Diabetes 2: Diabetes Harder

by rus

Diabetes 2: Diabetes Harder 4

Last Friday I had my 2nd visit at the hospital with respect to my diabetes diagnosis, this was for a repeat test and some fasting tests for my cholesterol levels. I’d been measuring my blood sugar levels whilst on the treatment and they’ed normalised pretty quickly meaning that I have type 2 diabetes. The results of my latest blood test at the hospital confirmed my readings at home, giving me a result of 96 mg/dL.

Fortunately as I’m only type 2 diabetes this means I don’t need to persist with the evening insulin injections and can just take the tablets 3 times a day. There’s also a chance if I can lose more weight and take care of myself this might go away!

My doctor diagnosed my cholesterol results as high, with an LDL of 146 mg/dL. Modern science has kind of rejected the old ideas of good and bad cholesterol though and it’s not the amount of LDL that is the problem, but the size of the LDL molecules and the ratio of HDL to triglycerides that are more important. Unfortunately I don’t know the size of my LDL molecules but my ratio is 2.1 where 2 is perfect so it looks like my cholesterol isn’t that big a deal.

Another thing of note is the diet plan that the hospital provided also goes against modern science, inferring that dietary cholesterol and saturated fat relates to cardiovascular disease, this is simply not true.

I still haven’t been able to exercise but I’ve been maintaining a pretty good ketogenic, low carb diet over the last couple of weeks, only eating eggs, blueberries, avocado and broccoli. There is an obvious blip on 04/24 however after a day out involving several pints of beer, chicken wings and pie!

I’ve included my picture at the top as whilst I have lost a lot of weight, I have lost a ton of muscle, probably due to the diabetes and my body catabolising my muscle for energy. I need to put this muscle back on and get some sunshine as I’m looking rather weak and anaemic right now.

Being A Digital Nomad With Diabetes

by rus

One of the reasons I quit my job was because during 2014 I felt ill, a lot. My blood pressure was through the roof and numerous trips to the doctor didn’t really result in any progress.

For the past few months I’d get periods of up to a week where I was constantly exhausted, then I’d completely bounce back totally fine and resume training.

For the last 2 weeks, after Easter, I hit one of those periods and it just got worse and worse so I went to the Bangkok Hospital in Phuket to make an appointment. 90 minutes later I’d had the results back from a series of blood tests and a diagnosis of diabetes.

Diabetes Blood Test Results

Below is my diagnosis and the results of the tests that were made. My blood glucose was measured at 514 mg/dL (or 29 mmol/L) which is extremely high, to put it in perspective normal is 90 mg and 600 mg is coma.. My HbA1C was 12.7 where normal is around 5. It’s not looking good. My electrolytes are all out of wack as well which could be kidney issue, I have more tests next week.

Diabetes Hospital Cost

Everyone is always concerned about the cost of medical care whilst abroad. Really that cost is only a concern if you visit America, everywhere else in the world is sensible and values human life more than the almighty dollar. The cost of the doctors visit, tests and medicine for the week came to 10,000 Baht or £200, hopefully I can claim on my insurance.

Diabetes Treatment

When I wake up, half an hour before I have breakfast I need to take a 2Mg Amaryl tablet, then after breakfast and after dinner I have to take a JanuMet tablet. In the evenings before bed, at 11pm, I then have to inject myself with 20ml of long lasting insulin from a Lantus pen.

Regular Diabetes Blood Sugar Testing

The doctor said that I should test my blood sugar 4 times a day so I bought an Accu-Chek Performa for 3000 Baht (£60). There were cheaper options but the pharmacist said the test strips would be easier to come by for this model. None of the pharmacies on the Tiger Muay Thai road sold them though. Test strips come in packets of 25 and cost 500 Baht (£10) each. Testing myself 4 times a day means 5 packets will last me about a month.. £50 a month!

Regular testing is showing that my blood glucose levels are definitely dropping but even with the medication I’m still nowhere near normal.

More Diabetes Tests

On Friday I have another appointment in the morning where I will undergo more tests under fasted conditions. It is too early to tell if I am type 1 or type 2 diabetic, apparently that involves stabalising me then stopping the insulin and seeing how I react!

I’ve posted a thread on Reddit’s r/AskDocs asking a few questions about my rest results and current symptoms so will hopefully get some more information in English.

Being A Digital Nomad With Diabetes

Before this episode, I had a plan. I was going to travel through Europe, attend private military training in Poland, climb to Everest basecamp then return to Thailand to get a blue belt in BJJ at Top Team Phuket.

All that is out of the window now.

I still don’t know what’s actually wrong with me. If it’s just diabetes then I will need to make sure any medication I need is available to me, where ever I go. If there’s something up with my kidneys I might have to go through the expense of MRI scans and whatever else to determine the issue.

All I know is I really don’t want to return to the UK for another 12 months and will do everything I can to prevent that.

Other Digital Nomads With Diabetes

If anyone knows of other travellers or nomads with diabetes I’d appreciate a heads up as it would be great to network with them and see how they are dealing with this issue.

Is An InterRail Pass Worth It?

by rus

I’m planning a 4 month journey across Europe, from Oslo, through Poland to Russia, overland, so either rains or buses, and one of the questions in my mind is:

Is An InterRail Pass Worth It?

What Is An InterRail Pass?

An InterRail pass is a train ticket that lets Europeans travel across Europe by train for a fixed price. The equivalent for non-Europeans is called the EuRail pass.

There are different options for both, with respect to length of time and number of countries you want to visit.

InterRail vs EuRail – Country Options

The InterRail is pretty basic, it has a Global option which allows you to use trains in 30 European countries or a single country option.

The EuRail pass has a few more country options. Global, for 28 different countries, then 4, 2 or 1 single country.

InterRail vs EuRail – Trip Length Options

The InterRail pass has 5, 10, 15, 22 days and a 1 month option for €836.

The EuRail pass has 5, 10, 15, 21 day options as well as a 1 month option for €917, a 2 month option and a 3 month option for €1592.

My Trip

I land in Oslo on May 10th and then I’ve a course in Poland that I need to get to 3 weeks later on May 31 so I’ve only really planned that far at the moment. To work out if the InterRail pass is going to be worth it, I need to math up the cost of the individual tickets for each approximate date. Whilst I realise prices can change over time, this is the best I can do to see whether single tickets are a viable option. Also it is worth noting that it’s possible to lose your InterRail ticket (I’ve done that) and a lot of train journey’s require you to pay extra even if you have the InterRail pass.

Norway Oslo May 10 – 13 n/a
Norway Bergen May 13 – 16 €29 by train with NSB.no
Norway Oslo May 16 – 19 €58 by train with NSB.no
Sweden Gothenburg May 19 – 22 €29 by train with NSB.no
Denmark Copenhagen May 22 – 25 €49 by train with SJ.se
Germany Hamburg May 25 – 28 €29 by train with BAHN.de
Germany Berlin May 28 – 31 €39 by train with BAHN.de
Poland Poznan May 31 – June 20 €29 by train with BAHN.de
Ukraine Kiev June 20 – 28 €95 by sleeper train with PolRail.com
Poland Poznan June 28 – July 20 €95 by sleeper train with PolRail.com
Poland Warsaw July 20 – 23 €27 by train with PolRail.com

This comes to 6 weeks and 2 days, 10 train journey, through 6 countries and crossing 7 borders all for €450. Half the price of a 1 month InterRail global ticket.

Is An InterRail Pass Worth It?

For me, definitely not. By just buying individual tickets I will be saving more than €400. If i travelled daily, or crazy long distances, the InterRail would be worth it, but then you’d never get to see anywhere and would always be on the move. With this travel plan I have flexibility and will be spending 2 nights in most places, unless I don’t like them, so won’t feel rushed all the time.

Single Country Travel Options

Looking at the InterRail Single Country options, for €173 I can get 3 days of travel in Norway, but my 2 tickets are only €87. Germany is even more expensive, €317 for 3 days of German travel. It’s not even worth doing that.

I InterRailed round Europe about 10 years ago when the past cost about £300 for a month but we must have visited a lot more places I think, making it a good option, but I’m glad I did the math on this as I was a little concerned about how much this trip might cost. I’m probably also visiting the Czech Republic, Lithuania, Estonia, Finland and Belarus after this, maybe Russia too, so hopefully their train costs aren’t too dissimilar.

The Now Habit: A Strategic Program for Overcoming Procrastination and Enjoying Guilt-Free Play

by rus

I don’t really suffer from procrastination, but I wanted to read this as research material for a project I’m working on after I’d heard great things about it. The Now Habit dives in to the psychology of why we procrastinate, essentially it’s because we want to protect ourselves from anxiety or fear.

The book is a practical, self help strategy that you can use to identify the exact anxieties you have that cause you to procrastinate and then exercises and behavioural patterns to remove those anxieties and blockages and actually start on the projects you are procrastinating over.

It’s short, to the point and offers a workable solution if procrastination is an issue you face.

Blue – The Tallest Apartments On Soi Tad-ied

by rus

Since I arrived at Soi Tad-ied, the street Tiger Muay Thai is on, in September, there has been a huge, 8 storey apartment block that’s been constantly under construction. At least 5 months in the making, this week they had a grand opening, pool foam party so I decided to have a look inside and check out the quality of the rooms and their prices.

They are currently advertising the rooms at half price, which to my mind is still on the expensive side, so time will tell whether the prices are actually half price or whether it’s just a marketing scheme. All of the rooms come with a small safe and their own, private, Internet connection, so other guests won’t effect you. They told me they are doing this exclusively for digital nomads, to attract people that want want to work and train.

Blue Small Room

The small room is 25,000 THB a month (£517). There’s a balcony, a small ‘wet room’ with a shower, sink and toilet and a main room with a large bed and TV along with a few cabinets.

Blue Big Room

The larger size rooms are 45,000 THB a month (£930). They have larger ‘wet room’ bathrooms, with sink, shower and a jacuzzi! The bedroom is a bit bigger than the smaller room, the main difference is the addition of a separate lounge area and kitchenette, which actually makes a huge difference. Sleeping in the same room as a fridge sucks!

Blue Penthouse

The penthouse is 150,000 THB (£3100) per month and is just .. excessive! Huge open plan lounge, kitchen and dining area, with the lounge and dining area separated by a screen in the middle containing a TV that rotates, so you can watch it wherever you are! The lounge has a massive table that sits 6 people.

If that wasn’t extravagant enough there is also a jacuzzi in the living area by the window, offering excellent views across Soi Tad-ied and Chalong. There is also a sizeable balcony offering the same view.

The very large bedroom comes equipped with a huge TV as well as a massive walk in wardrobe that can fit more clothes than I will ever own inside.

There is an additional spare room which can be fitted out per the renter’s requirements, currently it’s a prayer room but an additional bed can be added.

It is tempting to rent the penthouse out for my final month here, but being realistic, for one person it would be very lonely. The penthouse is huge and as far as I can tell the rest of the building is empty. For two people, it’s an extravagance, the Big Room has similar facilities at a better price, it would still also be far too big.

The kitchen area looked fully equipped, with a hob etc. unlike everywhere else where you just get a kettle. Having to leave the street to buy actual food though would be a pain.

Rooftop Pool And Restaurant

On the roof is a swimming pool with fantastic views of the area and downstairs in the lobby is a restaurant that has yet to be completed.

The hotel looks nice and is brand new, but it is built in the same manner as all the other places on the street, which is to say not to a high standard and liable to look old and crumbly before it’s time due to it’s concrete construction methods.

Also, if these prices are indeed half price, that makes the building 3-4 times more expensive than the other premium places on the street. My 12,000 THB room is not that much different to the, half price, 45,000 THB room, it’s only advantage is the larger TV and private Internet!

Jung The Key Ideas: A Teach Yourself Guide

by rus

This book is my first introduction to Jungian psychotherapy and proved a great introduction. Whilst reinforcing concepts I’m sure most of us are familiar with already, e.g. the duality of introversion and extraversion, the parts I enjoyed the most were when recent revelations I’ve only recently discovered about myself where introduced in the book as topics, when I was able to relate to Jung’s work.

I enjoyed reading about Jung’s observations as he traveled and explored non-western societies. It’s easy to get caught up in progress but at what cost? According to Jung the driven attitude and suppression of emotion that characterises modern Western culture has been gained at the expense of the intensity of how we now live. Something anyone who has had to get out of bed at 5am to do a 2 hour commute, only to return at 8pm in the evening, before bed at 9pm, can relate to!

This book is a fantastic introduction in to Jung’s work, psychotherapy in general and the man himself.

How I’m Training At Tiger Muay Thai For Under $1500 A Month

by rus

I’ve been training at Tiger Muay Thai and living and eating on ‘the street’ for 5 months now and I’ve been getting a lot of questions about how much it costs, where to stay, what to eat and what’s there to do, etc. Especially when compared to the costs of living in Chiang Mai! I’ve stayed in several different places, eaten at most of the restaurants and tried out different gyms. Over time I’ve developed a cost effective, exercise and nutrition routine which is getting me solid results so rather than keep answering the same question, over and over, I’m putting it in to one blog post.

What is your cost of living in Phuket whilst training at Tiger Muay Thai?

Accomodation

I’ve stayed at several different places now on the street Tiger Muay Thai is on but the location I’ve settled on, for the moment, is the B&M Guest House a few hundred meters away from Tiger Muay Thai and opposite a restaurant called Tony’s.

B&M offer a variety of rooms, in different sizes, some with windows and some with out but I’ve opted for the large size room with a balcony on the top floor. It comes with air conditioning, my own shower room and unlike most of the other hotels in the area the door key doesn’t cut the electricity off when you leave the room, so I’m able to leave my laptop on doing things whilst I’m training.

There is also a small safe which some of the other hotels don’t have. There is no pool and the TV is quite far away from the bed, making it not worth using but the table and chairs on the balcony make for a great desk, which again is something some of the other hotels are lacking. Rooms are also cleaned once a week and you can choose the time, I normally get mine cleaned around 2pm on a Saturday whilst I’m having lunch!

Internet is reasonable, but the only place on the street that I’ve tried with better Internet (Signature) is 4 times the price, so I can deal with that.

The total cost for the month is 12,000 THB / $366 / £248

Food

Generally I always eat at the same restaurant across the street from where I’m staying, called Tony’s. I eat their 3 times a day, and I eat the same things each day. I’m eating to train and eating to lose weight so eating the same things each day gives me the opportunity to adjust my diet to improve my results. The restaurants don’t exactly have nutritional information on the menus so you’ve got to think for yourself.

For the first few months when I was just doing Muay Thai I had a lot more carbs, each meal came with rice and more often than not I’d add additional sweet potato mash or morning glory to the mix. Now I’ve lost a lot of fat, and muscle, I want to put that muscle back on, so I’m ramping up the protein.

If I ate random, whimsical meals at all the different restaurants on the street it would be impossible to tweak my diet to improve performance as I wouldn’t actually have a diet to tweak!

Breakfast

For breakfast I’ve been heading over to Tony’s and getting the fruit platter along side the large grilled chicken, with brown rice, 2 fried eggs, coffee and a 1.5 ltr bottle of water for about 220 THB / $6.70 / £4.60.

Green Juice

On the way back from training I pass the Protein Vitamin Bar which does an awesome array of fresh shakes and smoothies. I always go for the Green Shake, which contains an apple, a cucumber, spinach, lime and ginger for 120 THB / $3.70 / £2.50.

Penang Chicken Curry

After I’ve downed the Green Shake, it’s shower time then off to Tony’s again for lunch. I’ve been having a Penang Chicken Curry with brown rice, 2 fried eggs and a 1.5 ltr bottle of water for 120 THB / $3.70 / £2.50.

Phad Kra Pao

For dinner I’m back at Tony’s for a 3rd time for their Phad Kra Pao with brown rice, 2 fried eggs and a 1.5 ltr bottle of water for 120 THB / $3.70 / £2.50.

This brings my food total for the month to about 15,000 THB / $458 / £310 for 30 days.

Supplements

Multi Vitamins

You probably noticed that I don’t have that many vegetables in my diet, hence the green smoothie! I also take one multivitamin a day, currently using the Blackmores brand. There are 120 pills in the bottle and the bottle cost about 1,500 THB, so for one month that’s 500 THB / $15.20 / £10.30

Whey Protein

Despite the prevalence of tasty, cooked, chicken breast, I still supplement with whey, as I’d never have any time to do anything if I had to actually go to a restaurant 6 times a day! I’ve been buying Muscle Pharm’s Arnold Whey Protein in 5lb containers, each container costs 2699 THB and has 56 scoops in it, offering 25g of protein. One container will last me about 2 months so the price per month works out at 1,350 THB / $41.40 / £28.

Omega

I don’t really eat fish so I’m missing out on some essential fats that are good for the body and brain! For my Omega supplements I’m again using Muscle Pharma’s. Not due to brand loyalty but due to the limited range of supplements available in Thailand! There appear to only be 3 brands available, Muscle Pharm, Reflex and Blackmores. 1 bottle will last me a month and cost 1500 THB / $45.80 / £31.

This brings my supplement total to 3,350 THB / $102.40 / £70

Training

Private Muay Thai Sessions

I have 5 private Muay Thai sessions a week, for an hour each, so roughly 20 a month. Tiger Muay Thai sell them for 600 THB each but you can buy packs of 10 for 5500 THB. By the looks of things, everywhere on the street are the same price whether you’re training at TMT, Dragon or Top Team. I buy 2 packs of 10 a month for 11,000 THB / $336 / £228

Gym Membership

After my hour of Muay Thai I then do an hour of weight lifting, for size rather than strength. Muay Thai will strip you of all muscle other wise! If you’re not doing one of Tiger Muay Thai’s inclusive training packages you can just get gym membership by itself. For a month this costs 2500 THB / $76.40 / £51.80

The total cost of all my training, for the month, is 13,400 THB/ $412.40 / £279.80

Total Cost Of Living Whilst Training At Tiger Muay Thai

Accommodation: 12,000 THB / $366 / £248
Food: 15,000 THB / $458 / £310
Supplements: 3,350 THB / $102.40 / £70
Training: 13,400 THB/ $412.40 / £279.80

Grand Total: 43,750 THB / $1337 / £905

It works out at a little more than that as a trip to Central Festival to go to the cinema, including the taxi, will cost at least 800 THB and I guess I go about twice a month. Some times I double up on coffees too at breakfast for an extra 20 THB and then there’s the little things like additional packs of water, shampoo, Dettol, new clothes (now that my old ones are far too big for me). Also every cash point withdrawal, regardless of amount, costs 180 THB so I try to withdraw about 15,000 THB at a time to mitigate the damage there. Snorkeling and scuba trips also ramp up the cost out here, but they aren’t necessities. I do usually do one a month though. There are several places on the street that will do laundry for you, usually at 40 THB per kg. Including a towel I usually spend 60 THB a week to get my laundry done.

You can probably do it cheaper, I’ve seen accommodation at half the price I am paying, 5,000 THB a month. Possibly hiring a scooter for 4,500 THB might lead you to cheaper food options and depending on your goals and diet (i.e. if you eat fish) you might not need the whey or omega supplements. Just today I noticed the Family Mart shop sells cans of Tuna in Spring Water for 40 TBH which is probably the cheapest source of protein on the street, I might start making my own lunch!

I do stick to the street and don’t go out too much though, I read a lot! Some of the English guys I’ve spoken to that live in the same guest house as me, eat at the same restaurant as me and train at the same gym as me are burning through £1,500-£2,000 pm. But they have scooters and have fun adventures away from the street that I don’t, they also treat their experience as more of a holiday than I am.

I love how I’m living, it’s easy and quite luxurious. My meals are cooked for me, my room is cleaned for me, my laundry is done by someone else for me. The training is amazing, the food is delicious and the people I meet are incredible. Oh and that £905 I’ve math’d up as my approximate monthly cost .. that’s roughly the rent I was paying, each month, with out bills, when I was living in England.

4 Days On A Deserted Island

by rus

4 Days On A Deserted Island 2

4 Days On A Deserted Island 1 Freedive UK arranged an incredible shipwrecked event where 14 of us stayed on a deserted island and had to fend for ourselves for 4 days with skills taught to us from some local Moken, learning how to freedive, build spears, spear fish and forage for food!

The first couple of days were spent learning the basics of freediving, getting acclimatised for those visiting from other countries and snorkling/freedive trips by longtail boat. The basic technique of freediving involves resting on the surface and calmly breathing to reduce your heart rate. The less your heart pumps then the less oxygen is taken from your lungs, moved around the body and transformed in to carbon dioxide. It is the build up of carbon dioxide inside you that makes you want to take another breath, not your body asking for more oxygen. You then take a series of deep breaths in, filling all of your lungs and mouth with air to get as much oxygen inside you as possible, then you calmly dive. I managed to hold my breath, on the surface but under water, for 2 minutes and 9 seconds, it wasn’t easy and was a case of mind over matter, I really wanted to exhale and felt very uncomfortable. When actually diving it’s even harder, as you have to equalise all the way to adjust to the pressure and as you swim you use up oxygen faster! I only managed 38 seconds and 10 meters when actually freediving, I need more practice and bigger balls.

After the acclimatisation and practice we headed out of Phuket and to the island of Racha Noi where we stayed for 3 nights. The beach was beautiful, with a very fine white coral sand and crystal clear, warm, blue water around it, but it was pretty inhospitable. The beach faced the rising sun, with no cover, so the temperature at mid-day was through the roof.

The island itself didn’t have very many resources, no fresh water and very few (if any) coconut trees or palms, so the perception I had in my head of creating a glorious shelter and eating tons of fresh coconuts went straight out of the window. As you can see from the picture below, the shelter I built consisted of 2 sticks and about 3 palm leaves, half covering one side!

2 Moken tribesmen taught us how to make our own spears, by blacksmithing metal rods down to barbed points, then splicing them on to a length of bamboo, before finally sharpening them. It was seriously hard work and took a long time for us to get them all done, but they worked, one of the guys managed to spear several reef fish with his. My spear was too long and too bendy though, so when I went in to the kill the tip would drop about 6 foot and hit nothing!

As well as traditional spear fishing around the local reef, we’d go out several times a day in the longtail boats to do some freediving and fishing using actual spearguns. The fish would make a habit, when we found them, of remaining out of range but we did manage to spear a Barracuda and another fish that was too boney too eat. The Barracuda was grilled to perfection and tasted delicious. I’m not sure if it was because I was delirious from sunlight but it was one of the nicest fish I’d ever had.

Over all, I learned a lot about freediving and what it takes to survive on a desert island. All I can say is thank heavens for plastic bags and cigarette lighters as trying to rub 2 sticks together really wasn’t working. If I did this again, on this island, I’d consider it beach camping rather than surviving and bring an entire festival’s worth of camping equipment with me. I’m glad I roughed it under my little shelter though as I learned a lot about how I’d definitely die if this was a real situation on this specific island and it gave my ego a bit of a check.

Use Of Weapons

by rus

I found Use Of Weapons to have an annoying pace to it. The story features two timelines that alternate every other chapter, making the book choppy to read. Whilst the pace of the main plot seems to yo-yo between glacially slow and then super fast.

The concept of the story and what Bank’s tried to do with the timelines are both good ideas but I can’t help but feel that the execution was pretty poor with two many different ideas and scenarios making play.

The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You’re Supposed to be and Embrace Who You are

by rus

I first heard of Brene Brown after watching her 20 minute TEDx talk The Power Of Vulnerability.

The Gifts of Imperfection offers readers a way to change their lives through adopting the practices of “wholehearted” living, an idea Brené came up with after studying concepts like shame, happiness, joy, anxiety and how they all relate to each other. By learning to embrace our imperfections, and recognise what issues get in our way, such as shame and fear we are able to lead more authentic and compassionate lives.

The book is an easy and fun read as concepts such as the difference between happiness and joy and courage and heroics are spelled out.