Healthy Spring Cleaning For Diabetics

This past weekend was a flurry of spring cleaning at my house. I cleaned all but one room from top to bottom.

I also did my own version of that old TLC show Clean Sweep, where they go through someone's stuff and separate it all out into four piles: keep, donate, sell, and toss. Although, my house did NOT look like one of those pack rat homes in the beginning. But everyone can use a little spring cleaning, right?

When starting a cleaning frenzy like this, diabetics have to be very aware of what all this activity will do to their blood sugar. While not typically thought of as exercise, house cleaning is just that. And it will absolutely affect your blood sugar. Constant activity while cleaning house usually keeps me on the verge of going low all day long, and I just might get there a few times.

In my experience, the best way to stay healthy while house cleaning is to test my blood sugar throughout the day and to set a periodic alarm for myself. I do this because when I'm knee deep in old photo boxes, magazines I never read, and costumes from my old sorority days, you tend to lose track of time.

I'm sure that you diabetics out there have experienced this once or twice too. Next time your at it, set little reminders like me on your phone to check your blood sugar every 2 hours or so. Not only will you welcome the break, but it'll help keep you from having hypoglycemia (low blood sugar) throughout the day.

Cracking Down on Cravings

Heading to the gym on a Sunday morning, I was proud of myself for not giving in to the urge to sleep in. As I walked from my car to the gym entrance, I started getting hungry. I had eaten a bowl of Special K 15 minutes earlier. How could I be hungry?

The smell of Mexican food wafted out of the delicious restaurant right next to 24 Hour Fitness. This isn't just any Mexican food, this is the special Sunday brunch of a beautiful, well-known, not-cheap Mexican restaurant. Each Sunday, I head past the heavenly smells on my way in to burn some calories.

Fortunately, good 'ol Paul McKenna from "I Can Make You Thin" had armed me with a weapon to fight back.

I pressed together my left thumb and left middle finger and imagined sitting down to a big plate of Mexican brunch. I kept squeezing as I passed, and wouldn't ya know it? I immediately began to feel a bit nauseas. I didn't hold it too long for fear that I'd feel so nauseas that I wouldn't be able to work out.

Crisis averted. This method is really working for me! Squelching my Mexican food cravings is key to controlling my diabetes, what with the tortillas, beans, and rice (carbs, carbs, carbs), and the cheese, sour cream, and guacamole (fat, fat, fat). It was another healthy Sunday for me!

What Really Counts?

When I first started taking short-acting insulin, a nutritionist taught me to count carbs so I could take my insulin accordingly. Before this, I had never paid attention to the quantities of food or carbs that I swallowed.

I bought The Calorie King's Calorie, Fat & Carbohydrate Counter book and carried it with me everywhere. The book was incredible. It listed the calorie, fat and carb content for thousands of foods, including dishes from chain restaurants, and it somehow fit in my purse.

This was my bible for years, looking up the contents of each meal so I could accurately take my insulin. The problem was that no one had ever stressed the importance of looking at the calorie or fat listings in the book. I literally only looked at carbs.

Last fall, I started seeing a personal trainer at 24 Hour Fitness. He was shocked to discover that I didn't pay attention to calories, and immediately put me on a 1,200-1,500 calorie/day diet. That, combined with a new weight lifting and cardio routine, made my body start morphing into something a bit leaner that I was more comfortable with.

Ever since my eyes were opened to the importance of calories, I started to see all the mistakes I was making with my "attention to carbs only" diet. There were foods I ate high quantities of because they had little to no carbs, like cheese, eggs, olives and mushrooms. I considered them to be "free" foods. I couldn't have been further from the truth. These calories were seriously adding up!

Now that I've been awakened to the world of truly healthy eating, I know that there is no such thing as a "free" food. It all adds up. I just wish that someone had told me this from the start.

A Shaky Easter

Easter was a fairly relaxing day for me yesterday. My husband and I woke up and decided to go hit some golf balls.

For years my husband has been trying to get me out on the green with him. He's a major golfaholic, although he doesn't play nearly as much as he'd like to. I finally resigned to give it a try a few months ago and we headed out to the driving range where he taught me how to hold a club and swing. To my surprise, I actually had fun and even hit a few.

So yesterday morning I was up to give it another try. I think it was the gorgeous weather that was calling me and I just couldn't wait to get outside. We stopped by a produce stand on the way to the driving range to buy two apples for breakfast.
My hubby insisted on buying four, which I thought was silly but didn't say anything.
After hitting balls for an hour (somewhat unsuccessfully on my part) we packed up and hungrily drove back into town to get some lunch. In the car I started feeling shaky, so I checked my blood sugar. 57! How did it get so low? I'm one of those people who tends to think of golf as a non-sport. So I wasn't really thinking of it as serious physical activity that would make me go low. Then I realized that I had been constantly swinging a club over and over for an hour. How could I not have planned for this?

I was about to freak out when my husband said, just eat one of the extra apples. He was a genius. He had planned for my low blood sugar, while I hadn't even thought about it. I quickly ate about half of it and thought, no worries, we'll be at the restaurant soon for lunch.

We pulled up to the restaurant we had planned to have lunch at only to find that it was closed for Easter! We kept driving; he had a back up restaurant in mind. Restaurant after restaurant was closed for Easter. Now I was really starting to worry. We finally found one, quickly ordered and ate.

I like to think that I'm on top of it and plan for every instance of possible low blood sugar. I can't image what could have happened had he not insisted on buying four apples. It's nice to know that I've got someone watching my back.