My Soggy Half Marathon

So Sunday I ran the US Half Marathon through the nicest parts of San Francisco and inadvertently participated in a wet t-shirt flash mob. After weeks of sunny days, mother nature decided to rain exactly during my half marathon. It was 13.1 miles of pouring rain. The course itself was great because it was a longer version of the Presidio 10 I did this spring. There's always a rush you get out of running across the Golden Gate Bridge. Well, if I had windshield wipers on my glasses I would have gotten that rush, otherwise I could only see about ten feet in front of me. The rain was a pain in the ass in other ways as well. It added another five pounds of weight on me both in the form of wet clothes and wet shoes. The clothes got bad in mile 10 when my shorts began to slide off me and I had to periodically pull them up. And whenever I would step into a puddle, my shoes would get waterlogged. Oh, and at mile 4, my iPod gave out so I just running with no tunes.

On the plus side, I didn't have have problems with overheating or getting thirsty. And surprisingly, I has plenty of kick for the end. I am surprised I didn't just cramp up with being wet and cold but I didn't.

Being a wet, sodden mess, I was happy to just finish the race. In the end, I did just fine. I finished in 2 hours, 9 minutes and 59 seconds for a pace of 9:56/mile. That placed me firmly in the middle of the pack - 1292 out of 2976 runners and 316 out of 499 male runners between the ages of 30-39.

Three days later, I'm feeling pain free and am looking forward to running a 10K with my family on Thanksgiving Day.

Satisfaction

So today I went for my yearly opthamologist appointment to check on the health of my eyes. For those of you longtime readers, you may remember that the way I found out about my diabetes was an eye doctor found the beginnings of blood vessel damage in my eyes which led to the diagnosis. A year and a half later and a whole lot of better numbers I go back to the eye doctor and he says..."Are you sure you're diabetic?"

SCORE!

Unlike a lot of chronic disease, I actually REVERSED the effects on my eyes and there's NO TRACE of damage to my eyes.

Well that makes the running, the food long, the carb counting and the classes worth it.

Bay to Breakers 2010 - Kicking Ass

So Bay to Breakers. This year I couldn't get it together to do a costume. It would have been great if I did because it was COLD. Andi Never get cold. But being in a wet t-shirt for hours means you are a little more vulnerable to the elements. The funniest thing that happened was seeing a dead ringer for Sarah Palin - bouffant hair, lipstick, glasses - asking for her picture and her asking me why. She wasn't in costume.

I thought I did fine. Probably better than last year but not by much. I was way back from the start line because my shuttle bus was late so the time one the clock was 1 hour 12 minutes (a little under a 10-minute mile pace) but I know it took me four or five minutes to get to the starting line. Hayes street hill kicked my ass but the rest of the course was flat. My first three miles ended up averaging 10-minute mile pace (because I was walking the first half mile because of the crowds. I really cranked it up the last half. My mile five and six were something like an 8 minute mile. I slowed to about a 9 minute mile pace in mile 7.

And the verdict? I finished in 1 hour, 6 minutes, and 40 seconds. That's an 8 minute, 56 second/mile pace. Sub 9!!!!! I would have never guessed but then again. Last year, with significantly less training I did 9 minute, 11 second pace. ROCK ON! It's seems to be a theme this year that I can't really gauge my speed and races seem to be a tougher slog. It feels like I am running slower but clearly I am not.

The funny thing is that the world is running faster because I finished 2875 out of 24303 runners and 726 our of 3201 people in my age group. That's worse than last year but it's all about the finish.

It's such a badly organized race. I will do next year for the 100th Anniversary and that's it. The logistics blow. I did a park and ride shuttle from Emeryville to SF that would drop you off at the start and take you back at the finish. Sadly, it was a mile walk to get to the damn pick up from the finish line AND it didn't leave until noon. Which meant I was sitting there in a wet t-shirt for two and a half
hours.

The hidden costs of Bay to Breakers is insane:

Parking for Park and ride - $10
Shuttle - $22
Replacement t-shirt to not get hypothermia - $15
A runners' fanny pack (because there's no bag check in) - $20

The best costume by far were two guys dressed as homophobe and hypocrite George Rekkers and his "travel companion."



And Jersey Shore references were thick on the ground at Bay to Breakers. Case in point:

Wish me luck!

Bay to Breakers is tomorrow. I am gonna kick Hayes Hill's ass!

Bittersweet Victory

So this weekend, I did a set of blood tests. You see, my blood sugar readings have been on the high end (120 - 130) and I've been worried that they have been going up. AND I've just been gaining some weight. Nothing huge, but I'm about 10 pounds over my lowest weight last year. So I've been emailing my doctor to get me back on the metformin and he said I should get a batch of blood tests done to see if it's necessary.

And the blood tests showed - I'm perfectly fine.

My overall cholesterol went down a few points. And everything in the cholesterol panel was well below normal in the "kicking ass" range.

AAAANNND - The blood glucose are fine. They are slight higher than before (103 as opposed to 100 and 5.2 as opposed to 5.1) Both in the doing very well range.

So in the end, everything is fine and what I really need to do is get my glucose meter recalibrated.

Speaking of Fat Jocks

Yours truly ran 11 miles on Sunday in preparation for my 10-mile race in April. I'm still recovering from the run but still, I'm taking names and kicking ass.

Building up to 9 miles

To the commenter who asked about how whether I was on a program to build up to running nine miles – yes and no. About a month ago, I told my sister’s boyfriend that I would be stepping up and running the Presidio 10 as a 10 mile race as opposed to a 10K. He emailed me a running schedule and training program for the weeks leading up to it and I’ve been doing that program for the last three weeks.

But here’s what led up to that. Before I say anything else, I need to point out I have a long history with exercise. I’ve always ran and was on the track team in high school. In fact, I was an aerobics instructor in college. As an aside, my classes always had waiting lists because both women and men thought I was great to learn from. For the women, they liked not having to compare their bodies to the person teaching them and for the men, they wanted to see a dude aerobics. This is all to say exercise and I have been old friends. I’ve run 5k’s and 10k’s my whole life.

Once I graduated from college, not having a sport to compete in or a class to teach meant that I would go on this binge-purge cycle of exercise. Running a lot for a month but then slacking off for a week which led to slacking off for a month. With the diabetes diagnosis, I had a huge incentive to exercise regularly – eating what I wanted. As I’ve said before, exercise lower your blood glucose level so exercising after eating means that you have a little more leeway about what you eat. Also, when I was losing weight, my nutritionist told me not to be concern about the fat in my diet since it was being burned off during exercise. Exercise = eating bacon. A win win proposition.

Here’s the progression:
A year and a half ago after the diagnosis, I ran four times a week on the treadmill for three miles per session. I was doing a 10 minute/mile pace.

After about three months, I increased my speed to about a 9:30 minute/mile pace and made one of the runs a four mile run at a 10 minute/mile pace.

The following month, I increased one of my slow runs to 5 miles.

When I ran my first 5 mile race in January 2009 and did great, I increased my short runs to 4 miles and increase my pace to 9:15 minute/mile.

Upon committing to do Bay to Breakers (12k or 7.4 miles), I upped my long run to 6 miles for a month and then to 7.5.

After Bay to Breakers, 9 months after the diagnosis, I reduced the number of runs to three per week but with increased intensity – a 9 minute/mile pace.

During the summer, with no race in the near future, I increased my short runs to 5 miles at the same pace and omitted the long run (just made it another 5 miles)

When I made my commitment to run Bay to Breakers AND do Presidio 10 as a 10 miler, I reintroduced the long run of 7 miles but would only do that twice a month.

And that leads us to this point where I am doing a set training program leading up to 10 miles.

Milestone acheived!

Sunday, I ran 9 miles - the furthest I ever ran in my life. It kicked my ass and I learned that I do need to start slow because the last two miles I was running at a 10 minute mile pace. My own impatience got to me and I really just wanted the run to be over. Lesson learned and I look forward to running the full 10 miles. The challenge is to do it slowly.

Skills Gained in 2009

In Keep with the Itsalifestyle theme, rather than talking numbers for my 2009 recap, I'll give you a list of the skills I've gained. Because weight can be gained or lost but knowledge is forever.

Food
1. How to count carbs and track my eating
2. How to eat regularly (especially good because you don't want to make entries if your food log twelve times a day)
3. Portion sizes
4. How to cook with almond flour and splenda
5. How to accept Splenda as a part of my life.
6. How to roast beets (Beets, goat cheese and walnuts with a dash of Balsamic - eating good!
7. How to order something at fast food places without a zillion grams of carbs
8. Avoiding smoothies

Exercise
1. How not to overdo it - don't do cardio two days in a row
2. The importance of strength training including all of that abs work
3. How to run a race and make sure I have energy at the end (now I am working on the middle)
4. Having a net game in tennis
5. How to exercise while traveling
6. Lower back stretches

Giving Thanks for Running

The theme for this Thanksgiving should be the Olympian - stronger! higher! faster! because I ran my ass off that weekend. Along with eating a truckload of food.

Eating
On the eating side of things, I did a sorta stupid/sorta smart thing - I barely ate anything leading up to Thanksgiving dinner. You see, I would be having real food professionals over for Thanksgiving. We picked up a maple and rosemary-brined turkey from Cheffie Mark. We would be having a cheese plate selected by the cheesemonger at the wine bar where Bellisima works. And a trio of soup shooters. And that's before we even sit down for dinner. So leading up to the big meal (and I mean BIG meal), I ate a grand total of 30 grams of carbs. 15 grams from a roasted pepper frittata and 15 from an apple. I also had a salad during the day. While I am sure it was playing havoc with my body and my metabolism, I wanted to eat my Thanksgiving meal with abandon. And I did. It was spread out over the course of six hours and all of it was delicious. The great thing about this meal (where we had a summit to plan the menu!) was that we all floated in an out of the kitchen. Noone was slaving over anything because we all contributed.

So yes, we started with the cheese and pate (homemade!) platter with onion jam, fig and raison compete and a red currant gelee. That was followed by soup shooters of tomato soup with a quark dollop, beet and carrot soup with a coriander sour cream, and a cauliflower soup with a bagna cauda drizzle. And then everything settled in our stomachs and we were already full. But we plowed on to eat mashed potatoes, mashed acorn squash, the aforementioned turkey, green beans, homemade rolls, and a kale and sweet potato casserole. We sent everyone home with dessert bags because noone could touch the pumpkin tarts or the apple cobblers. We spent the post dinner part of Thanksgiving nibbling on J's homemade truffles and cheese and pears.

The great thing about this was the bounty of vegetable dishes and the fact that J made truffles with dark chocolate which are intrinsically low-carb (although high fat). by the next morning my glucose level was a surprisingly low 97.

Running

Thanksgiving weekend also entail a good amount of running. On Thanksgiving day, Muffin and June actually found out about a 5K that was within walking distance of our house. It was a great way to start the day. This was a totally informal race set up my a neighborhood gym. No big clock or starting gun. To keep my ankles and knees ok, I run on a gym treadmill. It was definitely different (and more exhausting run on cold, hard concrete. And definitely exhausting to run uphill for a quarter of the race. But all in all, I ran strong and had a good time.

The Sunday after Thanksgiving, I ran the Run Wild for a Child race in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park. It was very interesting to run because I thought there were part where I was running pretty slowly. But in the end I ran the entire 6.2 miles in 51:41 minutes which is an 8:19 minute pace. This is well ahead of the 9:11 pace I ran for the Presidio 10K in March. Yay me! It's interesting to see how much I hate running up hills and how badly I am about gauging my pace.

I'm very Thankful I have this disease under control and am I very thankful I am in a position to get stronger, higher and faster. And, of course, thanks to all of you out there, especialyl stef, who's been an invaluable sounding board.

The Exercise Thing - I Need goals

So I've put my foot off the pedal when it comes to exercise. I haven't gone off the wagon but I have definitely cut back. Now I am running three times a week for at least 5 miles per workout with the occasional 7 mile run when I feel like it. Much less than the four items a week with the 7 mile run. And I definitely cut back on the strength training from at least twice a week to once a week if I'm lucky.

I think I need a bit of a rededication. So first of all, I am running a 10K the Sunday after Thanksgiving. The goal is to run it in a 9 1/2 minute/mile pace. The next goal is to do the Presido 10 but this time run the 10 miler as opposed to the 10k. If any of you are distance runners, how do you make the time to do an actual ten mile training run? That's over an hour and a half and if you're old and creaky like me, that is about 2 1/2 hours of working out when you include the stretching a cool down. And yes, next year I will do Bay to Breakers in costume. Any suggestions?

The Plant Challenge

So this past week I tried to eat 10 servings of fruits and vegetables a day. I learned a few things. First is that salad is your friend and a great way to get your veggies in. I have an enormous capacity to eat and when you pair that with eating a salad the size of a mixing bowl, then it's a recipe for healthy eating. I can make a salad that equals four servings of vegetables and plow through it easily. The hard thing is eating servings of vegetables that aren't salads. The hard thing is that I can live on salads all day long. The other salad related revelation is to find a good salad dressing. J and I bought this AMAZING strawberry-chipotle balsamic and a kickass fig syrup that makes the most divine salad dressing. Seriously, a salad with that stuff is like candy. Finally, I am learning I really hate cooking greens like kale. I don't know why I can totally love eating salad but hate eating kale but there it is.

Anyway, in terms of results, I consistently ate more than 5 servings a day but dear god, ten was an act of god. I hit ten servings twice, both on weekends when I had the time to go to the farmer's market. The hard part is the fruit because there are only so many carbs I can eat and I am reluctant to eat fruit that have carbs. But that is solely dependent on what fruit is available because a perfectly ripe apple is like candy.

Here's how it shook out:

Day 1 - 8 servings
Day 2 - 9 servings
Day 3 - 10 servings
Day 4 - 10 servings
Day 5 - 6 servings
Day 6 - 7 servings
Day 7 - 6 servings

Rocking the test results

Saturday, I got my blood drawn and my urine specimened to see what progress I've made dealing with diabetes. It was about 13 months since I was first diagnosed and five months since my last set of test results. In the intervening five months I went off all medication regulating my blood glucose so any result I had would be purely based on my diet and exercise. From the title of the post, you know how things turned out.

Here's the one year ago picture:

A1C level (measuring glucose) - 9.7 (standard is between 4.5 and 6.0)

ALBUMIN/CREATININE ratio (measuring how well my body able to retain protein in the bloodstream) - 122.5 (standard is below 29.9)

Overall cholestorol - 300 (standard is below 236)

HDL (the good cholesterol) - 40 (you should be above 40)

LDL (the bad cholestrol) - 137 (you should be less than 129)

Triglyceride (fat in your bloodstream) - 650 (should should be less than 199!)


So what are the numbers today?

A1C level (measuring glucose) - 5.1

ALBUMIN/CREATININE ratio (measuring how well my body able to retain protein in the bloodstream) - 14.5

Overall cholestorol - 151 (standard is below 236)

HDL (the good cholesterol) - 57 (you should be above 40)

LDL (the bad cholestrol) - 77 (you should be less than 129)

Triglyceride (fat in your bloodstream) - 83 (should should be less than 199!)


So there it is. I have to acknowledge that the Albumin/creatinine numbers and the cholesterol numbers are affected by the medication I'm taking but my doctor and nutritionist say those things don't mean bupkiss if I ain't living right. And the thing is, living right isn't a punishment. Last week I ate CHICKEN FRIED STEAK WITH BEER GRAVY! I made sure to forego the mashed potatoes and have a double order of roasted veggies but seriously folks - CHICKEN FRIED STEAK. What started out as one hellish month and a serious fear of Splenda has morphed into a lifestyle with a lot of Splenda desserts. Thanks y'all for giving me a space to think these things through. Let's keep on keeping on.

The Challenge

I work at an organization that promotes healthy living and I get to interview someone on their project to get members of their community to eat 5-10 servings of fruits and vegetables a day. It's really fascinating because they are working with a low-literacy, limited English proficient, immigrant population. The learning is very experiential and visual. What I find to be a great success story was the person running the program felt like she had to actually eat 5-10 servings of fruits and vegetables a day so she wasn't spewing hypocriticial bs. And after six months on the program she lost 30 pounds. She didn't do anything else. In fact she was telling me about how she's also be eating nachos and steak. But she was eating a heck of a lot less nachoes and steak because she had to get her 10 servings in. So here's my challenge - eating 10 servings of fruits and vegetables a day.

Here's a handy guide for those of you who are unfamiliar with serving sizes for fruits and vegetables.

In this challenge I have amended the rules:

1. Canned fruits and veggies don't count (although frozen does as long as it's not packed in syrup)

2. Beans and legumes don't count. They are the great superfood but they are like loaded with carbs. Great if you are a hunter who hunts and forages all day. Bad if you are diabetic.

3. Hell to the no with juice. It's not a fruit, it's sugar.

So here goes. I'll check in weekly about this but I am curious to see how realistic 10 servings is.

Happy Diabetaversary

Whew, it's been a while since either Stef or I checked in. It's funny how the post-summer life starts getting in the way. For those of you who don't know that the Bay area does not follow the regular four seasons but ends up having something like 30 season throughout the year. Whereas most of you probably "enjoyed" a hot summer, the Bay area summer ends up being a chilly, foggy fall climate. Most visitors end up having to do a target run for long pants and hoodies. The funny part is that once September hits, the Bay area experiences the summer that the rest of the country put up with. You see, when the temperature in the rest of the state is summer, the heat gets trapped in the Central Valley and the weather stays firmly entrenched in the 60 degree range. Once it cools down in the rest of the state, our September ends up with temperatures in the 80s.

With that in mind, it was this time last year I found out I had diabetes. And shortly afterwards, I asked stef if she wanted to start a blog. In the past year, I've kicked diabetes ass and learned to love Splenda (like LOOOOVE Splenda). Here's a snapshot of my year living with diabetes.

September
After much crying and freaking out, I take the crappy Living with Diabetes class and learn how to monitor my blood glucose level and learn ways to control my diabetes. Stef and I start the blog.

October
I start hitting the gym on a regular basis and creating the food log. I realize I need to eat more regularly and space out my eating so that I have two snacks and three meals. My midnight snack becomes my savior.

November
I have a great time eating my first post-diagnosis Thanksgiving. Much turkey is eaten and people actually envy my splenda mocha panna cotta with sugar free chocolate mousse.

December
This is where diabetes just becomes a part of my life. The crazy ass blood sugar drops stop as my body adjusts and I meet with my super-awesome nutritionist. My first post-diagnosis blood result comes back and I kick some diabetes ass. I'm in normal range on all of my readings. I also travel like mad and learn how to have some semblance of normal eating and exercise while traveling (entailing many a 10:00 pm run).

January
I run my first race (a five miler) and do it in a sub-ten minute mile pace. I increase my running from two three-mile runs and a five mile run to two four mile runs and a six mile run. My test results come back and I am now beyond normal to crazy ass awesome in my readings.

February
Another praiseworthy month as I continue on the same path. I increase my running to two four mile runs and a seven mile run.

March
I run a 10K across the Golden Gate Bridge. The day is beautiful and I can't complain about running over a national monument.

April
I decrease my medication as my diet and exercise regime is doing a good job of controlling my blood sugar levels.

May
Bay to Breakers! Running on the steep hill for about a mile and still managing to run a sub-ten minute mile pace, in costume! Yay! My nutritionist tells me I can stop taking the diabetes medication.

June
I graduate from the diabetes program and my insurance doesn't think it's cost effective to spend one afternoon a month having a nutritionist praise me. J and I move and getting the the gym becomes harder. I still do it four times a week!

July
We get a dog and I have to add an extra hour of walking to my exercise regime. I also go into maintenance mode and cut back on the running and strength training. I get so good a Splenda desserts I poison J (who is allergic to artificial sweeteners)

August
I gain about four pounds but somehow go down another pants size. How is this possible?

September
New goals - 1) run a ten miler 2) Keep the food log and cut back on the fat 3) Pass a REAL health care reform bill.

Help Needed!

So those of you involved in the President's Physical Fitness Challenge, I need some help. I just passed the 20,000 point mark (after two months and a 12k race) and I'd like to order my damn bronze medal but I can't figure out how to do it online. Can someone walk we through it? Every time I try and order it online, I get to the page with the t-shirts and lanyards. I don't want a damn lanyard, I want my MEDAL!

And yes, I fillay got enough points for some bling. Yay me.

So that goal thing...

Thanks Stef for posting the NYT article on the yo-yo of celebrity dieting. I've been thinking about it a lot. First there's Oprah, and then Kirstie Alley, Valerie Bertinelli, you'd better not get off of Jenny Craig of you're so screwed! But seriously, I am hardly an expert on dieting but please folks, stay away from any weight loss plan that involves anyone else making your meals. Because at the end of the day, you haven't LEARNED anything. That's a huge piece for me of this whole health thing. It's been less about pounds on the scale and more about learning things. Learning to snack. Learning to portion. Learning to NOT exercise and pace myself. Without the learning, what happens when you achieve the magic number?

Aaaand since, stef is talking numbers I've got some of my own. I reached the weight loss number my doctor (NOT my nutritionist) said I needed to control my diabetes. What is hilarious is that my glucose numbers were actually better ten pounds ago.

Here's some goals I've met:

1. Get glucose in normal range - Hell yeah!
2. Run Bay to Breakers - In costume no less
3. Get more fruit and vegetables in - I can eat my five servings in a single meal when I get my big salad

But it doesn't stop. I still keep a food log. I still test three times a day. I still eat enough vegetables to keep my farmer's market in business. But knowing I need to maintain the weight and not lose it, I've made some changes.

1. Cut the 7 mile run to 6 miles.
2. If you aren't feeling it, cut the five mile run to a 8:30-paced 5k.
3. Eat a croissant sandwich when work has a breakfast meeting.
4. Eat 45 grams of carbs in sushi form.

But still enjoy the rewards. I'll tell you this, on reason why I love exercising is the rewards I give myself after - 15 minute chair massage or 15 minutes sitting in the gym hot tub. How can I not look forward to working out knowing that's at the end of the gym session?

Now, however, I've stopped working my ass off. Literally.

Graduation Day

So yesterday I had my last appointment with my nutritionist. Looking at the numbers (even slightly elevated) she said I had the diabetes in control. In fact she said that the higher numbers were within margin of error and it was a strong possibility that my numbers hadn't changed at all. The only thing that was holding me back from graduating was my blood pressure. The water pill I'm taking is doing the trick and my blood pressure is 78/116 below the 80/130 that is the goal. It's so funny how I cling to the structures that are keeping me healthy. My nutritionist happily told me that I could probably stop taking my blood sugar medication and could stop checking my blood sugar since as long as I was eating what I allow myself to eat my blood sugar is fine. I told her I would cut my blood sugar medication in half by the end of the summer and try to go off of it by the end of the year.

It's scary to think that I wouldn't need to take this stuff. It's a scary thought to think of myself as healthy. I wish the media would allow for such complexity. My nutritionist deemed me healthy. I have a chronic disease AND I'm healthy. In the same way that I can have severe allergies that I need to compensate for and still be healthy. Health is such a complex thing you know. It's not just what your body can and can't do (process sugar, keep its blood pressure reasonable) but what environment and support you create to address your body's strengths and weaknesses. Like the blog title says, it's a lifestyle.

P.S. This weekend I'm running Bay to Breakers. I've decided to change my costume and go as Aang the Avatar. I figured that had to be a benefit for being Asian and bald. Check it out:

So that President's Challenge Thing

Dear President Obama:

Good on you and Michelle for literally walking the walk (and by the looks of it hitting the weights) and encouraging the nation to become more active. One thing though, are you effing serious about your goals? In order for me to get a Bronze medal, I have to accumulate 20,000 points. A 5 mile run at a nine-minute/mile pace will get me 508 points. Are you effing kidding me? So here's what my regular work out routine will get me:

Monday: 5 mile run - 508
Tuesday: Strength training - 65
Wednesday: 5 mile run - 508
Thursday - Strength training - 65
Friday - rest
Saturday - 7 mile run - 708
Sunday - rest

Total - 1854

It's going to take me 11 weeks to get a stupid medal. I'm doing it because it's what I do but any project manager knows to break down your project into bite sized chunks with interim deliverables. JAYSUS H. Christ, whoever designed this challenge doesn't know bumpkiss about motivation.

The new numbers

So I just my blood tests yesterday. I saw them go from amazing to merely great. For example, my fructosamine level (a measure of blood sugar) was 208, well under the 265 level where it would be beyond normal but slightly higher than the 195 it was in February. Another example is my LDL cholesterol level (the bad cholesterol) which went from 59 in February to 65 for the past test. Once again, well below the standard 129 but still higher than before.

This merits a discussion with my doctor about whether this is a trend I should be worried about or coming to terms with taking my foot off the pedal. My exercise has been constant and I've eaten less carbs as I've gotten used to being conscious of eating carbs. On the flip side, really don't do much around watching the cholesterol and fat and sodium. I've always assumed the exercise takes care of that. The other thing about the higher fructosamine levels is that I have halved my blood sugar medication so that's another part of taking the foot off the pedal. So the question I have for the doctor is should I put my foot back on the pedal and regulate the fat and cholesterol I eat as much as the carbs? Is this indicative of my body getting too used to the meds and me having to take more?

It's hard to keep perspective on this because I am only nine months into the diagnosis. What does this mean for the long term? Speaking of long term, I'd like to thank my lovely husband J for giving me an extra year. My birthday is tomorrow and I totally thought I was turning 38. J, being two weeks younger, pointed out I am turning 37. It came as a complete shock. Here's to another year at 37 because I spent all of this one assuming I was 37. And here's to a lifetime of kicking diabetes ass.