Food and Fitness Musical Chairs

My last post I mentioned eating a more rounded diet along with a balanced fitness routine that included much more conditioning than I have done in quite awhile. Due to my blood sugar control, I am switching back to a low carb meal plan and heavy lifting routine with small bouts of conditioning. 

One of the major switches is due to what the most responsible thing is for my life. Can type 1s be active in running, biking and CrossFit? Yes, but at what expense? These athletes that are type 1 don't always have very good control. I am at a stage in my life where I am not willing to put selfish wants of trying to be an athlete in front of my health anymore. Some people may think I am taking an easy route or I am not tough enough. That's fine. My whole reason to workout is to help my overall health and lifting with a tiny touch of conditioning is the way for me. 

I have gone back and forth with this for quite a while. In fact, I have probably changed my mind a thousand times if not more. To quote my more than supportive wife,"You need to just make up your mind. This is ridiculous!" I can only imagine what my workout partners think of my wishy washiness. Sorry guys! 

The hardest part is knowing that I am more than physically capable of doing what many people are able to do. The problem is the recovery. Chasing the high blood sugars and then bringing up the lows makes for an awful feeling. When I am strict with lifting heavy, this doesn't normally happen. 

High protein and power lifting. November 30th USPA Powerlifting meet in Corvallis  is the next competition. 

Back to Work/Type 1 Design

So this summer has been an interesting one on the diabetes front. I have tried different ways of eating, exercising and my weight fluctuated quite a bit. Starting a new school year will help with my consistency with a lot of aspects in the everyday life. One thing that gets added to the mix is stress.

Stress seems to really throw the blood sugar levels on a roller coaster. No stress and things are pretty good. A bit of stress and things are upside down. I wonder if I eat more when the stress is present. It is just time to tight things up again.

Nutrition wise, I am going to try to stay with a low carb way if eating. My best control is when I do this. Unless I am going to do some very strenuous activity, I am going to keep the carbs in the 30 to 70 gram range. For those more strenuous days, I will probably be around 100-150 grams. It seems the more I read about the diabeetus, the more conflicted I become. 

On a different topic there is a company that makes shirts for type 1 research that donate proceeds to the JDRF. The company is called Type 1 Design. The shirts are quality shirts with some creative designs. I received the two I ordered yesterday. Prices are good and the money goes to a cause I care about. http://www.type1design.com/

Here's my shameless plug: I can be followed on Instagram through breakingdiabetes. I post my workouts along with blood sugars and post workout meals. 

A Big Directional Change

After a lot of thought and frustration, I started up with a new endocrinologist that is local. 

The main reason I went was to get a meal plan figured out. What my doctor told me was to keep veggies and fruit the main source of food. Protein and carbs should fill out the rest of my diet. 

The confusing thing here is how I read all the time that insulin is such a bad thing from so many sources. As a diabetic, I know I need it. It is all so confusing sometimes.

On a training note, I have decided to let go of powerlifting for the moment. This summer I have only been lifting heavy and I feel less athletic and very beat up. I have introduced more CrossFit style workouts and I feel pretty good. The addition of more carbohydrates is a huge piece to this as well. 

To be successful with the new way of eating I have decided to use the Zone as a guideline. I am eating far more veggies and fruit as I was before. It's all about keeping the food choices as natural and healthy as possible.

Here are the workouts I have done this last week that have made control very easy.

Daily Doubles Flashback

I can't help but to write about football daily doubles this time of year. Balancing an immune disease with the amount of exertion that is required to handle daily double practices or other similar activities is very difficult. 

When I was in high school, the knowledge that I had of my disease was very limited. Talk about a lack of control! I probably averaged around a blood sugar of at least 200. As my control has improved over the years, I could not physically handle that. I look back and wonder how my performance could have been better if my numbers were better. I dealt with highs and lows on a daily basis. 

In college, I was a bit better because I tested more often. I still wasn't where I should have been. Practice was more strenuous and this beat me down. Staying illness free was very difficult. I just assumed that it was due to the difficulty of the practices. I always thought that everyone was in better condition than me because they didn't seem as run down as me. This is not supposed to be a pity party. Did my disease hold me back? Maybe, but I can't think like that. 

Diabetes was my motivation in these times of my life. I was out to prove people wrong. I was out to prove my disease wrong. 

As an adult, my mindset is different. Instead of proving my disease wrong, it's about working with it. No matter how bad I want it to just go away, it's not going to anytime soon or ever. What I can do is be diligent about the choices I make physically and dietary wise. The better I treat my disease, the better it will treat me. 

Back to Control

This summer it seems I have tried everything under the sun diet wise to try and keep control of my blood sugars. Unfortunately, it has not worked very well. 

Not being strict has caused me to increase insulin levels, energy lagged and body weight increased. These three things are important to be able to control. When they are I feel better. As simple as that. 

Every time I seem to change or try to change things, I always revert back to a  minimal   carb diet. The ultra low carb diet makes control much easier.

On the exercise arena, I have switched from nothing lifting to a more rounded routine that includes all realms of fitness. The CrossFit Games was a major influence. I like to feel athletic and that's what CF did for me in the past. 

I have to make sure I stay consistent. 

Getting Dirty

I have been tweaking my diet a bit this last week and a half. It's pretty Carb Back Loading. I try not to go overboard. I have been trying to keep my carb intake below 30 throughout the day and after working out in the evening I will junk it up quite a bit with about 100 to 150 grams of carbohydrates.

This hasn't messed with my control like I thought it would. I think mainly because the junk I am eating in the evenings is all prepackaged, so the carb count is fairly accurate. Maybe not the best options, but it's working. 

Training wise, I am making good gains with strength for a number of reasons. The most important thing I am doing is pushing myself a lot harder and sticking to a routine. My goal is to turn my weak points into my strong points.

The days I train, my blood sugars are always better. I feel better. I take better care of myself. I feel invincible. On training days I break diabetes.  

Vacationing

This last week I was on vacation visiting my family in California. It was an enjoyable and fun trip. My blood sugars did not favor so well.

I ate some food I shouldn't have and exercise was nonexistent. I don't like to have to guess about carbohydrate grams, but I did quite a bit. As I reflect, the best thing for me would have been to go ultra low carb for the week. I wasn't working out, so my fuel didn't need to be as high. 

I should have made time to get in some type of exercise. Mentally and physically it would have been very beneficial. I had opportunity to, but had a lazy week. 

I am glad to be back at my home. Being at home is very comfortable for many reasons. Diabetes is better, food is more controlled and the garage with the weights in it. 

The next few days I am going to disconnect from my insulin pump and see how that goes. I have done it twice recently an my control was fantastic. The pump makes it very easy just to punch numbers in and eat as wanted and be slack on any set schedule or routine. I understand this is what regular people get to do, but it seems like the pump has made it easier for me to not control my sugars as well. I can just punch in a blood sugar level and carb grams and I am good. Easy? Yes. Beneficial? Second guessing the pump!

I will train in the afternoon, looking forward to it. We are out to create PRs in some variation of the bench press.