Best Defense is a Good Offense

A good friend of mine was a local basketball star in the small town where we grew up. He was interviewed by a local paper.  The reporter asked, "what is the secret to the team's success"? The reply was, "the best defense is a good offense, and the best offense is a good defense."  Keep in mind he was likely 17 years old at the time.  I still make fun of this quote to this day, because it was so good on the spot, yet makes me tilt my head to the side like a dog trying to understand what you are saying.

I have been focusing on my health more and more for the past 6 months.  This was all before COVID-19 and stay at home orders.  For the first time, I am working with a personal trainer for exercise and nutrition.  I've been tracking every meal, adhering (well trying) to an established number of calories per day and a set of macros for carbs, protein, and fat. Intermittent fasting for over 100 days with a 16:8 goal.  I weigh myself every day, taking supplements, wearing a continuous glucose monitor (CGM), wearing a fitness band to help track sleep, built a home gym, getting regular blood tests.  I am a believer in what Peter Drucker said, "If you can't measure it, you can't improve it."

I am in App and website hell trying to track all of this stuff.  I feel like UX (user experience) between apps and websites is a problem that companies need to invest in for many of the tools that I am using.  But, let's move on...

I have been a diabetic for 18 years.  What started out as something relatively easy to manage as type 2 diabetes transitioned to insulin-dependent LADA (latent autoimmune diabetes) or often called type 1.5 diabetes.  This requires intense insulin therapy to keep blood sugars regulated and is really challenging, at least for me, to keep under control.  Diabetes struck me at the weirdest time.  I had a 1-year-old son, I was 30 years old and without a doubt in the best cardiovascular shape of my life.  I was training very diligently for mountain bike racing and looked and felt great.  I was going through a time where my thirst was unquenchable.

Don't start freaking out because you are a little thirsty in the morning, this was way over the top.  For example, I would drink a bunch of water in the morning.  Then, I would stop and grab a sports drink (bad idea to drink a bunch of sugar in this condition) or 2 on the way to work and continue to flush my system all day long with water, coffee, soda, whatever I could get my hands on.  It was undeniable that there was a problem.  While out for a ride with my friends one day, I was cramping horribly within 30 minutes of the start.  We had to cut it short.  I remember thinking to myself that I had drunk plenty of fluids throughout the day.  Not knowing, my body was trying to rid blood sugar and had flushed all electrolytes.  A trip to the doctor the next day and bam, type 2 diabetes!

With COVID-19 and diabetes, I am in a risk category that is messing with my head.  I've been trying to find the best coping mechanisms as the world starts opening back up again.  My best defense is a good offense.  Hopefully, your head didn't just tilt to the side;)  What I am doing is turning my sites on being as healthy as possible as my defense mechanism against contracting this novel virus or any other virus with the capability to recover quickly.  That means my offensive is going hard with losing weight, working on my cardio health, and gaining an understanding of nutrition (including supplementation).  The best way for me to stay on track is by setting goals and finding ways to measure along the way.  For example, I have established a weight goal further on the horizon and a weekly goal to help me calculate a trendline to support my end goal. Accountability to the end goal is much easier to do when you can see incremental progress.

I am generally a very healthy person, I very rarely get sick (knock on wood).  For example, I don't remember the last time I had a cold.  Working with a trainer has influenced me to investigate getting even healthier.  Her influence has sent me down the rabbit hole of biohacking (more on biohacking in the future).

If you want to start getting your offensive going, here is a list of some of the tools I've been using.

Wearables and devices:

Garmin Vivosmart - This has been a pretty good tool for me.  It has some quirks, where syncs to the App on my phone are delayed or don't seem to sync until I connect the charger.  The charger is USB but specific to the device.  The device is small, lightweight, and has good battery life.  No problem wearing at night while I sleep.

Garmin Index Smart Scale - I have mixed feelings about weighing myself every day, but this scale is pretty quick and friendly.  Full disclosure, I don't have much exposure to other products and need to research more on bioimpedance to feel comfortable stating whether or not I feel great about the measurements I am seeing.  For example, I dump information from the scale to a spreadsheet.  As I lose weight, the analytics says I am losing skeletal muscle mass (SMM), given the type of exercises and the noticeable muscle mass I am gaining, I don't see how losing SMM is possible.

Wahoo Kickr - This ain't your momma's cycling trainer.  This thing is an incredible upgrade to other cycling trainers I have owned in the past.  The Kickr, in combination with Zwift, is a really cool experience. It simulates hills for goodness sake!

Wahoo Elemnt - I've had the Elemnt cyclometer for a couple of years now.  I tend to only use the usual pace and heart rate features, but it does have some mapping/GPS capabilities.  Rechargeable with micro-USB, which I seem to have a million chargers for, and the battery life is really, really good.

Dexcom G6 - This device is a game-changer for me.  I have used the previous version of the Dexcom continuous glucose monitor (CGM) and was challenged by the locations that you had to wear the sensor on your midsection above your belt.  Now you can wear the device on the back of your upper arm.  The other issue was the older versions required calibrations from the traditional finger stick meters, no more calibrations needed.  Finally, you had to carry an additional device/monitor to show your blood sugar readings, where now you only need an Android or iPhone mobile device.  With the alarms feature, you can get several different notifications for lows and highs as close to real-time as possible.  It makes a big difference to catch your blood sugar and make corrections when it is aggressively rising and at 180 vs. noticing it later at over 200.  I have had the lowest a1c tests in years since using this device, along with changes to diet and exercise.

Freestyle Libre - I tried the Freestyle Libre for about 2 months.  My a1c numbers were the best I have had in a very long time when compared to managing blood sugar levels with finger pricks a few times per day.  Since you have to scan the device to get a reading over Bluetooth with your phone, I was missing opportunities to correct highs and lows rapidly.  The sensor can be worn on the back of your upper arm and requires no calibrations, although it does suggest calibrations if you are really far from the normal range.  Another major bonus is you can control it from your Android or iPhone mobile device, no additional accessories are needed.  The readings from this device were very accurate.

Health and activity tracking:

Garmin Connect - A benefit to using Garmin products is they are all within the same App on your phone and through the same website online.  There are some features available on the phone app but not online and vice-versa.

Zero - This is an app to help you track intermittent fasting.  It really doesn't do that much other than keep track of when you start a fast and end a fast based on the type of fasting goal you want to set.  There are settings for circadian rhythm, specific windows (for example, 16:8 with 16-hour fasting and 8-hour eating windows), or custom.  The only downside is it's only available as an app, I have not found a way to export data to a spreadsheet.

MyFitnessPal - Compared to the different meal tracking apps I've tried, MyFitnessPal is superior to them all.  MyFitnessPal finds many more matches for foods saving you time to input your entries.  I can dump all of the food I have been eating to a report to review with my personal trainer.

Strava - I am a cyclist and hope to be for a very long time.  Strava has a great feature to help you understand how you compare to others on your favorite rides or runs.  More importantly, you can see how you compare to previous versions of yourself on these rides.  Rides are broken down into segments, so you can challenge yourself on your favorite climb or (more fun) blast downhill!

Personal training:

Core Progression - Core Progression (CP) has been an excellent experience for me.  They helped me find a match with a trainer that has been a great relationship.  The facilities are up to date, clean and super sharp.  You are NOT just 1 of the herd like a big box gym. CP is a growing fitness franchise founded in the Denver metro area and has been expanding outside of Colorado.  If you want results, get a personal trainer!!!

There are many other products that I try and like and a substantial list of thumbs-down products, as well.  As I go on this journey to being the healthiest I can be, my hope is that I will continue to find the confidence to reincorporate those out-of-the-house activities I love.