When the hypoglycemia strikes, when the boluses sting
When I'm feeling sad....
I simply grab one of my favorite things
And then I don't feeeeel sooooo baaaaaaaad!
In no particular order, here are some things that keep my life with diabetes in order.
*Opsite Flexifix tape: Learned about it (like so much else) from good old sixuntilme.com...two words my friends: GAME. CHANGER. Especially for the OmniPod...no more catching my pod on a doorway or clipping it when I'm pulling on a shirt...just a strong base layer of this all over and I'm good to go. It's also amazing for extending the life of my CGM sensors and keeping sweat and water out (which I'm all about since omfg they hurt to put on). I seriously cannot emphasize this enough, and it's the main reason I'm writing this post for future me...if for some reason I get amnesia now at least I'll never forget this stuff. Oh and did I mention that, unlike the rest of diabetes, it's actually a pretty good bargain? $8 for a ginormous roll that's lasted me 4 months and counting...
*Luna Protein bars: Not the regular ones, but the PROTEIN ones. They are the perfect snack for when I'm lightly drifting down with some IOB, or when I want to go for a nice long walk. Under 200 calories, relatively delicious flavors, enough sugar (12 g) to pump me up and protein to keep things easy breezy and lack of post-prandial spikey. When things are a bit more serious (i.e. low blood sugar or going on a hike) I'm all about Larabar Apple or Cherry pie flavor. Also under 200 calories, they are basically smooshed together dried fruits and nuts. Quick energy + fats to keep it going. Also extremely delicious...I used to rely on the carrot cake flavor but it's just so good that I kept eating it when it was non-essential...
*Nightly yoga fix: www.yogaglo.com. Full disclosure--I accidentally originally typed togaglo.com which is another type of fix altogether I suspect. In my head, I'm picturing disco-themed togas or toga-themed discos. Neither of which I'm actually trying to talk about!! A personal strategy for keeping my A1C down is to try and get my nights pretty stable...if I can keep things cool after dinner and up until breakfast, that's a sweet sweet 10 hours or so that my BG is in range and I'm doing absolutely zero to maintain it...which is almost half the day in range with little to no worries :) To accomplish this, I try to stick to a relatively low-carb, low-fat dinner, not eating after 8 pm, and a gentle or more vigorous flow to help me relax, unwind, and maintain my sugars. Plus also did I mention relax and unwind? Turns out working, going to grad school, and managing a new diabetes diagnosis is a lot. So bring on the chaturangas and lion's breath, I say.
*This tip for managing my breakfast bolus. I eat essentially the same breakfast every weekday, and I test my fasting basal morning rates every weekend when I routinely sleep through my weekday breakfast time. Meaning that, breakfast is a great time for me to experiment. I was feeling really frustrated by my morning blood sugar spikes that would occur despite my steady fasting BG and relatively intense IC ratio. There was no reason that nonfat plain yogurt and 2/3 cup of protein and fiber heavy old people cereal should send me skyrocketing into the 300s without constant maintenance. And oh! the rage bolusing...and the subsequent roller coastering...not so fun. Until I read this. Which makes oh so much sense...overnight fasting=not a ton of insulin floating around in the body=no insulin hitting the body until 45 mins or so AFTER eating (since I was doing a 20 min pre-bolus)=my poor little basal insulin trying to do all the work=basal insulin FAILING to do all the work=crazy high blood sugars that won't crack thanks to my sensible ingestion of protein. So now, I set an early alarm, bolus, sleep, get ready, eat, and keep a sweet log of what happens to me over the next 4 hours. So far, the results are extremely promising! Even when I do start to drift up, it's much easier to manage with say, a temp basal increase rather than a whole other bolus which can lead to dropping low a few hours later...This is probably worth a whole post on its own as I attempt to expand it into practice with other meals.
So that's my diabetes essentials as of now so to speak. Of course there's so much more...this post has really had the opposite effect of catharsis because now I'm thinking of so many other things I want to write about...so I guess I should say, to be continued!
When I'm feeling sad....
I simply grab one of my favorite things
And then I don't feeeeel sooooo baaaaaaaad!
In no particular order, here are some things that keep my life with diabetes in order.
*Opsite Flexifix tape: Learned about it (like so much else) from good old sixuntilme.com...two words my friends: GAME. CHANGER. Especially for the OmniPod...no more catching my pod on a doorway or clipping it when I'm pulling on a shirt...just a strong base layer of this all over and I'm good to go. It's also amazing for extending the life of my CGM sensors and keeping sweat and water out (which I'm all about since omfg they hurt to put on). I seriously cannot emphasize this enough, and it's the main reason I'm writing this post for future me...if for some reason I get amnesia now at least I'll never forget this stuff. Oh and did I mention that, unlike the rest of diabetes, it's actually a pretty good bargain? $8 for a ginormous roll that's lasted me 4 months and counting...
*Luna Protein bars: Not the regular ones, but the PROTEIN ones. They are the perfect snack for when I'm lightly drifting down with some IOB, or when I want to go for a nice long walk. Under 200 calories, relatively delicious flavors, enough sugar (12 g) to pump me up and protein to keep things easy breezy and lack of post-prandial spikey. When things are a bit more serious (i.e. low blood sugar or going on a hike) I'm all about Larabar Apple or Cherry pie flavor. Also under 200 calories, they are basically smooshed together dried fruits and nuts. Quick energy + fats to keep it going. Also extremely delicious...I used to rely on the carrot cake flavor but it's just so good that I kept eating it when it was non-essential...
*Nightly yoga fix: www.yogaglo.com. Full disclosure--I accidentally originally typed togaglo.com which is another type of fix altogether I suspect. In my head, I'm picturing disco-themed togas or toga-themed discos. Neither of which I'm actually trying to talk about!! A personal strategy for keeping my A1C down is to try and get my nights pretty stable...if I can keep things cool after dinner and up until breakfast, that's a sweet sweet 10 hours or so that my BG is in range and I'm doing absolutely zero to maintain it...which is almost half the day in range with little to no worries :) To accomplish this, I try to stick to a relatively low-carb, low-fat dinner, not eating after 8 pm, and a gentle or more vigorous flow to help me relax, unwind, and maintain my sugars. Plus also did I mention relax and unwind? Turns out working, going to grad school, and managing a new diabetes diagnosis is a lot. So bring on the chaturangas and lion's breath, I say.
*This tip for managing my breakfast bolus. I eat essentially the same breakfast every weekday, and I test my fasting basal morning rates every weekend when I routinely sleep through my weekday breakfast time. Meaning that, breakfast is a great time for me to experiment. I was feeling really frustrated by my morning blood sugar spikes that would occur despite my steady fasting BG and relatively intense IC ratio. There was no reason that nonfat plain yogurt and 2/3 cup of protein and fiber heavy old people cereal should send me skyrocketing into the 300s without constant maintenance. And oh! the rage bolusing...and the subsequent roller coastering...not so fun. Until I read this. Which makes oh so much sense...overnight fasting=not a ton of insulin floating around in the body=no insulin hitting the body until 45 mins or so AFTER eating (since I was doing a 20 min pre-bolus)=my poor little basal insulin trying to do all the work=basal insulin FAILING to do all the work=crazy high blood sugars that won't crack thanks to my sensible ingestion of protein. So now, I set an early alarm, bolus, sleep, get ready, eat, and keep a sweet log of what happens to me over the next 4 hours. So far, the results are extremely promising! Even when I do start to drift up, it's much easier to manage with say, a temp basal increase rather than a whole other bolus which can lead to dropping low a few hours later...This is probably worth a whole post on its own as I attempt to expand it into practice with other meals.
So that's my diabetes essentials as of now so to speak. Of course there's so much more...this post has really had the opposite effect of catharsis because now I'm thinking of so many other things I want to write about...so I guess I should say, to be continued!
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