Monday, 01/20/2020

Weight: 142
Veggies/Fruits: 8
Macronutrients: Cals - 1,409, Carbs - 137, Fats - 49, Protein - 96, Fiber - 27
Green SmartPoints: 23
Water: Again, ZERO!
Sleep: 6 hours + 1'15" nap yesterday afternoon
Exercise: Yoga@home (35") and 9,415 steps

Yesterday was a good food day, although on this morning's scales all that Saturday popcorn said, "Howdy!"

Yesterday afternoon after lunch I napped really hard for over an hour. How do y'all feel about naps? Good thing? Bad thing?

And now let's talk about dopamine, one of the "feel good" biochemicals produced by our brains that regulates appetite, among other things. A few weeks ago when I saw my primary physician for my annual checkup, I told him (among a brazillion other things) that my alcohol consumption is still averaging 10 drinks a week, which is up from 7 drinks/week several years ago. He asked, "Why do you think you're drinking more?" I said, "My answer is the worst possible answer: It feels good!" He nodded thoughtfully and said, "I think you're looking for a shot of dopamine." My immediate response was, "Is there a patch for that?" Heh, heh. But then we talked about a lot of other, healthier events and activities and substances that encourage dopamine production--from exercise to checking things off to-do lists to eating pistachio nuts to making and listening to music. I've continued to think about that conversation and been poking around online to learn more. This morning I found this good listicle: "33 Ways to Increase Dopamine to Boost Your Productivity."

Are any of y'all focused on your dopamine production? Doing anything to increase it? Got any thoughts about dopamine?

And in other news, it's freakin' cold here, at least for me ... 15 degrees right now.

Happy Monday to everyone. Time to get this week rolling. :)

Weight 134, WW points 18. A bounce up in weight from yesterday as predicted but more than expected. But I always bounce around a lot with daily weighting.

For me, naps can feel too good - if I get into deep sleep I can't wake up fully afterwards. Also, because of my former extended and now sporadic insomnia, I avoid naps completely even after a bad night (I just stay awake as long as possible and hope I sleep at night because of exhaustion). I don't know about Dopamine but yes, feeling good helps me in all aspects of life.

Yesterdays Celebration of Life for the friend who died 5 days after DH was nice. Very different from the religious based services we had.

Today BIL, DS and I are moving everything out of DH's room at the memory care facility. I didn't have to do it until the end of the month, but I need it done and wrapped up so I can focus on other tasks before I fly south. Which I am REALLY looking forward to as it is super cold here again.

Enjoy MLK day!

Struggling with non-diabetic reactive hypoglycemia, this frigid and snowy weather, and what feels and looks like some cellulitis in the calf of my good leg. I'm planning to channel my resilience and will also give the doctor a call. An hour after coming in from shoveling, I had a healthy glass of wine and some ginger chews. (Nope..no protein or healthy carbs). An hour later, I got shaky and began to sweat profusely. I knew to test my sugar, and it was 34 ! I have glucose chews stashed all over the place, but I struggled tell Chuck where they were. (I have now taped a bag to the refrigerator door, labeled 55 or lower.) If my level is 60-70, I have the luxury of trying apple juice to slowly raise, but I'd never measured lower than 45. Chuck has short term memory issues and it didn't register with him that I was in serious territory. When I could finally tell him to get the bag in the bedstand, I took them and then had to test every fifteen minutes for the next two hours to counter balance the rebound reaction. Apple juice and carbs/protein/healthy fat took care of that, but didn't fit into BLUE.

Well, **** Diane! I'm so sorry about your glucose plunge. I know you're logging all this info and trying to find patterns, and you are the IDEAL person to identify patterns, create solutions, and test them on yourself. But I still hate that you have to deal with this.

Do you think warmer climes in the winter could help you avoid some of the stressors? Warmer climes would probably be more fun than shoveling snow!

OMG Diane! Can the dog be trained to detect low blood sugar issues and respond somehow?

Goodness, Diane! so glad you caught it in the nick of time!

Booooo! So many things in your post warrant a huge booooooo! So, just BOOOOOOO! Glad you were able to bring it around. 34 is a dangerously low number. I am surprised you even had the mental acuity to test yourself. I'm sure you must have been quite "foggy brained" at best. Scary, scary ****

How awful for you Diane :( Super scary. You amaze me with your strength x

Scary stuff right there. You most likely know this but when you are trying to get your blood sugar up it helps if you ingest fats along with your carbs. Snow shoveling and being cold drops your blood sugar. Most likely the wine and chews spiked your blood sugar and then bottomed right back out. The fats will slow the blood sugar swings. It does not take much. 7 almonds or a small teaspoon of peanut butter.

Also the cellulitis could contribute to changes in glucose. Depending on what type of infection bacteria can consume blood glucose and healing uses glucose because it takes extra energy to heal. End result is low blood glucose. Last is hydration. If your intravascular fluid (in the blood stream) shifts to interstitial fluid (Between the tissue cells) to the site of the cellulitis your overall hydration status is on the dry side inside your blood vessels. Your body has a very difficult time regulating blood sugar when there is not enough water in the blood.