Category: Fitness4Diabetics

Good news, both the physical coach and the nuitrion coach contacted me spontaneiously this week (or at least on their schedule).

I think I’ve solved the “going low in the evening” problem.  I just don’t do any insulin or Symlin with my evening meal.

I do believe my activity level is higher when I’m doing dog agility — especially when I was training Macy this week.

I keep seeing the same two pounds disappear and reappear — a lot of that is edema. 

My insulin usage has dropped dramatically — in fact I’m going to be able to go back to changing my set ever two days.

So is it worth it?  Yep!

First, the physical coach has been absolutely fabulous.  She’s gotten me to up my activity level — my lowest number of steps so far has been 9013 and that was Monday when I spent most of the day asleep — either being scoped or getting the drugs out of my system.

The nutrition coach hasn’t been personalizing things, and is a bit slow to respond but when she does, she has good information.  Same thing goes with the wellness coach.

All in all, I’m happy with the program.

However, I’m getting frustrated with myself.  I keep going low when I exercise.  I’ve figured out workouts — no insulin and no symlin with the evening meal, and I come out okay at the end of the evening.

But all of the sudden, I’m having to do the same thing in agility class!  Of course, I wasn’t prepared for that, so I’ve had to eat extra.  And I’m having to eat it late — which means I’m waking up with heartburn, when I’m trying really hard not to.

Don’t worry I’ll get over it.

I actually haven’t been focusing on losing weight, because it’s been really hard for me since I’ve been diagnosed with diabetes.  It was hard enough before with my sleeping issues — though if I do sleep well, I did lose weight before diabetes.

Well, since I’ve started with Fitness4Diabetics, I’ve lost two pounds.  I think.  Between the edema issues and diabetes, I won’t count them entirely gone until they stay off the scales for at least a week, but the two pounds have been gone for two days so far.

More progress.  Since I started their second week workout last Thursday, I’ve been able to get in more than 10,000 steps! 

The workouts are going well too!

My fitness coach has been super responsive.  I was having trouble with the streching exercises, because they were not written in English, so she sat down this weekend and rewrote the ones I was having trouble with.  That’s helped tremedously.

Today went better.  I’ve gotten to 11360 steps so far.

First, I’m off from work today — inclement weather day.  I got in 4 5-minute walks earlier in the day.

I think I’m finally finding a good tweak for my workouts.  I shut my pump to 0% at about 3:00.  I ate dinner around 5:00 pm, no Symlin and 1/2 bolus.  2 hours after eating I was at 145.  The best thing is that I didn’t crash.

I’ve got to do a lot of work on food.  That is not going to happen overnight.

All in all, it is going well.

Today was almost too much, but I did get in 9817 steps today.

First, they suggested that I add two 10 minute walking sessions.  I did one round during my planning period, and another round during lunch — but that was only 5 minutes. 

I got home a bit late — had a group of students trying to earn more points for the six weeks.  Worked on weave poles with the girls — and I turned my pump to 0 delivery for an hour at about 3:30.

Ate dinner, did my normal Symlin and insulin dose. 

Managed to get in 20 minutes on the tread mill, work out on the Weider Max, and started the stretching but started feeling a bit funny.  Sat down to record what was going on in an email to the fitness expert when I realized I was low — 89!

Ate two GS Samoa cookies, and let my blood sugar climb enough so I could get something to eat — I need to have my blood sugar stable enough so I can drive and get a gall bladder sonagram done in the morning.

Just a bit too much, but I think I will adjust.

I just got an almost overwhelming amount of documentation from them. 

From my fitness coach, I got documentation on my exercising in general, with some specific notes on what is happening with my blood sugar when I do exercise and some suggestions.

I’ve got a set of stretching exercises, which is good, because I haven’t been doing that.  Hopefully that will help my stiffness and my knees.

Two sets of weight exercises, some with the stability ball and some with my Weider Max.

Suggestions for cario exercises.

From the nuitrion coach, a suggestion of 1800-2000 calories a day.  YEAH!  I wrote her this morning and that’s been a problem.  Most nutrionists look at me and assume I sit still all day and put me on a 1200-1500 plan.  That puts me in starvation mode.

So I’m busy sorting all this out!

Plus it’s the end of the six weeks.

I have a few more hours and log entries before my first week is up.  So far I am happy.

My meter 14 day average has gone from 173 to 152 though we can attribute some of that to getting Lasix out of my system.

Have they changed anything my routine.  No.  But I am logging and thinking about what I am doing.  Could I do that on my own, yes.  Have I been, no.

I am supposed to be getting workout stuff and nuitrion stuff in the next few days.  It will be interesting to see what they come up with.

So far, I’m happy.

Unfortunately the initial contact can be difficult.  Be patient, leave phone messages and email messages.  They will eventually get you and get your credit card information.

After your credit card information clears, they will send you your initial paper work.  It’s quite a bit, but does help them get you started.

The next step is clearing everything with your doctor.  I haven’t seen that form, but it did take mine about a week to process.

So after all that is done — and it’s about a two week process, you are ready to go.

I was sent a food log, an activity / blood sugar type log, and a goals setting sheet.  Since this is all personalized AND virtual, don’t expect a full blown set of things for you to do — I sort of did because I’ve participated in programs in the past that would hand you something that sort of fit you and then they customized it as they went.

So far, everyone appears very cordial, and very ready to work with you.

I am working with a fitness coach, a nuitrion coach AND a wellness coach that is supposed to round out everything.

Not bad for the price!

I’ve started fitness4diabetics in earnest now.  Their Wellness coach and I had a good telephone conversation this evening.

I’ve got a food log started — though I think I’m going to make a few changes to it.

I’ve also got a good bs log going, but no really good exercise log, so we need to get going on that.

All in all I’m placed — the first week is all about all of us getting to know each other and getting a working relationship going.

I got my first set of information from fitness4diabetics.  I got an acivity / blood sugar log, a food log + blood sugar log, and a form about change habits.  And a sheet of directions.

Lots of logging but then I’m used to that.  I also made some requests of my own towards exercise, etc. 

Of course, this morning WOULD be the day that the nuitrition class (we called it home ec in my day) made taco salad and brought some by this morning.

The taco salad was very good, but I ended up doing a wild ass guess for the carbs.