Blog

It isn’t easy, but I know of a Type 2 diabetic who has cut her insulin usage dramatically and has lost lots of weight. I met her on iShape and she’s an insulin pumper too.

Here’s what is working for me:

Regular cardio and resistance training.

I have a treadmill and weights here at the house. I belonged to a gym, but I will say I’ve been more regular since I set up at home.

I also have iShape as a support system. I track my workouts, track my food, and my other progress. I also have people to work with. Right now, we’re doing a two week challenge with partners (that’s a first).

I really think you need a good regular schedule — which iShape provides, and a tracking system — which iShape also provides.

I will say that it is a long hard progress. I’ve got about 4 weeks without any weight changes. At the same time though, I was tracking everything else — during that period I saw a change in insulin usage.
See that, kept me sane.

All of a sudden I’ve seen a drop in weight (about 3 pounds), though I admit to making a change in my definition of “clean eating”. That’s a challenge term. I was making sure I was 600 calories under what the program said I burned, but right now, I’m using their calorie level. Some days it’s 500, some days it 700 under what I burned.

And I’m not feeling deprived. Yesterday I had a Subway sandwich with a small bag of chips. I’ve had gummy bears, and other “treats” through the week.

Oh, and I really think you need to be on a pump. Or at least really really understand what you are doing if you are on insulin. Thursday, and Friday morning, I was fighting low for about 12 hours. If I had been on my own regimen, I would have had to have added even MORE calories than I did with the pump, defeating the whole purpose.

You need to be able to cut your insulin usage to match your decreased needs, or you ARE going to have a hypoglymic episode.

I woke up clammy and feeling funny, and with a blood sugar of 89. I did sleep in a bit and did use my “non-exercise basal”.

I’m going to start changing my evening basal again, since I’m “back” to where I was.

And yesterday insulin use was actually under 40 units.

I’m really documenting this because I don’t want a repeat. I screwed up on Saturday and I’ve been paying since yesterday!

Sometimes yesterday, probably after I changed my set, though it was working fine, I believe, my blood sugar started going back to what it was before Saturday’s screwup. This morning clinched it, blood sugar fasting was in the 110-120 range even though I haven’t hit the treadmill yet and I’m on morning exercise basal.

I did notice that this site was more irritated than those in the past which follows my theory that only a certain amount of insulin can go through a site.

I am still using 50 units of insulin — and I’m still having higher blood sugars than I like. However, things are dropping — except for weight.

There is definately a coorelation between how much insulin I use and whether I gain or lose weight. However, I’m not going to sacrifice control for weight.

Fasting blood sugar at 116. Better, still not as good as it was, but better!

I got really aggravated this morning because at 9:30, my blood sugar was 198.

NOW, I kinda of forgot I didn’t have cardio scheduled today, and was still on that basal schedule. So that’s part of the reason it was high I think.

So I decided to give the full correction instead of giving myself 50%. This would have worked if I had brought and eaten my lunch, or if I had eaten a snack, but I’m trying to lose weight. So I didn’t.

The good news, is that I am really insulin aware. I felt the drop from 198 to 112 and I even felt the drop down to 108

Now here’s the weird part, I started having problems with cognitive functions — we were writing a test. So I remembered that there were tootsie rolls in the next room, but I forgot I keep about two bags of lifesavers in my emergencie supplies. I did remember after I got the tootsie rolls. I also took a glucose tablet because they dissolve faster. It didn’t take long to get the sugar back in my head and working again, but it’s interesting how quickly cognitive functioning is impared, and how quickly you recover. Takes just a little bit of sugar to tip it either way. I ended up with a glucose, lifesaver and a tootsie roll — real fast, fast, and regular release sugar. A fix, and a prevention. An hour later I was fine and running at 112.

My blood sugar is still ranging higher than I like and it’s been two days since my bad eating day!

I’ve ranged between 130-200 all day.

Well, hopefully I learned from THAT one!