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

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

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Having diabetes for about 12 years now, there are two things that I watch very closely and have been proud to have never had any issues.  The two things are: my feet and my eyes.  I have always been someone who runs hot and have never had any circulation issues.  Someday I’m sure this will change, but I have perfect vision with my annual results always coming back better than 20/20 with absolutely no signs of damage from diabetes.  I can basically read the tiny print of who the company is that created the eye chart when asked, but that’s neither here nor there.

I was on vacation in Scottsdale recently and after three days of wearing nothing but flip flops and enjoying the resort pool (heavily chlorinated), I noticed my heel hurt quite a bit.  I didn’t think too much of it at first until later on when I fully inspected my foot.  I noticed that the calloused part of my outer right heel had cracked.  I freaked out a bit because I’m constantly going into the pool, playing with my kids around the pool and didn’t want to get an infection.  I did an internet search right away to find out that this issue is called a “heel fissure’” and you can see images of what it can look like below. 

If left untreated, a heel fissure that is deep enough can lead to a serious infection.  I used Neosporin every day, caked my heel in Vaseline each night and covered it with a sock.  It healed and is now better, but it taught me a lesson.  I need to take extra care of my feet to proactively prevent issues like this instead of being reactive.

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If you have experienced a heel fissure, you know how painful they can be.  Share your thoughts in the comments if you would like to add anything.

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

Diabetic Complication is a post from: Blogging Diabetes

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I’m going to be 100% completely honest with the upcoming statement.  I’ve read many stories, posts and tweets that talk about making sure you always have your blood glucose meter or testing supplies with you .  There have been those that panic when they don’t have their meter to test with.  So here’s my approach.

I can honestly say that I NEVER take my blood sugar meter with me unless I know it’s going to be a day long trip.  Even if I’m going out to dinner, I’ll test before I leave and run with it.  Going to the mall, test before I leave and head on out.  Going to the park, test before and go to the flipping park.  I tend to know when my sugar is low through the typical warning signs, which is different than those who sometimes can’t tell.

Does this make me lazy?  Does this approach lead to poor diabetes management?  Am I setting a bad example by admitting this to you?  You know what?  I think I’m not alone.

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

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

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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When I converted over to an insulin pump roughly four years ago, little did I know that syringes would never go away.  I have written here before some of the reasons I miss my syringes and my insulin pen.  With injections there’s no unknown.  You fill the syringe, you grab some skin and inject.  When using an insulin pump there are a few unknowns and a mental checklist that you need to go through when something doesn’t seem right or your numbers are out of whack. 

[Source]

I sometimes long for the freedom of no tubing or infusion sets.  I wonder what life would really be like if i was cured.  How long would I continue to test my blood sugar after being cured out of habit or curiosity?  When I am in between infusion sets and showering it’s the best feeling.  I don’t have to worry about the infusion set getting attacked by the towels’ strands. I know I digress, so I’ll get to my point of this post.

There will always be syringes in my house for two very good reasons. 

1. They are a backup for the time when/if my insulin pump dies
2. I use them very effectively for correcting my blood sugar

Anytime my blood sugar is over 300 I will almost always use a syringe to correct it.  I have found through experience that an injection in a different area than the infusion set will bring my blood sugar down faster than a corrective bolus any day of the week and twice on Sunday.  I imagine it that when I am bolusing and infusing insulin in one area, it can tend to get pooled up before it is absorbed.  If I eat a lot of carbs, bolus and then find I am still high, I find it more effective to inject into a different site.

Another benefit of using a syringe is that you take out the unknown of a bad infusion site, pump problems, reservoir problems, bleed backs, gusher, etc.  I know that when I inject the insulin my blood sugar WILL come down.  If I enter a corrective bolus, it’s a crap shoot.  When my blood sugar is really jacked up, I might inject about 70% of the corrective dose while bolusing for the other 30%.

Maybe this is a no brainer and you haven’t even read this far into the post.  Maybe you don’t even have an insulin pump. Quite possibly you don’t even have diabetes.  But if you didn’t know, now you do. A box of 100 syringes has lasted me literally years and only set me back about a $20 co-pay.  It is so worth the money and you will always find some in my case or home.

If you pump insulin, do you correct the same way or do you rely on your pump?

Like what you see here?  Check out our new Facebook page for more tips and insights into real-living with diabetes.

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

Pumping Insulin: Keep Those Syringes Close By 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.

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

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

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The last 2 posts (…finish strong & …win at diabetes) have led up to this one where I am going to discuss my recent diet and exercise.

Diet

I first mentioned that I started the Fat Flush diet back in August of last year.  I think it’s a great plan, but with not without some flaws.  It was never designed for a diabetic and is mostly geared towards women.  I can tell because it talks about being able to reduce and target cellulite on every other page.  However, I definitely think there are some great tips and information that can help a diabetic. So, I have created my own modified version of the Fat Flush diet that helps me control my blood sugar and weight at the same time.

Disclaimer: What works for me may not work for you.  Always consult your doctor before making changes or starting a new exercise routine.

Here is a sample of my daily diet:

Breakfast around 7:00 AM – I will have either a Fiber One bar or Smoothie Shake with a scoop of protein. I usually put some type of fruit in the shake, like a banana or strawberries.

AM Snack – I will have almonds, a Larabar, piece of fruit or nothing if I get busy and miss it.

Lunch – Almost always this is 3 eggs (1 whole egg and 2 egg whites) with a whole grain english muffin or toast.  I can eat eggs any time of the day.

PM Snack – I will have either almonds, a Larabar or piece of fruit

Dinner – This is the key meal in my opinion.  You should go fairly low on simple carbs.  I almost always have a salad with some type of protein like, tuna or chicken.  I put some cut up peppers, carrots, snow peas and a tiny bit of bacon bits and shredded cheese (2% – low fat) topped with a low fat dressing. Virtually no simple carbs.

Workout/Cardio after my girls go down for the night, which I typically start around 9:00-9:30.

Before Bed – Finally, for my post workout drink (not the kind you’re thinking of) I will have a 12oz glass of a mixture of cranberry juice (concentrate), water, ground flax seed and some protein.  For more about the cran-water/flax drink, check out the Fat Flush book or send me an email.

[source]

Exercise

My exercise is nothing all that special.  I usually do one body part using my Bow flex and/or dumbbell set with an 8lb medicine ball or maybe just some core exercises like planks, which are much harder than they look.

After doing maybe 30 minutes of exercises I will jump on our treadmill or elliptical and do about 30 minutes (5 warm up and 5 cool down).

Nothing too fancy here, but it works.  I went from probably 3,000 calories a day to between 1,200 – 1,500 and after a few days/week it’s just like normal.  Sometimes I am starving, but I will snack on something with low carbs and fiber.  Best of all is what you will quickly see in your insulin intake and blood sugars.  Since I don’t eat 3 servings of rice or potatoes, chips, or sugar loaded foods, I am never getting above 250 anymore (like, at all).

Since starting this diet on 1/2/2010 (25 days) I have lost almost 10 pounds and my blood sugars are better than ever.  I can’t wait to go to the Endo now.  I’m actually looking forward to it.  If I can do it with a 9 month old, 4 yr old, full-time job, 2 blogs and little downtime, so can you.  You really owe it to yourself and shouldn’t have a reason not to.  My health and diet is now a priority and will not revert back after seeing these results.

Thank you all for the messages and support – I appreciate you visiting.

Next up is the single biggest thing you can do to help manage your diabetes or diet and you’re not going to like what it is, trust me.

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

Clean Diabetic Diet and Exercise is a post from: Blogging Diabetes

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All of my results came back very good except for the big one.  My A1c was higher than usual and probably one of my worst in a long time. It’s a little ironic that my result rhymes with hate.  

I have always been slightly happy that my blood sugar control isn’t in the poor range.  That’s how I sell it to everyone.  I have *good* control.  Someone will say, “Tony how’s your diabetes been”? To which I will respond, “Oh it’s good”. Since being diagnosed, I have only been in the excellent control range for a very brief stint a few years ago.  If you knew me, you would know that I’ve never been happy with good.  I don’t do good.  I was brought up and pride myself for the fact that I don’t settle for average or good.  For some reason I have failed at attaining and maintaining excellent control..

I could go on and on about all of the reasons I haven’t had excellent control, but I’m not going to. Everyone is busy.  Everyone has something that can get in the way.  My doctor likes to say things like, “life doesn’t stop or become easier just because you have diabetes”.  I think the real reason is for the fact that it’s pretty easy to have good control.  Conversely, it’s very difficult, in my opinion, to go from good/very good to excellent; let’s say to go from a 7.1 to 6.5 A1c.  At least this has been the case for me.  If I eat semi-healthy and limit sugar loaded foods, I can maintain a mid 7 A1c all year long and twice on Sunday’s.

To get and maintain an A1c below 7, the goal of probably every diabetic, means big changes that come in the form of either regular exercise and/or very strict diet.  This is really where I have failed.  When I was below 7, I was working out like crazy and watching my diet very closely.  That’s hard to do when there’s only 24 hours each day filled with work, sleep and kids/family time.  The reason it’s so difficult for me is because I haven’t committed to a lifestyle change for the long term.  I will do good for a few months and then some event will trigger a downward spiral that goes on until my next burst of motivation kicks in and the cycle continues.

[source]

That is…. until now.

Starting as of 1/2/2010 I’m back on track with the diet, exercise, mentally and motivationally. I will win; it’s not something I can afford to lose.

Next up are details on my dieting/exercise, the single biggest X factor in keeping my blood sugar below 200 on the regular and my 2010 challenge.

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

I Need to Win at Diabetes is a post from: Blogging Diabetes

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