Health & Fitness August 2012

[Harmony]

In regards to Harriet's comment that Vit D isn't really a steroid, like my doctor said it was yesterday, I googled some things and ended up with this.

From Wikipedia (paraphrasing here) the vit. word is derived from the compound word vitamine which is from vital and amine. The doctor quoted something like the vitamine word in his explaination that vD is a steroid. Well, this guy went from one thing to the next so fast I couldn't discuss... anyway I believe he was trying to tell me it was ok to take a steroid because even VD is a steroid. Bad analogy in my book, the stuff he shot me with and gave me in pills is chemicals.

Anyway, here's a very interesting link to the basis and definition of vitamins.
www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitamin

I hope that link works. It is just one page which I found interesting and comes from a published book which comes up if curser is put over the right spot.

[Nancy]

For me steroids are not a good thing b/c they can make blood sugars whacky!
I stopped taking my vits. this summer and can't tell a difference go figure.

[Harriet]

I believe he was trying to tell me it was ok to take a steroid because even VD is a steroid. Bad analogy in my book, the stuff he shot me with and gave me in pills is chemicals.

Harmony, I hadn't seen your post here before I posted in PWYC, but I posted there that I had come to a similar conclusion about why your dr would mention Vit D to you. When I think of it, though, how much better to mention, for instance, testosterone, which is well known as a true steroid, yet is needful and naturally present in everyone's bodies. Oh, well.

Nancy is quite right that steroids can make blood sugar wacky for a while. HRH was told to just postpone bloodwork when he was put on steroids for his foot, because the dr said they wouldn't get an accurate measure until after his prescription was finished.

I'm holding my breath but HRH seems to be okay with continuing with me on my WOE. I'd really like that if he would.

Did the walking workout. The DVD player in the bedroom area is acting up - becoming a time waster. Sigh.

HRH mentioned that he plans to eat what I eat tomorrow. Yay!

[Harmony]

It's been a while since I've had blood sugar tested. I have my head in the sand about a lot of stuff these days.

Harriet, I did not know testosterone was a steroid. I thought it was a hormone.

One thing helpful the dr. did say was everyone could use that ointment (I can't remember the brand name) but it's for heel cracks. He says it will heal cracks / rawness of hands too. Says it's the urea in it...ewww horse pee, which he says now when it's in things and they don't want us to know it they call it something else (he didn't tell me what). But I will remember this tip for future. I thought Nancy might find it helpful too.

We spent huge amounts of $ on healthcare this month. DH has spent over $500 at the dentist and I'm up to $160 with more charges to come. I wish we had a budget for this.

[Harriet]

Yeah, noticed one of the headlines yesterday was that one of the Giants outfielders tested positive for taking synthetic testosterone to improve his performance and was suspended for the next 50 games for steroid use.

And for a baseball player 50 games out could be the end of the career. I have no idea how high the urine levels have to be before they know your body didn't produce that, but it must have been obvious in his case, or maybe they can tell the synthetic from natural. Now the sportswriters are looking back at statistics and saying that he suddenly starting showing much better skills about 2 years ago. It's a sad thing.

[Nancy]

I'm back from my morning walk.
Cleaned carport up for a showing this weekend was some exercise as well.

[Cowinkie]

Harriet...when I take steroids I gain weight...which is what happened to me last month. I wouldn't go near the scales during that time.

I have lost 8 lbs since I've gotten home from my mom's. Not following any specific eating program, just charting my weight and watching my proportions and only eating 1200 calories I like using that myfitnesspal site because you can enter what you've eaten for the day and and add any exercising that you've done and will calculate how much you will weigh in 5 weeks if you continue to eat the same way.

I am a visual learner...and "my fitness" charts in graphs and bars my weight progress. It's set up for my lifestyle...active or not you get to choose, and then monitor's my progress. Counts my calories, fats and carbs and shows them to me in a pie chart. When I am tempted to eat something I shouldn't...and I'm really being honest with all my little "bites" while preparing foods...I visualize what my weight is for the day....like it was 139.2...and think...if I don't eat these "bites" maybe I can get the scale to show 139 in the morning. It is just enough insentive to keep me from eating what I shouldn't.

Watched the Dr. Oz show the other night and he had a 3 dimentional model of what the fat around your stomach looks like. I've seen the rubber hunks before. This was made of the same material, but instead of being a round piece of hunk....the fat was more of a rectangular shape. I could see it being placed right over my belly. Now when I look in the mirror and see my pudgy stomach, I think to myself...I know whats going on there. I hold most of my weight there. The visual is disgusting to me, but helps me stay on track with my program. Baby steps every day now...I don't care if its 10th of a pound...down is good on my chart...

[Nancy]

Yesterday I did a shorter walk in the morning and then was out side most of the rest day "helping" h. with the roof for the hen pen. I moved bricks from under the play house. Handing him stuff did some hammering for arms. It was hot too so trying to remember our water. Some of this was on a ladder. I also thinned the plums.

[Lilac]

When I went to the dr. 6 weeks ago, my A1C was way too high. I told him that I had gotten lazy about writing down every bs result, plus keeping track of what I was eating. Therefore, it had really gotten away from me. He wanted me to keep track and come back in 6 weeks. I have kept track the last 3 1/2 weeks and I am doing much better. The thing is that an A1C test today would show very little improvement because it is results of the last 3 months of blood sugar control. I have stressed over this for several days and when I woke up this morning, I just felt like I needed to cancel this useless appt. Why have my insurance pay for a test that will show so little improvement. So I have challenged myself to continue improving my numbers, charting them, what I eat and what exercise I am doing. I will reschedule the appt for 3 months and at that time there should be significant improvement.

I must say that my family is always after me to change drs. We just don't have that many to choose from. Dd1 has went to my dr. since she became an adult. There is a new dr. in town that is a local guy just out of med school. He is at the other clinic. Dd1 has an intial appt with him tomorrow and is changing to him. I thought about it but just hate to change. At this point, my diabetes control is solely up to me, no matter who my dr. is. So I need to get back with the program. I know the drill, I just need to do it, faithfully.

So I am going to use the forum to keep me accountable to myself.

[Nancy]

{{{Lilac}}}

My mom said her A1C was 7.6 the dr. wanted her to lower it. I thought it was a reasonable number for her. Go figure.

I found a couple things this weekend that worked for me I did not eat corn off the cob that came
w/ a meal, only had two bites of hash brown I made sure and told the waitress they were tastey but I just couldn't have 'em b/c of my diab. if we had chickens I would have gotten a container and brought 'em home!

We had take out chicken instead of a burger b/c the burger place closed it was better for me.
We shared a bean burrito w/ yogurt and in an indoor picnic with 100+ temps. it was better weather than on the balcony in the sun when we were out of town the other day. Did ex. in the pool area and used their machines and was not burning as much as I thought so that was good info. used tread mill, recumbant style exercycle, and stepper thing.