I enrolled in a zumba class that my friend is teaching today. Any experiences with aerobic exercise out there? I'm a serious downhill skier, but as I've gotten more advanced, Ive also had more difficulty controlling my bg. Cross country skiing is something that I enjoy, but I dont do very often because I have some difficulty keeping my bg up and frequently have severe lows as early as 15 min in. Zumba might have similar results....
I think the best way to go is to adjust the timing of your insulin to clear out any on board insulin floating around, by not taking short-term/ bolus insulin before your class, like for four hours. Then test your BG before you start, if it's lower than you want, maybe < 120 at first, until you get used to it, have a small snack. I've been running since 2009 and have practiced enough so I can get home from work, test at 90, have a small glass of skim milk and my CGM will show the "predicted high" about a mile into it and a "predicted low" as I'm in the home stretch and the milk has burnt off. Usually it seems 8-10G of carbs will last me about 3 miles. Bring your meter and test, if you are buddies with the instructor, hopefully they won't mind if you "pause" to test at the 1/2 way point. If you're low, have a little snack, again, towards the light side as you won't have much insulin cooking, to carry you to the end of class and then test again to see where you end up. Burning 3x strips/ day can strain one's supplies but I manage to arrange things by perhaps skimping in some other areas to make up for it. Once you've figured out how the class treats your BG, perhaps you can omit the mid class one as you develop more confidence in your numbers. Most of all, have fun!!
Thanks for the help. Have you ever noticed patterns where exercise raises your blood glucose? I think that, part of the problem, was that my pump infusion line used to freeze while skiing, but I'm not 100% sure about that. Sometimes I start skiing at 90 and, within a couple hours, its 400. Maybe I'm producing a bunch of adrenaline, or something. My doc thinks that if I am engaging in vigorous exercise when I'm dehydrated, that it might be raising my bg. I'm a bit uncomfortable taking bolus when I start because sometimes it drops dramatically and sometimes it raises dramatically. The CGM has been real helpful. Maybe as I get more in shape, the bg behavior sill get more predictable, thats what I'm hoping. Hoping to be in shape and hit the ski season running with the zumba.
If I do anaerobic activities, lifting, sprinting, pushups, chinups, I will go up, sometimes 40-50 points. I usually am pretty well hydrated so I don't know about that but it's an interesting theory. I will correct during long cardio sessions if my BG goes up too. The line on my page is from the 2012 Chicago Marathon and I had a TON of adrenaline cooking that nudged things up so I didn't eat much until like 15 miles into it, just water and whatever I ate beforehand. Or maybe it was what I ate beforehand? Hmmm...
I just worked the Twin Cities marathon medical aid. I saw a couple of diabetics. I think its amazing that you guys can run those. Its amazing that anyone can run a marathon, but especially diabetics. If you ever wear a CGM, I'd be really curious to see the data. You should post it. Hats off to u!