June Weights and Measures

Elevent monthly roundup of measured data and analysis.

Data

Since blogger is annoying in how it handles images, I’m going to upload an Excel (2003) spreadsheet. Here’s a link:

http://www.forefrontpb.com/phildiet/Diet%20Records.xls

The "Weekly Graphs" worksheet shows the weekly average of weight and the weekly average combined BM score and quantity. Also added average frequency.

The "Weight Chart Daily Graph" worksheet shows the daily morning weight.

The "BM Score Daily Graph" worksheet shows the daily combined BM score and quantity.

I'm keeping a food log and notes in a written notebook, which for the sake of putting off an annoying task, I will scan and upload when I'm done rather than every month.

Analysis

June featured a long vacation which thoroughly disrupted the data. I went to England to visit my parents, and discovered the wonders of the British dairy aisle. Shockingly enough, each container of “double cream” contained… just cream. No random other crap added in for no good reason. Tasted great and very thick as well.

I was pretty digestively sound in England, returned for a week, and then embarked on a trip to the beach, which also disrupted my record keeping for the start of July. Thus, this entry will be short – except to note one important thing:

My year is almost up!

It’s incredible that July 20 is approaching so quickly. One year without eating anything but animal products and not only am I not dead, I’m feeling fine, have plenty of energy for strenuous activity like paintball and appear to be in excellent general health. Such subjective measures mean nothing, of course. The only real test will be my colonoscopy on July 30^th and what the biopsies show.

I initially intended to make some predictions, but this past year has taught me that I know too little for that to be a worthwhile exercise. I find myself with little confidence in any prediction I can come up with. The polyp found last year might have become cancerous, or maybe it’s gone completely, or maybe there’s been no change. I’m definitively asymptomatic when it comes to overt Crohn’s symptoms like cramping and diarrhea, but I do get a twinge now and then which makes me wonder what’s going on down there. What will the biopsy show? Maybe I’ll look like hamburger, or completely cured, or maybe I’ll just look like a guy with mild colitis like always. Gotta love uncertainty.

Suffice it to say that I’m anxiously awaiting the results and hope that they’re as positive as the experience itself has been. There’s nothing worse than thinking, “Wow, this must be really working!” only to get a cold bucket of medical reality in the face.

My next post will be a look back over the past year, focusing on the things I was wrong about, lessons learned, and what I’ll do with the next year. Till then… one month to go!