As a diabetic, it’s critical that I take care of my body and be as healthy as possible.  The odds are stacked against me so any little opportunity to eat right, exercise or pay special attention to my body could help me over the long run.

On the Facebook fan page, I have been talking about the BodyBugg that I picked up at the beginning of July.  The BodyBugg is a calorie management system that combines a monitor (arm band) and online program that helps you to manage calories intake and calories burned.  It’s truly amazing how accurate it is and I highly recommend it.  It’s not cheap, but if used diligently, can help you lose weight or change your body composition.

As I track my calories, carbs, protein, etc., I have found how extremely difficult it is to estimate the nutrition contents in a salad.  I have been eating salads more often and combine, chicken, lettuce (all different kinds and definitely not iceberg), peppers, carrots, light dressing, cranberries, walnuts, etc. into my salads.  Combining all of these things makes for a difficult time in estimating carbs for my bolus and nutrition contents for the BodyBugg.

For something important to one’s diet, it is so frustrating how difficult it can be to manage for diabetes and calories.  I have recently picked up a kitchen scale to help weight my food contents, which helps a bit.  You try to go healthy with a salad and end up with a high or low blood sugar… sigh.  It’s so much easier to crack open a box of frozen shit that has the obnoxious nutritional [lack of] facts listed on the side or back. 

If you want to be utterly shocked, track your sodium intake for a few days.  Just about everything that comes in a box is loaded with salt.

/rant

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It’s Never Easy is a post from: Blogging Diabetes

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I can distinctly remember back in the day rocking Obsession for Men by CK and thinking I was pimping. We have to be going back about 15+ years if I had to guess.  Since I’m taking a stroll down memory lane, I want to share with you my perspective on improvement whether it’s for work, personal or just about anything, but mostly related to diabetes.

In my professional life, I have been successful because I tend to become almost obsessed with A) doing the best I possibly can each and every time B) constantly trying to improve and C) learning from mistakes (mine and others) to grow personally and professionally.

No matter if I was cleaning up the kitchen, cutting the grass, raking leaves or working on a project for work or school, I found that I excelled at it because I would become obsessed with doing my best.  I wouldn’t call it perfection, because I know better than trying to be perfect.  I guess you could call it an obsession with determination and execution.  I also found my best results with exercising, diet and weight training came when I would fully engulf myself in these activities to the point of being obsessed.

Enough of my past, I now want to share my thoughts on diabetes management.  I have done well over the last 12 years by trying to take care of myself and always staying on top of my blood sugar.  I’ve never considered myself obsessed with my diabetes control and I’m not sure why.  It’s probably one of the most important things I could do, yet I haven’t executed on better control.  I have said many times before on this blog that complacency is the enemy of good diabetes control.  When I became obsessed with my weight, dieting, exercising and health at the start of this year, I noticed my blood sugars were phenomenal.  You could say I became obsessed with better health all around.  My wife would certainly say that I’m an exercise addict.  I would counter with, that’s when I do my very best.  There’s absolutely no room in my vocabulary for “half-ass”.

I also acknowledge that an obsession with things such as diabetes management can become almost a disease within itself.  So this all leads up to a question I will pose to my readers:

Is the only way to really have perfect (if there were such a thing outside of a working pancreas) control with diabetes to be obsessed with the numbers, tweaking, testing, adjusting, testing, readjusting, count every carb by 10ths etc.?

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Obsession: Diabetes is a post from: Blogging Diabetes

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“I fight because I have to…

I push myself because I can…

I push myself to the limit because no one else will…

I sweat because I’m trying…

I sweat because I’m giving 100%…

If I lose, others will lose too…

If I win, no one will know…

He chose me because he knew I could handle it…

He chose me because he knew I could win…

Knowing I could win, maybe he chose me so someone else could live…

Maybe even someone I love…”  A.Rose

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I want to sincerely thank you for your continued support and subscription. This blog is better because of you.

Why Me? is a post from: Blogging Diabetes

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This morning, after dropping off the kids at school, I decided [unintentionally] that I was due for a car accident.  This is my attempt at a bit of sarcasm, but it’s now more than 12 hours old and time for a chuckle at my own expense.  It was just the previous day when I was thinking about how quickly my girls are growing up and before you know it I will need to teach them how to be safe drivers. You know, the little things they don’t teach you in Drivers ED like know who is around you, anticipate the unexpected, stay calm and observant and give yourself PLENTY of room.

The point of this post isn’t to highlight my minor fender bender that had half of the county’s fire department stop by or “friends” text me “having a bad day?” after seeing me beside the police officer on the side of the road.  I will say that I’m OK, the other driver seems to be OK, minus the whole whiplash claim that reminded me of a scene from a movie and least importantly, unless my wife’s reading, the car is fine.  There’s barely cosmetic damage to my (wife’s car, which could be a whole separate post) vehicle. So I got lucky in a sense.

I look at it now like it’s an opportunity to shape up – get my head out of my ass and stop being complacent.  I’ve talked here before about complacency and how it’s the dark side of diabetes. This situation (I can’t write that word without thinking of the Jersey Shore) is my opportunity to try harder and do better while I have the chance and no one is seriously hurt.

Maybe this accident doesn’t happen and later on, it’s far worse.  Maybe my kids could have been in the car.  Not good scenarios.  I can now refocus, remind myself what’s important and get back on track.

Perhaps each of us with diabetes need a minor crash once in a while in order to wake up before it’s a disaster or life threatening.  I don’t recommend getting into an accident on purpose.  So, for now, just learn from me.  Don’t wait until complications from diabetes are serious, take notice of the minor signs and do better while you can.  When it’s too late, it’s too late.

[source]

P.S. I was not texting, didn’t have a low blood sugar, my phone wasn’t out and I wasn’t even distracted.  If you are my insurance company, I claim no responsibility for the accident.  If you are my wife, it’s only a car, right hun?  It adds character.

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Diabetes Car Crash is a post from: Blogging Diabetes

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In the last few days we’ve had a lot of new readers to Blogging Diabetes.  Today is also the day the diabetes newsletter comes out for QualityHealth. I would like to welcome all of the new readers.  Below, I put together a quick tour of some popular articles and links on the site.

My name is Tony Rose and I have been blogging about diabetes since October 2008.  I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in the summer of 1998, just about 12 years now.  Utilizing technology, I have been pumping insulin with Medtronic since January 2006.  This blog was started to help my readers and me to constantly learn more about diabetes from the online community and other resources.  For those that do not know, I try to inform and provide insights about real-living with diabetes.  To see more, you can click on the Welcome page.

Thank you for stopping by – I hope you enjoy your stay at Blogging Diabetes. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me using this form.

Diabetes Magazine

Just last weekend while I was getting ready to pay for my groceries, I noticed this “gem” of a magazine by the register.  I typically laugh at most of the magazines and entertainment guides that are strategically placed in these locations.  This one caught my eye for obvious reasons. 

OK, Seriously – I’ve been living with diabetes for almost 12 years and no one, not a single person, told me I could reverse my diabetes.  With all of the information I’ve tried to share with you, I’m a bit disappointed.  Not only can I reverse my diabetes, but I can do it with FOOD. SWEET (get the pun?)!  If you are looking for 12 “Superfoods” that can just melt the pounds away, check this magazine out.  On a semi-serious note, I would like to know how to improve my insulin sensitivity in 7 days.  My sensitivity seems to change like I change my underwear.  I didn’t buy the magazine because I do not want to support a company that advertises misinformation or misleading information.

Best of Blogging Diabetes

Here is a summary of blogging about diabetes over the past year or so.  I hope you find the information, tips and insights useful.

• My First post
• The most commented post
• The most visited post

Most popular posts:

1. Top Diabetes on Twitter
2. Insulin Pump Infusion Set Location
3. Blood Glucose Meter Test Strip Experiment
4. Running With Type 1 Diabetes
5. Reusing Lancets
6. Top 6 Insulin Pump Tips
7. Best Books on Diabetes
8. Reusing Syringes
9. Insulin Pump Disadvantage
10. Insulin Pump Advantages

Top referrers:

• Diabetes Sweeties
• The Butter Compartment

Find Blogging Diabetes on:

• Facebook – Become a fan
• YouTube 
• Twitter

Stay updated with new blog posts, giveaways and videos by getting:

• Updates via email
• Updates via RSS feed reader

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Welcome to Blogging Diabetes – A Quick Tour & Interesting Magazine is a post from: Blogging Diabetes

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If you haven’t noticed, there is a new ad image on the right side of this blog for a Diabetes Meal Planner.  This post is to announce that Blogging Diabetes has teamed up with QualityHealth.  You might be asking, what is QualityHealth?  Here is a blurb from their corporate site:

A top-10 consumer health portal, QualityHealth.com provides users with thought-provoking articles, interactive health-management tools, patient-education resources, and valuable manufacturers’ offers. The site enables brands in the pharmaceutical, medical-device, and consumer packaged goods industries to connect with consumers who have a demonstrated interest in a specific health condition—and a vested interest in finding the right treatment.

What I have quickly learned is that this site has a lot of great information on many different areas of healthcare besides just diabetes.  In terms of diabetes, there are articles, recipes, coupons, advice, directories, drug information, videos and much more.

So the question that you as the reader of Blogging Diabetes may have is how does this impact you.  I’m here to tell you that it will not impact you at all.  As of writing this, I am more committed than ever to Blogging Diabetes, helping my readers and doing my best at my diabetes management.  I will not be writing for Quality Health, but have agreed to let them stream my blog posts (feed) to their site.  So their readers can get quality diabetes information, tips and insights from my blog. 

Let me take this opportunity to thank the new readers from QualityHealth.  I look forward to your contribution, valuable comments, suggestions and feedback.  When I started this blog and as of now my mission remains unchanged.  You can see this mission below and on the about page.

Founded in October 2008, Blogging Diabetes is dedicated to helping others learn about real living with diabetes and share their own experiences while helping me and others gain and keep excellent control of their diabetes.

My goal is to help both my readers and me.  This arrangement brings my information and real-life insights into diabetes to a whole new level.  Quality Health’s newsletter reaches over 300k subscribers.  If I can reach that level of people without compromising this site or my existing friends and readers, than it just makes sense.

In the image below and on the right side of this blog is the new ad.  If you are interested in adding a great resource to your trusted sites, click on the link and fill out a short survey.  Once completed you have the option of signing up for a weekly newsletter on diabetes that contains some great insights and resources or you can just visit them for information.

Below is an image of the QualityHealth website.

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I want to sincerely thank you for your continued support and subscription. This blog is better because of you.

Blogging Diabetes Teams up with QualityHealth is a post from: Blogging Diabetes

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Just last week I finally started the Diabetes 365 project.  This project is located on Flickr and has a group of around 220 people that submit pictures or videos every day, hence the 365.  At first I thought it would be a lot of work with little return.  I’m on the verge of pre ordering a new Canon Rebel camera and enjoy taking photos.  I’m not even close to anything but an amateur when it comes to photography.  On Blogging Diabetes you can easily keep track of my pictures by clicking on the word “Photos” in the header.

Back to the project; It has been fairly easy to keep up with the daily pictures because I can snap one on my phone camera, which is pretty good, and with the click of a few buttons, email it to my Flickr account to be automatically posted in my Diabetes 365 folder (called a Set).

The photo above was actually taken on the first day that I truly started the Diabetes 365 project.  I may not ever admit it, but the song is pretty good and the title stood out right away.  So, naturally, I snapped a picture of it with my phone and posted it for the day.  Now that is easy, right? 

One benefit of the Diabetes 365 project is this – by constantly thinking about diabetes it helps me to not become complacent.  It is very easy to: wake up, test, bolus, eat, test, bolus, eat, test and sleep.  However, when I am thinking about what might be interesting for the D365, diabetes sticks in my mind more and keeps me on my toes.  What I will try not to do is take a picture of my Humalog vial or meter every day for my daily picture.  I will certainly try to mix it up and be interesting.

Finally, the title of this song got me thinking about how I live.  Sometimes, when I’m a little down or around my young girls, I will almost act like I may not see them again, just in case.  I never miss an opportunity to shower them with extra hugs/kisses to the point where my oldest will say, “Alright Dad, stop”.  I remember growing up where my Mom doing this to me and now I can relate.  With having diabetes, I truly do live like I’m dying sometimes because that’s what the disease does to you.  It takes a little tiny bit of you each day until, one day, there’s nothing left.  Depending on the day and how well I do, it might be next to nothing or it could be more than it should.  If I don’t live like I’m dying than it can be too easy to become complacent with my management and put off things I should be doing today.  Until there’s a cure, I’ll probably live like I’m dying.  This isn’t saddening to me because it’s simply what I have to do… to win.

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Live Like We’re Dying is a post from: Blogging Diabetes

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While digging out from a record snowfall here in Maryland, I have been counting the days until our family vacation scheduled in May.  My wife, children and I will be traveling to Scottsdale for about ten days to enjoy the pool, golf, Sedona views, and some much needed relaxing.  I will say that this has been the most trying starts to a year I’ve probably ever had.  As our family grew, so did the numbers of illnesses, time off and added stress.  Also, the start to this year has me trying to get in the best shape of my life.  I’ve dropped 10 pounds, my pants are loose and I feel awesome!  I’m pumped to get into my bathing suit and slop on some sunscreen.  There’s nothing better than sitting back or playing with kids on vacation by the pool and then watching them crash from being exhausted and happy.

Enough of me visualizing my vacation and sounding self-centered.  The purpose of this post is to put a call out to anyone interested in guest blogging/writing on Blogging Diabetes.  There are a few specific individuals I am looking for to write on specific topics (see more below).  I am also looking for anyone that wants to write about diabetes or related topic.  I am very open and as long as the post isn’t selling anything I will consider it.  I can fill up to about 10 spots as I don’t want to publish more than one per day.  This is a great opportunity to tap into the Blogging Diabetes audience, doing a little self promoting or just write to help others.

If you are interested, please contact me using this form or write to tony[at]bloggingdiabetes.com.  I’ve written my email address like this to prevent spammers from scraping my email address.  I am very open and will try to accommodate all requests depending on volume. Don’t be shy, send me your ideas.

Specific Topics

In addition to those interested in guest posting, I am looking for the following people to help discuss a few different topics and how they are related to diabetes.

• Dentist
• Nutritionist

Thank you, Tony

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I want to sincerely thank you for your continued support and subscription. This blog is better because of you.

Guest Writers/Bloggers is a post from: Blogging Diabetes

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I just wanted to take a quick minute and let you know about the Blogging Diabetes Fan site on Facebook.  You may have noticed the Facebook fan box in the right sidebar, which can also be seen in the screenshot below.

Below is a screenshot from the fan site.  One of the reasons I created this site was to bridge the gap between twitter and this blog.  By that I mean the following. Twitter only allows 140 characters, making any kind of meaningful interaction limited.  On the other end, this blog has much lengthier posts.  By now having a Facebook fan page, this will allow another medium to exchange ideas that can be short and quick. 

In the screen shot below, you can see the tabs across the top of the fan page that contain a News tab and Twitter tab.  The News tab streams this blog’s RSS feed to Facebook while the Twitter feed goes to the Twitter tab.  Now all of the information is streamed to one source that many people are already using.

On the Fan page I will be sharing ideas, tips and insights that I may not post here on the blog.  Please take a minute to check out the Fan page and become a fan!

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I want to sincerely thank you for your continued support and subscription. This blog is better because of you.

Diabetes Tips on Facebook is a post from: Blogging Diabetes

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This will be the last post in the mini series I have created going back to the beginning of this year.  If you want to catch up on those posts before continuing with this one, they can be found by clicking on the following:

1. You Must Finish Strong
2. I Need to Win at Diabetes
3. Clean Diabetic Diet and Exercise
4. My 2010 Challenge

Let me reiterate that I’m not a doctor and I don’t have any scientific data that explains what I am about to say.  I have neither collected data nor can guarantee these results.  As always, consult your physician before changing anything in your diet. 

Back in September when I fell off of my diet wagon and began eating and drinking soda like it was going out of style, my blood sugars were high.  In the morning I had a very difficult time keeping my sugar below 200 between breakfast and lunch.  At bed time, my sugars were always pretty high probably from an oversized dinner.  During this period from September through the end of December, I was drinking one thing constantly; Diet Mountain Dew.

[source]

I would have a sugar free Monster or Rockstar drink in the morning and then drink Diet Mountain Dew all day long until dinner when I would stop for the evening.  By days end, I would probably come close to 2 liters per day.  It is very hard to tell, but I noticed that when I stopped drinking so much caffeine my sugars seemed to level out.  Granted, I also changed my diet shortly after, but the caffeine had multiple negative effects on the body.

1. By drinking so much soda, I was drinking nearly zero water each day 
2. All of the caffeine was keeping me going during the day, but seriously crashing at night

When I was diagnosed I had a very easy time transitioning to diet soda because that’s really what I drank anyways.  I have heard from many diabetics and I think the general consensus is that you would have to pry the diet soda out of my cold, dead hands for me to give it up.  Up until now, I would have agreed. 

I am going to say it right here and quite frankly; I think diet soda (not caffeine free) is one of the most detrimental things that a diabetic can consume outside of doing pure sugar shots.  I’m talking about the typical day to day things someone would eat or drink.  Sure there are other things that are hazardous, but you know what I’m talking about.  Also, I’m not talking about one diet soda here and there; I am talking about someone like me that obviously had a problem.  I will be the first to admit it.  I was addicted to Diet Mountain Dew.

One of the reasons I think drinking diet soda all day long, maybe at work, is such a problem is what happens afterwards.  When you need the energy to do something beneficial for yourself like exercise or spend time with the family, you have no energy.  The crash from no caffeine was so bad, that most nights I wanted to crawl into bed at 7:30 when we started to put our girls down for the evening.  Now with much more energy I might even sneak in a 45 minute workout at 11:00 at night.

I still haven’t completely given up caffeine. In the morning I am still drinking a Monster energy drink, but it’s all about baby steps, right?  The difference is that I am drinking at least a gallon of plain water each day after my morning jolt.  I feel energized and have a lot more motivation to workout at night instead of A) snacking and watching TV or B) going to bed from just being tired.

If you want to feel better, have more motivation and help your body stay clean, give up the soda for a glass or two of water.  It’s better for your kidneys, your skin and will help you out in the long term.  I’m not a doctor, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night.

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The Key To Lowering Your Blood Sugar is a post from: Blogging Diabetes

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