Diabetes and Exercise

Before I bring you today's regularly scheduled blogpost *said in my deep announcer voice* today is Weigh-In Wednesday! 

Drumroll please...

176.8!  That equals 4.2 lbs in one week and 13.6 lbs lost so far.  I did work very hard this week and I think going back to the Jillian Michaels' "7-Day Kickstart" meal plan was a big key to this small victory.

*****

Having type-1 diabetes can be hard when it comes to weight loss.  Diabetes is hard in general, but when you're chubby and need to lose weight, diabetes is one more (giant) thing to think about.

How so, you ask?

Blood sugar levels can be very sensitive to food and exercise, especially for someone with type-1 diabetes.  My blood sugar can fluctuate from 5.0 mmol/L (a good number within range) to 15.0 mmol/L (a bad, bad number way out of range) within an hour or two if I eat the wrong thing or don't calculate how much insulin I need correctly.

Conversely, when I exercise I need to make sure my blood sugar is a bit higher than normal (around 10.0) and that I back off on my insulin intake so that while I'm burning calories my blood sugar doesn't drop too low (below 4.0), which it often does.

And when it does drop too low I need to drink juice or eat something sugary to bring it back up.  Juice/food = extra calories I don't want in my body.

For a long time diabetes was a good excuse to not exercise hard and stay fat, but I'm slowly figuring out how to manage it. 

But to make matters even more complicated, sometimes an exercise I've successfully managed my blood sugars through one day can give me completely different results another day when I do the exact same thing! 

Another issue is sometimes hours after exercise (especially if I do strength exercises) my blood sugar will suddenly drop without notice.  More juice needed, damnit!

In a nutshell diabetes is complicated and doesn't always cooperate with my efforts.  But it can't be an excuse anymore because I'm seeing results and I know many other diabetics who successfully manage their blood sugar while doing great, athletic things (Why hello Mr. Ironman David Weingard!).