small victory

Jamshil Bridge, Sunday, 5/12/24, 1:06 a.m.

1:07 a.m.: the bridge's underside, still well lit despite the bridge's lights' being off

It's the farthest I've walked since the hospital: about 14K, from my place to Jamshil Bridge and back. So I can do it—kind of, and with a few rest stops peppered throughout the walk—and the short trek helped me to keep my blood sugar down again: I was at 129 this morning, after floating around crazily last week anywhere from the low 200s (unwise eating and poor timing when eating) to the 150s (not awful, but not great for a diabetic). I need to keep on the strait (sic) path if I want the blood-sugar readings to go down even more. I'm only a few weeks into Newcastle Part 2, of course; I have about six more weeks to go.

I took the above photos just to prove I went out that far, then I turned around and went back to my place. 7K out, 7K back—a bit over three hours including rest breaks. Trying not to eat or drink the wrong thing, once back, is always a challenge to the will. Right now, I'm relying on diet sodas: some local, 24-hour convenience stores have been selling things like Dr. Pepper Zero and Welch's Cherry and Grape Zero, so last night, I lumbered over to the convenience store near my apartment building to buy those sodas. I guzzled the cherry and grape; it was a "2 + 1" deal, i.e., buy two, get one free, and I drank down all three fruit sodas even though my conscience was telling me to stop. It didn't matter much, though: I took my meds after filling my stomach with empty calories, and the following morning, by BS was down to 129. I hope this is a trend. The BS seems to go down through a combination of lengthy exercise, no eating after lunch, and the taking of my meds. Right now, my immediate goal, for my appointment this coming May 24, is to get off the insulin. I honestly don't think the insulin even does all that much right now, but it's a daily annoyance—annoying just because it's a multi-step procedure, not because the needle is painful or anything. The needle is very thin, and it sinks into my fat stomach with barely a pinch.

I'll probably walk again tonight, but I might not: I'm in the midst of a large cooking project: (1) a beef-and-veggie mix for the coming week, (2) my Middle Eastern-inspired chicken dish for the older couple, who are finishing their walk in a day or so, and (3) some "carnivore" bread that looks very promising even though the thumbnail pic is obviously fake (a pic of "carnivore" hamburger buns that look nothing like what you see in the accompanying YouTube video).

In the meantime, walking 14K to Jamshil Bridge and back feels like a symbolic victory, at least—an indication that I can do it despite periodic chest pains. I don't think I'm so delicate that I'll collapse and die anytime soon, but I am trying to respect my limits. I hope to build up to an 18K walk down to Bundang one of these weekends, then a 26K walk over to Hanam City... by that point, all of my walks will be at night, as they already are now, to compensate for the coming summer heat. Right now, we're in the benign part of May, where it's still cool at night even though it's hot during the day (in the 80s Fahrenheit, in the high 20s Celsius). I'm using the same philosophy as when I started staircase training in January: do the distance, even if it means resting many times along the way. Then work on minimizing those rest breaks. I haven't gotten back to stair work yet—not in earnest. I've done the stairs a few times, but that workout hasn't been consistent. I'll get back to it soon because I see the staircase training as the key to strengthening my heart. I'm just not sure I'm quite ready to have my heart beating a 130 beats per minute right now. I don't want to follow Jim Fixx into the grave just yet.

Righto... more later.