New Habits; Old Habits

Weight loss is something that has been a hit or miss for me. Mostly, a miss -- I tried various diets. I worked with a personal trainer. I got nowhere. Even my trainer was puzzled on why some days things I was doing just the week before was kicking my butt -- like really kicking my butt -- and why the scale wasn't moving. Sure, my diet wasn't "great", but it wasn't bad either.  After almost half a year with her, I quit. We were struggling to make the payments and with no results why was I paying.

I let it go and after several months, maybe a year or more I decided to talk to my doctor. That and I was slowly climbing in weight and becoming more and more unhappy.  Well, I talked to the doctor, told her what was going on: not being able to lose weight, being extremely tired all the time, lack of energy, etc. She gave me a couple of referrals: a family doctor that specializes in obesity and a pulmonologist that specializes in sleep disorders.

The pulmonologist took my info and immediately had me do a sleep study. The results: I have sleep apnea. Guess what if you have sleep apnea you have a hard time losing weight and you suffer from fatigue.  The obesity doctor listened to my story and told me she wanted me to do my best to start cutting carbs and added sugars out of my diet. She also ordered some blood work to be done. Results: Vitamin B deficiency, Vitamin D deficiency, and insulin resistance/high insulin (NOT diabetes my blood sugar is perfect). Guess what if you have those things you have a hard time losing weight and you suffer from fatigue.

So I have 4 confirm diagnoses that all have the same symptoms. All of which is a contributing factor to my weight, besides my own eating habits, and my constant fatigue, lack of energy etc. And those eating habits: Yes, my diet was a bit carb heavy some days, but overall, it wasn't so much food by volume. So cut the carbs, cut the added sugars, drink more water, start sleeping every night with a cpap machine and start taking the vitamin supplements and medicine for the insulin resistance.

All of this with the obesity doctor and sleep doctor started the end of April beginning of May 2017. So about 8 months. I have had ups and downs the last 8 months. Some weeks I have done better -- I was doing really good for a while, but this last couple of months especially since right before Christmas has been the toughest. I have slowly been slipping back into old habits. Late night snacks. Eating more then I should. I have watched the scale slowly creep back up. 

Overall I have lost, but if I continue to let these old habits creep back in I'm not going to see weight loss. I'm upset with myself for allowing my old habits to kick in and I find myself excusing it by saying "Tomorrow will be better!" "I will stick with it tomorrow."

Truth is -- tomorrow will never come. I know it won't.  I need to just grab it by the horns and quit making excuses and quit saying "tomorrow".

It took months to get to this point and I don't want to lose sight of the end goal. I have a long way to go but I need to do this.

Sleep Apnea and Cpap

Living life is hard when you are feeling tired all of the time.  I couldn't understand why even if I went to bed a decent hour I was tired all the time.  I couldn't even lay down to watch TV without dozing off.

When you are tired all the time you simply don't have the energy to do what you should be doing, want to do, etc.  After talking to my husband we decided I should say something to the doctor. So I did. The doctor recommended me to a sleep specialist, who after seeing me decided I should have a sleep study done.

What did the sleep study reveal? I have severe sleep apnea. Severe. My AHI score was 52 and my O2 levels dropped down to 70%. I still don't fully understand what AHI means and how they came up with that score. I just know that an AHI score of 0-5 is normal and that anything over 30 is considered severe.  I also know having the 02 drop too is a huge issue.

I was fitted with a CPAP machine this week. I have had it now for 4 nights. I wish I could say it is making me feel better -- it's too early to feel any differences; it's only been 4 night, but I do know from my (afflink) Garmin Vivofit that I'm getting more deep sleep the last 4 nights then I have ever gotten -- ever! So even though I'm not feeling any differences, not yet, the fact I'm getting more deep sleep should mean something.

I know from reading up on CPAP and from family and friends that have a CPAP it takes some time to get use to it.  Overall I'm adjusting okay. The first night was horrid. Much like the night of the sleep study, I was having a hard time. The second night didn't bother me much and the last 2 nights haven't bothered me much.  Having the mask on, the pressure, all of that isn't so bad -- what is bother me is the tip of my nose and nostrils. It's not dry nose; it's not congestion (all though I did have that the first 2 nights), it's the tip of my nose and nostrils. -- they hurt and are sore to the touch. I don't know why. It's odd and hard to explain.

I at first thought it was the nose mask I'm wearing. It has nostril plugs. So I switched to another mask for the 3rd night -- one without nostril plugs -- but I still had the same issue. Actually, I had more issues. The mask without the nostril plugs leaked too much and made me have more restless sleep.

I was given a sleep coach -- it's her job to make sure I become complaint. The insurance requires I wear the CPAP and it's her job to make sure I do and give me tips, help, advice so I become complaint. Thanks to modern technology, wifi, 3g/4g networks, and wireless devices they know if I'm being complaint. got.

Yesterday, I was at lunch with my hubby at a local restaurant and during lunch, my phone rang. It was the sleep coach.  Here I am out to eat with my husband and here she is able to tell me exactly what my settings on my machine are at, adjust them, and how long I have been using it, if I have air leaks, etc. It was so weird and a bit scary for me for her to have all this info.

If you have been following me for a while you know I hate data mining and avoid many things because of data mining, but here I am being forced to use a machine that does exactly that. It records when I go to bed, when I wake up, and now I have the doctors and insurance company accessing it.

Yes, I use an activity tracker and yes that is a form of data mining. However, the key difference is that activity tracker is for my eyes only -- I have more control over who sees it, if they see it, when they see it, what they see. With the CPAP I don't have choices or control really.  The doctor has access, the sleep coach has access, the insurance company has access, and the home health care facility that issued me the machine has access.

Well anyway, that is where things are currently at with the CPAP and the Apnea.

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