Days 17 - 20 Almost There!

This may be difficult for some of you reading this to believe, but the hardest thing about this whole detoxifying cleanse has been blogging about it and trying to keep it interesting.  

I realize that I have gone down a few rabbit trails dealing with things that on the face of it, may seem to have nothing to do with my 3 week cleanse. (bike rides for instance) but the point is that this whole process has not been disruptive to my life at all!  (aside from stuff like destroying my old blender, totally redoing what I thought was a healthy pantry to begin with and monitoring my BG and insulin intake a lot more closely) Melissa and I even ate at some friends house this week and forced them to blend their dinner plans to our will :)

So 20 days down and only 24 hours to go.  I am officially done at 6am tomorrow morning.  I must say that I am anxious to find out if I will need to make more long term adjustments to my basal insulin dosage once I go back to eating 2-3 solid meals per day again, but Dr Junger was certainly right when he commented that this cleanse would change the way that I want to eat.  Simply from a psychological standpoint, I feel better about myself knowing that every mouthful of food I eat is good for me (I will admit that this feeling is amplified when the taste is delicious too :)

So as I prepare to drink my 21rst smoothie in 21 days here are some hurdles that I have faced and overcome during the last 3 weeks.

1. The first comment that I got on a regular basis was that I had certainly picked the wrong time of year to do a cleanse.  I realize why most people would think this, we live in a culture where the last 5-6 weeks of the year are centered around 2 things, eating and shopping. (doing both to excess)  It all starts the morning after eating way more than you are comfortable day with the traditional, get up early and trample or be trampled by other shoppers day.  Frankly non of this has been an issue for me.  I still feel that this was the best time for me to do this.  My family and friends have been very supportive and not pressured Melissa or myself towards giving up our cleanse so that we could join them in traditional fare.  (more food for them :)) My opinion, great time to start this as I was not tempted (not unbearably anyway) to eat a bunch of stuff that I would normally have indulged in on at least a limited basis and I feel better for it.  Plus I have positioned myself for better health heading into 2012
2. The next hurdle was getting the start date going.  I had to change my pantry over to maximize it for detoxifying action.  As I mentioned it was pretty healthy to begin with but we had a number of perishable items that needed to be used before we could start, so the target got pushed back from Dec 1 to Dec 9.  I fully intended to have this finished before Christmas but I have to say that it did not hurt to ease into it. We actually started doing the pre-cleanse elimination diet on Thanksgiving day. Once we figured out what we could and could not have, it has been pretty smooth sailing.
3. Then I overloaded and smoked our blender.  The timing was bad and messed with our breakfast smoothie one day, but the bright side is that we now have a fantastic Ninja blender.
4. Of course, figuring out how to manage my BGs was a challenge, more so than a hickup, but in the process I had to do some things that we not part of the cleanse. Such as having a juice in the middle of the night and breaking my 12 hour fast up, eating first GU and then honey packs at other times to manage BG dips due to exercise.
5. Sunday I figured out that my protein portion of my Reliv is soy based. (should have read the label sooner but oh well)  So this was not the cleanest cleanse, but there will be another and this only gives me something to shoot for next time around.

So not to bad.  My younger brother came over on Christmas day and we established a new traditional Schwab household Christmas feast of hummus, tabbouleh, marinated kale and cabbage.  We were all pleasantly full from when this sumptuous repast was concluded and not ready for a nap.  It is so nice to have so much energy.  We had planned to watch a redbox DVD after our meal, but the DVD player decided that this was the day that it was no longer going to function properly, so we changed our plans and watched a movie on Netflix instead.  We appropriately chose "Forks over Knives" .  I have watched a number of food documentaries over the years extolling evils and virtues of how what we eat effects us, but this was not only the most believable, but the best as well.  I highly recommend this movie if you are interested in spending your time in this world with a high quality of life. (not that the movie will provide that, but the ideas just might)

I will save the net results for my next post, but just to end today with a couple of positive things that have happened as a result of embarking on this journey.  I finally got set up with Green Bean Delivery. I like using this service for a few reasons, not the least of which is that I get healthy groceries delivered to my door and I don't have to take time out of my schedule to do something that I hate to do anyway, which is shop.  The food is organic, I don't make impulse purchases and I get to support a lot of local businesses.  BTW you can get a lot more than just produce from them. Things like bison, fresh eggs, chicken, flour, granola, cereal, etc..... Check them out, after 2 weeks I give them 5 stars.

Another positive that has come from the last 3 weeks is that I am firmly on track to getting my life more organized. A very cleansing thing for my mental well being and clarity of thought, also something that will prove helpful in my coaching business as well.

OK so that's it for now, tomorrow I will post the results of my final weigh in plus a recap of all the changes and positives that I have experienced to close out 2011 a good year for me.

Michael

Days 15 & 16 - Fuel and the Ride

It seems that the hardest thing about this cleanse is blogging everyday.  I guess that is a product of how busy I am and wanting to get to bed early every night.  Part of the detox is making sure that you are getting adequate sleep and I am averaging a little better than 8 hours every night so I can chalk that one in the win column.
So I had Friday off from work and decided that this would be my day for my December century.  For those of you who do not know, 100 miles in biking terms is a century.  I got up at 6am on Friday and had every intention of getting out the door by 7 but of course I could not find all of my gear and by the time I was done being delayed, it was 7:45.
I started with lights, but decided that I would keep it to a minimum given that it was starting to get light when I left home.  I headed out to Wanamaker and was intending to ride a loop around to Greenwood before I headed home.  My plans got derailed a little when I got to Lawrence and stopped at the Starbucks at Pendlton Pike and Sunnyside.  My intention was to drink a hot cup of tea, check my BG and have some fruit, which I did.  The only trouble was that I was freezing by this time.  The temp had been 35 when I left home and it was difficult not to sweat even though I was only wearing 2 layers of clothing on my top, plus a jacket. When I got to Starbucks, I broke out the toewarmers and handwarmers, I switched to a lighter set of gloves and ditched my Jersey and arm warmers. That was a good decision and I was comfortable the rest of the day.  So my stop came after 22 miles and I think in the future, I will stop at 10 just to access how things are going.  I had extra stuff in my Camelbak backpack and ended up only adding to it.

My plans for my 2nd stop was to go 30 miles and stop circa 52 which worked out pretty good.  I rode up across the causeway at Geist and did the cross Fishers and Carmel tour stopping for lunch at the Marsh in Carmel at 106th street and Michigan Road.  I had a packet of Honey and a bowl of mellon for lunch as my BG had dropped to 88 at this time.  I had adjusted my basal down to -80% but went ahead and dropped it on down to -90% while I ate.
I was doing good at this point as far as time, routing and comfort, but I had a few little hitches after lunch.  First I forgot to start the timer on my Garmin until I was headed south out of Zionsville, so I shorted a couple of miles from the tally. Then I missed my turn to go around the north side of Eagle Creek park and then accidently road into the park a little way, suprising a large heard of deer that seemed not to mind me riding through the middle of them in the least. I got back on Lafayette road and headed south to 56th where I intended to skirt the park.  I then made the mistake of jumping on the bike path to go under I-65 and it was flooded and some numbskulls had apparently throw bottles from a car so there was a bunch of glass and I had to get off my bike and walk it a little ways and then clean my tires thoroughly before I headed on.
I suprised another small deer herd (this time only 3 and they were spooked by my presence) and the wind which had been out of the North earlier seemed to have shifted and was now coming from the west.
I thought all was going well, I intended to skirt Avon to the west but somehow with the overcast and twisting roads ended up going back north at one point and only when I noticed that the sun was on my left side did I stop and check my location with my Iphone.  I was headed north out of Whitelick.
So I turned my bad self around ended up in Avon and realized that I was not only running out of daylight, but if I stuck with my original plan I would end up with somewhere close to 140 miles. So I downed a couple bags of cashews and decided that I was only going to go to Plainfield and then head home on US40. By the time I rolled into my drive, I had 101 miles on the Garmin and felt like I had put in a full day.
Melissa had a nice dinner of cold avocado and cucumber soup, which we ate together and then went to bed.
My net insulin use for the day was a paltry 6.8 units and I was 100% in target.  Even riding solo and with all of the wind and cold, my average speed was 15 mph and my total fueling for the day was somewhere south of 500 calories.
Today, Melissa and I mostly stuck around the house after an early morning trip to Trader Joes for some frozen fruit and nut milk.  But before we left we had a delicious pineapple and coconut milk smoothie laced with Chia seeds.  For lunch we had Humus and Quinoa and for dinner the rest of the soup from the night before.  After dinner we settled in to watch After Midnight and discovered that some inconsiderate oaf had apparently damaged the disc.  Why in the world people mistreat these RedBox DVDs is beyond me, but I think that there will be a special place in Hell for them.  We finally bailed on the movie and Melissa went to bed leaving me to finish my 2 day blog.
So that is it, only 5 days left and I will have finished my first 21 day cleanse!  We both feel great and my clothes are fitting me better tha ever! Stay tuned!
Peace
Michael

Day 13 & 14 - Willpower

One of the things that Dr Junger promises with this cleanse is a more clear head.  In other words the ability to gain perspective.  He also recommends cleansing your lifestyle as well. He contends that we need to get rid of things in our life that are toxic, from thoughts to bad habits or clutter.  Dr Junger recommends clearing our mind for 5 minutes per day and just thinking about nothing.

  While I do not consider my thoughts "clutter" as if I am awake, I am always thinking about something, I do recognized that there are distractions that can cause thought to get...... sort of jumbled.

With that in mind, I have been utilizing my commute time more effectively this fall by listening to a number of unabridged audio books, dealing with subjects that I feel will improve me as a coach, sales person and just in general.  Shortly before I started this 21 day program I came across this book simply titled Willpower by Dr Roy F Baumeister. I started listening thinking that I might need to know a little more about willpower in order to be successful with this cleanse. Dr Baumeister put forth some ideas that resonated with me and I decided to give them a try.  One thing was that we only have so much will power available to us at any given time and if we have to use it to much we will deplete us and it will cause what could be a simple thing to be difficult.  Something that he stressed (and I don't remember what the reason is that this depletes our willpower) is that a neat workplace or living area is very helpful in maintaining our willpower reserves.  I think that the idea is that if we are not constantly having to make decisions as to what to do with our stuff, we have more energy to resist temptation, perservere in our endeavors (like sticking with a meal plan)  So I started by cleaning up my workplace.  I only regret that I do not have a before for the above picture, but trust me when I say, that it is night and day.  I have spent 51 years being messy with my room, desk, shop etc...    One tip that I took to heart is not to move a piece of paper without a purpose and not to move it more than once.  It works, I am doing the same think with dishes, dirty laundry, basicaly everything and I am loving the clarity of thought and peace of mind that it is giving me. I truly believe that this is a factor in why this program seems so easy to me!

Speaking of the program.  I got up this morning and spent an hour on the stationary bike while Melissa fixed a wonderful pineapple coconut smoothie this morning.  For lunch everyone at work got Texas Roadhouse (one of my favorites) but I had my big Green Salad and some azuki beans.  It was not a huge challenge for me to resist the Rum Balls, Christmas Cookies, Fudge, BBQ, what ever all else was available.  My sales manager gave me a Ham, Cinnamon Cake and candy, I have not had even a small urge to cheat.

For supper tonight we had a squash and kale soup, which while not the best recipe that we have tried was certainly adequate and filling.  So now Day 14 is in the bag and only 1 week to go.

I started weighing myself last Thursday morning and the rounded numbers look like this.  I weighed 171 last week and have steadily dropped all week.  This morning I weighed in just south of 168, likey I will not see 160 which was my original target by this time next week, but I think that 165 certainly looks likely.  I know once I get the weight off, it will not be difficult to keep off, so I may take another run at this in a few months if I come up a little short this time arround.  All in all, if I had not shed a single pound on this cleanse (which is really only a side benefit anyway) It has been totally worth it.

Oh yeah, and Melissa and I just celebrated our 3rd anniversary today!  What a great wife I have to want to do this with me and put off our night out until next week! 

That's it for today, tomorrow I have to get up and jump on my road bike for a little ride that I have planned.

Michael

Day 12 - My Wife is Brilliant

After 11 full days on the cleanse my wife made a shocking discovery this morning.  Turns out that the reason that we feel like there is to much food to eat on this cleanse and keep having leftovers is because all the recipes in the book are 2 servings.  One little sentence at the beginning of the entire recipe section meekly proclaims ...all recipes are 2 servings.... that's it.  I should mention that I had previously looked all over the recipe section for some sort of indication as to how many servings was provided in each recipe.  Some of them seem larger than others, but there it was buried in a paragraph at the beginning of the recipe section.  I should point out as well that I read the entire book and that the rest of the book was very well layed out but I personally think that the recipe section leaves much to be desired.  So I drank 2 full glasses last night of that disgusting seaweed crap and I only had to drink one.... Oh well.   I am rewriting most of the recipes anyway as the directions are presented in an easy to follow format.  For example, the Big Green Salad recipe jumbles all of the ingredients for the prep, salad and dressing together.  I am going to segregate things so that you can have a better sense of what order things are going to happen. 

Having an order of operations helps me so that I cna get the almonds soaking in water first thing, chop all of the salad stuff at the same time, place it in a bowl out of the way while I prepare the dressing or visa versa. The recipe in the book reads like this:

Big Green Salad

·        ½ head of Romaine lettuce, leaves washed dried and torn into bite size pieces

·        1 bunch of Arugula washed and dried

·        Dandelion leaves, washed and dried

·        1 carrot shredded

·        6  Radishes, cut into 4 pieces each

·        1 cucumber, cut into 4 pieces lengthwise, then cut into half inch chunks

·        1 avocado, cut into slices

·        Handful of sunflower sprouts

·        3 scallions sliced thin

·        ¼ cup of soaked almonds, chopped

·        1 clove garlic, crushed

·        Juice of ½ lemon

·        1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar

·        1 tablespoon agave syrup

·        Fresh thyme, basil and parsley, chopped fine

·        ½ cup grape seed oil

·        Salt and pepper

OK I am going to interrupt here to comment on a few things.  According to this ingredient list, after the dandelion leaves, nothing needs to be washed and dried. Some of the quantities are nebulous and do not give a start point.  I.E.  I am sure that arugula comes in bunches, but I have not been able to buy it that way, fresh thyme, basil, parsley, salt and pepper, no reference whatsoever. But continuing on…

1.      To make the dressing, put the lemon juice, garlic, agave syrup, herbs and grape-seed oil into a glass jar with a screw-top lid and shake vigorously.  Season with salt and fresh ground pepper.

2.      In a large bowl toss the greens, carrots, radishes, scallions and cucumber with the dressing. ( You can use individual plates if you choose.)

3.      Decorate with avocado, sprouts and almonds.

If desired, you may add 2 ounces of shrimp or chicken per portion.

Soaked almonds are easier to digest.  To soak almonds cover in pure water and leave for at least 2 hours or overnight.

That's it.  All of the directions are there aside from the fact that I have 1 tablespoon of apple cider vinegar unaccounted for and I am not sure what to do with it, if I follow the directions to the letter and of course some quantities that are a bit nebulous.  I will just have to throw in handfuls of thyme, a pinch of Basil, and a big bunch of parsely then stand here holding this measuring spoon trying not to spill the apple cider vinegar.  The following is how I would present this recipe.

Big Green Salad

Makes 2 servings

Garnish

·        1 avocado, cut into slices

·        Handful of sunflower sprouts (can substitute alfalfa sprouts)

·        3 scallions sliced thin

·        ¼ cup of soaked almonds, chopped – soak almonds overnight, to make them easier to digest

Dressing

·        1 clove garlic, crushed and chopped fine

·        Juice of ½ lemon

·        1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar

·        1 tablespoon agave syrup

·        Fresh thyme strip leaves from 2 sprigs

·        Fresh basil ½ tbsp chopped fine

·        Fresh parsley ½ tbsp chopped fine

·        ½ cup grape seed oil

·        ½ tsp Salt and pepper

Salad

·        ½ head of Romaine lettuce and torn into bite size pieces

·        1 bunch of Arugula

·        1 carrot shredded

·        6  Radishes, cut into 4 pieces each

·        1 cucumber, cut into 4 pieces lengthwise, then cut into half inch chunks

Preparation – start the night before by soaking ¼ cup of almonds in pure water soaked almonds are easier to digest. 

1.      To make the dressing, put all dressing ingredients into a container with an airtight lid and shake vigorously.  Set aside.

2.      In a large bowl toss the greens, carrots, radishes, scallions and cucumber with the dressing.

3.      Garnish with avocado, sprouts and almonds.

For a non-vegetarian version you may add 2 ounces of shrimp or chicken per portion.

After reading this recipe, I am sure that you can see how wonderful that I actually am.  I fully intend to re-write this entire section of the book and add a few of my own tweaks.

So moving right along, this morning I woke up with a significant amount of GI distress and apparently had a little taste of that stomach virus that has been going around, so I did not go to my spin class as I was afraid that I might shart.  So wisely I went back to bed for a bit and then got up and helped Melissa make our morning peach and almon

d butter smoothie.  It was pretty good! Melissa started an azuki bean concoction and some rice for our lunch, unfortunately the beans were not ready but will be delicious tomorrow I am sure. So for lunch, I had rice, mandarins and a pear.  It was delicious and very filling. 
So moving forward, I am very happy that we got that serving size thing figured out so that the portions will be a bit more reasonable from here on in. 

Did I mention that I am drinking a lot of water?  The good Dr Junger says that if you are not urinating at least once per hour, you are not drinking enough water for this cleanse.  Well I do that all day long, but at night I only have to get up 2 times to go, but I will be happy to go back to sleeping through the entire night. At the same time, while I am sleeping I am sleeping deep deep sleep.

So for supper tonight we had a yummy cashew and squash warm soup.  The end of a perfect cleanse day!

See You Tomorrow!

Michael

Day 11 Somethings Fishy

Today started off great! I slept 9 hours after the hard ride yesterday, still managed to get up before 5:30 and spend a couple of hours working on a Yearly training plan.

Then with the help of my lovely wife made a delicious pineapple, mango coconut smoothie. Then we made a great salad for me to take to work complete with homemade dressing! YUM!

For some reason today was a high blood sugar day and for whatever reason I could not seem to keep it down until this afternoon, which of course was fitting because I had to visit my endocrinologist (diabetic doctor) so maybe I was stressed thinking about my visit. So aside from getting a 7.5 A1c which is an average BG of 169 (I was expecting something more along the lines of a 6.5 which is what my meter average would indicate and I am suspicious that they are not calibrating their equipment, just based on my interaction with the person who administered the test) my weight was down 2 lbs, and I had a fine visit with my doctor, then I got ripped off by the parking garage. I got to the doctors office at about 3:10 and left at 5:15 and they charged me for 3 hours, $5 I guess is not so bad compared to the cost of the visit.

So I came home to find that Melissa had been shopping today, which let me know that she must be feeling better! Unfortunately she bought Dulce flakes which I think must be made of old rotten fish and seaweed,,,,,, bleh. She mixed up this awful concoction and then made me drink it while she laughed raucously and took pictures.

Needless to say we will not be adding the blended whatever it was to the regular menu once this cleanse is done.

Ok this drink not only looked hideous, it smelled and tasted worse, no joke there. But the good news is that we are well over the hump with this cleanse and it really has not been starvation. I feel like I am eating as much as I want, but simply controling the times and what I am eating. True, I have not had beer, wine, chocolate, eggs, coffee, grapefruit, pizza, oatmeal, toast, tacos, burritos, bacon, cheese, ginger snaps, christmas cookies at the office, pasta when we went out to eat with Melissa's family at the old spagetti factory or a bunch of other stuff for 2 weeks counting the elimination phase. But I am not craving this stuff either,,,, at least at this point. I mentioned to my endo today that it was really a great time of year to do this because I will not nickel and dime my nutrition, like I usually do in December and I am not even tempted to do so. Pretty nice actually!

Seaweed shakes on the other hand :( I say again,,,bleh. If I was starving it would be ok and we put enough valuable produce in this shake that I am not going to throw it out, but Melissa has made it clear that she is not going to drink it and I don't blame here.

So that is my report for the day, I am getting up to spin at 5:45 hopefully with some friends, but for now, I have to go and find some dog poop to get the taste of that awful drink out of my mouth

Michael

Day 10 - Back in the Saddle

I know the title is day 10 but it really is more like....20 with my extended elimination phase.

I feel Great and am unbelievably feel like I am improving. Melissa told me this morning that the color in my eyes looks more vibrant. I still have people asking what the program the purpose is. The short story is, I saw and article online, bought a book and read it. I became convinced that I needed to jump start my body's detoxification system. You can see a cute little video about it on this website http://www.cleanprogram.com/ They sell supplements there, but you do not need to buy the supplements to do the program.

OK so Day 10 in my cleanse. Either my stomach is shrinking or there is a crazy amount of food on the lunch portion of this program, all I know is that I have leftovers every day. I ate more of the hummus and tabbouleh today and still have some left over for lunch tomorrow. I am taking a pro biotic as well 3 times per day that I purchased at a local healthfood store so that is the only supplement that I am indulging in besides my Reliv shakes.

We had almond butter mango smoothies for breakfast which were Delicious! Leftovers for lunch and leftover soup for dinner. We are drinking prodigious amounts of water and herbal tea as well.

Talk about energy, I did a spin class at LA fitness this morning, came home did some work around the house and then went to the CIBA winter training ride on the northside and did 44 miles non-stop, with strong winds that seemed to shift every time we changed direction and.... dare I say it.... HILLS! Yes more hills than I would have ever thought possible on the north side, mostly rollers actually but they looked a lot like hills.

All in all another great day in the Saddle.
Michael

Days 7 - 9 (The last 3 Days)

OK so I haven't posted for a couple of days but things were crazy

I stopped by home on my way to a JDRF Ride committee meeting on Thursday evening after work and saw that Melissa's car was in the garage, so I walked into the house expecting to see her in the kitchen blending something yummy but instead the house was dark and cold with no sounds of industry in the kitchen.

I walked in the bedroom and Melissa was buried under the covers with a bowl of Vomit sitting on the floor next to her, she claimed she didn't feel well.... I would guess that is totally true.

Our order from http://GreenBeanDelivery.com/ was supposed to have arrived so I went back outside found the insulated containers, brought them inside, deposited them in the dining room and headed back out to my meeting at the Broad Ripple Brew Pub. The Brew Pub had absolutely nothing on their menu that I could have for dinner so I had a bottle of water and some herbal tea for dinner.

After the meeting I returned home to survey the damage. I realized it must have been bad when I tripped over Melissa's coat in the kitchen before I could get the lights on. The breakfast dishes were still in the sink and my containers from my lunch had to be washed, so I planned to do that and work on a speech that I had to do for at 6:45 in the morning. It was about this time that I discovered that the bowl in the bedroom was not the only place Melissa had left her lunch. The sink was splattered with puke and there was not a rubber glove to be found in the house. So I sucked it up and put baggies on my hands to clean up the kale laced puke that seemed to be everywhere. Melissa was thirsty (obviously needing some more ammo to vomit with) so I got her a glass of water and set about my gruesome task. The next thing I knew it was late and I was not feeling well, but I did not want to take a chance on sleeping in the same bed with Melissa and taking a chance on getting the plague, so I slept for a few hours on the couch and got up at 3am to work on my speech.

The hard thing for me in writing Toastmasters speeches is making them fit the manuals. I had a couple of false starts in 2 different manuals and decided that I would just rewrite one that I had done a couple of times already. By the way, did I mention that I was feeling sick myself about now (so much for the quarentine) I had a Reliv shake for breakfast because I had squandered all my time for making a smoothie and I wasn't feeling all that hungry any way.

Needless to say I had my own little miniplague, but I went to work because I was hoping to go for a bike ride today and I didn't want to take off the day before and then go to work on monday and have them find out that I rode 100 miles over the weekend. I didn't feel well enough anyway, so I did an hour and a half on the indoor bike this afternoon instead.

This morning I got up and made a most excellant coco and mixed berry smoothie. Melissa was still not feeling all that great but she managed to swallow a little. I then packed up and went to the Winter Farmer's Market where I stocked up on $20 worth of local produce and bought $10 worth of granola that I can't eat right now, because I am a sucker for kids selling stuff.

The lunch portions today were like American portions, way to much so I felt stuffed after lunch. But we had marinated kale salad with pine nuts and radishes, the best tabbouleh and hummus that I have ever had and yes we made it ourselves!

We ate lunch late, so we are eating dinner late tonight as well. Melissa is still a little under the weather, but I am back at full fighting strength. :)

So 9 days in and I am getting the hang of eating this way and managing my insulin dosage. To give you an idea of how this is going, here is a log of how this cleanse has affected the amount of insulin that I am using.

The week before I started the precleanse elimination phase I used between 32 and 42 units of insulin per day which is normal. During the elimination week my use dropped to between 28 and 33 units. During the first day of the cleanse I used 21.6 and since have dropped to between 16 to 11.8 units. So the results are looking good.

I have a ton of energy and am picking my activity level steadily as I am becoming comfortable with how to manage my insulin.

So that's it for today,

See you next time

Michael