I've got to tell everyone that I'm excited that this phase of the diet is almost over. I'm not really hungry while on this diet, but I do miss eating. We only get the same stuff everyday, and I'm even worse than probably most on the diet because I just eat the same thing every day.
I've learned a few things on this diet. One, it looks like I can maybe start eating fruit again. It hasn't hurt me while I'm on this diet, in fact this week I've had a couple of BG reading that are below 80 which is the below the low normal for BG. Karen thinks that I should stop taking the metformin, but I keep saying that I'm going to keep using it until I run out of it, and use it while I'm on the maintenance phase to see what happens when I'm eating more food. The second thing that I've learned is that it's very convenient to have food planned out. I put all my food in a bag and so I know what I have to eat all right there so it's easier to plan. I've read that this is a good way to handle a diet, but I've never done it, because I'm lazy. Of course it's pretty easy to put all of 500 calories in a little bag for a day, and I've actually forgot a couple of times to do that. I just need to make a commitment to doing this though because I think that it will help a lot.
As of this morning I've lost 26.8 lbs. That's great, but I'm more happy with what's going on my BG. Right now my 7 day average is 89, and by the way that's below 90. The 30 day average is 94 and the 90 day average is 105. This shows that the trend is down and that's great. I hope that it stays low when I get on the maintenance phase of the diet.
Speaking of the maintenance phase. The diet plan says that you should not let your weight fluctuate +/- 2 lbs from your weight on the last day of your taking the hCG. However the level of calories that they suggest is very low between 1800-2000 for a man. That's near the level where you body goes into starvation mode. I personally don't see how that level of eating won't cause you to lose weight during the maintenance phase. I'm hoping that I'm going to lose weight. We'll see.
One thing that I read about while reading about the hCG diet that was interesting. It said that our digestive track is basically like any other great ape, and that it's designed for use to digest food that we're eating all day long just like the apes. The cruise around all day grazing on whatever they can find. That make a lot of sense, especially with a lot of people saying that your diet will work better if you eat a lot of small means during the day instead of a few big ones. The hCG people said that eating a couple of big meals, a day especially when there are a lot of refined carbs in it, can overwhelm the endocrine system and it start locking away the fat as abnormal fat.
A few more things about the diet. It's hard to exercise on it. I started out tying to do my weekly turbulence training, and I started a new phase of that as I started the hCG diet, and I just was not able to do it. Karen was worried about me and now it looks like she's right. Anyway I finally started just doing the exercise cycle and pushups. I got to where I could do those again, and decided that I'd try going back to phase 1 of turbulence training. So I did that on Monday and the next day I'd gained two pounds! I just don't see how that happens, and I was totally wasted and could not even do the exercise cycle the next day. Later in the week I read an article on the Dr. Mercola site about it being possible for the body to gain muscle on a reduced calorie diet. Maybe that explains what happened. I don't know that I'm even going to try do turbulence training next time we do another phase of the hCG.
Well as you can see the hCG diet pretty much rules my life right now. One funny thing about this is no one has to worry about cooking me anything for Fathers Day, and next week is my 50th birthday, and no one can do anything for me because I can't eat anything. I guess that really show how central eating is to any celebration that we now have.
I've read some interesting books and listened to some interesting lecture series, but I'll be writing about them on my other blog.
Sunday, June 19, 2011
Sunday, May 22, 2011
hCG, Another "Ah Hah!" Moment
Mom and I have started the hCG diet. It's a diet that Darren, Patrick his father and Marilee his mother, who are all in our ward, have done and they've been very successful at it. I've been thinking that I would try it, and Mom has as well, and Mom decided that we would start immeadiatly, so we started on Monday.
Of course, as with anything I'm thinking about, I researched it first. hCG is a hormone that women produce only when they're pregnant. In fact it's what they use in pregnancy tests. In looking around for information I eventually found this pdf file on line called "Pounds and Inches" by Dr. Simeons. I found that book by reading a review of a book by someone named Kevin Tredeau. His book was called "The Weight Loss Cure They Don't Want You to Know About," but a lot of people say that he's really a charlatan, and that he's just implementing Dr. Simeon's diet, which you can find on line for free (although Amazon also sells it as a book as well). So I read "Pounds and Inches."
You can read a lot about hCG and Dr Simeons on Wikipedia. Basically though, Dr. Simeons was a gifted endocrinologist, and he wanted to find a solution to obesity. He felt that although there might be many causes to obesity, there had to be an underlying cause that would apply to all who were obese. While he was in India studying pregnant women in India on calorie-deficient diets, and "fat-boys" with pituitary problems. The "fat-boys" were young men who had unattractive deposits of fat and underdeveloped sexual organs (it's called Froliech's Syndrome). He noticed that the pregnant women seem to be able to carry the babies without depleting their lean muscles, and that low doses of hCG to the young men allowed them to develop their sexual organs, as well as lose weight, again without depleting their lean muscle mass.
When he went to Italy he developed the theory that there are 3 type of fat
It's Dr. Simeons theory that the reason that women produce this hormone is so that the fetus and women can survive during pregnancy. It makes all reserves of energy in the body available to the baby and the Mom. He also thinks that what happens during a regular attempt at dieting is that the body first burns off the normal fat, the the structural fat until there are not more reserves there, then it starts burning off the abnormal fat. This is why dieting can be so hard, and why people hit the "wall" so to speak. This makes since to Karen and myself for the following experiences in our lives.
So as I'm reading about this stuff it's hitting home to me. Then I read that the FDA has come out against it! Well that's like ringing a bell for me. Turns out that Dr. Simeons developed a very rigorous protocol at his clinic. First it is low carb, high protein restricted diet. OK I like that obviously. However it is VERY restrictive at 500 calories. a day. However, you don't feel hungry on the diet because the deficit is made up by all the fat that your body can easily burn because of the hCG. There are also very strict rules about types of shampoo, body soap, make up, deodorant, vitamins etc that you can use because many of these products have fat's and other things in them that can cause you to stop losing weight.
Dr. Simeons would inject the hCG into his patients daily; 125 mg. In the US you can get homeopathic blends of the stuff. The FDA has kindly pointed out that there is no evidence that homeopathic hCG works. Thanks FDA for trying to keep us fat, and diabetic. However, there can be vitamin charlatans out there so I asked Darren what he was using and he said he used the HCGMadeSimple.com site. He also said that he'd started using another brand but felt miserable on the diet, until he switched to the hCG from this site. He found this site because his uncle's chiropractor used it, and his uncle lost over 130 lbs on it. OK if someone proves to me that something works and it doesn't sound totally crazy I'm willing to give it a shot, and so is Karen. Karen got a membership at the site and bought the hCG. The site has a lot of very helpful information and I think it was worth it.
The results. We've only been on it for the first week, which included the first phase which is called the "gorging phase". Really that's what it's called, and the HCGMadeSimple.com (HMS) said that many people don't really gorge on this part because it seems counter intuitive, but it's important to have your normal fat reserves full for the diet. Also, the hCG is not effective during the first two day anyway. I didn't weigh the first day we took it the hCG, but I did gorge. I weighed the second day. HMS says to weigh right after you get up in the morning and do your business. I know this is true, because your weight can swing widely during the day, however, I like to weigh after I exercise because then I get the water weight loss of exercise, but then that's variable as well, but I've now repented.
I weighed 251.8 the first day, then 255.6 after the second day of gorging (See I'm good at something) or the third day of the diet. However, that morning my BG was 156! Yikes, and it stayed high all day only getting down to 129 at it's lowest. OK I did stupid gorging that I knew that I shouldn't have and I felt pretty miserable for it. However, today I weighed 242.2 and my BG was the lowest in the morning that it's been since I started monitoring again after the last scare of super elevated BG. Also, the diet calls for a couple of pieces of fruit a day. I did the calculations on the fruit and figured that if I cut the orange or apple in half, I might be OK, but I needed to check. Turns out that it's OK to do that. I'll have to make sure that it's still OK when I go off this 500 calorie a day diet but I've been eating fruit for the first time in 10 years or so this week, and really enjoying it. Also, I'm really not hungry it's amazing. Although, I do think about eating my next meal, I'm not ravenous like I've been on some diets that had more than 3 time the calories allowed in this diet. There have been a couple times where I've forced myself to eat the last little bit of food for the day. I mean I knew that I need it, but I could have gone without it. Karen's also lost around 5 lbs this week, but that's still really good. She hate's it that I lose weight faster but that's part of having a higher metabolism because of more muscle mass, and the fact that I'm exercising more than she does. The diets say that you don't have to exercise but if you do it's more successful. It also says that during the diet is not a time to start a new exercise program, but that if you've been doing an exercise program you can continue it. That's where I'm at, I've been exercising so I'm just going to continue. So I'm losing weight and my BG seems to be going in the right direction as well. Over all I'm really pleased with the results so far.
Of course, as with anything I'm thinking about, I researched it first. hCG is a hormone that women produce only when they're pregnant. In fact it's what they use in pregnancy tests. In looking around for information I eventually found this pdf file on line called "Pounds and Inches" by Dr. Simeons. I found that book by reading a review of a book by someone named Kevin Tredeau. His book was called "The Weight Loss Cure They Don't Want You to Know About," but a lot of people say that he's really a charlatan, and that he's just implementing Dr. Simeon's diet, which you can find on line for free (although Amazon also sells it as a book as well). So I read "Pounds and Inches."
You can read a lot about hCG and Dr Simeons on Wikipedia. Basically though, Dr. Simeons was a gifted endocrinologist, and he wanted to find a solution to obesity. He felt that although there might be many causes to obesity, there had to be an underlying cause that would apply to all who were obese. While he was in India studying pregnant women in India on calorie-deficient diets, and "fat-boys" with pituitary problems. The "fat-boys" were young men who had unattractive deposits of fat and underdeveloped sexual organs (it's called Froliech's Syndrome). He noticed that the pregnant women seem to be able to carry the babies without depleting their lean muscles, and that low doses of hCG to the young men allowed them to develop their sexual organs, as well as lose weight, again without depleting their lean muscle mass.
When he went to Italy he developed the theory that there are 3 type of fat
- Structural Fat: The kind of fat that surrounds and cushions your organs. (Karen found that their is structural fat on the heel of your foot that pads the heel, and that some people, herself for instance, start to have pain in their heels when they walk because they lose that fat.)
- Normal Fat: This is the fat that the body store excess glucose as, and draws on if for energy when needed.
- Abnormal Fat: This is a kind of fat that the body deposits when there is excess sugar, but because of a problem in the diencephalic region of the brain. (According to Wikipedia it's also know as the "interbrain". You can find out more about it as diencephalon.) This region get out of whack and starts to store this abnormal fat in a way that it cannot get access to it again.
It's Dr. Simeons theory that the reason that women produce this hormone is so that the fetus and women can survive during pregnancy. It makes all reserves of energy in the body available to the baby and the Mom. He also thinks that what happens during a regular attempt at dieting is that the body first burns off the normal fat, the the structural fat until there are not more reserves there, then it starts burning off the abnormal fat. This is why dieting can be so hard, and why people hit the "wall" so to speak. This makes since to Karen and myself for the following experiences in our lives.
- Karen has always lost weight overall during pregnancies. Meaning that she genearlly weighed less after delivery than before the pregnancy started.
- Karen says that her feet hurt when she tries to diet, which would follow that she's burning structural fat of which the pad on the heel is part of.
- I can follow a pretty rigorous diet and exercise program, and I know that I'm losing weight and getting smaller, but I my big ol' gut and double chin never seem to get much smaller.
- When my Dad died, he was skin and bone, everywhere except for his little pot belly that he always had.
So as I'm reading about this stuff it's hitting home to me. Then I read that the FDA has come out against it! Well that's like ringing a bell for me. Turns out that Dr. Simeons developed a very rigorous protocol at his clinic. First it is low carb, high protein restricted diet. OK I like that obviously. However it is VERY restrictive at 500 calories. a day. However, you don't feel hungry on the diet because the deficit is made up by all the fat that your body can easily burn because of the hCG. There are also very strict rules about types of shampoo, body soap, make up, deodorant, vitamins etc that you can use because many of these products have fat's and other things in them that can cause you to stop losing weight.
Dr. Simeons would inject the hCG into his patients daily; 125 mg. In the US you can get homeopathic blends of the stuff. The FDA has kindly pointed out that there is no evidence that homeopathic hCG works. Thanks FDA for trying to keep us fat, and diabetic. However, there can be vitamin charlatans out there so I asked Darren what he was using and he said he used the HCGMadeSimple.com site. He also said that he'd started using another brand but felt miserable on the diet, until he switched to the hCG from this site. He found this site because his uncle's chiropractor used it, and his uncle lost over 130 lbs on it. OK if someone proves to me that something works and it doesn't sound totally crazy I'm willing to give it a shot, and so is Karen. Karen got a membership at the site and bought the hCG. The site has a lot of very helpful information and I think it was worth it.
The results. We've only been on it for the first week, which included the first phase which is called the "gorging phase". Really that's what it's called, and the HCGMadeSimple.com (HMS) said that many people don't really gorge on this part because it seems counter intuitive, but it's important to have your normal fat reserves full for the diet. Also, the hCG is not effective during the first two day anyway. I didn't weigh the first day we took it the hCG, but I did gorge. I weighed the second day. HMS says to weigh right after you get up in the morning and do your business. I know this is true, because your weight can swing widely during the day, however, I like to weigh after I exercise because then I get the water weight loss of exercise, but then that's variable as well, but I've now repented.
I weighed 251.8 the first day, then 255.6 after the second day of gorging (See I'm good at something) or the third day of the diet. However, that morning my BG was 156! Yikes, and it stayed high all day only getting down to 129 at it's lowest. OK I did stupid gorging that I knew that I shouldn't have and I felt pretty miserable for it. However, today I weighed 242.2 and my BG was the lowest in the morning that it's been since I started monitoring again after the last scare of super elevated BG. Also, the diet calls for a couple of pieces of fruit a day. I did the calculations on the fruit and figured that if I cut the orange or apple in half, I might be OK, but I needed to check. Turns out that it's OK to do that. I'll have to make sure that it's still OK when I go off this 500 calorie a day diet but I've been eating fruit for the first time in 10 years or so this week, and really enjoying it. Also, I'm really not hungry it's amazing. Although, I do think about eating my next meal, I'm not ravenous like I've been on some diets that had more than 3 time the calories allowed in this diet. There have been a couple times where I've forced myself to eat the last little bit of food for the day. I mean I knew that I need it, but I could have gone without it. Karen's also lost around 5 lbs this week, but that's still really good. She hate's it that I lose weight faster but that's part of having a higher metabolism because of more muscle mass, and the fact that I'm exercising more than she does. The diets say that you don't have to exercise but if you do it's more successful. It also says that during the diet is not a time to start a new exercise program, but that if you've been doing an exercise program you can continue it. That's where I'm at, I've been exercising so I'm just going to continue. So I'm losing weight and my BG seems to be going in the right direction as well. Over all I'm really pleased with the results so far.
Sunday, May 8, 2011
Numb feet can be a benefit
This weekend was the Priest Encampment for the stake. I showed up because I'd kind of felt like I should, and I'd asked Mom if she though that I should. She said that she thought that I should go, so I did. It's actually amazing how many YM in our ward don't have active fathers.
However, I did have a true father thing to do which was show up at Spring Institute Choir Concert, of which Chantel was a participant, so I left early. When I showed up in the morning it turns out that the Bishop was going to go early as well, I guess, because Jaron needed to go to prom.
The one thing that I was somewhat looking forward to about the Encampment was the 3 mile hike that was involved in getting to the site. However, when I showed up I started talking to Bro. Moseman and volunteered to help him deliver the drinking water for the event. That meant I got a ride into the site. Well that took care of half that amount I was planning to hike. Oh well.
I decided to walk out with the Bishop and his sons. We got about half way out and the Bishop realized that he'd left his backpack. He really wanted to get that backpack so he was going to try and drive his little car in to pick it up. That road was really rough and I didn't think he'd get the car in so I volunteered to go back an pick it up for him. What a guy I am right? Actually walking at the Boren speed was killing me and I thought what the heck I could walk back at my pace, do a good deed, get in a little extra hiking and I could read my book on my iPhone (which I couldn't do at Boren speed).
We were about half way there when I went back. We'd just started coming out of the canyon; the canyon with the nice tall trees and cool shade. I went back and got the backpack, then when I hit where we came out of the canyon I'm suddenly walking in the New Mexico desert (it's amazing how quickly the landscape can change in NM). About 4 miles in it's hot, and I'm realizing how much my feet hurt and how sucky my boot are for hiking. I finally made it, delivered the Bishop his backpack and he seemed very grateful. Then I came home and took a shower. I was looking at my toes and thinking how much they hurt. It felt like my toenails were going to be all black and ready to fall off, but I couldn't see anything. I decided I'd try to stretch out my toe and see if that made any difference. When I did that I realized that I could feel my toes at all, all I could feel was how much the toe nails hurt. I'm going to admit that while not feeling my toes does somewhat bothers me, in this case it wasn't to bad.
And on that note, I'm still doing pretty good at keeping my BG down. I'd like it to get lower, but I guess that high normal isn't too bad. I'd like to lose some more weight but it doesn't seem to be coming off, and the BF% on the scale doesn't seem to be going down too much either. However, all my cloths are fitting much better, and I'm thinking that I'm going to have to punch a new hole in the belt that I just got. All that's good I just wish the weight was coming off as well. I'd really like to see what would happen to be BG if I lost 50-60 lbs.
At work I gave a lady some silver water that wanted to use it on her shingles. She came in the next week at told me that it was working for her, that she was about two weeks ahead of it healing up than with anything else she'd tried. She thinks that if she'd been able to jump on it right away it wouldn't have gotten bad in the first place, but she'd given it fours days before she could get the silver water. I got another canker sore that it kept from getting bad, and when I got the first I could feel another coming on that never developed. So it seems like this stuff works fantastic against canker sores. I'm very pleased.
However, I did have a true father thing to do which was show up at Spring Institute Choir Concert, of which Chantel was a participant, so I left early. When I showed up in the morning it turns out that the Bishop was going to go early as well, I guess, because Jaron needed to go to prom.
The one thing that I was somewhat looking forward to about the Encampment was the 3 mile hike that was involved in getting to the site. However, when I showed up I started talking to Bro. Moseman and volunteered to help him deliver the drinking water for the event. That meant I got a ride into the site. Well that took care of half that amount I was planning to hike. Oh well.
I decided to walk out with the Bishop and his sons. We got about half way out and the Bishop realized that he'd left his backpack. He really wanted to get that backpack so he was going to try and drive his little car in to pick it up. That road was really rough and I didn't think he'd get the car in so I volunteered to go back an pick it up for him. What a guy I am right? Actually walking at the Boren speed was killing me and I thought what the heck I could walk back at my pace, do a good deed, get in a little extra hiking and I could read my book on my iPhone (which I couldn't do at Boren speed).
We were about half way there when I went back. We'd just started coming out of the canyon; the canyon with the nice tall trees and cool shade. I went back and got the backpack, then when I hit where we came out of the canyon I'm suddenly walking in the New Mexico desert (it's amazing how quickly the landscape can change in NM). About 4 miles in it's hot, and I'm realizing how much my feet hurt and how sucky my boot are for hiking. I finally made it, delivered the Bishop his backpack and he seemed very grateful. Then I came home and took a shower. I was looking at my toes and thinking how much they hurt. It felt like my toenails were going to be all black and ready to fall off, but I couldn't see anything. I decided I'd try to stretch out my toe and see if that made any difference. When I did that I realized that I could feel my toes at all, all I could feel was how much the toe nails hurt. I'm going to admit that while not feeling my toes does somewhat bothers me, in this case it wasn't to bad.
And on that note, I'm still doing pretty good at keeping my BG down. I'd like it to get lower, but I guess that high normal isn't too bad. I'd like to lose some more weight but it doesn't seem to be coming off, and the BF% on the scale doesn't seem to be going down too much either. However, all my cloths are fitting much better, and I'm thinking that I'm going to have to punch a new hole in the belt that I just got. All that's good I just wish the weight was coming off as well. I'd really like to see what would happen to be BG if I lost 50-60 lbs.
At work I gave a lady some silver water that wanted to use it on her shingles. She came in the next week at told me that it was working for her, that she was about two weeks ahead of it healing up than with anything else she'd tried. She thinks that if she'd been able to jump on it right away it wouldn't have gotten bad in the first place, but she'd given it fours days before she could get the silver water. I got another canker sore that it kept from getting bad, and when I got the first I could feel another coming on that never developed. So it seems like this stuff works fantastic against canker sores. I'm very pleased.
Friday, April 22, 2011
My Legs Hate Me and They're Letting Me Know
Let me start off by saying that apparently writing a blog and posting it is two different things. I wrote that last blog about how smart Mark was last week while he was still here, but didn’t realize that I hadn’t posted it.
This week I started doing my Turbulance Training (TT) program once again. This time I’m going to stay with it for the full six months – I hope. In the past it seems like I get sick and stop doing them around the 4th month or so pretty regularly. I’m hoping that the silver water and the allergy medicine will help me finish the series this time. Actually once I would have finished it, but I got towards the end and decided that it wasn’t good enough for me so I stopped TT and tried something else, then I got sick.
I had been exercising for a while, but all I’ve been doing was exercise bike riding, planks and push up. However, apparently that doesn’t help your quads when you start doing body weight squats. So my legs are mad at me.
I started on Monday and did the first days exercises, then I was so tired that I had a hard time even getting up on Tuesday and Wednesday. I did exercise again yesterday, but not all the sets, then today on Friday my legs were once again shot. I should start getting my endurance built up so that I can exercise more.
My BG was below 120 this whole week, after Sunday that is. It’s pretty apparent that exercise helps me keep the BG low, so as I get more endurance and can exercise harder I hope that I can get it even lower. Oh yeah and I hope that I lose weight because that helps keep the BG down as well.
This week I started doing my Turbulance Training (TT) program once again. This time I’m going to stay with it for the full six months – I hope. In the past it seems like I get sick and stop doing them around the 4th month or so pretty regularly. I’m hoping that the silver water and the allergy medicine will help me finish the series this time. Actually once I would have finished it, but I got towards the end and decided that it wasn’t good enough for me so I stopped TT and tried something else, then I got sick.
I had been exercising for a while, but all I’ve been doing was exercise bike riding, planks and push up. However, apparently that doesn’t help your quads when you start doing body weight squats. So my legs are mad at me.
I started on Monday and did the first days exercises, then I was so tired that I had a hard time even getting up on Tuesday and Wednesday. I did exercise again yesterday, but not all the sets, then today on Friday my legs were once again shot. I should start getting my endurance built up so that I can exercise more.
My BG was below 120 this whole week, after Sunday that is. It’s pretty apparent that exercise helps me keep the BG low, so as I get more endurance and can exercise harder I hope that I can get it even lower. Oh yeah and I hope that I lose weight because that helps keep the BG down as well.
Teda's Mark is Very Smart
And so is Chantel. Everyone is very smart around here but me, and I've got the proof.
I wanted to finish up the front cement stones that we'd made. Mark, Teda and I finished them last year after the Balloon Fiesta and before I could finish them up I got pneumonia and didn't finish them. The new stones that we made were a little lower than the old ones, and Karen says that she trips on them. We had a little bit of the sand and cement mix that we had used to set the stones on our patio left over that I wanted to use to raise the stones up. Since it was cement we couldn't leave it out in the rain or it'd get ruined so I stuck it in the garage. I'd hoped that it was only going to be a few days because once it was in there we couldn't get to hardly anything in the garage. Unfortunately, as I said, I got pneumonia so I wasn't able to move the cement sand mix and it was in the wheelbarrow so the garage was pretty much off limits.
Anyway, today I decided to raise the steps. I did mention that it's been about 5 months since we made the stones and didn't fill in the gaps with sand? Now the gaps were filled with leaves and stuff, so when I raised the stones that I needed to I was cleaning out the leaves and stuff, and that was taking some time. After I used up the stone and cement mix I decided to get some more sand and try and finish the rest of all the stones and sand. Goose showed and started helping me. Goose said that the leaves and stuff between the stones was her definition of "detritus" was the leaves and stuff between the stones. It was pretty funny because Goose probably pronounced it the way it's supposed to be pronounced but it wasn't the way that I thought it was supposed to be pronounced. Of course in my mind I generally just say things in my mind, and when I hear them pronounced out loud I'm surprised. Shortly after that we were talking about how it would be nice to just blow the leaves out of the rocks, and then we thought, almost at the same time, that we had a blower that could blow the leaves out. So we grabbed it and in about 45 minutes we were done. Goose is really smart.
I then started pouring the sand in the cracks by hand the way we did on the patio, and sweeping the sand into the cracks. The patio was not that big and the stones were a lot bigger so it didn't take that long to finish the patio. The stones were taking a lot longer, and I was wondering if we were going to have to finish it the next day, when Mark comes out and says why don't you just pour the sand on the stones then sweep them in the cracks! I didn't think it would work, but it did, it worked great. We got done in about a half an hour. Mark is very smart.
And here is the final proof. Mom and Goose went to a play tonight and when they came home really late and made us all go outside to look at something, and it turns out that I'd decided it would be a good idea to hang my keys on the trucks antenna. I don't have any idea why I decided to do that but you have to admit that it's not that smart of a thing todo. It's going to take a while to live this one down. Mom's already said that it goes right up there next to the time I left my tooth brush in the refrigerator.
There that proves it. I don't have good ideas, like Mark and Goose, but I do put my keys and toothbrushes in strange places.
I wanted to finish up the front cement stones that we'd made. Mark, Teda and I finished them last year after the Balloon Fiesta and before I could finish them up I got pneumonia and didn't finish them. The new stones that we made were a little lower than the old ones, and Karen says that she trips on them. We had a little bit of the sand and cement mix that we had used to set the stones on our patio left over that I wanted to use to raise the stones up. Since it was cement we couldn't leave it out in the rain or it'd get ruined so I stuck it in the garage. I'd hoped that it was only going to be a few days because once it was in there we couldn't get to hardly anything in the garage. Unfortunately, as I said, I got pneumonia so I wasn't able to move the cement sand mix and it was in the wheelbarrow so the garage was pretty much off limits.
Anyway, today I decided to raise the steps. I did mention that it's been about 5 months since we made the stones and didn't fill in the gaps with sand? Now the gaps were filled with leaves and stuff, so when I raised the stones that I needed to I was cleaning out the leaves and stuff, and that was taking some time. After I used up the stone and cement mix I decided to get some more sand and try and finish the rest of all the stones and sand. Goose showed and started helping me. Goose said that the leaves and stuff between the stones was her definition of "detritus" was the leaves and stuff between the stones. It was pretty funny because Goose probably pronounced it the way it's supposed to be pronounced but it wasn't the way that I thought it was supposed to be pronounced. Of course in my mind I generally just say things in my mind, and when I hear them pronounced out loud I'm surprised. Shortly after that we were talking about how it would be nice to just blow the leaves out of the rocks, and then we thought, almost at the same time, that we had a blower that could blow the leaves out. So we grabbed it and in about 45 minutes we were done. Goose is really smart.
I then started pouring the sand in the cracks by hand the way we did on the patio, and sweeping the sand into the cracks. The patio was not that big and the stones were a lot bigger so it didn't take that long to finish the patio. The stones were taking a lot longer, and I was wondering if we were going to have to finish it the next day, when Mark comes out and says why don't you just pour the sand on the stones then sweep them in the cracks! I didn't think it would work, but it did, it worked great. We got done in about a half an hour. Mark is very smart.
And here is the final proof. Mom and Goose went to a play tonight and when they came home really late and made us all go outside to look at something, and it turns out that I'd decided it would be a good idea to hang my keys on the trucks antenna. I don't have any idea why I decided to do that but you have to admit that it's not that smart of a thing todo. It's going to take a while to live this one down. Mom's already said that it goes right up there next to the time I left my tooth brush in the refrigerator.
There that proves it. I don't have good ideas, like Mark and Goose, but I do put my keys and toothbrushes in strange places.
Thursday, April 7, 2011
Diet Update and more Colloidal Silver
I hate that diet sems to be the thing that I mostly seem to be writing about on here. However, eating is something that we all have to do and when you have diabetes diet becomes even more critical.
I'm striving to get my blood sugare under control. I seem to be doing pretty good but hopefully I can do better. For a while there I was getting readings below 100 pretty regularly. I then caught a cold, then, apparently have alergies and they kicked up. That was weird because I started coughing on a Friday afternoon at 2:00. I was talking to someone at work when it happened and I thought it was wierd because nothing seemed to cause it. I didn't have a runny nose or anything else, I just started coughing. By that night I could hardly talk and I wasn't able to sleep because when I layed down the coughing got worse. Karen went with me to the doctor the next week and with Karen talking to him they decided that it was probably allergies. That's OK, if that's what it is, because hopefully I'll be able to keep it from turing into an anual case of bronchitus. However, with the possible cold and hay fever making it hard to exercise my BG started getting a little higher.
When I went to the he ran another HbA1c. The first test on 1/25 was 7.6 (171 mg/dl) and this last one on 3/24 was 6.4 (137). That's a pretty good improvement but I was hoping that it was better.
Also I've lost a little wieght, but even more importantly on the scale that Goose gave me that made me fat and stupid it says that I've reduced my body fat percentage by 3%. That pretty good. I've lost about 4 pounds as well. Losing weight can also help me get my BG under control as well. I guess that I'll just have to keep trying the slow and constant method.
I've thought that the HbA1c was an average of 3 months with the last month being a little more influential. My doctor said it gives a reading for the last 2 weeks. I hope that's not right, and since I usually follow what's in the Bernstien book I guess I'll just keep following that. I'm just going to schedule the next test 3 months from now so there won't be any overlap.
I got a rash on my hand that was pretty painful. Iwanlani and Karen said that it was probably exzema. Someone or somewhere I've heard that it is caused by the chickenpox virus. (I thought Nini told me this but she says that she didn't.) I don't know if that true or not, but after a couple of weeks it got worse and was cracked and bleeding. I showed it to Karen for some sypmathy and she asked if I'd poured the silver water accross it. I said that I was going to wash it with the silver water to see if it'd get rid of it. That's wat I did, and by that afternoon it was cracked an bleeding and didn't itch anywhere near as bad. Karen was pretty impressed, and fankly so was I. So fat the silver water seemed to clear up the congestion in my lungs, kept 3 canker sores from getting painful, pretty much a little hole starts in the mought that you know is going to be a canker sore, and the silver water just keeps it there and then it goes aways. Doesn't become a hugh painful crater. Then it seems to have cleard up the rash/exzema on my hand. Not bad. I think the stuff actually works.
I'm striving to get my blood sugare under control. I seem to be doing pretty good but hopefully I can do better. For a while there I was getting readings below 100 pretty regularly. I then caught a cold, then, apparently have alergies and they kicked up. That was weird because I started coughing on a Friday afternoon at 2:00. I was talking to someone at work when it happened and I thought it was wierd because nothing seemed to cause it. I didn't have a runny nose or anything else, I just started coughing. By that night I could hardly talk and I wasn't able to sleep because when I layed down the coughing got worse. Karen went with me to the doctor the next week and with Karen talking to him they decided that it was probably allergies. That's OK, if that's what it is, because hopefully I'll be able to keep it from turing into an anual case of bronchitus. However, with the possible cold and hay fever making it hard to exercise my BG started getting a little higher.
When I went to the he ran another HbA1c. The first test on 1/25 was 7.6 (171 mg/dl) and this last one on 3/24 was 6.4 (137). That's a pretty good improvement but I was hoping that it was better.
Also I've lost a little wieght, but even more importantly on the scale that Goose gave me that made me fat and stupid it says that I've reduced my body fat percentage by 3%. That pretty good. I've lost about 4 pounds as well. Losing weight can also help me get my BG under control as well. I guess that I'll just have to keep trying the slow and constant method.
I've thought that the HbA1c was an average of 3 months with the last month being a little more influential. My doctor said it gives a reading for the last 2 weeks. I hope that's not right, and since I usually follow what's in the Bernstien book I guess I'll just keep following that. I'm just going to schedule the next test 3 months from now so there won't be any overlap.
I got a rash on my hand that was pretty painful. Iwanlani and Karen said that it was probably exzema. Someone or somewhere I've heard that it is caused by the chickenpox virus. (I thought Nini told me this but she says that she didn't.) I don't know if that true or not, but after a couple of weeks it got worse and was cracked and bleeding. I showed it to Karen for some sypmathy and she asked if I'd poured the silver water accross it. I said that I was going to wash it with the silver water to see if it'd get rid of it. That's wat I did, and by that afternoon it was cracked an bleeding and didn't itch anywhere near as bad. Karen was pretty impressed, and fankly so was I. So fat the silver water seemed to clear up the congestion in my lungs, kept 3 canker sores from getting painful, pretty much a little hole starts in the mought that you know is going to be a canker sore, and the silver water just keeps it there and then it goes aways. Doesn't become a hugh painful crater. Then it seems to have cleard up the rash/exzema on my hand. Not bad. I think the stuff actually works.
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
My funny Las Vegas experience
I've been in Las Vegas this week for the ISC West. ISC stands for International Security Conference and there is a series of them all over and this is the West one. I suppose it stands for Western US. There are a lot of foreign people here so the International is certainly apropos.
Mom, this week, is visiting the grandkids while I'm in Las Vegas. We'd talked about her coming with me, but she said that she didn't want to stay with a boring person who just came back to the motel and wanted to stay in his room at night (she knows me very well) so she went to visit the grandkids instead. I thought that I wasn't coming on this trip because of the government funding problems, but last Thursday I found out that the trip was back on.
Here's the funny experience. Funny as in "Dad you're an idiot" funny. I made a reservation at a hotel that was 1 mile from the Sands Convention Center called the Holiday Inn LAS VEGAS FLAMINGO AT PARADISE. That's exactly the way it is written on my itinerary. All I saw was FLAMINGO. I'm pretty sure that I saw the Holiday Inn part but I just thought that Holiday Inn must own "The Flamingo" When we got into town I was dropped off by Scott McDuffie at "The Flamingo." After I got dropped off I walked through the hotel casino complex (that's the only word for these things they're immense) and found the check in which had a hugh line which I waited in for half an hour, and then was told I was in the wrong place. The receptionist was nice and gave me a minimal map with the general area where I should go. I take off walking and after I hit a street that I thought should be called Paradise but was Korval, I realized that I was going to need a better map to find where I needed to go. Then I realized I had an iPhone and I was excited. I entered the address, which was 4055 Palos Verdes, and presto a map with directions. I love technology. I've really liked the GPS feature on the iPhone, but never this much. The hotel isn't even actually on FLAMINGO or PARADISE it's just "at," or near those streets. It was a about a mile away from "The Flamingo" and I had to drag my suitcase. I thought it was pretty funny. It would have been fun, maybe, to stay in "The Flamingo" but I think that I actually like this place better. There's not 10 gazillion people every where, and the building isn't designed so that I never want to leave but just stay in one place and eat, drink and gamble there until I leave town.
The spectacle of walking down the strip is pretty overwhelming. I mean the hotels are huge and marvelous. It amazing. I've always been amazed when I've been here and it doesn't ever seem to get less amazing. I've never stayed in Las Vegas just passed through it a couple of times and walked down the strip. I think I once even rode the monorail, which all I remember is that it was boringly slow.
The conference is pretty good. I've been going to classes and only took a little stroll through the exhibition between classes. It was the biggest exhibition that I've ever seen. It was pretty spectacular as well. They actually had a semi in there that was pulling the Bosch mobile presentation set up. I didn't get a chance to see it, but I mean a semi in a convention center! That's pretty good. I'll bet the CES is just amazing. I'd like to go to that someday, especially if I can get work to pay for it.
Mom, this week, is visiting the grandkids while I'm in Las Vegas. We'd talked about her coming with me, but she said that she didn't want to stay with a boring person who just came back to the motel and wanted to stay in his room at night (she knows me very well) so she went to visit the grandkids instead. I thought that I wasn't coming on this trip because of the government funding problems, but last Thursday I found out that the trip was back on.
Here's the funny experience. Funny as in "Dad you're an idiot" funny. I made a reservation at a hotel that was 1 mile from the Sands Convention Center called the Holiday Inn LAS VEGAS FLAMINGO AT PARADISE. That's exactly the way it is written on my itinerary. All I saw was FLAMINGO. I'm pretty sure that I saw the Holiday Inn part but I just thought that Holiday Inn must own "The Flamingo" When we got into town I was dropped off by Scott McDuffie at "The Flamingo." After I got dropped off I walked through the hotel casino complex (that's the only word for these things they're immense) and found the check in which had a hugh line which I waited in for half an hour, and then was told I was in the wrong place. The receptionist was nice and gave me a minimal map with the general area where I should go. I take off walking and after I hit a street that I thought should be called Paradise but was Korval, I realized that I was going to need a better map to find where I needed to go. Then I realized I had an iPhone and I was excited. I entered the address, which was 4055 Palos Verdes, and presto a map with directions. I love technology. I've really liked the GPS feature on the iPhone, but never this much. The hotel isn't even actually on FLAMINGO or PARADISE it's just "at," or near those streets. It was a about a mile away from "The Flamingo" and I had to drag my suitcase. I thought it was pretty funny. It would have been fun, maybe, to stay in "The Flamingo" but I think that I actually like this place better. There's not 10 gazillion people every where, and the building isn't designed so that I never want to leave but just stay in one place and eat, drink and gamble there until I leave town.
The spectacle of walking down the strip is pretty overwhelming. I mean the hotels are huge and marvelous. It amazing. I've always been amazed when I've been here and it doesn't ever seem to get less amazing. I've never stayed in Las Vegas just passed through it a couple of times and walked down the strip. I think I once even rode the monorail, which all I remember is that it was boringly slow.
The conference is pretty good. I've been going to classes and only took a little stroll through the exhibition between classes. It was the biggest exhibition that I've ever seen. It was pretty spectacular as well. They actually had a semi in there that was pulling the Bosch mobile presentation set up. I didn't get a chance to see it, but I mean a semi in a convention center! That's pretty good. I'll bet the CES is just amazing. I'd like to go to that someday, especially if I can get work to pay for it.
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