips. So what do I do with these leftover meters. Another quick google search brings me to an interesting site for recycling medical instruments and sending them to the developing world. http://www.amsa.org/global/ih/mierp.cfm

For the last year I was happily using the Freestyle Flash meter. It was nice and small and working great for me. But I was having to pay 35 copay with 100 test strips everytime. So my insurance sent me a letter that I could save some money by using one of the other recommended products. They had a couple there but not Freestyle. I decide to try out the Aviva Accu-Check meter. It promised to use the least amount of blood and faster results, almost as good as my freestyle. And the insurance copay would drop to 15, which would save me $20 each month, which is $120 for the year. Money that I guess I could invest in companies doing some research into diabetes or related medical activities., I am thinking Acusphere. So anyway, I get this new meter in mail, with no charge to me ofcourse. I finally take it out and take a look at this humongous meter and a pen shaped poking device. I load the lancet device and keep on trying to draw some blood from my forearm, my chose site. I could never ge...

Here I am sitting with the new infant trying to burp him while my mind is searching fir ideas to cut down my carbs some more and it hits me, I am now an infant myself, I am a diabetic infant. It is uncanny, but life as a diabetic seems to be a rebirth experience. Each day you learn something new. It seems like nothing is in your control and you are being taken care of by other people and things. You are taking small bites of food, trying to figure out what works for you. There are so many new things to learn. Contemplate and adopt. Eating habits have to change, exercise habits have to change. The concept of relaxation has to be redefined. TV watching has to be made an exercise somehow. Can't really eat out in any restaurant anymore. No more pigging out on cakes and pies. I do think about my mommy more. The flip side is the ability to take delights in small pleasures. Discovering that a McDonald's California Cobb salad without the dressing is very filling and excellent for sugar...

Lately I am having too much trouble getting a handle on my fasting sugars. They seem to be having a mind of their own. Here are some numbers from the last week - 125,149,134, 139, 128, 138 The delta between the number is just too great. I used to have better numbers, but might be worth looking into. Odd thing is that my dinner BG was 120, an excellent number for me. I just have two spoons of peanut butter, spend working on the computer for about and hour, went to sleep for 7 hours and the morning sugar is 138. I guess during the night my body decided to send some more sugar into the system. Odd that it needed to. I sometimes wonder is the body is like a machine. It needs to feel comfortable at a certain sugar number and if you drop, it will bring it back to that. Maybe I body wants to be in the 130 range. I am sure I can bring it down by some mind control and more exercise. It might also be time to investigate some late night snacking. Maybe some sandwich meat slices before I sleep. It...

Last week I made a mistake which made me feel such a rookie. I did not pay attention to serving sizes. I went to trader Joes looking for the Goat milk yogurt. There are way fewer carbs per serving (1/4 cup) than in regular yogurt's. They were out. So I got some Mediterranean style yogurt cheese and ate a 1/4 cup. I saw the rating on the side but did not see the serving size which was just 2 tsps. I was shocked in the morning to find incredibly high sugars. It took me two days to find out what went wrong. Made me feel pretty stupid. Lesson learned, never assume, always check and recheck the serving sizes.

There is a whole series of articles- This post refers to: Kleinfield, N.R. “ Diabetes and Its Awful Toll Quietly Emerge as a Crisis .” Bad Blood, Part 1 . New York Times . January 9, 2006. Kleinfield, N.R. “ Living at an Epicenter of Diabetes, Defiance and Despair .” Bad Blood, Part 2 . New York Times . January 10, 2006. Urbina, Ian. “ In the Treatment of Diabetes, Success Often Does Not Pay .” Series: Bad Blood, Part 3 . New York Times . January 11, 2006. Santora, Mark. “ East Meets West, Adding Pounds and Peril .” Bad Blood, Part 4 . New York Times . January 12, 2006. Fountain, Henry. “ On Not Wanting to Know What Hurts You .” New York Times . January 15, 2006. Wade, Nicholas. “ Gene Increases Diabetes Risk, Scientists Find .” New York Times . January 16, 2006.

A great article on diabetes and its growth in the NY region. For the first time I thought of the disease as an epidemic. The article is very stark and depressing. Read with caution. It is filled with tales of horro of what happens with diabetics. It would have been nice if they had also conbcentrated on various new treatements etc. But it was a nice article to read and remember that there is a lot still to do to fight his epidemic. Read more at www.nytimes.com/2006/01...

Living in a cold climate makes it important to have some exercise quipment available for indoor activity regularly. I started seeing comments to my blog about people needing some recommendations on treadmills. Yes, I use a treadmill. I have a NordicTrack which does pretty good. I tend to use a preconfigured routine on the machine. It helps me raise my heartrate into the target region. I also have bought a Bowflex, but unfortunately have not had the time or the space to put it up as yet. I am hoping that I will have some space ready to get it up and going. I believe that strength training would make a lot of difference to my weight, sugar control and make me feel more stronger.

I have discussed this earlier. There is some evidence to suggest that it does impact and then there is some that suggests that it does not. Just very interesting. My suspicion is that it will impact in some way. There is probably a Brain reaction to stress that ends up leading to higher sugars. Also depends on how you react to stress. Stress at work mostly leads to inactivity as you spend more time sitting and thinking. Not a good thing when you want to be active and have your muscles consume more sugar out of the bloodstream. Stress at home can cause inactivity and eating of starchy foods, which I do not have to explain to folks that are diabetic. Had an interesting comment from Francois on my previous post on his impact on numbers. Last week it got stressful and I had a 2 hour later sugar on lunch of 200. The food I ate then should have amounted to about 145. That is a huge increase. The highs stayed till the morning when my fasting sugars were 160. Any amount of mental relaxation di...

Not getting enough sleep. Getting no exercise and the food consumption has stayed at the same with some extra sugar getting added from the food from over the end of the year. No wonder, the sugar numbers for fasting are now coming around 140s. This is a big bummer. Hopefully the baby will give some time to start back on the exercise routine. Wonder if it is time to go back on the pill... I do have a blood test coming up next week. Lets see what the results are. I am definitely worried that the A1C and cholesterol numbers would be off the charts.

My sugars are beginning to come more normal. I have started to get some exercise. Have to find time somewhere in the day to do this. I am not getting much sleep, so I am just trying to spend the time standing or rocking the baby so that my muscles can get some exercise. It is boring to just keep watching TV. Atleast in the nights PBS has some interesting stuff on and then there is the Bond series coming on AMC. The sugar numbers are beginning to look normal once more. I am getting around 125 as the fasting sugar in the morning. Also managing to keep the 2 hours after meals number under 150 at most times. It would be interesting to get the A1C reading at the end of the month to see if this control makes a dent in the numbers.