Spring is tip-toeing in.
Report: Mojo Cookies success (from #9) -- my first week using these showed some success. Especially breaking the siren call of food with dancing to some fast-beat music.
Blood Sugar: I’ve been monitoring my blood sugar for about twenty years, prompted by knowing my mother’s diabetes had progressed to the point where she was giving herself insulin injections. The normal range for fasting blood sugar is somewhere in the 80 - 110 range. Mine has tended toward the higher end of that range and occasionally spiked above it. However, my monthly average hovered in the 105 - 110 range.
Since starting Sweet Peace, I started wondering if I could get it down toward the lower levels of the range which meant fine tuning my understanding of what my particular sensitivities are. Some things are obvious … sugar and processed carbs show up clearly; other things seem to be less predictable. I used quinoa in a soup and it didn't seem to have an effect the first day. However, it was a large pot of soup and day 2 and 3 shot up seemingly without reason. I’ve tried some supplements touted as blood sugar reducers but nothing had a noticeable effect.
The past few weeks have been particularly spiky so I started looking for possible answers and found this article, “10 Surprising Causes of Blood Sugar Swings You Probably Didn’t Know” which offered this list:
1. Dehydration … could be an issue. Try drinking more water
2. Artificial sweeteners … while I don’t use these, I had a brief Diet Coke binge that coincided with a spike.
3. Medications … none
4. Dawn Phenomenon … pre-waking hormone rise … try small, protein snack before bed.
5. Menstrual cycles … not an issue
6. Insufficient sleep … could be a relationship with deep sleep
7. Extreme temperature … not an issue
8. Disrupted routines (traveling) … not an issue
9. Caffeine … seldom more than 1 cup … but those Diet Coke days
10. Testing accuracy … probably not an issue
So, I’m going to monitor these five possibilities to see if I can identify which of them may be influencing my blood sugar. And for the next week I’m going to monitor at different times of the day and after specific events.
Journaling. I've begun a Sweet Peace journal and it seems very useful. I'm not recording foods or counting anything, but I am watching reactions and what triggers cravings.
You are quite the role model for those of us who share your cravings. Thank you.
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