December 18, 2021

Levels Experiment Week 1

What I’ve Learned

Measuring glucose once every year or two as part of an annual physical, simply isn’t enough. That’s like driving a car without knowing how much gas is in the tank.

The continuous glucose monitor (CGM) gives me the information I need to learn how to eat and exercise in a way that keeps my glucose in a healthy zone as much as possible.

Improving my metabolic health will help prevent diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

December 16, 2021

Levels Experiment Day 5

It Aint Easy Eating Clean

spikes and crashes all day

This is a marked up screenshot of yesterday’s glucose levels. I was all over the map. I began the day with a spike and never recovered. Not horribly, but I received a below passing grade for my lack of metabolic stability.

I got a late start to the day, so no yoga stretching or any activity before or after breakfast.

December 14, 2021

Levels Experiment Day 3

This is Interesting

I have to say that it’s been facinating to see how what I eat turns into glucose in my body. It’s not exactly what I expected.

For example, my regular weekday breakfast has been Cheerios and blueberries. Cheerios are seemingly healthy. They’re only 100 calories per serving, no fat, 2 grams of fiber, no added sugar, and whole grain. What’s not to like?

We’ve all heard that processed foods break down easily, but it’s impressive to see it happen in almost near real-time.

December 12, 2021

Levels Experiment Day 1

Setup

Day 1 consisted of getting the apps installed on my phone, attaching the continuous glucose monitor (CGM) to my arm, and start tracking my food.

There are 2 apps required. The first one, LibreLink is just for the CGM. It’s the bit that uploads and records your glucose readings. The second one is the Levels app. Levels imports the readings from LibreLink, and you have to allow LibreLink to share your data with Levels. There’s about a one hour delay between recording your readings and when they show up on the Levels app.

December 11, 2021

Levels Experiment

I signed up for Levels and got a continuous glucose monitor. For the next 28 days, I’m going to monitor the readings and try to optimize them by adjusting the inputs that I control like food, exercise, sleep, and to a certain degree, stress.

I’ll share those results daily, right here.

Why I Chose To Monitor My Glucose Readings

I’m doing this experiment for a few reasons:

December 9, 2021

Just When You Think You're Out

They Pull You Back In

This week I got to meet with both my surgeon and oncologist. I received the results from the second surgery, and the good news is that we have clean margins this time, so no more surgery. So that second surgery that I really, really didn’t want to have, was really, really important for me to have.

The less good news is that the lump of cancer cells in there was bigger than they thought.

December 5, 2021

Learning Patience

Patience Patience Patience

I’m not a naturally patient person. The patience I have has been acquired painfully, but I’ve learned to make those lessons easier.

I’ve learned to pay attention and to honor painful, scary, or confusing situations by asking what I can learn from each one. I’ve even reached the point where I welcome the opportunity to learn from the experience. Sometimes. Eventually.

Having to go back for a second surgery was an opportunity to learn. I didn’t want to go back because the first one was so trying. But there wasn’t a good option that would let me avoid going back to surgery. So what could I learn from this experience?

November 10, 2021

Post Surgery Week 2

Pathology Results

The first week post-surgery wasn’t too bad. I was mostly looking forward to the post surgery check-up because that’s when I would get the results of the lymph node biopsy. The great news there is that there is no cancer in any of the lymph nodes they removed. That means it hasn’t spread and I won’t need to have any chemotherapy.

I do have to go back in for more surgery though. They have to go back in to take out more tissue, because there was a “positive margin” in one part of the tissue they took out. That means that there was no border of clean tissue in that area.

November 1, 2021

Post Surgery Early Lessons

Things Just Got Real

I really haven’t had to address anything regarding the cancer diagnosis until now. I just had to wait until the surgery date.

In the interim, I took care of myself. I did my morning stretches and intentions. I went for walks. I rowed. I felt really good mentally, physically, and spiritually.

But coming out of it, I feel like I lost something. My feelings are still raw and unprocessed, not unlike the wounds from the surgery. And those wounds are not pretty.

October 17, 2021

Anxiety Is Like an Armed Torpedo

Anxiety: A Target Seeking Armed Torpedo

One of the most important things I’ve learned is that anxiety is like the torpedo scene in the movie The Hunt for Red October. Like an armed torpedo, our brains like to search for a target.

In the movie, Soviet submarine Capitan Ramius is attempting to defect and turn over the submarine to the U.S. government. But before they sail, he sends a letter explaining his intent to a relative in the Soviet government, and now the whole Soviet navy is hunting him.

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