Well I wouldn't be honest if I all I wrote about were my successes. So here's a little bad news, just to remind me not to make that mistake again.
I've slipped up on my diet before. To remain in nutritional ketosis it's usually recommended to consumer fewer than 50 grams of carbohydrates per day. This value varies depending on the individual, the amount of exercise done during a day and excess protein certainly has an effect on this as well. I learned to not overindulge with protein earlier this Spring after an all-you-can (but probably shouldn't) meal at Samba Brazilian Grill.
Six weeks prior to IMAZ I got into a bag of Halloween treats, but that was a rather minor slip-up. This time my slip up was more agregeous. I found myself on the UW campus near the lab where I used to work. That lab just happens to be across from the Babcock Dairy Store.
For a variety of reasons, the primary one being that I am human and prone to mistakes and poor judgments - but there are a few others that I won't get into now - I'll just say that it's been the most stress filled week of my life and leave it at that for now. But for a variety of reasons I slipped. Slipped and fell face first into a bucket of Chocolate Peanut Butter Ice-cream. This used to be treat I would indulge in a couple of times per week. Triple scoops on my lunch breaks after a nice swim workout - Michael Phelps style! (I didn't know better at the time - it's not like it ever made me feel sick).
So I walked in, bought a half gallon and by the middle of the next day I ate the whole damn thing. It was like crack to me, I knew better, but you know what? - I didn't care. I tried to cover the massive amount of sugar with the right amount of insulin - which was probably more than I use in a normal week.
My numbers only peaked in the mid-200's. For me that's unbelievably high. The last time I had numbers that high was in February when my my insulin had expired while and I was sick - well before my foray into ketosis. Blood glucose in the mid 200's is bad, but not hospital bad or anything. I'm actually curious whether I'm still at as high of a risk of DKA, seeing as my body and brain are able to use ketones I doubt they would build up high enough to cause acidosis. The one blood ketone test I did actually showed my ketones to be very low at 0.3mM.
Knowing that I've made similar mistakes in the past I adjusted my basal insulin to a higher level and eventually I've stabilized. But wow! It's amazing how long lasting the metabolic changes from that one day of gluttony last.
For the entire week my basal insulin level has been increased from 0.3U/hr all the way up to 2.0U/hr. On top of that I also need to increase the amount of insulin to bolus and cover meal-time carbs. Suddenly I'm quite insulin resistant. I knew this is what would happen.
Like any mistake it is a learning experience. These are the same adjustments that I would need to make if I ever come down with the flu. Side note: I haven't been sick at all this year. Although doing this during flu season might have been reckless as this leaves my immune system impaired.
Other negative results of this: poor sleep, goobery eyes when I wake up, headaches, lethargy, inability to concentrate (compared to the great focus I have while solidly in ketosis - but still doing better than before my diagnosis), I think I even have some funky body odor, an increase in ear wax (sexy, right?!), cramping in my calves and feet, aching joints, neuropathy in my arms where they arm numb/asleep when I wake up - which I also experienced a lot of pre-diagnosis, , nerve pain in my feet while working in the cold - another symptom I remember experiencing as far back as 2011, and my appetite was rampant! One week later and I'm 15 lbs heavier, from 215 lbs all the way to 230 lbs - talk about inflammation!
But I'm not going to dwell on this mistake. Like I said, it was a hell of a week. I'll definitely learn from it. As a result of the lethargy and instability (and the damn cold weather) I hadn't been exercising very much, I imagine exercise would have mediated some of those negative effect. I'm back on track now.
Did some yoga yesterday (inflammation has had a negative effect on my flexibility), and got in an hour long swim today. The swim actually felt very good. My goal will be to swim as often as possible as swimming seems to have the greatest positive influence of reducing my insulin requirements back to where they should be. It will likely take me another 2 or 3 weeks to get my basal insulin level back down to below 0.8U/hr - hopefully all the way back to 0.3U/hr - we'll see. This will be a good test for how well swimming actually will work for that. Plus it will give me something to focus on during the holidays.
One thing is for sure - I won't be tempted to indulge in any more sweets and treats. Lesson learned.
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