Pre-diabetes and sleep apnoea

Thursday:

I've been a bit worried lately about my pre-diabetes. I ran out of test strips for my meter a while ago but I have more now; yesterday I tested my blood glucose level six times during the day after eating my usual kind of diet. Five of the numbers were bad. Ironically, the only normal one was a couple of hours after two big homemade choc chip cookies.

One of the (many) reasons I struggle to start eating healthy is that I get paralysed by choice. Should I just count calories or go low-carb or low-fat or Paleo or no-sugar or no-sugar AND no-grain or CSIRO diet or Weight Watchers or carb cycling or intermittent fasting or intuitive eating or just exercise a lot while eating whatever I like? I flip flop between wanting to make huge changes to get fast results, or baby steps to be more sustainable. Too many choices!

Well my body is telling me more and more clearly that it cannot handle "normal" amounts of carbohydrate. It's not just a matter of being overweight and all the problems that brings, every time my blood glucose spikes it is doing my body damage. Destroying beta cells in my pancreas. Damaging blood vessels. Downward spiral into diabetes.

So the choice has been made for me. Carb moderation. I am not cutting out any particular foods/quasi-foods, but I am restricting carbohydrate to one serving in each meal and snack. One piece of fruit. One potato. One slice of bread. A couple of squares of chocolate. I know that so far my blood glucose levels are totally under my control as long as I watch my carbohydrate intake.

I don't know how I can have little bursts of worry about this then slip back into apathy - or at least not caring enough to stay committed.

My other area of focus right now is my sleep apnoea. With people inspecting our home I would have had to pack up and unpack the CPAP three times a week and I just couldn't be bothered. Also I've had the flu with runny nose and sore throat and cough etc, which does not go at all well with a CPAP mask (I use nose pillows). The result is, I haven't used it for a month or so. Well my flu is better (finally) and today is the last inspection with the auction this evening. No more excuses. I'm using my CPAP every night until we move (I like short term goals). I hate wearing it, but I need it. My brain needs oxygen. And it's hard to be at my best when I'm constantly tired.

The past couple of weeks I've been saying to myself "I'm too stressed right now, I'll worry about it after we sell the house" so it might seem odd I'm talking about this today rather than tomorrow (assuming we even sell tonight). But my body is giving me very clear signals I need to deal with it now. And what am I asking of myself, after all? Eat a bit less carb, wear my CPAP. Hardly torture.