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Thirty day challenge – week 4

Summary

This week was the best so far. I did my longest run to date (12km) and had a really good gym week lifting (approx. 20% more volume). My diabetes control is improving (thank you AAPS and exercise) and I have learned a lot digging though my data and through responses from the previous weeks question regarding carb sensitivity factor (CSF) being used to measure insulin sensitivity post exercise. I made some strides in my glucose management tool which also felt great.

BG vs. ISF vs. insulin sensitivity post gym (@11:48:09 – 42min)

BG vs. ISF vs. insulin sensitivity post run (@11:49:30 – 33min)

After gym sensitivity increased to 115% directly post training, while my sensitivity was stable at 78% post my run.

Body Metrics

	Start	Week 1	Week 2	Week 3	Week 4
Weight (kilograms)	75.8	74	75	74.1	73.1
Body fat percentage (according to Samsung)		17.3%	17.8	*	*
Body fat percentage (according to the navy seal calculator)		15%	15%	14.8%	14%
Total volume

Table stating the weekly body metrics I am tracking.

Exercise

	Week 1	Week 2	Week 3	Week 4
Distance (kilometres)	25.17	20.54	37.22	29.4
Activity (hours)	4.34	3.65	5.64	5.4

Table stating the weekly exercise metrics I am tracking

Nutrition

Screenshot of average macro-nutrients consumed during week 4

Diabetes

	Week 1	Week 2	Week 3	Week 4
Low (<3.9) (%)	0.9	0.6	3.5	1.6
In Range (3.9-7.8) (%)	75.3	74.7	71.9	78.9
High (>= 7.8) (%)	23.8	24.7	24.6	19.5
Standard deviation (SD)	1.3	1.7	1.7	1.5
Average (mmol/l)	6.8	7.0	6.7	6.5
A1c estimation (%)	5.9	6.0	5.8	5.7

Table stating the weekly diabetic metrics I am tracking.

Ideally I want to see a time-in-range (TIR – 3.9-7.8 mmol/l) exceeding 90% with an average in the low sixes and a standard deviation (SD) around one (1).

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Thirty day challenge

It’s spring, and after a brief ‘almost two months’ of going off the reservation snacking at all times of day and barely exercising, I decided to check my weight. I discovered I had picked up a few kilograms since my last weigh in. After learning this, I decided that it was time for me to get my life back together and start another 30 day challenge. I find these great to provide the reason to get back into a routine.

I know that setting unrealistic goals (like losing 5kgs) isn’t going to work, so I’m going to break down my plan in to nutrition, exercise and diabetes goals.

Exercise

My plan for the month is to gym three days a week, run a minimum of 2 times per week and to mountain bike at least once a week. (So I guess I lied about setting unrealistic goals 🙂 )

Nutrition

For my meals I plan to stick to my usual low-ish carbohydrate meals during the week and try to only go coo-coo bananas on the late night snacking over the weekend. I’ll start carb-counting again as this will almost always yield the best results. This will be supplemented with 2-3 liters of water, depending on length of cardio that day.

Diabetes

Above is a chart of my starting metrics. Lets see how quickly I can improve those values. Its going to be a little bit of an unfair test as I was not carb-counting during the above period.

We want to see the In range (Time-in-range) increase and the standard deviation decrease. By doing that the average and the A1c should follow. This will mostly be achieved by the diet component of the plan. The exercise component will allow me to eat more cabs and require less insulin, as well as improve circulation, sleep, blood pressure, mood, cholesterol, memory and overall mental and physical health.

I will check in with weekly updates to ensure I keep motivated and accountable.

Omnipod Dash – Summary – Week 1&2

4th Aug 2022

Its only been a week and already I feel so comforted by the barely audible click of the pump depressing the plunger in the mini pump at meal times or sporadically throughout the day. Its the sound of blood sugar control. What a week its been learning all I can about Pod changes and being woken up on day 3 by the Pod alarm alerting me its 8 hours before the Pod expires. Once expired it was interesting to note that the Pod functioned as per normal, apparently for another 8 hours.

I had a Pod on days 3 and 4 that was inserted into my leg that may have had a cannula issue, as I struggled to maintain my standard level of control.

Its been a lot easier to exercise focusing on enjoying the task rather than if I would break the pump or rip out a cannula. Having no wires makes it a lot easier to run or gym as I don’t have to worry about pump placement as much. Previously I needed to ensure I had pants with pockets or a belt clip available.

I have also found sleeping a little easier, as I can barely notice the pump If I roll over onto it.

Flank insertion.

Boost Omnipod – Time in Range (3.9 -7.8 mmol/l)

Boost Omnipod – Time in Range (3.9 – 10 mmol/l)

Unannounced meals

I decided to test the system with unannounced meals consisting of 40g of carbs or less. I am a bit of a control freak when it comes to diabetes so I have been postponing testing this for a long time. The results were outstanding. I will be writing more about this in the future, including any automations I use or test.

Boost Omnipod – UAM – Time in Range (3.9 -7.8 mmol/l)

Boost Omnipod – UAM – Time in Range (3.9 – 10 mmol/l)