THURSDAY. Another slump day, but I had an encouraging insight that maybe it’s not so much a lack of willpower by itself, but health issues exacerbated by my self-care routine when I am sick.

Oh yeah, I have Type II Diabetes

While I’ve been sick, I have been eating a lot of comfort food like chicken pot pies, cookies, curry, rice, and fun soft drinks. A lot of sugars, starches, and processed carbs, in other words. With my terrible sleep schedule I have not also been taking my medicine at regular times. It occurred to me today, feeling extremely fatigued to the point I could barely move, that maybe my diet was screwing up my blood sugar.

I’ve noticed that my primary care physicians haven’t been really pushy on the diabetes diagnosis. In fact, I didn’t even realize I had type II diabetes until October last year, when I flat-out asked my new PCP if I had it. “Yes, you do” she said. My previous doctor had put me on medication and had advised diet changes, but had never actually SAID that the medicine I was taking was for treating diabetes. I also got the impression from my doctors that they don’t really expect people to be able to change diet and lifestyle; it’s probably easier to try to medicate the issues away rather than sternly promote serious changes for health.

Anyway, I read-up on “fatigue related to diabetes” and a whole host of symptoms popped up; it seemed plausible that my diet has been contributing to these feeling of malaise and lethargy, compounded by poor sleep hygiene and irregular medication patterns. Being sick didn’t help either. I think my cold is largely passed now; the lingering deep cough seems to have cleared up today.

Today I started to regularize my diet, cooking leafy greens from scratch (or microwaving frozen ones). I added some protein in the form of pork. I did allow myself the smallest nibble of chocolate+hazelnut just to kickstart my afternoon, and have been monitoring my energy levels since. My cousin suggested that eating just a little bit less to satisfaction helped him not get sleepy, so I have been eating a LOT LESS than usual to maintain a small edge of hunger. I just made dinner (pictured above) and so far I’m not crashing. Perhaps by tomorrow, I will have normalized my blood sugar and will have a less tired, foggy day. We shall see! I can not abide the notion that my mind is broken because my physical systems are suboptimal; if focus returns and persists due to better eating patterns, then that is a huge incentive to get healthy.

Guitar Humidifiers

The guitar humidifiers arrived yesterday, and I got some distilled water to use with them. The particular brand I got was “Oasis”, in two styles: the Oasis Plus+ is for use when the humidity drops below 40% (as it does here in frigid New England weather), and the regular one for when it rises above. These are “gel type” humidifiers, which hold its water in the gel crystals and release it slowly through a one-way fabric barrier. As the water evaporates over the next 5-10 days, the fabric actually crumples up so you can tell it needs refilling. I thought it was a cool idea.

I don’t actually have a hygrometer to measure relative humidity, but I’m thinking I should get one. It’s been VERY DRY in the house even with my humidifier going full blast (it may need a new filter), and my face feels gross even with the nice Korean moisturizer all over it. I’m looking forward to the weather getting warmer.

That’s it for today! Here’s today’s What’s Up Dave livestream, recorded earlier in the afternoon if you’d rather hear me rattle on in person.