The Life of a Diabetic » Exercise and Diabetes

Working at Home with Diabetes

Chris — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 22:37:19 +0000

You may remember last week I write about how I left my job at an interactive marketing agency to go back to running my own company full time. There are a lot of risks that I have taken in doing so, but all risks that I am willing to deal with in order to reap the rewards. One of the positive outcomes that I am already starting to see is better control of my diabetes. Working at home with diabetes has become a lot easier for me than working away from home in an office.

First, all my supplies are right here. There were plenty of times in the past when an infusion set fell out, and I forgot to pack a few extras in my bag and had to drive all the way back home. Now, everything is either in the room I am working in or the next room over. If an infusion set is bad or has fell out, no big deal, I have more right here with me.

The next diabetes related item that has improved is my eating habits. I have been very strict with keeping a tight schedule while working at home and continue to have a lunch break from 12-1. There is no more eating out because I “forgot my lunch at home.” If there were no left overs from the night before, than I can simply spend the time to make a nice, healthy lunch as opposed to going out and grabbing a slice of pizza or a sub. That is only lunch, dinner is an even better story. Before, I wasn’t getting up until after 7 p.m. and I was always so tired to make a nice dinner. Well, I typically end my day at 5:30 in order to start cooking dinner for when Amanda gets home from work. We have been done eating and cleaning by 7 in the first week of doing this.

Next on the list of things that have been going better since I began working at home is the increase in exercise. My exercise bike is 10 feet from my desk. I have found myself just getting on the bike and riding for 30-45 minutes once a day. There is no more excuses that I don’t have time to do it and that I am too tired to do it after I get home from work. Starting tomorrow, I am actually going to begin riding the bike in the morning and get a good hour workout in before the day even gets started.

Finally, my blood sugars have been better because I am testing more, and honestly, I am just not as stressed out. My blood sugars would get high throughout the day because I was so stressed at work. Then, I would come home, and still have about another 4-6 hours worth of work to do and I wasn’t getting to bed until about 3 a.m. This just was not good on my blood sugars at all. I am also sleeping a lot better too. I have gone to sleep by 11, almost everyday in this past week. That is most likely due to change tonight, since I have a few deadlines for tomorrow.

Looks like the health reasons for going back to working from home and running my own company again are slowly taking shape. The financial reasons, well, let’s just hope they stay on track as well.

Have a great night everybody.

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Some Pretty Damn Big Life Changes

Chris — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 13:29:17 +0000

Today is February 1, 2012. Not only is today about flipping over those calendars to the next month and doing a drumroll before seeing what the next picture or phrase or which cheerleader is going to be on the next month (or am I the only one that does that?). Today is a very serious day for me. A day of change.

As some of you may know, I own my own business, CSI Marketing Solutions, LLC. Also, as some of you may know, I have been working at an agency for about 18 months. This digital agency is voted best place to work just about every year and received hundreds of other awards a year. It truly is an amazing place to work. However, I have had a few opportunities come up over the past few weeks or months that requires a lot more of my time. So, I have made the decision, starting today, to go back to running my business full time.

Before making this decision, there were so many different things that went through my head. How am I going to pay rent? How am I going to make my car payment? How can I afford anything? And most importantly, how am I going to get health insurance? Then I started playing the what-if game. What if I don’t have enough clients and I don’t make enough money to pay my bills and then I lose everything I have. A good friend of mine said, “..you can’t play the what if game. For every negative what if you come up with, there’s a positive what if on the other side. So you can go all night on the what if’s.”

I also felt that by making this decision to be able to make my own hours I can get more things in life accomplished. For one, I can now go to the gym at lunch time or in the morning and begin to get back into shape and lose weight again. Next, I no longer have an hour long commute each way, so I can be home earlier and I can eat dinner and be ready for bed earlier. I can also spend more time being more involved in the DOC.

So, let me quickly get into the health insurance issue. I am entitled to COBRA for 18 months, and the costs of it are about 1/3 of what I thought it was going to be, so I am extremely happy about that.

So, that is where I am. Moral of the story? If you want something, do it. Stop thinking about it constantly and stressing about it and going back and forth. Weigh your options, and make the best choice for yourself.

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If You Want It, Go and Get It

Chris — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 14:00:24 +0000

The other day I saw a tweet from Rob Dyrdek, from MTV’s Rob & Big and Fantasy Factory. I don’t remember the exact tweet, but I remember that I re-phrased it on Facebook and it has had me thinking about the tweet ever since then. Basically, this is what I said, “There’s two types of people you can be. Those that bitch about the shit you don’t have, or those that work hard to get the things you want. I know which I am, which will you be?”

Ever since then, I have really been thinking about it. Not just in my personal life, but in the business side of things as well. I then started relating it to my diabetes as well. I always talk about how I want certain things related to diabetes, and I want to do certain things. Well, it’s time to stop talking about them and doing them. So, here are the top five things that I want and will work my ass off until I get to it.

Omnipod – I’ve been saying for a long time that I want an Omnipod. I have ripped out so many infusion sets from my wire being caught on the arm of my office chair. Or a hassle to connect and disconnect when I’m at the beach and I want to go into the water. The one and only reason that I am not using an Omnipod right now has nothing to do with insurance or coverage. It is because I use too much insulin. I would be changing sets every single day. In order to cut down on my insulin usage, I need to lose weight. When I was 60 pounds lighter when I was first diagnosed, I was using only about half of the insulin that I am using now. I WILL work my ass off to lose that weight, so I can start using an OmniPod
A1C below 6.5% – I am definitely not a fan of the A1C, nor do I get too upset when I see a high number. I know the number is important and it gauges how the last 90 days went, but I know that I can always improve it. Well, I want it to be below 6.5%. This is something that is in my control and bitching and complaining about it is not going to accomplish anything. Losing weight, eating better ,exercising, wearing my Dexcom constantly, are all actions that I can take to accomplish this. I WILL work my ass off to lower my A1C to below 6.5%
New Jeans – I don’t just want any kind of new jeans, but I want new jeans at the old size I used to wear. I am not setting any unrealistic goal here. I want to fit into the size jeans I was wearing about a year or maybe two years ago. There is nothing better than losing weight back into an old wardrobe. I have done it before, but I just went back and ate myself right back into the heavy wardrobe again. I WILL work my ass off to be able to buy new, smaller jeans.
Attend More Events – This year, I really want to attend more diabetes events. The main reason that I haven’t been able to go to as many as I want to is because of financial reasons. That will be the same issue this year, but I am working on ways for that not to be as much of an issue. The few events that I do get to travel to every year are amazing. I love spending time with everybody that I talk to online and meeting new people at these events. I WILL work my ass off to be able to attend more events this year.
Make a Difference in my Community – I have plans on being more active with my local government and local leaders on becoming more active with them and getting diabetes in front of their faces a bit more. I was able to start on this last year, but did not have a lot of success, so I WILL work my ass off this year in order to make a difference in my community.

That’s it. That’s a lot of things that I want to do that I kept talking about, and I have put some plans together to be able to get this stuff accomplished.

I’ll do a follow up shortly to see how I have done.

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Lifestyle Changes – Day One

Chris — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 18:51:25 +0000

Today started day one of my true beginning of a new diet. As I told you yesterday, I am going on a pizza strike. Not only a pizza strike, but all bad foods strike. I had a lot of time to think about life things this weekend and my health was what on my mind a lot. I realized that the way I am living, I won’t be living as long as I want to, unless I make some serious lifestyle changes. I was able to do this a few years back and lost a lot of weight and had my A1C under 6.5 for a year straight. I haven’t done that since, about 2-3 years. The number one goal of mine for the rest of this month and then April as well is to pack a lunch everyday. This part is easy because I create 5 inividual lunches every Sunday for the week, but I don’t always bring them, or when I do, I decide that I don’t feel like eating it. Too bad, I’m eating it!

This is also a way to save money because I am not getting any younger. There are plenty of things that I need in life that are more important than going out and buying a slice of pizza or a sub for lunch. I am 100% totally dedicated to the diet and lifestyle changes this time. Previous times that I did this, I was not as dedicated and it was just a half-ass effort, not anymore.

Today is day one, and tomorrow will be day two and that is exactly how I have to look at it. Eventually it will be day 365 and I will have lost about 40 pounds.

Have a great Monday everybody.

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Different Kind of Doctor’s Appointment

Chris — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 16:18:31 +0000

This week has been filled with different kinds of doctor appointments other than diabetes. I did something to my knee in a co-ed softball league a couple of weeks ago. The same knee that I tore my ACL on 9 years ago. Seems like I may have partially re-torn it, or tweaked it a little bit. But I had an appointment with an orthopedic doctor and it’s weird going to doctor’s visits that have nothing to do with diabetes. I was impressed however, that when the doctor saw me, right away he said, “Ah, Minimed insulin pump.” Made me feel good about this guy that he knew what an insulin pump was, and also the brand.

I had to get an MRI on the knee yesterday, but there were some issues so I had to reschedule it for this Saturday. I haven’t had an MRI in a long time, but I hate them. The worst part about this injury is that it pretty much has me doing no exercise at all. I can ride a bike, but at a slow minimal speed. I can’t play softball, I can’t golf, I can’t walk far distances or run. I can swim, but I haven’t had a chance to get into that workout schedule. I’m up when my girlfriend leaves for work, so I am really going to try and start going to the pool at that time and getting a few laps in for some exercise.

Well, until I hear more from the doc about the knee, I will just be worrying and hoping that I don’t need any sort of surgery.

Have a good day ya’ll

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Weight Loss Reality Check

Chris — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 16:00:14 +0000

I finally re-scheduled my endo appointment for the middle of March and of course, once again, I am nowhere near the weight loss goal that we had set at my last visit. And to make things worse right now, I re-injured my knee and can’t really do any physical activity because I am afraid that I am going to tear my ACL again. I will be making an appointment with an orthopedic doctor and hopefully there isn’t anything wrong and I will be able to get back to exercising like I was before. I can’t jog, and I can’t even go for a nightly walk anymore because it hurts too much to even walk a long distance, hell, a short distance at that. My only option right now is to just do sit ups and push ups at home and at least get some sort of exercise in. I might try to ride the bike a little bit, but pretty sure that is going to cause pain as well. My brother mentioned this to me, and I think he is 100% correct, my body is not used to dealing with this amount of weight, and I am at the highest weight level of my life, and my bad knee just can’t handle the weight and it’s due to happen some time soon until the weight is gone.

At times I really feel like an addict, like a fat addict. I always tell myself, “I can easily lose 15-20 pounds when I want to, I just have to get serious about it, so I’ll just eat this fast food and work it off when I decide to start”. These are the sort of things that I hear on Intervention or these other addiction shows. It is sad, but yet, I don’t do anything about it. Go ahead and search my blog, I have probably written nearly 50 posts about how I’m going to lose weight, but yet I still weight more than I ever did, and I don’t fit into half of the clothes that I own.

All that, and I haven’t even mentioned the affect it is having on my diabetes. Over the last year, I have probably had the worst blood sugars that I have had since I’ve been diabetic. I know this, yet I haven’t done much to change it. The last month, however has been a lot better, been able to keep them under 200′s a lot more frequently then before. I read blogs and tweets about people being upset or cursing out diabetes when they see 180 on their meter or CGM. I’m like…. WTF, when I see 180, I am happy, I’m happy that it is below 200. What does this mean? Does this mean that I have accepted high blood sugars, or that I am settling myself to levels that are not healthy and I should not be accepting of those numbers?

I’m not sure, all I know, is that this is a reality check. Cleaning out a closet of clothes in which 80% of the pants and shorts that are in there do not fit anymore is embarrassing. I will not be beat by all of this. I will succeed, and I will prevail.

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Diabetes in December

Chris — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 13:05:04 +0000

Another month has come and gone and now we are in the finally month of the year. Are you serious??!!?? It seems like just yesterday that I was writing a post outlining my goals for 2010. Well I can tell you one thing now, I did not reach those goals. The year is not over so I still have a month to try and accomplish some of them, but I defimitely wont be meeting them all. One of my main goals of the year was losing weight and I have not done a good job at that. I have been spinning at home, but after just two days of doing it, my ass hurts so bad from the seat, so I have to buy something comfortable or else I can’t make it more than 5 minutes on the bike.

I had to get blood work done this morning for my doctors appointment on Friday. This is the big test of the year where I get pretty much everything tested, so that means lots of blood. I know that the results are not going to be good, but all I can do is try and make them better next time. I’ve already cut back on my insulin intake which means that I am eating less.

So here is to another month and the ending of a year. Stay strong in December and carry it through to the new year.

Take care everyone

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Week 5 of Dieting

Chris — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 13:00:57 +0000

Week 5 of my dieting and it has to get back to serious this week after the week of bad eating that I just had last week. Last week’s eating was well worth it and I planned that type of eating into the diet because it was Thanksgiving, duh! It just sounds weird that I am saying week 5 and it’s still November, ha. I did not eat as bad as what I thought I would though, so I am proud of myself for that. I only went to 1 or 2 of the eateries that I usually go to. And when I did go to those places, I only ate half of what I usually would have eaten.

I am still riding the bike and doing my push-ups and situps every morning and I can definitely tell a difference in my body, even if it doesn’t show it on the scale and that is more important to me. I feel and look thinner and that is a large step because it shows that I am not just doing this all for no reason at all. There are times when I am dieting that I just see no results and I get discouraged and decide to stop dieting and just say screw it.

I am not going to be doing that this time around. If I can still be down 5 pounds by the end of the month then I will be happy. Then another 5 by december and I will be even happier. Of course I would like to lose more, but that is my minimum goal to know that what I am doing is working. I am already feeling stressed today because I am back to work after a short vacation and I already feel that I don’t want to cook dinner and that I just want to go to a fast food joint.

Well, the month is almost over, but the day is just beginning so I need to stop blogging and get to work. Have a great week everyone.

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Week 3 of Dieting

Chris — Mon, 15 Nov 2010 13:00:35 +0000

So this week is week three of my new form of dieting. I have been doing pretty well with it, but still not as good as i want to do. I am missing some days of my exercise and every so often i am eating foods that I know I shoukdnt be eating, but not as much as before though. My weight is down but still not what i wanted it to be at this time, but i am making headway on dropping this weight and getting to an OmniPod.

I have added a new exercise bike to my condo, so I will be riding that about 5-6 days a week in order to burn more calories. It is not a regular exercise bike, but more of a spinning bike, so it works muscles a little differently. And not to mention, it is a lot harder to ride than a regular exercise bike is.

Another week, another few pounds and I will be happy.

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Easier Exercise Plan

Chris — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 01:21:05 +0000

A new diet and goal planning was in dire need because I was not meeting any of my goals for dieting and weight loss so it was very disappointing. My new plan will start right away and it will make my goals a little easier to obtain which will eventually get me to my long term goals.

My new way of dieting is very simple. Eat a high fiber breakfast bar, salad for lunch, and some type of meat for dinner with a green veggie and rice. I will treat myself to a little snack at night, Frosted Flakes. This is my motivation to get myself to eat healthy during the day. This is easier for me to do as opposed to writing down everything that I eat and counting my calories because I know that I won’t do that on a daily basis.

For my exercise I have come to the conclusion that I will not have the motivation to go to the gym every day. Just in case that at night I don’t feel like going to the gym, I will be doing 10 push-ups and 10 sit ups every morning as soon as I wake up. Everyday I will add one additional push up and sit-up.

This is not as intense and doesn’t take as much of an effort so I feel that I will do a lot better with it. My goal is to lose 3-5 pounds a week for the first 3 weeks just because there is so much excessive fat that it can be burned so quickly, then a steady 1-2 pounds a week thereafter until I lose 60 pounds. Little goals add up to big goals. Living with type 1 diabetes is just an excuse to not lose weight, it’s more of a must to do it. Especially since I want to go on the OmniPod.

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