Getting back on track

So, it's been a really long time since I last posted here.

First, the vital statistics. My weight as of this morning is 382 lbs., which is a nine lb. loss from my high point of 391 lbs. My blood sugar this morning was 127. I've just restarted my diet after a year off it. Unfortunately, last November I had to move and this more-or-less knocked me off the wagon, and I'm just now getting back on it. Prior to moving, I was down to 345 lbs (total loss 70 lbs.) and my blood sugar was almost always right around 100. So, now I'm trying to get back on track.

Second, lets talk about my knee. I think I've strained or sprained it, but it hurts like crazy. How did I do this, you ask? I was kneeling down at Walmart looking for some roast pecans (they were out) and when I got up ... *ouch* So that more or less puts the kibash on m hopes to start exercising this week.

Anyway, I would like to start posting here regularly again. Look for more soon.

Update

So, I haven't posted here in a while, but it's not because I've given up. I'm currently at 384 lbs., for a significant weight loss of 26 lbs. and yes, Virginia, I'm still on my diet. This is by far the longest I've stuck to a diet and the most weight I've ever deliberately lost, so to say the least I'm pleased.

I've also started lifting weights and exercising. So, all things considered, I'd call myself a success.

Even the ADA...

I just finished doing the following Google search:

low carbohydrate diet site:diabetes.org

I figured that I'd get a bunch of guff about how the Low-Carbohydrate diet would kill me. Instead, what I got was study after study after study showing that low carb diets are better for diabetics and weight loss.

So I ask... ADA, why are you still recommending a high-carb diet?

No longer the 400 pound man!

As of this morning, my weight is officially... wait for it...

399 3/4 pounds!

Woo-hoo! On the downside, my blood sugar this morning was 127–I'm really not sure why.

Reasons I'll Stick: I'd rather have a heart attack!

Okay, for today's reason I'll stick, I'd like to propose a thought experiment. Let's suppose, just for a moment, that all the well researched, well-considered studies showing that a high-fat, low-carb diet isn't the danger that we've been told for the past 30 years or so are wrong. Let's suppose that, by eating a high-fat, low-carb diet I'm really taking my life into my hands and running a serious risk of dying from heart disease. I don't think that this is the case, but let's just say it is.

So, on the one hand, if all this low-fat hysteria is true, I have heart disease and death from a heart attack.

On the other hand, I have the consequences of not going on a low-carb diet.

• I know me, and I know that I've tried for 7 months now to control my diabetes the "ADA way" without any success whatsoever. If I can't do it now, when it's a relatively tame beast, what are the chances that I would be able to do so later when I inevitably become a full-blown insulin-dependent diabetic? I know me. I know what I can and can't do. My sister is a Type I diabetic from childhood, so I know what's involved, and I know that with my massive ADHD I simply can't do it. I can't control my diabetes the "ADA way". So I will have uncontrolled diabetes for the rest of my life, and all the consequences that come with it.
• Let's start with one consequence: blindness. I can't imagine any hell worse than not being able to read. I could do without TV, I could even do without pictures and sunsets, but take away my books (and my Bible!) and I'm not sure I'd want to live. Being read to is just not the same–it's too slow. Yes, I suppose I could learn Braille, but still too slow.
  
• How about another? Amputation. I read somewhere that a leg is amputated due to uncontrolled diabetes every six minutes in America. So I'm blind and in a wheelchair.
• How about another? Renal failure. I watched my grandfather-in-law hang on for 8 years on dialysis while his body disintegrated. Not. A. Life.
• And bear in mind that I feel better when I eat this way. Let's talk quality of life here, why don't we?
  

So... let's do the simple arithmetic. Would I rather die of a nice, clean fatal heart-attack, or be blind, lame, and dependent on dialysis for years? This is a no-brainer.

Bear in mind, of course, that I think I'm much more likely to have a heart attack if I don't lose the weight by following a low-carb diet than if I do. But this was labeled as a "thought experiment".

Reasons I'll Stick: a New Series

So something I'd like to add to my little blog is a regular series of "reasons I'll stick"--that is, reasons that I will continue to pursue a low-carb lifestyle and eating plan. The reasons could be properly based on any of the benefits of low-carb: weight loss, blood sugar control, annoying PETA... you name it.

Today's reason is my desire to enjoy the great outdoors again. When I was younger–my late teens and early twenties–I enjoyed a huge variety of outdoor activities. I backpacked and canoed and kayaked. Unfortunately, when I started to gain weight, it became impossible to do those things. Neither my knees nor my lungs nor my heart can handle backpacking anymore, and it's sad but true that you simply can't buy a canoe or kayak that can handle someone who weighs 400 lbs.

My low-carb lifestyle will hopefully give me this back, and I have some awesome trips planned for when I'm able to do them. I want to hike the Appalachian Trail, canoe the James River from one end to the other, and maybe even hike the old European pilgrimage trails to places like Santiago de Compostella, Rome, and Jerusalem. But all of this lies on the other side of weight loss.

Blood sugar graph

The following graph of my average blood sugars for the past 5 days sort of says it all:

I'm not a diabetic anymore! (Kind of)

First of all, very good news this morning. My fasting blood sugar was 117. Since the official clinical definition of diabetes is a fasting blood sugar above 125, this means that in just one week my low-carb diet has cured my diabetes. Or, at least, controlled it. Obviously, if I celebrated with a Coke and a Chocolate bar I would go right back. Also, 117 is still abnormal--but this just proves that the low-carb diet is working as advertised, because I've never had a reading of 117 before since I started checking my blood sugar in November. I'm loooking forward to even better numbers in the future as my body continues to adjust to its new metabolism.

The bad news is that I'm no longer in ketosis. Arg. I'm not really sure what to do about that at this point other than keep trying what I've been doing and make a run to town for some low-carb sauces, since the sauces are the only place I'm "cheating" at all anymore. I think Trader Joe's might still carry some low-carb stuff.

Improvised low-carb BBQ Sauce

So I'm making barbecue pork chops for dinner, and figured I could just use the bottle of barbecue sauce I had until I could get something else (the store didn't have any low-carb barbecue sauce today.) Unfortunately, the stuff I had had 30g carbs for 2 tablespoons! No way.

Fortunately, my Heinz ketchup had only 3g net carbs for 2 tablespoons, so here's what I improvised:

1/4 cup Heinz ketchup
1/4 cup sugar-free pancake syrup (sweetened with sorbitol)
About 3 tbsp. chili powder
About 1 tbsp. kosher salt
About 1 tbsp. onion powder

It's really quite good (I've often made my own barbecue sauce in the past using a similar recipe, and honey instead of syrup), and should be in the range of 1.5 net carbs for tbsp., which is not ideal but a lot better than the store-bought!

Ketosis?

So I've got a massive headache... does this mean that I'm finally going into ketosis?! Blood sugar just now was 121, so my numbers seem to be getting steadily better (although not as fast as I might like.)

[UPDATE] The strip is pink. Just barely, but definitely pink! I'm thinking it's probably the L-carnitine. More good news: blood sugar at 7 or so was 115! This is the lowest reading I've had since I started testing.

Going off Actos

So I've done a bit of research on Actos, the drug my doctor prescribed for my diabetes, and I've concluded several things:

• I'm not sure I want to be on this drug under any circumstances, as it apparently is similar to Avandia, a drug that is implicated in causing heart failure.
• Furthermore, it apparently can cause weight gain, and it is possible that this weight gain (i.e. conversion of blood glucose to fat) is part of the mechanism by which it accomplishes its very modest reduction in A1c levels.
• It can also cause fluid retention.

I've only been taking this for about a week and a half, so it seems to me very possible–even likely–that Actos may be interfering with the efficacy of my low-carb diet. I haven't been able to find anything online about this, but it seems reasonable that a drug that alters insulin metabolism and causes fluid retention could interfere with ketosis and the fluid weight-loss associated with the induction period of Atkins.

Bottom line: I was planning to stop taking this anyway if my low carb diet was successful, and it so far has not had any appreciable benefits. I'm going to try my low-carb experiment without it, and then if my blood sugars a month from now are still high I'll reconsider.

[UPDATE] Found the following from the Atkins Center FAQ: 

 5. What medications interfere with or need adjustment during the diet?

ANSWER: Virtually all medications interfere. The most incompatible medications are:

1. Diuretics (water pills)
2. Psychotropic drugs, including prozac, zoloft, lithium, etc.
3. Hormones and steroids, including estrogen (premarin), birth control pills and prednisone.
4. Arthritic drugs, especially NSAIDS (Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs)
5. Cholesterol lowering drugs.



6. All anti-diabetic medications, including insulin with the exception of glucophage.
7. Tranquilizers
8. Seizure medications.

Fortunately, doctors who work with the diet can usually use it and certain supplements to help you get off each and every one of the above or taper you to minimal doses. Please DO NOT COME OFF MEDICATIONS BY YOURSELF without medical supervision. 

Looks to me like I'm right to suspect Actos.  Also apparently I should look at taking some L-Carnitine.  Going to the store now to get it.

Reevaluating, or "Plan B"

I've been on a low-carb diet for 5 days now, and its kind of a mixed bag. The good news is that I feel better than I've felt in months and there may be a slight improvement in my blood sugars. It's hard to tell on the blood-sugars as I hardly ever took my blood sugar before I started this lifestyle change.

The bad news is that my blood sugars are still nowhere near normal (my fasting blood sugar this morning was 141) and thus far I don't seem to be losing a significant amount of weight.

(Okay, granted it's too soon to expect much weight loss, but even so it's discouraging to step on the scale last night and be told I gained two pounds! From everything I've seen, if I were doing this right weight would be melting off me.)

As I see it, the issue has got to be that I'm not doing a good enough job of regulating my carb intake. Somewhere in my diet I'm picking up carbs that are hampering my weight-loss--probably when I go to lunch. But I need to take the guess-work out of this. I need to know what foods cause my blood-sugar to spike, not guess based on my estimate of carbohydrate content or what have you.

Therefore, I just ordered 200 "extra" test strips for my blood sugar meter off eBay (at less than half the price they would cost at Walgreens.) My plan is to start taking my blood sugar much more frequently after I eat, and based on that determine what foods are affecting my blood-sugar. The reason I want to do it this way is this: if I'm not eating too many carbs, and the high blood-sugars are the result of proteins being converted to carbohydrate, then I need to raise my fat intake, which is a whole different issue.

Does this make sense? Anybody? Bueller?