If you have been reading these updates, you'd read about my grumblings over my bathroom scale. It was unreliable and annoying the heck out of me. It is at this point in my life, that I would like a reliable way to measure my weight. I want to see my progress as I lose weight.

So I got a new scale, a Weight Watchers Digital Glass Scale from Costco. It seems to be more reliable so far. Moving it around does not change the result, and it reads down to 0.1 lbs compared to 0.5 lbs on the old one. My wife likes it too, although she insists I not be in the same room when she uses it.

Blood Pressure

Recently I went a few days without a good bike ride, or some kind of work out to get the heart rate up. I noticed that my blood pressure has suffered for it. I need to exercise regularly to keep my blood pressure in range, not just the medications. I found an article about the link to exercise and blood pressure here. Years ago, I thought exercise would solve everything, but it does not. It does well in helping with my blood pressure, but not my blood glucose level. For that, I have learned that a low carbohydrate diet is the solution.

Dr Visit

I got to see my doctor today. I made his day, with my huge drop in A1C over 3 months. We measured my weight, and I had lost 10 Kg (about 22 lbs) in the last 2 months. My blood pressure is doing well, especially when I am including exercise. During the last 2 months, I informed him I had discontinued 2 medications, that were no longer needed. All the results are good, proving that I am doing the right thing for the past 3 months. It was like passing a test with flying colours.

I feel I have taken control of my own health, and my doctor is more like a consultant. I make the decisions, based on the numbers. My doctor can provide advice, and confirm my decisions. It feels good to be in the driver's seat.

As I was leaving, I thought that usually with diabetes patients the trend is for them to get progressively worse. I am one of those rare few who are getting better. I have talked to friends, who just cannot imagine stopping eating a high carbohydrate diet with rice/bread/potatoes etc. They are on the path I was, and I can't convince them to change.

New Meters

I have been using blood glucose meters from OneTouch for as long as I can remember. For the last 3 months, I have been using a OneTouch Ultra Mini.

Anyways, as a programmer, I noticed some issues, and I report them to customer service. I thought they could then update their software. Instead, the nice customer service rep sent me 2 new meters, the OneTouch Verio Flex and the OneTouch VerioIQ. So I am upgrading, hoping that the issues I found in the software were in the meter, and not the upload program as I thought. Time will tell.

OneTouch is a brand of LifeScan Canada, which is a division of Johnson & Johnson Inc. They are smart. They make their money on the test strips, not the meters. Since I test 6-8 times a day, I go through a lot of test strips. They can afford to keep me in meters, so that I don't stray to their competition. In reality, I would have been happy if they fix the software, I was even thinking of offering to give them a hand.

A big part of my strategy is self-monitoring of blood glucose. It works, and I have results to prove it.

Disclaimer: I am not a doctor. This is based on my own experience. Your mileage may vary. Check with your doctor before doing anything drastic based on what I wrote above.