One of the things I find so annoying about diabetes is figuring out exercise. Exercise is supposed to be so good for diabetics, yet it’s so freakin’ annoying to figure out how to adjust insulin hours in advance of it and hours after it’s finished so that I don’t start out high or end up low.
Usually I try reducing my dinner bolus for exercise I do after dinner, but I never quite get it right, and it usually requires whipping out a calculator. Tonight as I was bolusing I realized that I could adjust both the I:C ratio and the target blood sugar on my Ping while doing the actual bolus, without having to go change them in the settings.
So tonight I decided to experiment by setting my “target blood sugar” for 10.0 (180 mg/dl), meaning that’s what I wanted to be when starting exercise. I was going to exercise an hour after eating, though, not at two or three hours, so had no idea what I’d be.
Before eating my blood sugar was 8.8 (158 mg/dl). An hour after eating it was 9.3 (167 mg/dl). I did 30 minutes of moderate to vigorous exercise on my stationary bike. At the half-way point I was 4.4 (79 mg/dl).
After finishing I was 2.6 (47 mg/dl).
Yay for a 6.7 (121 mg/dl) drop in blood sugar in only about 40 minutes?
I think maybe my bolus was too much. I think maybe my I:C ratio is in the process of “The Drop” that happens once a month. (Yeah, I have a name for it. And “The Rise” that also happens once a month. I think it complicates things immensely.)
But even if that wasn’t happening, I have so far found it impossible to exercise in the evenings without a) starting out high and b) ending up low.
At least I HAVE found out how to consistently avoid lows overnight and the next morning. That’s a recent discover, and is progress. But with work and school I really do not have time to wait four hours after eating until all my bolus has worn off.
Today, my blood sugar control has looked like:
5:26 AM - 6.3 (113)
7:13 AM - 4.6 (83) - Breakfast
8:44 AM - 7.3 (131)
9:34 AM - 8.3 (149) - Correction
11:08 AM - 7.2 (130)
1:22 PM - 9.1 (164) - Lunch
3:17 PM - 13.0 (234) - Correction (felt high)
7:27 PM - 8.8 (158) - Dinner
8:28 PM - 9.3 (167)
8:45 PM - 4.4 (79)
9:11 PM - 2.6 (47) - Skittles
9:47 PM - 5.6 (101)
10:43 PM - 3.2 (58)
This is actually an awesome day in terms of how steady my blood sugar stayed—it was just a tad too high most of the day. But I suspect my pump settings are in the midst of changing, and so tomorrow might be completely different. I have made so many positive changes in my life during the past few months: I’ve quit Diet Coke (HUGE accomplishment there, let me tell you!!!), virtually stopped eating out (packing lunches whenever possible), stopped buying Starbucks (bringing water bottle whenever possible), begun a concerted effort to eat 30g or under per meal (not quite there, but doing it for 2/3 meals), began exercising EVERY DAY for at least 30 minutes, began keeping my schedule as consistent as I possibly can.
And I know these are awesome changes and I’m super proud of them (especially quitting Diet Coke!). But I still find myself wondering if I am EVER going to find a way of keeping my blood sugars in decent control. Maybe I just have expectations that are way too high and people don’t really keep as good control as they seem to, but when I hear people talking about how they stay between 80-140 for 90% of the time, I don’t think so … (I mean, I’m not trying to compare myself to others, just trying to decide where I should aim for personally, whether my aims are too perfectionist …)
I think maybe I should keep a logbook, except that I know right now I would never stick with it. Not with all the other stuff I’m trying to solidify into habits. But I think maybe I will start posting my daily readings here, so that maybe it will act as a form of a logbook at least in the short term … Plus maybe people here will have ideas or see patterns that I don’t! I think blog-logging (ha, I think I made up a new word) will be more motivating for me than just writing in a document/journal that only I would see.
Anyhow, there are my rambles for today. Not much productive, but I think I’ve been on the right track for the past month or six weeks, I just have to keep it up and hope I start seeing SOME results (trying to lose weight, too, still waiting on that part to start as well!).
Those are awesome changes & you have deserved bragging rights! I hate logging, absolutely loathe it. It’s my form of rebellion, even though I know it’s important.
What did you have for lunch that accounts for the high? Something else going on then?
The thing that helps me is consistency in eating. Whenever I veer, it’s a ride on the high/low not fun ride. Maybe not having a pump keeps me on the straight & narrow:) So, I keep the amount of carbs & protein pretty much the same from meal to meal & day to day. This has really helped me to know what to expect. Dr. Bernstein’s law of small numbers has also helped. Mistakes aren’t as drastic & easier to correct.
Don’t give up on wanting better control.
That is great progress! One thing you might look into is the ExCarbs system which gives guidance on how many carbs are needed for exercise as well as how much insulin can be “reduced.” That may be helpful in adjusting your insulin dosing before exericse.
@Gerri: Lunch was my non-30g meal. I had a sandwich (Weight Watchers bread so 15g), a “mini muffin” my mom made (15g), and a latte (25g). So that is 55g in total. The meals I don’t eat at home are usually not the under 30g ones. Got to work on that.
Also, yesterday was the first day of work (I teach) after the summer, so I think stress probably played some role in my readings. But we will find out today!
Then again, dinner was also a non-30g meal, it was about 60g. I also seriously debated not exercising yesterday. I think the first day of work made me really lazy in other areas of life! But I did force myself to exercise, which was good.
@bsc: I know about ExCarbs but am trying not to have to eat before/after exercise so I can lose weight. I suppose it would be better to eat some carbs before exercise and avoid a low than have to scarf Skittles afterwards. My endo says I should just do the full meal bolus and then eat before exercise, but I hate doing that! I don’t see any point if all the calories I burn are made up by the fact that I had to eat a granola bar or something before starting. But I think I will try reducing my bolus one more time (reducing it more), and if I still end up low then maybe try eating something small like 5-10g before exercising, or in the middle of exercising, or something and see if that helps.
My point was that you can use the Excarbs to calculate how much to reduce your bolus rather than eating carbs. Here is a quote from the link I provided;
“ExCarbs can be used to guide insulin dose reductions for those who want to lose weight, and for those who don’t want to eat large amounts of carbohydrates during long periods of exercise.”
Remember, you don’t take insulin to “cover” excarbs. You can subtract the insulin needed to “cover” the excarbs from your bolus at the meal before exercise.
I did not think of that. I’ll try it tomorrow. Thanks!