The Balance Act

So, Progress! I lost 4lbs. this week, making it a whopping 15lbs since I was seen at JH Transplant Center.

This is good. This is progress.

Now, on to The Balance Act.

Losing weight is hard, no matter what's going on in your body. Losing weight when you're diabetic is doubly so (Hey, that's what multipledoctors have told me!).

We all know the basic principles for weight loss. Eat right, exercise and you'll lose weight, right? Right! Eating right when you're diabetic just plain makes sense. I'm not going to tell you what eating right is here. For you & your needs it may be VERY different from what eating right is for me. So, talk to your doctors and nutritionists, and figure that one out for you & your body's needs.

Eating right, I've got down. Its the exercise that's the stumbling block for me.

First, I'm fighting decades old programming. My mother was TERRIFIED that my sugar would drop too low and I'd die. Her fear ruled both of us to the point where I have my own happy little version of this. It makes the second problem much more complicated.

The second problem - scheduling. Everyone's body has a rhythm. Your body is programed to secrete certain hormones and create glucose at certain times of the day based on your needs. Diabetics are a bit off in this dept.. We don't always have that going on. So, we fake it with insulin and rigorous scheduling. We get up and eat at the same times. This works GREAT - until you start changing things. Then you start dealing with lows and then highs that are rebounds from the lows and you end up with a big furball.

My yoga class (which incidentally is today - hence this post) is inconveniently timed. Why didn't I just pick a different class, you wonder? Well, I have to pay the rent too! This was the most convenient to my life - if not to my daily blood sugar schedule. So, from now on on Tuesdays, since I can't rearrange my work schedule, I have to rearrange my diet. I have to change the times I eat and what I eat, and even the amounts that I eat of what I eat!

The kicker for me: Its all experimental. I don't KNOW what works yet. I'm still figuring that one out. Its not a fun kind of experiment. For those of you who don't know, low blood sugar SUCKS. I can remember having a low, and having my parents shoving Life Saver after Life Saver into my mouth and a friend muttering "Geez, wish I had low blood sugar!". No, you don't. First, I get this tinny taste in my mouth. Then I start getting prickles all over my body. Next comes the lack of fine motor control as my body starts shaking. I don't really know what comes next first hand, but loved ones have told me that I start getting incoherent and confused after that - I don't remember that. I'm lucky and have only passed out once in over 20 years of diabetes (I'm knocking on wood all over the place right now!).

That sound like fun to YOU? Its not to me.

That in a nutshell is the biggest obstacle for me - exercising while keeping my blood sugar from bottoming out. I'm getting there, slowly but surely.

Four pounds worth in fact :D