Primal Challenge Journal (Griff)
(246 posts) (30 voices)-
Griff
MemberToday's progress was... tough. My sugars were elevated this morning and hung out above 110 all day. They finally dropped down below it at dinnertime (109, then 107 after dinner). But it was annoying. Today's average was 120. Not great.
Breakfast was my usual - three-egg cinnamon/parmesan omelette plus two strips of nitrate/nitrite-free bacon. Oh, and 2 TB of coconut oil, but I think that's too much - it gave me intestinal upset later in the day.
Lunch was a leftover low-carb hamburger from our Carl's run yesterday, and more coconut oil.
Dinner was amazing: fried cheese wheels that my husband made. They were awesome. No coconut oil; things were... uncomfortable.
My evening snack tonight was my quarter-bar of 73% chocolate, ounce of string cheese, and another attempt at night-time fruit: half a cup of fresh raspberries. We'll see what my sugars look like in about an hour. I hope I can have fruit at some point during my day, or I'm going to be very sad.
Oh, and net carbs today: 18g. Woot.
Finally, I weighed in and I've dropped a full 25 pounds since starting on the 13th. This is awesome.
Posted 2 months ago # -
Griff
Memberkuno1chi: It's so simple it's pathetic.
Get a half-cup of your favorite shredded hard cheese. We used "Mexican Blend," which is half cheddar and half jack cheese.
Heat up a skillet (preferably cast-iron) to screaming hot.
Drop the cheese on the hot skillet in a pile.
Fry it until it's a golden bubbly. Flip it like a pancake. Remove it and drain it like you would bacon.
If you eat it immediately, it's chewy and wonderful. Let it cool off, and it becomes crispy and wonderful. We're looking at these and saying "You know, these are about the size of small tortillas... we could use them for taco shells or tostada bases..."
And you will NEVER want Cheez-its or goldfish or Cheetos again. I can almost guarantee it.
Posted 2 months ago # -
I think you can do it in the oven too... whenever I would bake something with cheese on it one of the best parts was the cheese that fell off the thing and baked to a crisp. mmmm....
You can also buy baked cheese in bags like potato chips. As long as the ingredient list checks out, awesome!
Posted 2 months ago # -
Griff
MemberThings were better today. I started out at 126 again, and peaked to an upsetting 151 after a twenty-minute workout (with the DVD that DaveFish sent me) but after that my sugars dropped over three hours down to 103. The highest since has been 112, and that was after a meal which had about a cup of broccoli and a couple tablespoons of sour cream dip. My carbs today were a little high, but still under 50 (32 net, actually). I had four meals: breakfast, lunch, afternoon snack, evening snack. I didn't really have dinner per se.
Breakfast: My usual, 3-egg cinnamon parmesan omelette and 2 strips nitrate/nitrite-free bacon. And a tablespoon of coconut oil.
Lunch: About 2 oz of summer sausage (we're using it up), an ounce of string cheese, a cup of broccoli, and a quarter-cup of raspberries. And a tablespoon of coconut oil.
Snack 1: Another cup of broccoli, 2 tablespoons of sour cream dip, three half-cup fried cheese wheels, and the ubiquitous tablespoon of coconut oil.
Snack 2: A cup of cauliflower, another tablespoon of sour cream dip, another ounce of string cheese, and the coconut oil is due in about half an hour.
Exercise: 23 minutes of the Pay It Forward/10-Minute Trainer DVD that DaveFish sent me, which is specifically for heavy people. Got my heart rate up to about 60% of maximum; it was a good workout.
To drink: Lots of water, as usual.
Blood sugar average today (up to the before-Snack-2 reading): 118. I need to get that down, but I think I need to exercise every day in some way because that's the only thing that's really going to work on the insulin resistance.
Posted 2 months ago # -
Griff
MemberHigh: 120 (after exercise)
Low: 90 (before dinner)
Average for the day: 104, my lowest yet. And all my numbers after lunch were in the 90s.What was great about today was that I easily stayed below 20 carbs (13 net) and I haven't felt deprived at all. I had a huge dinner, almost all protein, and showed almost no bump in my sugars at all. Also, I'm down to 371 - that's a 26-pound loss - and my waist has dropped 9 inches since I started this. All of this is great. The numbers may indicate that my pancreas is starting to rally and/or that my cells are finally beginning to lose their insulin resistance.
Meals and activity today:
Breakfast: My usual cinnamon-parmesan 3-egg omelette and two strips of bacon.
Snack: Six thin slices of pepperoni (I know, I know, but no carbs!)
Dinner: Huge. We went to Hometown Buffet and I had a steak, about twelve ounces of fajita beef and onions, two pieces of roast chicken, and a salad of spinach, salad mix, cucumbers and blue cheese dressing. Oy, was I full - but my sugars only went from 90 to 95.
Nighttime snack: Two fried cheese wheels.
All meals had either a tablespoon of coconut oil, or four capsules of coconut oil (dinner).
To drink: Water, water, water.
Activity: 20 minutes aerobic dance, incorporating some bodyweight exercises.
Posted 2 months ago # -
Vick
MemberI just got back from the book store where I flipped through Atkins' book. One thing that caught my eye was along with the supplements you are taking the book also mentioned magnisium and zinc helped with insulin. Have you looked into that?
Griff... You're doing great!
Posted 2 months ago # -
Griff
MemberVick: I have magnesium and zinc in my daily multivitamin; my doctor (who is himself on board with low-carbing) assures me it's sufficient. I'm taking a number of other supplements too: B-complex (for the thiamin, which is supposed to lower blood sugar), fish oil (for the omega-3s), coconut oil with each meal (another blood-sugar lowering agent), chromium picolinate (yet another one intended to lower my blood sugar), and potassium citrate (to help prevent kidney stones).
Thank you so much for the encouragement. I'm hoping that these lowered numbers mean that my pancreas is finally starting to get a handle on itself, and that my insulin resistance is going down as well.
Posted 2 months ago # -
Griff
MemberYesterday's progress was haphazard, mostly because I couldn't exercise. I thought I was having retinal detachment symptoms and so instead of getting a workout, I got a fun trip to the ophthalmologist's and a thorough eye examination. Happy news: no retinal detachment, and no diabetes damage or complications - or even evidence that I have diabetes! - visible in my eye, and no pressure problems - i.e., glaucoma. As it turns out, the improvements I'm making to my health may have caused the flashes of light I've been seeing - when your blood pressure changes, it apparently can cause blood vessels in the eye to twitch or spasm, which produces the visual "lightning flash" effect. My eyes are healthy, and the ophthalmologist was amused that I was so nervewracked about the flashes. But it was kind of a stressful day.
Despite that, my high was at waking: 117, and low before dinner: 97. And dinner was huge, but it only pumped my sugars up ten points to 107 - still well within the range I'm shooting for right now. Daily average: 111.
(And this morning my waking sugar was 103, which makes me VERY happy.)
Food and activity yesterday:
Breakfast was my usual three-egg parmesan/cinnamon omelette and three strips of bacon, along with a tablespoon of coconut oil and all my morning vites and supplements.
I had no lunch; I was at the eye doctor's and not hungry!
Dinner was three-meat fajitas with onions (no rice, beans, tortillas or other bad stuff) and half a Haas avocado. The meats in question: steak, shrimp and chicken. OM NOM NOM.
Exercise: None. I wish. I was afraid to work out because of what I'd been reading about retinal detachment and blood pressure. Today that'll be remedied because I have to run about half a dozen errands!
To drink: Water water water, as usual.
Posted 2 months ago # -
Griff
MemberLow: 103 (waking, before and after last meal of day)
High: 107 (after breakfast)
Average: 104That's the best average I've seen yet, and all of my readings were essentially "normal" yesterday. That's awesome.
This morning I had a 118 on waking but I had to squeeze a lot to get the blood out; now I'm thinking it may have been anomalous, because an hour later before breakfast I was at 108. I'm hoping this downward trend continues; it would be lovely to have normal blood sugars.
Food and activity yesterday:
Breakfast was my usual three-egg omelette and three pieces of bacon, along with my multitudinous vitamin regimen: multivitamin, 200mcg chromium picolinate, 200mg potassium citrate, fish oil caplet, B-complex caplet, and coconut oil (of which I need to get more soon).
Lunch was a late lunch at Islands. We had their "protein platters" and I had about half of mine, then took the rest home for dinner or snack later. Lunch included a chicken breast with swiss cheese and sautee'd mushrooms, a one-cup salad with bleu cheese dressing, half a Haas avocado, and half the buffalo-wings appetizer including celery and ranch dressing. I took the burger patty with its cheese and bacon home for later, skipping the (unfortunately too high-carb for me) sliced tomatoes. I took coconut oil when we got home.
Dinner was the burger with cheese (no bun, of course), and another tablespoon of coconut oil.
I drank tons of water yesterday.
Exercise: the Pay It Forward video that DaveFish here on Mark's Daily Apple sent me, which is designed for heavy people.
I'm happy to report that my resting pulse rate has dropped slightly to 66 bpm from 72 bpm, and of course my sugars are getting more and more under control. We finally have a food scale, so I no longer have to guess about veggies - I can weigh them and know exactly how many grams of broccoli I'm putting into my body, which is great - and the books Good Calories, Bad Calories by Gary Taubes; Protein Power by Michael and Mary Dan Eades; and The Great Cholesterol Con by Malcolm Kendrick.
Posted 2 months ago # -
Griff
MemberHigh: 118 (waking)
Low: 84 (before dinner)
Average: 102That is the best daily average I've had yet. This is two days of "normal;" will I see a trend continuing? I hope so.
I didn't exercise today. I rested. I got a nap between lunch and dinner (and I needed it). I think I've been dehydrated - not surprising with the heat - and so I made a point of drinking an extra three glasses of water today. It seems to be helping.
My weight loss has stalled, but I know I'm building muscle after yesterday's exercise session which included weights, and I've read that other people with type II diabetes have found that when their sugars are nice and normal, their weight loss stalls, and when they start losing again, the sugars go up. This would make sense to me, because when your body begins to burn fat as its preferred source of fuel, glucagon is the hormone that's in ascendancy (if you will) and that's the hormone that's also responsible for bumping up your blood sugar. Insulin, on the other hand, brings high blood sugars down when you're not having insulin-resistance problems and/or hyperinsulemia. Ideally you want glucagon running the show as much as possible.
The fact that I've gotten myself down into a normal blood sugar range with diet alone suggests that my hyperinsulemia may now be under control, which is great because that reduces my risk of heart disease, atherosclerosis, high blood pressure, etc. and may eventually make it possible for me to completely reverse the diabetes as well. (According to Drs. Michael and Mary Dan Eades, hyperinsulemia is at the root of the diseases of civilization (which include everything I've listed as well as many other problems) and if you can control that, you can avoid all of them at once.) Too many doctors are still focusing on symptom-based treatments, instead of cause-based treatments; I'm thankful that there are doctors like the Eades out there who put the clues together and said "Hey, wait a minute." You can read their research on http://www.proteinpower.com and/or in their book Protein Power - which I strongly recommend.
Even so, I'm still going to have the doctor run an insulin-level check. Last time it was tested, it was 38, which is almost twice as high as it should be.
Food today:
Breakfast - my usual three-egg omelette and three strips of bacon. And coconut oil and the usual supplement montage.
Lunch - the broccoli-bacon-mushroom-onion dish I posted earlier. And coconut oil.
Dinner - two sausages cooked by my dear husband. And coconut oil.
To drink: Water, water, and more water. I find I don't miss caffeine anymore.
It is so odd to feel hunger and know it's hunger, and to feel satisfied without also feeling mentally dead. I'm still getting used to that.
Posted 2 months ago # -
Griff
MemberMy average went up today. Not much. But it still went up. This was aggravating.
Part of it might be because I was out in the heat and running around, but my high was 125 and my low was only 98. My average today was 108.
I know I shouldn't be disappointed - this might be just a blip in my downward trend, and the 125 was when I was out in the heat - but I am disappointed.
On the other hand, today's food was, overall, great.
Breakfast was my usual three-egg omelette and two pieces of semi-burned bacon; the pan was hotter than I thought (stupid electric burners), and coconut oil.
Lunch was an out-to-lunch with friends: no-carb fajitas with onions, and a salad, and four coconut oil capsules.
Dinner was beef stroganoff made with grass-fed beef, crimini mushrooms, yellow onions, and spaghetti squash for "pasta." It. Was. DELICIOUS. (And coconut oil, of course.)
No activity today apart from a fair amount of low-and-slow walking at the market we went to for the grass-fed beef.
To drink: Water, water everywhere.
Net carbs today: 30.
I hope this stall breaks soon, though. I'm tired of being stuck weight-wise.
Posted 2 months ago # -
Griff
Memberhfox: I had the benefit of a friend who had already made it. The hard part is getting the squash split open. Once you have, cooking it is really not hard at all. It was nummy, too!
Preheat oven to 375 F. Split the squash from top to bottom (you might need to cut the stem end off completely) and place each piece cut side down in a glass baking dish with about an inch of water. For a small squash, cook at 375 for 40 minutes; for larger squash, 1 hour or so. Remove them from the pans, set on the counter and allow to "rest" for ten minutes. After the squash has rested, use a fork to pull the meat out, with the grain, to retain the stringy-ness of it. A large squash like the one we had will yield about 7 cups of "pasta" at 5 usable carbs per cup. We used half of it for dinner and refrigerated the other half after it had cooled off.
It's really, REALLY good stuff.
Posted 2 months ago # -
Griff
MemberSo far my highest has been my after-breakfast number of 120. It worries me, but I've also been at 88 today. I need to avoid having berries and nuts at the same meal, as I found out - 140g of strawberries and 14g of macademia nuts, along with 2 oz of string cheese, put me too high. *sigh* Oh well.
In other news, today has had its ups and downs. I slept most of the morning and didn't have "breakfast" until almost noon. I did do a bit of working out today, mostly lifting, but it wasn't a long workout.
Breakfast was a little different: two fried eggs, an attempt at a fried cheese pinwheel (I failed miserably), three strips of bacon, and my usual vitamins, coconut oil, and fish oil. "Lunch" was more of a snack: 5 ounces of strawberries, a quarter-cup of macadamia nuts, and two ounces of string cheese. Dinner was fabulous: a Trader Joe's flank steak rolled up with feta, spinach and red bell pepper, and zucchini saute', and a sixth of a bar of dark chocolate (70% cocoa). And, of course, fish oil and coconut oil again - I'll need to go get another jar of coconut oil soon. I'm completely satisfied, and my net carbs today have been 23g, which is awesome. And of course I've had lots of water.
I love our new food scale. It's let me know that I've been severely underestimating what a half cup of zucchini is by weight, and weighing everything does make sense if you want accuracy. And speaking of scales, I've sworn mine off until next Monday; I will not step on it at any other time. Right now I'm stalled, and the stress of being stalled is not good for my brainmeats or my body either.
My current goal is to get my morning sugars to be an average of 120 or below by the 1st of October, and I think I'll achieve that as well as my weight goal of 363. The next goal is 340 by November 1st. I'm actually thinking that I need to start experimenting with intermittent fasting. I've read that others have had good success with that when it comes to breaking plateaus. We'll see. Today I technically fasted for 16 hours - I stopped eating last night at about 8 pm and didn't eat again until 12 pm today.
Posted 2 months ago # -
Griff
MemberToday was my first attempt at a conscious intermittent fast. I finished dinner yesterday night at about 9:30 p.m., and I lasted until 1 p.m. today, so that's - what, about 16 hours, right? 15.5? Anyway, the only hard part was that I started to get a rotten headache from dehydration. (Note to self: when fasting, drink LOTS of water.)
I had two meals today: lunch and dinner. Lunch was more like a brunch: two fried eggs, three slices of bacon, coconut oil, fish oil. Dinner was at Islands tonight; their protein platter - a hamburger patty with cheese, a slice and a half of tomato, a cup of salad with blue cheese dressing, half an avocado, and some buffalo wings (not breaded) with ranch dressing. (I still have a chicken breast with mushrooms and swiss cheese in my refrigerator.) If you want to go to Islands for dinner, just ask for the protein platter - it's an off-menu item. And of course, I had coconut oil and fish oil with dinner as well, and lots of water all day.
I actually got about 20 minutes of dance in today, too. I hadn't really exercised much all weekend. It was exhilarating to dance again.
In two days it will be five weeks since I went Primal. Apart from today's headache, I've never felt better or more empowered about my body and my health. Finding out that I have a second-floor office didn't worry me at all - I'm happy about it. The stairs will give me a little extra workout.
It's strange to think differently about everything all at once. But I think if I do more IFs, it'll be alternate-day and only 16/8 at a time. It seems to be what I can handle for right now.
Oh, and my sugars? 114 was my high (waking) and 95 my low (before dinner); my average was 107 for the day. That's pretty good.
Posted 2 months ago # -
Griff
MemberOh, and I'm happy to report that GlucoseBuddy, my online blood sugar tracker, has this to report:
Average of First 2 Weeks: 125.4 Average of Last 2 Weeks: 109.8 Difference: -12.4%
Give it another six weeks, and I'll bet I'll be down another 10 or 15 points... and that'll put me in the "completely normal" range.
Posted 2 months ago # -
Griff
Member@klcarbaugh: I've read Dr. Bernstein's book, and I have the most recent edition. Unfortunately, a lot of his advice is aimed at insulin-dependent and medication-dependent diabetics - mostly Type 1s. I'm (fortunately!) not in that category, so about half the book isn't useful to me. But the other half falls right in line with the Eades, and Mark's book, and all the other stuff I've been reading, so it's good.
Posted 2 months ago # -
Griff
MemberYesterday's progress didn't really feel like "progress," per se, because I'd been up until about two a.m. and it showed in my sugars. But my average yesterday was still only 116, so I'm not going to worry overmuch.
I'm happy to report that I've gone down to 368! I have a doctor's appointment today and couldn't face the thought of getting on the doctor's scale without knowing what I weigh, first. It looks like the stall is broken, which is great. This brings me to 16.3% complete for my ultimate goal, and 29 pounds total loss. (Can't wait for that number to go up!)
Food yesterday was my usual cinnamon-parmesan three-egg omelet and two strips of bacon for breakfast, along with fish and coconut oil, and broccoli, baked chicken, chicken marsala and a salad at Old Spaghetti Factory for dinner. I didn't have lunch because I wasn't hungry for anything. I put a bug in the ear of the waitress to see if they can encourage OSF to carry spaghetti squash for their low-carbing patrons. If they start doing that, I'll be very happy.
Even so, my sugars were disappointing for most of the day - in the low 110s, which I'm trying to get below, dangit - and I was kind of in a funk most of the day. I didn't get much chance to exercise because I ate pretty late and if I exercise after eating and before two-hour testing, it messes up my sugars. Oh well. I'll take a walk tonight when we get back from the doctor's, I suppose.
Posted 2 months ago # -
Griff
MemberWhen I started writing this, I was still waiting on my post-dinner number, because I had a long nap this afternoon, but my average today is about 111, which is great.
Because of the nap and a doctor's appointment I had this morning, my eating schedule is a little off. I had an unplanned intermittent fast because I wasn't hungry this morning and thought I might have to have fasting bloodwork, so I had about a twenty-hour fast. It didn't hurt me, though - my waking sugar was 117 and before lunch it was 113. We had steakhouse fare for lunch - I had ribs, grilled chicken, and cottage cheese along with a salad - and then we came home and I took a nap because I didn't sleep much last night. When I woke up, my sugars were down to 105. I had a steak with eggs for dinner, along with coconut oil, fish oil, and a very tiny bit of chocolate. My sugars, which were 110 before dinner, only went up to 120.
I didn't exercise today. I rested. Tomorrow I'll be getting a workout, so I feel justified in not exercising today.
Net carbs today (if you can trust DailyPlate's assessment of my ribs, which I think is a little high): 33 carbs. Not too shabby.
And the doctor's scale says that my home scale is weighing about 10 pounds too high, so I'm actually at 367. That's 30 pounds down from my original weight, and it was effortless. I'm so blown away by that. That's 17% of the way to where I feel I need to be in order to have my sugars under really tight control.
Posted 2 months ago # -
Griff
MemberI'm trying so hard to get my averages down into the 80s. It's important that I do this. And right now, I'm still hovering around 30 points higher than I ultimately want to be. I'm sure you all can understand why I'm discouraged.
I have to actively remind myself that if my sugars are rising, my weight is very likely dropping. I will also admit to not having done any real exercise for the last three days, which is no doubt part of the problem. I've just been in a funk, emotionally speaking.
Anyway, yesterday's high was a wince-worthy 126 when I woke up, and my low was still above 100 at 101, right before bed. I didn't eat after 4 p.m. because by the time I got hungry again, it was after eight p.m. and I'm trying not to eat past that point, in hopes that my morning sugars will behave themselves better (that didn't happen either; I was at 121 this morning). My overall average was 115.7.
I had my usual three-egg omelet and two pieces of bacon (and twelve supplement pills) for breakfast, lots of water all day, and fajitas for a late lunch - steak, some onions, and some guacamole and sour cream (which was probably what spiked my afternoon sugars) along with a salad. After that, nothing.
I'm going to work out today, and I think that from now on I'm going to work out before I have breakfast because that's when I have time to do it - even if it does spike my sugars higher in the short term, I can't let that be something that deters me from a longer-term benefit. But I'm thinking I won't record my immediate post-exercise spikes, because they go down almost as quickly as they went up - within an hour after exercising they're usually back down to normal - and they skew my average way more than it should be skewed.
So, that said, I'm going to go work out while the rest of the household is still asleep. I'll get my shower and then I'll have brunch. That's the plan.
Oh, and I dropped another two pounds since yesterday. I'm down to 365, which is two pounds away from my end-of-month goal of 363. Now if my sugars would just get in line...
Posted 2 months ago # -
gt74
MemberGriff, congratulations on your achievements so far. I always await your daily updates with a degree of anticipation.
You do seem to be losing weight at an incredible rate.
I'm wondering, in the process of converting body fat into energy, presumably that fat has to be converted to glucose for the body to be able to use it.
I don't know how the process really works but when you sample your sugars I'm assuming you are getting a snapshot of a particular point and so, depending on how much fat you're converting for energy that means your sugars will be higher that you might want.
Are you being a little harsh on yourself if your sugars aren't as low as you might like to see them?
Posted 2 months ago # -
Griff
Member@gt74: Thanks for the encouragement - it's nice to know that people are looking for me to post here.
Yeah, I guess I am being harsh on myself, but the alternative is to be too easy on myself and let it slide instead of working harder to have lower numbers. Ideally my numbers should be at 83 to get an A1c result of 5.0, which is what I want. I want to completely eradicate this disease.
The body can't convert fat into glucose, though. Lipolysis (fat burning) creates ketones to run the body on instead of glucose. So I'm not sure that's the explanation for why my sugars are up.
I did discover this morning that my (fairly new) ear piercings have started to have crusties again, which means infection, which could explain the rise in my sugars. Infections like this can often affect sugars up to two days before they actually "show up" with visible symptoms. I think, also, that my not exercising for several days could explain it. So I'm addressing both of those issues now.
Posted 2 months ago #
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