Primal Challenge Journal (Griff)
(246 posts) (30 voices)-
"Basically, my life is rocking like a rocking thing this week."
LOL. Its so nice to have people comment isnt it? Even though most of us start this journey with heath and individual satisfaction in mind... when people say nice things, well its just awesome.
Congrats!
Posted 2 weeks ago # -
Congratulations Griff. Reading your posts is a large part of what sold me on all of this.
I have a problem I hope you can shed some light on.
A really good friend of mine who is diabetic completely refuses to listen to me and argues endlessly about needing a "balanced"diet and having to have carbs.
What did you read/see/hear/was told that broke the barrier for you?
Posted 2 weeks ago # -
Griff
MemberMy average today was 94.
Let me say that again. My average today was 94.
My high was 107 and my low was 84.
This? Rocks.
I had cheese for lunch - about six ounces of Monterey Jack - and beef stroganoff (no pasta) and salad for dinner. My post-dinner sugar was 99. I'm so jazzed.
No exercise today - I had meetings all day today and I'm pretty wiped out from them.
Not enough water, but that's okay. I'm not feeling any lack of water.
I haven't weighed or measured today and I'm going to wait a few days to do that.
All in all, good day today.
Posted 2 weeks ago # -
Griff
Member@Jaeden: Frankly? I'm a scientist. If the science is shown to work, I'll believe it. The low-carb hypothesis has been repeatedly proven. The low-fat hypothesis has been repeatedly undermined.
Reading the scientific bases for the findings on MDA, proteinpower.com and Livin La Vida Low-Carb were what broke that barrier for me. But then, for me, it wasn't much of a barrier. Finding out that _all_ carbs turn into sugar, and already knowing that sugar harms my blood sugar and insulin levels and can cause major problems for me as a diabetic, was all I needed. So it didn't take much.
You might also read this post on Mark's home page, where my story was told: http://www.marksdailyapple.com/the-beginning-of-a-new-life/ - it goes into some detail about how I came to low-carbing and Primal eating and activity.
If your friend is that married to the "balanced diet" nonsense, I foresee a much harder road ahead for him.
Posted 2 weeks ago # -
Griff
MemberThe trendline is going back up again. I suppose this is normal. (The reason I say it's going up again is because my morning sugar was back up in the 100-teens this morning; disappointing.) In any case, I had a new low yesterday - 82 before dinner - and my high was only 108 in the morning, for a great average of 97.
No breakfast yesterday. I just don't seem to have an appetite in the mornings anymore, despite being hungry. Lunch was another chicken caesar salad (no croutons) and dinner was a few buffalo wings and a huge salad with blue cheese dressing.
I haven't been drinking enough water, mainly because the water at school tastes horrid and in the mornings I forget to fill my water bottle. I'm trying to correct that now.
Exercise? Yeah, walking all over campus yesterday. Man, was I stiff and sore this morning.
I won't be weighing or measuring until Monday, but my pants are still loose, so that's something, right?
Posted 1 week ago # -
Griff
MemberUnbelievable. My average yesterday was 87.
That's just... that's amazing.
I had a low of 74 before dinner. Equally amazing.
And I didn't feel the slightest bit shaky, hungry, or tired.
I'm taking this as a gift, folks. And yes, I tested my glucometer with the calibration solution to make sure it wasn't just a dying battery or anything like that causing these low readings.
No exercise yesterday; we had the kids here and that was enough! Adequate water yesterday, which is good. Net carbs yesterday: 14g.
I'm hoping today will be similar to yesterday. Wouldn't it be great if I've finally truly normalized my blood sugar response? We'll see when I test after lunch (in about a half hour), but for right now I'm very pleased with yesterday's results.
Posted 1 week ago # -
Griff
MemberI'm still in the under-100 crowd, folks. My average yesterday was 96 (high of 106, low of 86). I'm so jazzed about this!
Also, my glucose tracking program had these fun tidbits for me:
1. My average blood sugar for the last week has been 96.
2. My total reduction in average blood sugars since August has been 19.8%.That's so awesome. I'm blown away. A1c of 5%, here I come!
I had adequate water yesterday, lunch and dinner only (lunch was a steak salad with blue cheese dressing; dinner was a lot of little nibbles - cheese, nuts, a veggie frittata, more cheese) - net carbs, 18g. No exercise - yesterday was a rest day. I need to investigate the school weight room and see if I'm brave enough to start going there.
I weighed and measured this morning. My measurements are steady (well, I lost an inch in my chest) but my weight's down to 335. That's about a 15.5% loss of my total body weight, and I'm 35% of the way to my goal weight. I am jazzed about this.
I'll be getting exercise today - it's my walk-all-over-campus day - and I promise to do my best to drink enough water. I'm also teaching today, so I'll be up and down and all over the classroom today too.
I'm very pleased with my progress.
Posted 1 week ago # -
Griff
MemberMy average yesterday was 99 and my average today was 98. That's an entire week with daily averages under 100. WOOT!
I think I'm finally beating this thing!
I'm not going to go into a rundown of what I'm eating, but my net carbs have been around 10g for two days now. And according to my glucose tracking program, I am now 20% down from where I was in August. I have reduced my blood sugars by 20% from my starting point! My last two weeks average was 99.
I'm winning this fight, folks!
Posted 1 week ago # -
I've only just started reading people's journals on MDA, but wish I'd started earlier! So inspiring!
Well done you!!
Posted 1 week ago # -
Griff
MemberThank you for all the positive feedback, folks!
My average yesterday was exactly 100. That's still perfectly acceptable, although I hope to push it back down over the next few days.
I finally got enough sleep! I went to bed at midnight and was able to go back to sleep after waking up at 7. I slept for about nine hours, which was frankly great.
I'll be getting a little exercise today - walking around campus - but I think I need to do another session with the Pay it Forward DVD. I've been getting out of practice with the "lifting things", and that may be the reason for the upward drift in my sugars. I'm not going to let myself pretend I'm not a diabetic just because my sugars are more or less normal now; I'm going to keep pushing for that 83 average.
My weight is not moving, which is irritating me, but my goal wasn't to lose weight. It was to get my sugars normalized. If I have to stay at 335 forever, I'll be okay with that as long as my sugars stay normal. Of course, I have hope that this is just a stall and that I'll get out of it soon. Jimmy Moore (at livinlavidalowcarb.com) did, after all - he had a stall of 10 weeks but still lost 180 pounds in a single year just going low-carb. But I'm not going to hang my entire identity on dropping more weight.
So that's where I am today. Morning, folks.
Posted 1 week ago # -
PrimalK
MemberHey Griff. My body does the weight loss thing in fits and starts - I think that's quite normal. But I'm not hung up on that either. Your goal is your blood sugars, mine is feeling healthy from the inside out. Not so very different when it comes down to it! You're doing a fantastic job and are such an inspiration!
Posted 1 week ago # -
Griff
MemberToday's blood sugar average is 96. I am so jazzed.
I did an accidental IF because I plain forgot to eat anything and forgot that I wasn't going to be home until 4 at the earliest. (I also forgot my supplements this morning - oops!) But it doesn't seem to have affected me. My morning sugar when I woke up was 104 (my high), and my before-lunch sugar at 4 p.m. was at 88 (my low).
I'm losing inches, too. I've lost an inch off my hips and another inch off my chest.
I went out to a bar and grill tonight with some friends from school, but it didn't last long. I got in an argument with a CW advocate (a friend of a friend, and a physics grad student) who insisted that Taubes must have "bought his Ph.D. from Sears" because "everyone knows that the conservation of energy is a constant!" when I said "not in an organism, it's not" - and it's not, because an organism is not a closed system and nothing can be a constant in a non-closed system. See also: futile cycling.
Anyway, after he refused one of my Paleo cards and started making fun of me, I said "Sorry, I have to go - it was SO NICE to meet you" (not!) and left with a friend. What a jackass. Apparently (according to a friend who knows the non-sociology graduate crowd better than I do) most of the current graduate students in physics are jackasses anyway, so I won't worry about it too much, but it did annoy me. On the other hand, it gave me the opportunity to talk to two of my friends and refute much of the CW they've been swallowing, so who knows? Maybe I'll get a convert or two.
Total carbs today: 17g. Not too shabby - and that's with a 21-hour IF on top of it, too!
Posted 1 week ago # -
Great news on the IFs, presumably your blood sugar must be really stable to just sail through and forget to eat!
Ignore the physicist - his loss! And by the sounds of it, you "gained" two people anyway :)
It's a shame GCBC isn't available free - it'd make a handy, yet educational, missile.... ;)
Posted 5 days ago # -
Griff
MemberMy average yesterday was 104 and the day before that 103. I'm not too disappointed about these. Yesterday I hardly ate anything. I got some good exercise at a party last night, too, so I'm mostly still on track.
I can no longer weigh myself. Our scale died. I don't have the money right now to buy a new one, so I'll have to depend on the school health center's scale - just walk in, demand a weigh-in, and leave. It won't be as accurate as having my own where I weigh buck naked, but I figure I'll subtract about four pounds for my clothes, keys, shoes, pocket change, and wallet when I weigh. *shrug* I can also still keep track with sugar readings and measurements, so I'm not going to obsess over the busted scale.
I'm not going to be able to do much in the way of updaty stuff as I have a paper to write that's really doing dirt to me, so I'll just say I'm doing pretty well and leave it at that. My glucose tracker reports that my last two weeks' average has been 97, and that I've reduced my overall sugars by 22% since I started this in August. That's pretty freaking cool.
Posted 5 days ago # -
maba
MemberThat is freakin' cool Griff! Good luck with your paper.
Thanks for the "organism is not a closed-loop system" explanation, I can use it on the non-believers. When you have time, care to explain it? I've read GCBC and while I understand his explanation, I'm not articulate enough to explain it to the CW folks.
Posted 4 days ago # -
Griff
MemberHi maba: My husband would be better able to explain it; he's the one with the physics background. But it's essentially basic thermodynamics. The body is only in thermal balance when it's dead.
I'll see if I can get him to explain it tonight when he's awake, and I'll post about it here.
Posted 4 days ago # -
I'd be tempted to forget the details, and just give 'em that quote "The body is only in thermal balance when it's dead".
That should make them pause for thought! :D
Posted 4 days ago # -
Sorry to hear you're at a plateau, Griff! I put my scale in the basement. My weight hasn't budge for weeks & my clothes are looser, so who knows?! My engineer husband says we're all loosing our "soft, fluffy exterior" around our "dense inner core". The mental picture I got was of the "Stay-puff marshmallow man" - what a riot!
You're doing super with the blood sugar control. Keep on it! :)
Posted 4 days ago # -
Griff
MemberHi Deb,
I'm actually not at a plateau that I know of. It's just that our scale is broken, so there's no way to know if I am or not. I'm just going to use my school health center scale once a week instead of buying a new household scale since we don't know why this one broke and it's no good throwing more money at another one when it might break too.
Posted 4 days ago # -
Griff
MemberMy average yesterday was 97. This is awesome.
Net carbs yesterday was actually a tad high (27g), which is encouraging with the blood sugar average I'm having. I'm feeling more and more confident about my blood sugars these days.
My morning sugars are still in the 110s, though, which is annoying. *shrug* Can't win 'em all, I suppose.
Lots of exercise yesterday, running all over campus. I'm actually quite tired out even today from that. On the other hand, I'm reliably going down stairs now, alternating feet on each riser, which is awesome. I'm getting better at this!
Posted 3 days ago # -
Griff
MemberThanks for the encouragement, folks!
My average yesterday was 102, which is not bad. I'm happier about my morning blood sugar today, which was 103 (instead of 116 like yesterday - shudder). I'm going to be very busy for several days, so if you don't see me here, don't worry - I'll be back!
Posted 2 days ago #
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