Earlier this month I posted I was going to wait for my doctor’s surgery to get in touch and in the meantime keep on keeping on.

In the days after publishing that post I recognised an increasing pattern of feeling very spaced out at the end of the working day. I’ve been having it a bit recently. Maybe it is just because of work, which just intensifies in the afternoon, becoming a more synchronous experience with my teammates, the nudges and interruptions, the task and context switching getting more regular after lunch. Maybe.

Sleep? At worst I have been getting six hours, at best eight hours, usually it is about seven hours. Not too bad.

Maybe it is my diet.

Was I skipping lunch? No. Sometimes I was having closer to 2pm than 12pm.

Was I having small or large lunches? Nothing small, but not huge.

Was I having regular sups of drinks through the day? I thought I was. (And I limit myself to two coffees and no more after lunchtime.)

Was I having too much squash rather than water? Dunno.

Was I having a little snack around 3:30pm to 4pm? Seemed to be.

Was the snack causes too much of a spike? How could I know that?

I have tried keeping a light record of all of this and looking through my notes I was struggling to see a pattern.

Last week I had a day when I wasn’t really on my Macbook, working through something with print outs, on paper, with pens, on the whiteboards. I would say it was a steady day. And it ended with me feeling pretty spaced out again. I wondered if it was anything to do with my blood sugar levels.

I like to understand with data. What could I do to get that data?

A few people had made me aware of blood glucose monitoring I could do myself. This would mean getting a tracker. A few recommendations for a FreeStyle Libre (not a Nacho Libre, must remember that) and I ordered a starter kit, a reader and two sensors. You stick a sensor to the back of your arm (a small needle like sensor pokes under your skin), they last for two weeks, you scan the sensor every few hours with the reader (or using an app on your phone), data builds up. This week I started wearing a sensor.

It’s too soon to say I have learned much. My blood glucose goes up a bit shortly after eating, nothing too high, but comes back down steadily enough. That seems normal. I am waiting for a day I feel pretty spaced out again and see what the readings are then. And another one. Maybe it won’t be down to my blood sugar levels – but I am enjoying learning how my body works as I go along.

Original source – Simon Wilson

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