Hey! I learned something!
I forgot to take my metformin this morning at 7am! OMG! What shall I do?
Well, according to Wikipedia, the half life is between 4 to 8.7 hours. I assumed 6 hours. Thanks to a little googling, the formula to use is below. I modelled it based on taking my morning pill at 5pm when I got home and skipping my evening pill (which is not at 7pm, but usually around 9pm to 11pm), and:
The formula:
I like useful math
Been a long time since I posted. Lots of stuff going on; no lack of that; just lack of priority… Well, one of the things I’m looking at is “why did I post”, looking at those motives, calling them into question, and redirecting energies. That could have been another post, if I were to post that stuff .. see how meta this is?
Anyhow, here’s an interesting thing that developed over the last few days. I started feeling crummy, definitely crummy by Monday 7pm or so. Ended up with a fever. Better now. Looked back at Heart Rate data, and … I can tell! That heat has to come from somewhere, right?
Sunday is provided as a reference for a normal day. HR hanging between 70 and 100.
In case it was a stomach bug – Monday 9am: Instant Oatmeal from Aldi 12pm: Chipotle Steak Bowl
Monday, about 3pm, you can see it start to rise. I didn’t realize I was sick until about 6pm. At the time, the single read temperature was 98.9 degrees, compared to my normal of 98.6 or is it 96.8 I can never remember… not enough to count.
Tuesday, I had an important meeting at work, so I went in .. then headed home. Slept a long time. About 6pm, actually detected the fever at 100.5, took a Tylenol. Heart rate and fever started marching back down.
Wednesday – kinda-working-from-home — my appetite seems to be coming back.
Pretty cool stuff.
Life has been in flux since the end of March. I thought I’d take April off and recharge, but life had other plans. In very short order:
Not going to dwell there. However, the last one is launching me in the following directions:
This LEAFS me in a bind. the EV thing is huge. Do I blog about it? Do I tweet about it? Does anybody care? Do I just tell my friends? Should I vlog? ???
I’ve started a thread on Facebook – on a photo – where I’m taking questions. https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10156221680033444 .. if you have any questions, please feel free to ask there, leaf a comment comment here, or tweet at me @sunjeevgulati.
I’ve got a spreadsheet going where I’m keeping track of charge-times and distances travelled. I’m sure there will be a blog post on that later.
Overall, the map of what I’ve learned so far, thanks to draw.io. Green = specific to me. If you’re buying a LEAF, you will learn what these things are.
Gah, found a bug. “S” Trimlevel also has a 3.3 Kwh charger. And note, these are all pre-2018 LEAF’s.. they seriously upgraded in 2018. Used price on those isn’t low enough yet, I needed a car payment under $300, which is also why no Tesla Model 3 
Enough for now.
Now that we have youtube, I watched some videos on “Fitting” a cycle. Armed with that info – maybe my bicycle is not the best fit for me, but I could change some things.
I rode the same route three times .. ignore the dark part, that’s me putting the app on “pause”, but apparently it continues to record while doing so, which is actually great. Its about 1.1 miles mostly up-hill. I did it three times ..
Look at the pink. That’s my speed going up the hill. Note how second and third ones were definitely better.
Look at orange. That’s my heart rate. Look at how second and third ones were higher.
Here’s what it was:
This could also all be B.S. It could also be that:
Things I did not do that would probably make things even better:
Things that I am doing already:
The real test will be riding to work .. I hope on Monday .. and compare that against last Monday, see how I do.
I am excited.
Looking at (some) of my numbers from this round of getting back into running –
Most of the numbers are in about the same line – the green line (which is data between 7/2 and 7/19).
You can see me actually being worse than the blue line (which is data from 6/3 – 6/10).
However, notice that once I got serious and did a “long run” at low HR (the 125 HR on 7/19 which ended up at 90 minutes), my next performance jumped to the north significantly. This is what HR training (LONG and slow, 50% between L1 and L2) can do for you.
Or, maybe I’m full of falafel and the next piece of data I get will be completely different.
This is kinda fun. I wonder if I could convert this into a 3D sculpture of sort.
I am investigating different ways to go about eating. First up to try: Blue Apron.
There are a gazillion reviews of it, so I won’t focus there; instead I’ll go for my reaction.
First, here’s a timelapse of me preparing https://www.blueapron.com/recipes/potato-artichoke-quiches-with-romaine-orange-salad . The time covered is from 5:54pm to 7:15pm or so – from the time my wife picks the recipe to me plating the food.
Going through the video at normal speed, and inventorying myself:
| Stage | Their Est | Me | Comments |
| analyze recipe so I don’t miss anything. | (none) | 5:56-6:04 8 min |
The text is pretty scrunchy, so I convert it to a flowchart of sorts. I don’t refer to the flowchart again, but connecting all the things in a flow helps me consider everything. |
| Get Hardware | (none) | 6:05-6:08 3 min |
Pots, pans, salt, pepper, oil, etc… and bowls for ingredients. |
| Unpack food | (none) | 6:08-6:11 3 min |
Sorting 2 recipes, I had already made one. |
| Arrange | (none) | 6:11-6:13 2 min |
I wanted everything easily visible and available in its own bowl. |
| Prep | 15 min | 6:13-6:31 18 min |
I slowed down on the orange, I think. It was frozen-ish and my hands got numb. |
| Cook: | 35-45 min | 6:32-7:14 48 min |
Broken down further |
| Taters | 12-13 min | 6:33-6:46 | 13 minutes |
| Taters+Art | 2-3 min | 6:46-6:49 | 3 minutes |
| Mix with Egg | 6:50-6:52 | Everything till starting to pour them in | |
| Pour them | 6:52-6:53 | I was afraid of missing. | |
| Bake | 18-20 min | 6:54-7:14 | 20 minutes. Thank you Timer. |
| Salad | 6:58-7:01 | (Extra Salad Chopping) | |
| Plating | 7:14-7:16 | 2 minutes | |
| (eating) | Not included in the time lapse. | ||
| Cleanup | 7:35-7:44 | Unload + Load Dishwasher, Clean stove. |
So end-to-end time with no technical debt: 2 hours.
It was quality time, with my wife hanging in the Kitchen with me as we chatted about stuff.
To try to analyze it more objectively, I think its a 3-D plot.
For Health Level, its a bit arbitrary. 1= bottom, 2=mid, 3=good. Circle size = bigger = healthier.
I did not include Tastiness.
The labels overlapped, its in the bottom right of the grid.
So,
When viewed through this lens, I guess its okay. Its not earth-shatteringly better, its just.. more tuned.
You have to like, and have the time, for the cooking.
If you like cooking, and hate shopping, and like trying new things, it would be PERFECT for you.
For me, cooking is okay, the hard thing for me is the time.
I have one more recipe from them to try, then its off to Green Chef or something like that.
Very quickly – don’t have time to make this too pretty..
This is an overlay of two charts.
Import to excel, Fixed width
Formulas (click to zoom) – Hint: Don’t reset the counter, its easier if you don’t.
I do a full-hand test, I do a per-finger test averaged; and I do that for both left and right hands.
The set of lines along the top = Left hand, my good hand.
The set of lines along the bottom = Right hand, my recovering hand.
I think what I’m seeing is, I had a nice bit of recovery, and then I started using my hand more, and so my recovery has slowed down, but its still recovering.
I am writing this blog post mostly using a microphone.
I think I’ll try to do this in one shot, clean it up later but keep the original version around, so that the blemishes and problems with voice dictation can be seen.This is not a good sample though, because I am not using a headset: my Turtle Beach microphone has a TRS connector and the Samsung Surface doesn’t have that input.
I am having difficulty using my right hand (lateral epicondylitis) and in an effort to heal I am choosing not to use it for at least 3 weeks. This has led to several discoveries:
There are several things built into the muscle memory of my right hand. For example in Visual Studio, Intellisense. When a suggestion shows, to choose it is apparently down arrow enter, but when my left hand tried, it tried pressing enter and did not know about the down arrow involved.
I discovered that my brain would output code at the same speed that my hands could put it in. (Perhaps my brain puts it out faster than my hands can put it in and that is why I am having a problem). Now down to typing with one hand, I simply cannot keep up! I get frustrated, and the thoughts that were in my brain disappear leaving me wondering what I was typing.
I have to reevaluate how I am going to be effective at coding over the next few weeks.
I am going to see a doctor whom I trust and see where she thinks I should go. I am hoping that rest will let my body self heal, but if there are major tears in the tendon etc that might need a different level of attention. I am very reluctant to go there. I have heard that once you invade, complications arise. Bottom line: I need diagnostic stuff, x-ray or something, to determine what the state of things are under the skin.
I have been trying to find resources online that state exactly what the mechanism is for ice and compression leading to healing. I see a lot of sources that indicate that inflammation in the body’s attempt to recover in which case how can I get more inflammation? 🙂 (A: Graston Method is one.)
I have another problem as well: by using my left hand more now, it too is in danger of burning out. Friday I think my active left arm hurt more than my slinged right arm.
I have watched videos of people using various speech synthesis program to do programming. my reaction was: OMG that is so slow! I am hoping that if I do something like draw onto paper first and get the code out quickly, then I will be able to take my time typing it into the computer in a relaxed and optimal way. I wonder if I could hook up a midi keyboard to something that types in code for me. lots and lots of macros.
Something very nice about my current employer colon he has had to go to this kind of pain as well, about two years ago.
Here are the various tools and tricks that I have learned:
Typing one handed with a living room style small chicklet keyboard: this minimizes travel distance between keys; however I had a hard time finding a small keyboard which also had function keys. Wife and I found one, will try it on Monday.
I am now much more aware of the muscle tension in my forearm while typing. Normally I would tense up everything and then out would come a burst of keystrokes. I am now trying to be aware of keeping everything relaxed and returning to zero after every keystroke.
Four ways of limiting motion:
1. Tennis elbow brace – bad. cut off a lot of blood circulation and ended up being less than effective, because my problem is along the entire length of the muscle / tendon and not just in the elbow region.
2. Sling: a lot better. the first two days using the sling, my hand definitely went into repair and recovery mode. however, the sling dug into my neck of lot and can be very uncomfortable.
3. Athletic Tape: bind my right hand fingers together to prevent the temptation to use them.
4. Wear a glove on my right hand: this is very effective in stopping me from using it accidentally. However, it is not as healing for my hand as a sling, but it is better on my neck.
I find it very funny that my attempt to say third came out as a turd
Another thing that deserves a metnion is KT tape. I used it for a week or so prior to becoming serious and using a sling. It provides a lot of good support, but at the expense of skin sensitivity, as the support comes from elasticity of the skin. Eventually the skin rebels.
And now I have a cat who is trying to use the microphone as well
So I have this amazing opportunity color to re-evaluate how I work, as well as something that forces me to choose what I do with my time. I am certainly not going to play much Elite dangerous, nor am I going to work on my side project, until this is better – trying to save my hands for generating income. I could probably get around playing American Truck Simulator with my steering wheel and using my left hand just like driving my car. However, there’s only two cities left to visit, I’m probably going to wait for the DLC / Arizona to show up before I play it more.
No, I now have an opportunity to catch up on several books that I have not yet read, and to focus on working out and nutrition and things like that.
However, right now I am sad and just want to say cluck it all and watch TV shows and hide. and that’s okay, it’s just part of Grief. I am not sure I am out of denial yet. Maybe I’m near the pyramids. get it? Denial? the Nile? Ed used to make that joke all the time.
The other disadvantage of a voice dictation is that this laptop keeps thinking I am not doing anything, and shutting off in the middle of a sentence
Wish me well! I am now going to go back through this post and use my left hand to edit it so it is readable. I also had a cat volunteer to sit on my right hand helping me not use it.
I am writing this blog post mostly using a microphone.
I think I’ll try to do this in one shot and then clean it up later but keep the original version around so that it’s blemishes can be seen. space this is not a good sample though, because I am not using a headset comma because my Turtle Beach microphone has a TRS connector which My Little surface Samsung sing sing thing doesn’t have an input for
I am having difficulty using my right hand insert black muscle Palma and in an effort to heal this hand I am choosing not to use it for at least 3 weeks. this has led to several discoveries hole in the line
There are several things that I take for granted that are built into the muscle memory of my right hand for example in Visual Studio Computing intelligence is apparently down arrow enter, but I didn’t. Know that my right hand you that when my left hand try to do the same thing it tried just pressing enter and did not know about the down arrow involved
Other thing I discovered is that for many years, my brain would output code at the same speed that my hands could put it in. perhaps my brain puts it out faster than my hands and put it in and that is why I am having a problem. Now down to typing with one hand, I simply cannot keep up the mycohl I get frustrated, and the thoughts that were in my brain disappear leaving me wondering what I was typing. I have to reevaluate how I am going to be effective at coding over the next few weeks.
My solution plan is currently very simple: I am going to see a doctor whom I trust and see where she thinks I should go. I am hoping that rest will let my body curious, but if there are major tears in the tendon or something like that color that might need a different level of attention. I am very reluctant to go there. Center Center
I have another problem as well: by using my left hand more now, it too is in danger of burning out.
I have watched videos of people using various speech synthesis program to do programming. my reaction was color oh my God that is so slow exclamation I am hoping that if I do something like hold onto paper first and get the pot out quickly, then I will be able to take my time putting the code in to the computer in a relaxed and optimal way.
Something very nice about my current employer colon he has had to go to this kind of pain as well, about two years ago
Here are the various tools and tricks that I have learned colon um
Typing one handed with a living room style small chiclet keyboard color this minimizes travel distance between keys semicolon however I had a hard time finding a small keyboard which also had function keys
At first using a tennis elbow brace, however. Cut off a lot of blood circulation and ended up being less than effective, because my problem is along the entire length of the muscle / tendon and not just in the elbow region
Second attempt is using a sling, and that has worked a lot better. the first two days using the sling Kama my hand definitely went into repair and recovery mode. however, the slang dig into my neck of lot and can be very uncomfortable align
Turd was to use either some athletic To find my right hand fingers together to prevent the temptation to use them, or to wear a large fingerless mittens on my right hand colon this is very effective in stopping me from using it accidentally. However, it is not as healing for my hand as a link, but it is better on my neck
I find it very funny that my attempt to say third came out as a turd
I have been trying to find resources online that state exactly what the mechanism is for ice and swelling leading to Healing. I see a lot of sources that indicate that inflammation in the body’s attempt to recover in which case how can I get more information? 🙂 New York
And now I have a cat who is trying to use the microphone as well
So I have this amazing opportunity color to re-evaluate how I work, as well as something that forces me to choose what I do with my time. I am certainly not going to play much Elite dangerous, nor am I going to work on my side project until this is better Kama trying to save my hands for generating income. I could probably get around playing American Truck Simulator with my steering wheel and using my left hand just like driving my car. Uline no, I now have an opportunity to catch up on several books that I have not yet read, and to focus on working out and nutrition and things like that.
However, right now I I am sad and Hi just want to say cluck it all and watch TV shows and hide. and that’s okay, it’s just part of Greece. I am not sure I am out of denial yet. Maybe I’m near the pyramids. get it? Denial? the space and I on? The Nile River? Ed used to make that joke all the time.
The other disadvantage of a voice dictation is that this laptop keeps thinking I am not doing anything, and shutting off in the middle of a sentence
Wish me well! I am now going to go back through this post and use my left hand to edit it so it is readable.
Reading a book called “The Four Hour Body”. It pointed out that even in really high GI things like Orange Juice, it might take 30 minutes for the full blood sugar thing to take effect. And pasta, 1.5 hours. This was based on a normie wearing a CGM and measuring.
Then, separately? not in the book? doing the math: 100 mg/dL vs 5 L of blood (at best) = 5g of “sugar stored in the blood” buffer. That’s way less than a meal.
So, I used to think that my blood was like this bucket that sugar got dumped into, and it hung out there till insulin took it somewhere else. Well, that is kinda what happens, but “bucket” is incorrect.
Its more like a temporary sponge, a small buffer, that happily holds about 5g. Its a transport. It can overflow. at 7.5g, bad things start to happen. at 15g (300 mg/dL) really bad things happen.
The things that deposit into it:
Liver during glucogenisis (body saying holy shift too low need more glucose), and digestion.
Things that consume it:
Ah, so here’s the happy little insulin thing. Insulin definitely acts as the door-knocker that knocks on doors and tells them to open up and let the sugar in. Which doors, one might ask?
Apparently there’s the doors on the Fat cells. Yay Fat Cells! Helping me survive the next famine, when all the little hamburgers are migrating off on the west coast at the In and Out watering hole.
But there’s also another door – the doors in active muscle tissue.
So if you do 40 air squats (i can do 10, need to build up), that activates something in your muscles, specifically your big thigh quadriceps, that says “HOO BOY does ANYBODY have any GLUCOSE please?” .. and the insulin happily helps deliver it. Drains the buffer, clears the sponge, ready for more digestion. Follow that up with some nice pushups – or pullups, dude, if you can do them .. targeting the nice big muscles. Nice big sponges. Or go walk up 12 flights of stairs. Oh yeah.
I’m not sure how long after the exercise that receptor (he mentions it in his book, but not at the tips of my fingers) stays on. I don’t have a CGM to help tell me, and I’m not spending the $, as I’m not type I, its not covered.
I’m also not sure if the action of delivering sugar to the blood is entirely osmosis or not. Ie, there could be a large store of sugar in your digestive tract at some concentration, and when your blood drops below that concentration, then it migrates over. Which lends itself to, what gut bacteria exist, and do they consume any of that sugar, and what’s the effects of that. I don’t know the answers to that.
The point is, 1-2 hours after a meal which might have too much carb, one can use exercise to help “soak up” the sugar. One does not have to burn that many calories, just activate it enough so that the muscles soak the sugar up. Note that muscles can only hold a certain amount, though, i think its up to 100g? your whole body can do about 400g total storage?
The key numbers I’ve heard is that you want to get down below 140 mg/dL, to prevent certain kinds of cell death; and then below about 100 mg/dL the body (for normals) stops putting out chunks of insulin; and once the insulin is gone, then your body can get back to finding other sources of glucose, like burning Fat.
What brought this up:
We went to see Marvel Age of Ultron on Wednesday night. We had Noodles & Co for dinner, and then shared a large popcorn and M&M’s and a coke. LOTS of sugar.
After the movie, got home, took my sugar. If it was over 140, i was going for a walk. It was 235. I went for the walk. Got back 40 minutes and 2 miles later, 171. Waited 30 minutes.. check again, is my body still dumping it into my system? No, 146. So its getting soaked up. Good. I don’t feel so helpless.
Note: my perspectives only. Not a scientist, no research, just reading. Could be wrong.
I hate what sugar does to me.
And by sugar, I also mean simple Carbs like Bread and Donuts. Especially Donuts.
Yet, here I was again. Friday Donuts showed up in the office. “I wonder if it tastes just as good?” I get tired of the mental battle. I give in. Chomp. The chocolate glazed one is sickeningly sweet. So I eat the sugar raised one instead, that one is almost perfect. Slug some more coffee after it.
Here’s what it does for me, if I am to be honest:
Under the hood, here’s what I believe is happening:
Even further under the hood, here’s more of what’s happening:
And why the heck do I need a donut anyway? These answers are specific to my weakness:
Lately, I’ve been listening to the Primal Potential podcast, and I read through the Bulletproof Diet book, and I’m trying something:
This was my plan till the Donuts showed up this morning.
My new plan is to surrender to the donut. Or the cake, or the pop tart.
Delayed gratification. Let my body run without large insulin spikes until after lunch, if possible. After the lunch spike dies down, then subject it to Donut. Then the subsequent crash doesn’t affect my work-day.
Reserving the right to eat a bite of the donut, and throw the rest in the trash. That’s a possibility too. Preferably at 3pm.
