Weekly Check-In

I am skipping weighing in this week as I am having trouble with my left leg. I am having an MRI tomorrow and will find out the results on Friday. I will weigh-in next Monday.

 I will report that my current glucose average for the past 7 days is 130 which puts me at an A1C of about 5.8. My 90 day average is 132 (A1C - 6.2). There are all sorts of conversion charts available online if you want to print one off to easily see where your glucose level falls on the A1C range.

This is but one site with a chart - https://tudiabetes.org/understanding-the-a1c/ They also have a lot of GREAT information to help you get your glucose (A1C) where it should be for a healthy life.

See you next week!

A Journey/ Experiment Begins

SO... this past week I started us on a journey to see if going mostly Vegetarian would improve our blood work results. I go again in January to have my blood work done and I would love to KNOCK HER SOCKS OFF with some amazing blood work.

So I guess the first thing I should start with is where my last blood work had me and my current weight, body fat % and BMI. So Current weight (as of today) 196.8 lbs, 42.3% body fat and my BMI is at 30.8; this was what my scales told me this evening. My blood work was done earlier this month and I am focused mainly on my A1C as I would love to get it under control the most so lets start there... 10/9/2019 my A1C was 6.3% with a value of 134 mg/dL.Standard ranges for these two readings are 4.3 - 5.6% and 77-114 mg/dL so my aim is to get to the 5.6 and the 114.  I am also planning to increase my activity level.. walking, hiking and following along with You Tube exercise videos.

I'm also going to take my measurements but am keeping them in a paper journal just for me. Sharing my weight is enough on here. Today's Fasting BG was 123 at 9:55 Am... we sleep later than most as Scott (husband) works the second shift. And my after dinner BG is 132.  My 7 day average is 135 (A1C - 6.0)

A couple photos of me at the Fiber event we  attended this past Saturday.

My plan is to post weekly on Mondays with "updates".

Loaded Oatmeal

A Single Week in January

Last Sunday I finished painting the inside of the linen closet down in our house in Cayce. We just need to get the doors painted and rehung and the trim work needs to be painted with the crisp white. Week after this I will be down for an entire week to paint in other rooms and to clean up in the yard some. We are slowly getting the house ready to sell... I am so hoping by Summer we will be ready to list it.

 I created this fun postcard for a friend that had reached 1000 subscribers on her You Tube Channel. I love my quirky little bees.

 Scott has made some progress on the little bonus room here at the cottage so it won't be long til we can paint in there and put the room back together. I'm kinda living in a "pile" until it is done as everything that was in there is now out in this main room. Makes it difficult to work on any larger projects.The termites had come in and ate all the sheetrock tape, old wall paper and some of the paper from the sides of the sheetrock.  It will be a nice cozy little room shortly.

 Yesterday we explored an Antique shop since it was such a dreary day. I found this lovely Kerr jar filled with buttons and a crystal that I will be creating a beaded suncatcher. It was so much fun looking through all the old stuff! Afterwards we went to Tito's for some delicious authentic New York Italian Calzones. YUM! All in all we had a GREAT day together... but then we always do together.

Small Steps

Scott decided to do some repairs here at the little cottage we are staying in... it all started as he wanted to remove some wall board in the bathroom that had been destroyed by termites. Once he got started he decided to remove the little door that led into the bathroom from this little sitting/ bedroom... which led to us ripping the ancient carpet out and so on. The carpet removal turned out to be pretty difficult as they had used a rubber matting under the carpet and over the many years it had adhered itself to the wooden floors.  I had to use my heat gun and a putty knife to get it all up. You can see in this picture the carpet and some of the stuck on rubber mat to the left. It took two days but we got it all up and out. We took the old carpet to the dump station on Tuesday and the bagged rubber matting when in the trash truck today. There are a few places on the ceiling that have loose popcorn ceiling stuff and Scott wants to repair that while we have the room torn apart. Tomorrow I will get him up at 9:30 so we can work on it some before he has to leave for work. Today he slept in to 11:30... I guess he needed the extra Z's. I will post more about this as we go along. We are supposed to go down and work on our house this weekend so there will be updates on that as well coming. I am so hoping this Summer will be when we can get that house sold so we don't have to keep driving down there every few weeks. Knock on wood!

Since talking with the Nurse on the 2nd I have been paying closer attention to the charts on my meter as well as recording my BG readings on this monthly chart I found online - FREE to print off. I like the fact that it is a monthly chart that I can carry to the DR as they seem averse to using the ability to just plug my meter into a computer or letting me send my readings in via email.  Now I just need to make time for some exercise... ugh! I will get there.

Well I am off to see what I can get into this afternoon. Scott will leave for work shortly and I will need to occupy myself until he returns home.

Finding my Health

I attended some Diabetic Education on January 2nd and came home with more tools to know how to put what I already knew into better practice as well as some additional information that I was lacking. I flat out eat too much and don't always make the best choices... but that is changing. AND I have got to get moving again. My life has become quite sedentary since I do not work outside the home any longer. Finding ways to get moving that I feel safe doing is a struggle for me here in Greenville. I dislike gyms immensely and I do not want to spend any money to join a group activity. After all "the best things in life are free" ... right? So I will walk with Scott on the weekends at the larger trails and will walk a couple times a week at the park trail in Travelers Rest. I will also utilize You Tube and follow some workouts there with Lucy Wyndham-Read. I learned about her from a Vlogger I watch and love her personality and the detailed instructions she gives. So thats my plan... and I've got to stick with it. Would love to surprise the new Dr in March with better blood work and hopefully a few pounds gone off my body as well.

On to my creative side; yesterday in the mail my Quilting Round Robin returned home and I love it! The ladies that worked on it did an amazing job. My plan is to add a few more borders to make it bed sized and then get it made into a quilt. It will be a wonderful quilt to use during the Christmas season.

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend... may it be sunny today PLEASE!!! So tired of rain.

Welcome 2019

Here it is day 3 of 2019! HAPPY NEW YEAR! Sometimes it feels like I am at the end of a very fast moving train and life is flashing by the windows. I need to take more time to appreciate all the little things along the way.

Yesterday I met with an RN at The Life Center and got more information on following a Diabetic diet and how to count carbs and how many carbs to allot per meal and snacks. LOTS of wonderful information and I am trying to put the information to good use. I started a food diary today and I am going to record on paper my blood sugar readings so I can watch better for patterns. She told me even a weight loss of 5 to 7 % of my current body weight would improve my health so I am going to aim for that the first 6 months of this year. Another thing I MUST DO is get more activity each day so I am looking into videos I can workout with here at home on You Tube as well as walking more often... if it would just stop raining.

I've been having a horrible time with Seasonal Depression this year and I am thinking I need to buy a "Happy Light" to help cope with the blah days. I'm sure exercise would help with that as well but to get started is tough when you don't feel like doing anything at all. I have so much I want to do but getting motivated to do any of it is so hard.

I hope everyone is starting their New Year off in a good place with plans for improving their health and well being.  See you in the next post.