Insights into my personal life.

This blog includes the personal details of my experiences as a recently diagnosed Type I diabetic and the impact of that diagnosis on my endurance athletic pursuits.

Please understand that I consider myself to be a work in progress. I am willing to share both my successes and failures, so please do not take my words to be professional dietary or medical advice. This is a blog, this is only a blog. I research my choices carefully, and take my health very seriously. The choices I make are my own, I am doing the best with the resources and support that I have. If you have questions or concerns feel free to comment, but please be constructive and understand that this is my life. I value it dearly.

My goal is to live a happy, healthy and active life where I can balance my internal drive to push my physical limits and the challenge of safely maintaining stability despite the challenges of Type I diabetes.

Sunday, April 21, 2013

Breaking point.

I feel like I'm on the verge of a breakthrough here.  So very close.  During the past 2 weeks I've had a unique experience twice.  Both while traveling to Austria, and then again to Fond du Lac, I've experienced a dramatic reduction in what I can only describe as inflammation.



I've twice bounced between 220 and 207 lbs.  I'd love to think that it's related to calories, but I know that it's not.  13 x 3500 calories... no way - that's enough to power me through 3 ironman distance races.  I was working out less than 5 hours per week.

My wrist band fits looser, my wedding band almost slid off my greatly reduced knuckle.  I've always had gigantic knuckles (along with the entire big banana hands thing).  I've attributed the swelling of my knuckles to my career as a soccer goalkeeper.  I've recently dislocated both of my pinky fingers playing soccer from easy shots on goal.  I feel as if all of the joints in my body had been stiffening up on me.  But for a brief period of time following travel, my joints all shrunk.  And they felt good.

I wasn't dehydrated.  I felt great, experiencing a level of clarity in my thoughts that I have rarely been able to achieve.  It really felt great.  I want it back.

It's difficult to figure out what the difference is.  I'm thinking through all the food variations.  Peanuts?  I eat a lot of nuts. I don't think it's milk, but I've traded in my low fat dairy.  I still eat dairy, but only full test.


It could be fructose.  After watching all 90 minutes of  "The Bitter Truth" by Dr. Robert Lustig M.D. - actually I had to watch it a couple times to brush the rust off of my signaling pathways. If you'd like to dig into it but don't have the full 90 minutes, I'd recommend starting at 56:30 or 1:04:30.



It could also be the water.   City of Madison - News Release.  That would suck.  I drink tap water.  But I've noticed a significant difference in Fitchburg as compared to what I drank in Vancouver.  One thing I've noticed is the overall mineral content.  We use our steamer often to prepare rice and veggies.  While in Vancouver, I observed the mineral deposits on the heating element reduce and eventually become totally clear.  However, upon return to the Madison area, that same steamer is now clogged with deposits.  Same story with the coffee makers.

It could be coffee?  Oh like hell - it better not be.

Could it be the dogs?  Wouldn't be able to really change anything about that.  Nor would I even consider.

I started to find this list of possibilities getting almost impossibly difficult to figure out.  So close that it's just ticking me off.  Talk about dangling a carrot in front of me.  I want to feel that good again - but failed attempts have become frustrating.

A break was needed.  I loosened the belt and gave myself a break from tight control this weekend.  Yup, it feels rather awful physically, but mentally it's been a vacation.  A break from poking my fingers 10 times a day, a break from constantly thinking about diabetes.

But that break was yesterday.  Today is a new day - the swelling in my knuckles is motivation enough to get back at it.

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