My Blood Sugar Monitor and Weight Loss adventure.

Hello All,

Like you, I have been battling the bulge most of my life. Over recent months, I started worrying that soon enough, I would succumb to the Diabetic problems of my family. I decided to start to work real hard to finding a solution for my weight loss.

I read a book on insulin resistance, and decided to give this a shot. I am a frequent flyer of Weight Watchers, and tried many other options, however, I lose for a while, and once I plateau, it's over. I went on a plateau for over 3 months the last time. I increased my exercise, and tried every recommendation made. At one point, I was eating a weeks worth of grilled chicken and spinach, and the scale was not moving.

At that point, I realized that there must be a reason this keeps happening. Gave up for a little while, and then decided to come back with a vengeance! My vengeance worked, and I lost 15 Lbs in the first 3 weeks, and better yet, 4 inches off my waist. I went on a little hiatus, and now am back. I figure these posts would keep me focused, and maybe help some others. I also want to note, on my hiatus, I did not gain one pound. I followed my formula for combining foods, and at least maintained.

Here are the pretenses to my experiment:
1) My metabolism is special, and until I understand it, it will not work with me.
2) Food is not my enemy, I need to stop going to war with it, (because it always wins), and start to come up with a strategy to use it to help me.
3) Every plan I go on is developed by someone, that assumes every person is the same. I need to figure out how I tick.
4)No one likes exercise, but if I can get a snapshot (beyond my waist size) of how it is working on my insides, its easier to stick with it.

My hypothesis:
- In nursing school, I learned that hormones (especially insulin, and glycogen) have everything to do with weight and fat gain. They also help fat burn. If I could learn what foods, effect my body by raising my blood sugar, I can win the battle and keep my body in a state of burn.
Yes, I know it's the glycemic index, however, I wanted to measure it for myself. I didn't want to look in a book everytime I ate. In addition, the majority of the foods in a glycemic index book, are measured individually and not as a complete recipe. It became too complicated for me to figure this out. So I found a solution, Blood Glucose Monitor.

-If I can learn which foods raise my blood sugar, and figure out what the optimal blood sugar numbers are for my weight loss, then I can beat my metabolism at it's own game.

Rules:
- If supplements are used, they are logged as a food, and tested against the blood sugar model.
- Testing is as follows:
1) When I first wake-up. I will tell you after a while, that did not help. The first few times my sugars were low. After a while, I got the psychological bump, and they were over 100 until I ate.
2) Before I put food in my mouth.This includes my morning coffee.
3) 2 hours after I eat.
4) Before I go to bed, especially if I had a late dinner.

Findings:
So far, this is the most interesting thing I have ever done, and I am losing weight, but more importantly, feel good. No more sugar cravings, no more confusion on good and bad foods, and am actually have had many surprises with the results.

Examples:
1 egg, english muffin and 1 slice of cheese VS. 3 egg whites, spinach, a little feta, on an english muffin.
Results after 2 hours: 157 vs. 101

30 Minutes of exercise
Results before exercise = 101
Results after 30 minutes of walking = 87

Duration of time between eating Carbs
Result: realized that if I ate Carbs within 2 hours of the last time I had carbs, my blood sugars would remain high.

Ice Cream:
Result: Low Fat Ice Cream with Natural peanut Butter with no sugar added did not raise my blood sugars.

These are just to name a few. I will keep you all informed on a daily basis. Everyday I learn something new.

Today, I realized using My Fitness Pal, that my large coffee that I sip on all day, is keeping my blood sugars high, because the sips keep reintroducing sugar in my system. So technically, I am constantly adding small amounts of sugar to my body through out the day. It's better for me to drink my coffee in the morning, without babysitting it, and this will allow my blood sugars to stop bouncing around all day.