I am stealing sharing this picture because I can’t think of a truer statement. You really do need to stay motivated and not let bad numbers get you down. It’s much like endurance training, if you are injured and not performing as well (ah hem!), your power numbers on the bike are not increasing, or you feel sluggish at the track you just need to keep motivated and set small goals. Here are some examples of how lately I’ve had to use small steps/goals .
- I am injured, so I’m backing off BUT I’m still getting to the pool and biking. I see other runners and I am in serious envy but I need to listen to my body.
- This week I’m working 12+ hour days but I still get up early –knowing that I can’t get out of work on time to do a small workout even if it’s swimming for half an hour or doing a few sit ups.
By doing this I get the following awesome results: I know I have done something for myself that makes me feel good knowing that otherwise I might get depressed having to work a ton of hours sitting in an office; my body feels better and more alive after a good little swim or bike and my blood sugars stay in better control since it is used to exercise not doing so can cause fluctuations. Its win, win, win! That’s a lot of winning and I didn’t even have to buy a lotto!
I just think that if you set small doable goals for yourself the benefit will grow exponentially, the impact on your body and your mind is a powerful thing.
Do you ever plan on a certain activity and adjust your schedule/your mode of transportation/ your alarm/ you basal rates only to have the activity fall through?
UUUUUUUUUUUUrg! This happened to me this week. I got up early, I DROVE to the lakefront to go and swim. Now, I’d heard there were rip currents but I thought how bad can it be! I really wanted to swim (see last week’s OWS the drug post and you’ll understand why https://endurancediabetic.com/2012/07/05/my-report-card-and-ows-the-drug/ ). So I made my coffee, decreased my basil to 40% ½ hour before the swim, ate a banana and almond butter with no bolus (I was in the low 100’s) and off I went. I got there suited up and looked at the waves slapping about. My swimming buddy Nic was with me. He jumped in and all of a sudden the waves looked ginormous against his tiny little head (he has a normal sized head but it looked tiny against the waves). I had already warned him that I was having my doubts (after a bad incident last year in the lake where I truly thought I was going to drown). I jumped in. We started to swim, he made quite a go at it. I got about 5 yards only to turn back. We were being tossed about like the olive in my salad today. I swear it took me 10 minutes to swim back to the ladder. He also turned back. We were done. I was still pleased at myself for getting up and attempting the swim so reveled in that euphoria for a while. I went on with my day, of course FORGETTING to re-adjust my basil back to normal for the no swim. So my BG skyrocketed up to 345….stay motivated.
Endurance Diabetic 
I totally get it! I am recovering from ACL reconstruction surgery and there are days that my knee just says that I SHOULD NOT run! I try to listen (I am NOT a good listener) but when I listen my BGs go up! Tonight I did an super easy 3 mile jog/run/walk and my finish BG was 135 and then I remembered why it is so important to do whatever I can. My last A1C was 8.2. Ugh! Good job trying to get in that lake swim – scary in those conditions! Yeah, Type 1 fun! (don’t tell the non-diabetics that what we do is fun AND good for us!)
I hear ya on the listening, It is hard!
Hope you recoup fast!
Gillian, you are so spot on! I have some weird sciatic nerve thing happening and haven’t been able to run, which means, unless I am miraculously cured in the next three days, it is very likely I won’t be able to finish Vineman 70.3 this weekend. Still, I plan to kill it on the swim and bike. It is much better than giving up the whole thing which would have been totally depressing.
Good job on the swim!
Angela sounds like you and I have something similar! Good luck at vineman and nice to see you staying positive and setting your goals on the bike and swim!
we use mmol/L as the BGL measure here in Australia, and there’s a factor of 18 difference so when your blood sugar is 360 in the US, here we’d call it 20. I normally aim to start races around 8-10 (144-180) and with basal having been down 40% for at least an hour beforehand. At a recent 100km footrace on trails here my sugar was 22 (396) for the first hour, then the second hour, and it wasn’t budging. Felt fine for the first 20km but after that the next 6 hours felt like running through the clicheed marathon wall. Random factors – scar tissue blocking absorption, cannula leakage, under-insulinisation – and diabolical weather patterns sure do keep it interesting, hey? : )