Okay-- I asked about breakfast foods... now I am asking about what you eat before you exercise.
My normal exercise is walking 2 miles around the track. I try to do this nearly daily. Today, I had a good breakfast, eggs and sausage and small no sugar mandarins... My sugar was like 140. I had a larabar at 11 a.m. I exercised, and it dropped to 118. I stopped exercising (did not bring glucose tabs with me) because it dropped to 118 after the first mile and usually it goes down like 50 points (at least) after the second mile.
What do you eat before you exercise? Also, I find I exercise when I am able to (like today there was a snow storm so the activity we had planned was canceled. I normally exercise between 5 and 7 at night... so it was off for me to exercise in the morning.
The larabar was great in that it did not send my blood sugar over 200, but it didn't raise it enough for exercise. What do you do?
For me, I like to clear out insulin on board. If I try to run in the AM, with groups, I will try to get up *really* early to eat a couple hours beforehand. At night, I'll run when I get home from work. I try to start out about 90 and have 8-10G of carbs which will not quite cover me for a 5K. If I don't have IOB, I can get a very flat BG response for a 5K. But I've tested my BG, sometimes lugged my meter along on runs and also have a CGM.
I'm not a huge fan of bars for exercise as I've observed that the ones that have maltodextrose seem to put some sugar down quickly but I run up like 2 hours later. I might eat one (or a GU packet) before a 1/2 marathon or as I approach the wall in a full marathon but other than that, I usually just stick to 10-15G of carbs,every 3-5 miles running. I did a Tour de Cure last June too, and had never rode that distance. I brought a peanut butter sandwich and Gatorade for fuel along on the 70 mile training ride and then jelly beans for emergencies. At the event itself, there was food, bars, sandwiches, various sandwiches and chips about every 20-30 miles, so every hour or so,maybe a couple were closer. I ended up eating at most of them.
I usually have a slice of bread with 1 tbs of peanut butter. I find that my blood sugar drops 40 points per mile if I'm really running, and maybe 15 if I'm walking.
I swim mid morning, so technically I should eat breakfast before, however, I've had bad cramps when I eat a meal before swimming. So I have yogurt and toast with peanut butter before and an orange or fruit after....I swim for about 45 minutes and then use the recumbant bike for another 15 minutes. Swimming is the ONLY thing I can do for exercise because of joint disease, so I had to tweak my eating to match the exercise. If I do get to eat before swimming, it would be a protein, a carb, and fruit or vegetable. I find that works best for me,
On mdi I have typically eaten some nuts/cheese/protein/fat, it would depend on what my bg was before and when I had taken the large basal shot. If I was going low a glucose tab/smarties etc. Last night on the pump, dex alerted I was dropping although I was 20 points above dex on finger sticks- I reduced the basal to 90% and I was able to stay active and ended up at 87 without eating anything. That was with a small correction on board. I think if I do longer, more vigorous activity, I may still need a snack depending on my previous meal. I'm talking about activities like shopping/housework etc. which can also drop me a lot with fast acting on board and whatever else is going on.
