Gym Rat

This is my power shirt.



As stupid as it may sound, when I'm wearing my Diabetes Exercise and Sports Association t-shirt, I am mentally ready to hit the gym, and face whatever wrench diabetes may throw in the works.

Meter,strips,lancing device? check
Dexcom? check
Medical ID on body, in case I collapse? check
Extra money, just in case I run out of glucose/food? check
Juice, gel, and tabs? check
Iphone/earphones? double check
water bottle, for regular hydration? check
change of clothes/other sundries? check

And then, after all of that, there's the actual process of managing blood sugars. I'm usually high going in...so I have to correct for that, while keeping in mind how the exercise in question will affect my bgs. Weight lifting, hello stratosphere.
Anything cardiovascular, it goes in the opposite direction.

176 going in, remove pump. Eat 20 carbs.
108, 15 minutes later. Eat another 15 carbs.
109, 10 minutes later. Eat another 15 carbs.
94, 10 minutes later.Reconnect, and am starving so polish off another 40 carbs/protein, bolusing significantly less then I think I'll need.

While all this is going on, there are usually odd glances being thrown in my direction(like what the heck is this girl doing?). I am not training for a marathon,I'm simply trying to make it through a rather mild(!) workout, alive. Generally, my blood sugars are great, as long as I keep consuming vast amounts of carbohydrates. I have not yet reached the goal of being semi-in-shape, so what I want to know is...if you are, do your blood sugars not drop as much as they did in the beginning? Having to eat a lot is probably the #1 reason I hate exercise. As for the reducing insulin part, I could take my pump off, exercise/eat/have great blood sugars for several hours, at which point I'm sure I'd need a slight amount (but I've not yet been able to exercise for hours so that's not really an issue right now). I eat lots more then I actually burn off. Your input is welcome.

The Rewards of Exercise

Beneath the utterly unwilling body and the rapidly oscillating blood sugars, lies the underlying heart- throbbing forth a passion, a purpose, a drive to suceed at all costs.















(due to the password sensitive nature of this program, I can't give the exact link, but this is the general homepage)
And I've finally done it(well, in 3 days anyway.. total of 4 months and 21 days after starting), after hiking the Virtual Appalachian trail from Georgia to New York, I've acquired enough points to get my reward- a 4 person tent. I'm psyched. (at 10 points a day, with the occasional 50 pointer for crossing state lines, I thought I'd never get here). I think that any member of BC/BS can sign up for this, and they send you a free t-shirt as a starting motivation. The prizes aren't insanely valuable(clothing, camping, small value electronics) but still pretty good for being free. In three more days, I can redeem my points for a 1,850 point reward!
And I can tell you that I'm still not a big fan of exercise, though by now I guess I'm supposed to be. Kudos to my insurance company for getting me to actually do it, though. I think the main reason I dislike it, its impossible to predict what blood sugars are gonna do-you eat(to prevent a low), they either still go low or go high. Normal basal needs just don't apply anymore, and diabetes is even more of a guessing game. If I were one of those people that exercise didn't reek complete havoc on the numbers, I'd enjoy it more. (normal people at the gym don't know how lucky they are, not to have to consume twice as many calories as you exercise off..)
Now on....
To bigger, better things.
(Up Next- Operation A1c!)