That pod stuck to my back is called a Dexcom. It is sampling the glucose in my interstitial fluid every 5 minutes and is sending the readings to a receiver which is about the size of a cell phone that I've been toting around on me. Every 12 hours I do a fingerprick blood glucose test and enter it into the receiver for calibration purposes.
Why am I doing this? Well, in blood tests for a routine physical awhile ago, my fasting blood glucose was almost as high as a diabetic's. Given my family history and current shape, it's virtually inconceivable that I could actually be prediabetic. My dietician said something I really liked. She said, "You know what would be cool..." and thus a couple of weeks later I was back in the office with a nurse implanting the sensor and teaching me how to use the blood glucose meter. What fun!
Of course I am fascinated and running the batteries down on the receiver by looking at what my blood glucose is doing. I've learned that fruit, potatoes, and white rice make my blood sugar shoot up (big surprise there), and that doing physical activity like climbing, lifting, or even just warming up for those things causes my blood sugar to plummet back down (again, no eureka). I'm also finding that after 5 days of having this thing attached to me as I climb, lift, sweat, shower, swim, and lol about bed is taking it's toll and I really need to buy some tape or something so it doesn't prematurely detach. Finally, I've learned that I eat a shit-tonne of carbs. Not so much on the bread; my craving has passed and I've only eaten it a few times the last week as a convenient vector for almond butter after climbing. But rice! Oh, rice... 80% carbs bastard that you are. During my lean grad school days I lived on a very Indian diet of lots of legumes, vegetables, and mounds of rice. While I'm marginally less destitute now, it's still so firmly ensconced in my diet that I have no idea how I'll manage to disentangle myself. How does one ever feel sated after dinner if there is no rice?! Obviously I've got a major hurdle on the belly issue. I don't even know where to begin.
As for the rice habit...just wean yourself off it slowly. I understand that it's a staple in the dishes of many an ethnicity; that doesn't make it nutritionally optimum for your goals. This is a bit like crossfit; just because a lot of people do it doesn't mean it's the best way to achieve what you'd like to achieve.
ReplyDeleteAnd holy heck, I like this thing you've got stuck to you! Tracking device awesomeness! I wanna try! But as cool as it is, I hope things turn out well for you on this pre-diabetic potential. Keep your head up.