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...