Tag: health

At Music City Tech today, I had the chance to watch Scott Hanselman deliver an opening keynote called Solving Diabetes with an Open Source Pancreas. It was an engaging and humorous talk that I enjoyed. Scott is a great speaker, and you can watch a previous recording from Webstock if you like.

I met Scott years ago, and he talked about his sensor at that time that got his blood sugar on his phone. At the time I thought that was cool, but in an abstract way. I’m blessed with good health as is my family. My eyes are bad and one of my ears is fairly broken, but those are really minor issues.

This is really my life, a shot from Scott’s talk.

I mostly do what I want and my blood sugar works well. In fact, my morning was wake up, a little hungry, but I hit the elliptical for a bit before eating breakfast. As a contrast, here’s another shot of what Scott does.

This past year, while coaching volleyball, one of my players was diagnosed with Type I diabetes. For a time I wasn’t sure if the player would return, and when she did, we had to be sure that she took time to prick her finger and check the reading during practice and tournaments. At some point she got a continuous glucose monitor, which Scott talked about, that sent readings to a small cell phone sized device. Over the season, all the girls learned to check the device periodically and warn the young lady or her mother if the numbers went too high or low.

I was quite impressed with the way this 14 year old managed her health, but more I realized just how lucky I am. As Scott delivered his talk, he also mentioned that he was lucky in that he’s in a first world country with the resources to manage his condition, something that many people struggle with.

Scott is working with the NightScout Foundation to use technology to try and automatically manage his diabetes. He has his real time blood sugar uploaded to the cloud so that he and his wife can track it, he gets data on his phone, and he has his pump low dosing him throughout the day. It’s an amazing system, and he even has his blood sugar appear in his git command prompt.

On one hand I’m amazed and thrilled that technology has really found  a way to help people improve their lives. On the other, it’s a maddening situation where proprietary systems limit the access and ability of most people to manage their health. My heart angers over corporate greed and feels anguish for the struggles that should be much more manageable.

If you feel this is your cause, check out NighScout and maybe get involved.

I’ve been avoiding recording podcasts for most of the last two weeks, so there haven’t been any. My apologies to those people that like the editorial as a podcast, but I’ve been ill and my voice is slightly shot.

After SQLBits, I took ill on the trip home. I had a miserable day in airplanes and then a complete day in bed when I got home. I can’t remember the last time I lay in bed for a day and didn’t do anything productive, but I didn’t bother to even turn on a computer.

It’s been a week and a half, and I’m still a little down. My chest is a bit tight and my voice is weak. At least I’m not feverish as I spent a solid week of fever coming and going, as well as alternating chills and sweats throughout the days and nights.

With a few commitments coming up (SQL Sat Silicon Valley and a Microsoft recording scheduled), I decided to rest things as best I can. Even my assistant coaching volleyball has had me miming actions and softly talking to kids rather than trying to push through.

Traveling is hard, and apparently my two weeks abroad didn’t end well. I’m not quite sure what I caught, but it appears to be some sort of flu bug that is lingering.

Hopefully I’ll be back to full strength before too long, but if I’m a little slow or quiet at events, you’ll know why.

Disclosure: It hasn’t been 10 days, but I wanted to write something at this point, after 7 days. I know some of you are trying to be more healthy, so I’m posting some thoughts.

Let me cut to the chase, and then some thoughts. First, this is a week for me with no coffee, no alcohol, no soda, and almost no food. I’m amazed I got here. I’ve lost 12+ pounds from when I started.

I’ve been doing the Green Smoothie Cleanse with my wife. For the last seven days, I’ve been subsisting on

1. green smoothies (I get 64oz/day)
2. decaf tea (green and detox)
3. carrots
4. grapes
5. nuts
6. hard boiled eggs
7. peanut butter (and cashew butter, which is really good)
8. water

That’s it. I drink about 4 of these a day:

And these smoothies, usually in 3-4 chunks.

Lovely, huh?

I’m hungry often, but mostly I’m unsatisfied. It’s a mixed bag for me. I’ve lost weight. I think I’m slimmer and healthier, but I also think about food. A lot. All the time.

I also think about how I think about food. I realize it’s comfort for me, and probably need to take less comfort and be more careful.

It’s been an interesting week. Three days to go and then I’ll be back on a semi normal diet. There is a transition with one smoothie and then better eating. I’ll try that a bit, but I spend 10 days traveling for work, which will be tough. At least I’m more aware of what I eat and what I can tolerate with regards to hunger.