Here are a few moments from the beginning of the conference.
fitbit
Two Notes
Two quick observations on the day.
One: According to my FitBit, I walked over 10,000 steps today. The curious part of that is that 97% of those steps were recorded during our (Dayle and me) walk to and from dinner. Considering we covered over 40 blocks, I suppose that makes sense.
I still maintain that city life will be my ultimate basal insulin. Who needs Lantus when you can walk nearly everywhere you need in a day? (Obviously, I still need Lantus, but the fact remains that walking is good for me and living in San Francisco affords me many an opportunity to walk.) Regardless, walking for the sake of walking has never appealed to me, but walking because that’s the best way to get to..say, the Library, and because parking in the city is always a treacherous proposition, walking makes plenty of sense.
And B: Today is my mom’s birthday.
Quantifying Myself
I’m only a couple of days into my FitBit experience and I’m already torn. I’m experiencing some technical issues with the FitBit Flex that are beyond the help of the user guide and the FitBit forum community. I’m currently in a back-and-forth with customer service that will likely end with me RMA-ing this unit for a new one. I’m not sure what went wrong, but I haven’t been using this thing long enough to be the primary culprit for whatever is going on here.
That said, I think there’s a tremendous potential with FitBit, when combined with the rest of my data gathering – both active and passive.
A Bit of Fit
The theory I’m operating on is that seeing and feeling this thing on my wrist every day will provide the external motivation I need to take my health more seriously. I’m not going to run a marathon tomorrow, but I’m hoping this will be a sufficient reminder that I need to get off the couch more.
Ironically, I should already be in tune to the fact that a healthy lifestyle requires more than simply acknowledging that exercise is good. I wear a Dexcom sensor on my arm for weeks on end. I take insulin injections for meals and basal coverage. I’m testing my blood glucose by poking my fingers all the time. Diabetes is an ever-present reminder that being healthy requires active participation and constant engagement. There are no days off with diabetes.
Among my problems right now is the fact that there has not been a documented detriment to my A1c. I want to believe that if things got out of hand with that one number, I’d find a way to turn the page and get back on the path to a better me. But I don’t want to wait for things to get that bad. This is my attempt find my way before I reach an ultimatum.
Imagine a World
I dreamt of a world where I went to the gym every morning during the week, targeting different muscle groups for a well-rounded approach to physical fitness. Every evening I spent an episode of Breaking Bad on the elliptical machine or searching for zen with a yoga session. In this world, I kept better track of my physical activity and ate responsibly.
I checked my blood glucose at least 6 times a day. I took my insulin Lantus at 11pm and 11am every day. I took my Humalog at least 15 minutes before eating. I took my Synthroid and Lisinopril every day.
I dreamt of a world where I was in complete control.
Then I woke up and realized that world doesn’t exist.
But I can try to make that dream a reality.
A Consequence of Hypoglycemia. 