It's been an interesting year in my little corner of the world.
By the end of 2018 I was struggling to maintain my weight and over Christmas came down with the flu and a sinus infection that just would not quit, taking me into the end of January. Unfortunately by the end of January I was back up to 217 lbs. A combination of steroids for the sinus issue, bad eating over the Christmas holidays and lack of exercise.
I woke up one morning in February, completely fed up with myself and for the first time in my life, feeling so defeated about everything; work, home, health - it was not a good time for me.
By the end of February, I was spiralling and knew I had to do something to put on the brakes and turn not just my health around but my whole life.
I started using the Libre Freestyle system for diabetes (instead of finger glucose pricks) and within 3 weeks I could see so much about my health and moods that I had never seen before. The Libre sensor is a sensor that puts a small filament of plastic in your arm and reads interstitial fluid for glucose levels. It stores data for 8 hours so, at least once every 8 hours, I scan it with either the reader or my phone app and it shows the trends of my blood sugar since the last scan. Previously, I was doing finger pricks, right before eating and 2 hours after and everything looked well. My A1C is pretty well controlled at 7.5 with medication.
The Libre clearly showed me which foods affected my blood sugar and how quickly. You know what? Carbs are not my friend. Right??? Not at all. Not any kind. Not fruit, not starchy vegetables and certainly not bread, rice, pasta, etc. Not at all. Even an apple was making my blood sugar go up high. It would come down again within 2 hours, but I was never seeing how high it was going in those two hours. All of a sudden I could see.
This led me to start a much lower carb way of eating. By the end of April, I was back to 185 lbs and have maintained that easily for 7 months. I have never maintained that long at this weight or this easily. I have hit 185 a few times, but then bounce right back up to 190-195 within a few weeks. I still need to lose about 35 lbs and I will but I am not as active over the Winter months so I am focusing on not regaining and then once we are out of Winter, I will refocus on losing.
So what do I eat? Mostly meat, eggs, nuts, cheese, cruciferous vegetables, carrots, celery, very occasionally sweet potatoes or turnips. I follow many Keto instagram accounts and bloggers and I do not eat as low carb as keto but I do find their tips and recipes helpful. I average 30-40 g of carbs a day, mostly from vegetables. I do not eat fruit every day any more. I have berries once or twice a week as part of a salad or with a full meal. I eat 2-3 x a day because I find when I eat more, I crave more. I am never hungry.
By the end of April, I had my A1C down to 6.1 and went off all medication. ALL diabetes medication. All of it. After 20 years of trying various meds and going up and down in dosages, I was now off. This was both scary and exciting.
But, its now 7 months later and A1C is holding at 6.2 with no meds. If you are diabetic and using a finger prick system, I highly recommend trying the Libre Freestyle system. It doesn't seem to work well for everyone, there are as many bad reviews as good ones, but I gave it a good month before deciding to keep it and found it to be the best thing for me.
I tried going off my thyroid meds as well because my levels were so much better, but it took about 6 weeks for me to feel like I was wading through cement both physically and mentally and I decided that taking synthroid and feeling better far outweighed the small possible side effects of the medication.
I never had blood sugar lows anymore and if I have a high at all, it's because I ate something that I misjudged the number of carbs or serving size. And I don't sweat it, once it's back down, I focus on keeping it down.
I can see 7, 14, 30 and 90 day trends on my phone so I can see that one "blip" or bad day does not ruin my progress.
I feel "well" for the first time in many years. Healthy and happy.
In other news, my youngest son moved in with his girlfriend so I found a small one bedroom apartment for myself and am on my own after thirty years of living with and caring for other people. It is an odd sensation to come home to an empty place nothing has moved since I left it. It's odd to always have milk for tea and clean towels and not be picking up absentmindedly as I wander from the living room to the bathroom! Odd.....and a bit lonely, but the sense of freedom is exhiliarating.
As a result of not having someone to take care of, I have more disposable income and have been going to the theatre once a month or so. I recently saw Come From Away and loved it!!! I am going to see Cats in December and Riverdance in February.
I can also travel more. I went to Ithaca NY in September to hike and see the waterfalls - what an amazingly beautiful part of New York!!! I will definitely be going back.
Life is good right now.
