# Progress, and report on my New Year resolution



## Nsoitgoes (Jan 31, 2016)

As of this morning I have shed 10 pounds. My blood sugar is under much better control, though I am still seeing 'Dawn Phenomenon' readings (highest 106 in the last week). During the day, though, I am seeing around 80-85, which is good but not as good as last year when low 70s was my norm. My blood ketones this morning were 2.3, so I am definitely keto- and fat-adapted again. My last A1C, taken Tuesday, was 5.3. Again, adequate but nowhere near as good as last year when I got several in the 4s. I put this down to several splurges between my Grand daughters birthday celebration, through Thanksgiving, Christmas and New year. No excuses other than ? on my part. Most of that stuff didn't even taste that good. 

I continue to stay on my keto plan and am now back into the rhythm of it. I have spent 2 weekends at my SO's house where Snicker bars are in a candy bowl on the table, and his triple chocolate kahlua cake is in the fridge. I wasn't even tempted. Well, I did eye the cake a couple of times but I did not inhale. Lol. He is being very accommodating with meal plans to make things easier on me.

This weekend we are going to sit and plan our Valentine celebration meal so it is rich, delicious and low carb. I may make a small cheesecake with Swerve as dessert but will plan on mostly savory foods so there is little room for it. 

So how are everyone else's goals doing?


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## Terri (May 10, 2002)

I seriously do not know if I have lost weight or not: my weight has been going up and down according to how much salt I am eating and last night I ate a stir fry with plenty of soy sauce. I prefer to lose slowly because my blood sugar will go too low as well as going too high, and there is nothing good about driving down the street and suddenly not feeling well.

I HAD reached my target weight, but thanks to the holidays I gained some and I would like to take that off.

My goal is a 10 pound weight loss because that is what I gained while hosting over the holidays: I did pay attention to my blood sugar but not the calories so I am up a bit. I might have lost a pound over the last week but I might not have: with this much salt in my system the scale will not tell me!


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## Terri (May 10, 2002)

Oh, yes: 10 pounds is AMAZING! I wish I had your willpower!

(my last post was before I had my morning caffeine: I did not even stay on the topic, LOL!)


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## Nsoitgoes (Jan 31, 2016)

Lol. If willpower had anything to do with it, I would still be doing the official ADA protocol. That was impossible for me. Not only was I always starving hungry, my blood sugars were ever onward and upward as were my medications. With my keto diet I am almost never hungry so I am much more in control.

I don't really worry about the number on the scale per se. I mostly go by how my clothes feel, but I do weigh daily and record it along with my blood sugars (2-3 times per day) and ketones (weekly). I also record everything I eat. Not because I am obsessed with my food, but by recording it I am keeping myself responsible for my choices. I am one of those who can easily slip into the "if it isn't written down, it didn't happen" mode of eating.


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## Terri (May 10, 2002)

LOL, I ALSO had trouble with the ADA protocol: it allowed me too many carbs and too many carbs make you hungrier. I always blamed my lack of size but if you had trouble also that might not be it.

I have never met you, but you are taller than I am. I am not a dwarf, mind, but, you are still taller than I am.

I "tweeked" the ADA diet to allow a little more protein and fewer carbs, and then I felt a lot better.


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## MoonRiver (Sep 2, 2007)

Good job. I find that when I get fbg into the 70's, weight loss really speeds up. I'm guessing both glucose resistance and insulin resistance go down and our bodies start metabolizing fats and glucose properly.


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## MoonRiver (Sep 2, 2007)

I was down 11 lbs a week ago, but have been eating everything I can get my hands on. I can't seem to feel satiated. I gained 10 lbs back. I'm blaming it on antibiotics I took for 2 weeks. 

I have been taking a probiotic, but today I am going to add pickles and sauerkraut. I think it's bad gut bacteria that want all this bad food!


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## Terri (May 10, 2002)

Moon River, have you heard of the blood sugar yo-yo? I used to be on it, and you might be on it also. A doctor explained it to me.

Basically when your blood sugar drops RAPIDLY, it stimulates your appetite and you feel hungry, whether you need to eat or not. You also crave sweets and other fairly refined carbs, because your body and subconscious mind KNOW how to get rid of that hungry feeling ASAP. So your blood sugar goes up and you feel much better, but because it was carbs you ate in a few hours it drops rapidly again and then you crave the carbs again. So you eat them again and your blood sugar goes up, then it crashes again and you feel starving and crave them again. And it can go on and on and on..... and when it does you gain weight as well.

Now, like many of us at Homesteadingtoday, I am physically active at times and that means I burn a lot of calories fast and then I am HUNGRY!!! Hungry in small letters does not cover it last night I was HUNGRY!!!!!!!!!!!!!, and delivery pizza was on the menu. So I ordered a family sized salad to go with the pizza because my health is worth it. (Yes I shared the salad, though the rest of the family was not very interested in It)

The salad is a filler because of the high carbs, and I ate that FIRST before I ate 2 slices of pizza and the pizza was 280 calories a slice. And I was not sated but I was satisfied and It was not hard to let the rest of the family eat the rest of the pizza: if I had strongly wanted to eat more I would have eaten more salad but I was actually feeling good. I had an appetite again at bedtime but I had a blood sugar of 149 so I just ate a single saltine cracker and drank something and I felt much better. (My goal is to keep my blood sugar below 140 after I eat, so I was just a little over: not enough to matter)

Basically, the fiber in the salad filled my stomach and kept me from over eating. After exercise a dinner of around 560 calories will not hurt me or my diet, and the fiber in the salad slowed my digestion down so that there was no sudden drop in blood sugar that would have left me feeling ravenous. Also the fiber in my stomach filled me and made it possible for me to stop after 2 slices of pizza.

So eat the sourkraut, it is full of fiber. Remember that even dill pickles have sugar in them so eat them if you wish but lightly. If you can get enough fiber in you it just might get you off the blood sugar yo-yo.

Foods with a lot of fiber bt not high in carbs include most of the traditional salad vegetables: peppers, lettuce, cucumbers, celery, etc. Green peas +DO+ have a lot of carbs so go lightly on that.


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## MoonRiver (Sep 2, 2007)

Terri said:


> So eat the sourkraut, it is full of fiber. Remember that even dill pickles have sugar in them so eat them if you wish but lightly. If you can get enough fiber in you it just might get you off the blood sugar yo-yo.
> 
> Foods with a lot of fiber bt not high in carbs include most of the traditional salad vegetables: peppers, lettuce, cucumbers, celery, etc. Green peas +DO+ have a lot of carbs so go lightly on that.


I'm eating sauerkraut and pickles because they are fermented and fermented food helps rebuild gut biome. After taking antibiotics, I've killed off a lot of the good bacteria. Same reason I'm taking probiotics and using a sugar substitute made from inulin. I eat tons of fiber, so fiber isn't the problem.

And I'm on a carb diet, so eating carbs in form of vegetables is OK. The main thing I have been craving is crunch. I'm satisfying that today with rice cakes.


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## Nsoitgoes (Jan 31, 2016)

Terri: first, I am 5'2" when I stretch up tall. Not so many people shorter than me. Lol.

Second, and more seriously, 140 is too high. Organ damage is believed to occur at that level. I am not a doctor, nor do I play one on TV, but all my research shows that an ideal, non-diabetic, 2 hours post-prandial level should be in the high 70s to mid 90s. I fervently believe that a good number for a diabetic is a normal, non-diabetic number. I got fired by one doctor for asking why a "good number for a diabetic" was the number they used to diagnose a disease and why the aim was not to reduce that number to normal.


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## frogmammy (Dec 8, 2004)

Nsoitgoes, I read a report on a study last year by the VA that suggested (well, said) that they think that medical pros striving to achieve non-diabetic numbers in a diabetic patient leads to more deaths in diabetics. I forget the name of the report. Will try to find it for you. 

Mon


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## Terri (May 10, 2002)

Nsoitgoes said:


> Terri: first, I am 5'2" when I stretch up tall. Not so many people shorter than me. Lol.
> 
> Second, and more seriously, 140 is too high. Organ damage is believed to occur at that level. I am not a doctor, nor do I play one on TV, but all my research shows that an ideal, non-diabetic, 2 hours post-prandial level should be in the high 70s to mid 90s. I fervently believe that a good number for a diabetic is a normal, non-diabetic number. I got fired by one doctor for asking why a "good number for a diabetic" was the number they used to diagnose a disease and why the aim was not to reduce that number to normal.


Actually, I believe that 70 to mid 90's is FASTING blood sugar for a non-diabetic. And my usual fasting blood sugar is 93. Which is not impressive at all unless you are a diabetic. Mind, the UK uses a different scale, just as they do not use inches.

When your blood sugar goes over 140, triglycerides form, and that is not good for you. But, mine does not usually go that high, which is why my triglyceride level is normal and my last A1C was 5.2.

The reason my blood sugar was over 140 is because I had just worked hard enough to NEED! food, and a good deal of it, but, my body cannot absorb a lot of food because my body does not always produce enough insulin. I realize that a lot of diabetics produce too much insulin, but I do not. I cannot produce enough insulin to cover a large meal, and yet I needed a large meal so I estimated what I could absorb and I ALMOST got it right.

Almost.

Almost is good enough: there are safeguards built into your body chemistry and your body WILL return to normal pretty quickly, unless you do it so often that you wear out the safeguards. Which I do not do.

Triglycerides are a good example of the safeguards your body uses: triglycerides is 3 molecules of sugar plus one molecule of fat. When your blood sugar goes too high your body creates triglycerides to bind up the excess sugar, which brings your blood sugar down pretty quickly. But, triglycerides can also gunk up your arteries which will raise your blood pressure. So it is foolish to abuse the system, because if overdone it will damage your health.

There are other safeguards, too.


edited to add: I am 5'2" also.


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## lmrose (Sep 24, 2009)

Nsoitgoes said:


> Lol. If willpower had anything to do with it, I would still be doing the official ADA protocol. That was impossible for me. Not only was I always starving hungry, my blood sugars were ever onward and upward as were my medications. With my keto diet I am almost never hungry so I am much more in control.
> 
> I don't really worry about the number on the scale per se. I mostly go by how my clothes feel, but I do weigh daily and record it along with my blood sugars (2-3 times per day) and ketones (weekly). I also record everything I eat. Not because I am obsessed with my food, but by recording it I am keeping myself responsible for my choices. I am one of those who can easily slip into the "if it isn't written down, it didn't happen" mode of eating.


I write down everything I eat too. One reason with the point system each food is worth so many points. Writing things down helps me keep within the points I am allowed each day. I would "slip" and probably not remember half of what I ate if I didn't write things down! I also watch my blood sugar. Especially lately I can't have any thing with sugar. My husband shared a brownie with me and shortly after I felt lousy. So I am motivated to sticking to my diet. No more cheating for me as I don't like how it makes me feel. I admire how you systematically are monitoring your health!


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## CountryMom22 (Nov 27, 2014)

I also don't feel well after eating something I shouldn't, but sometimes I just can't seem to turn away. And why does everything that we shouldn't eat smell so good? Yikes.


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## Nsoitgoes (Jan 31, 2016)

CountryMom22 said:


> I also don't feel well after eating something I shouldn't, but sometimes I just can't seem to turn away. And why does everything that we shouldn't eat smell so good? Yikes.


I know, right? To be honest, when I have cheated, whatever I ate didn't really taste all that good (except my home made bread all crispy straight out the oven and slathered in butter LOL) - it was more what my imagination *thought* it would taste like. Didn't stop me eating it and berating myself afterwards, of course.

I have been deadly serious since New Year and am finally over a lot of the temptations. Frantically planning for Super Bowl foods. We will eat that as our main meal, but I want it to feel like snacks, so...


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