Type 1 Active - Active Living with Diabetes

IIFYM Diabetes

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December 30, 2015

It’s coming up to the New Year so you know what that means? People will be making healthier choices and considering some sort of diet to either lose or gain a few lbs. So, I want to share the IIFYM approach with you. If it fits your macros (IIFYM) is a great way to go about dieting. What is means is that you can be completely flexible within your approach to what you eat providing it fits you macronutrient ratio. This will be different for everyone so I definitely suggest doing a bit of research and then starting off with a ratio that suits your goals and adjusting from there as you see fit. Here is a great calculator. Your goals might involve; weight gain, weight loss, muscle gain or maintenance. A macronutrient consists protein, carbs and fats that are essential to your diet and should not be cut out completely for extended periods of time.

Why it is good for diabetics

Us diabetics have to calculate our carbs anyway, so why not go all the way and look at the fats and protein too? The chances are, without going on a low carb diet, if you increase your protein, your carbs will naturally reduce otherwise you will end up eating too many calories over your required amount. When I have worked with nutrition for clients, their carbs have usually been higher than any other source. Oftentimes people say “Oh I don’t eat many carbs”, yet they eat about 300g per day from fruit, sports drinks, rice and potatoes. So many people, I can’t even tell you, say they are on a low carb diet and yes, they may have cut down on bread and pasta, but carbs are everywhere including the fruit they had for breakfast. Tracking your macros really educates you about the foods you eat. Even if you only do it for a couple of weeks it is useful for you to know what you’re eating.

What to do before you start

Like any other diet should tell you, figure out where you’re currently at with your macros. This may be hard to do over the Christmas period as you will naturally eat a little bit more, you know, with all that extra chocolate and cake lying around, but if you know what you are currently eating you will have a baseline to work from in order to make a plan for your goals.

Also, I want you to get rid of the idea that there are good and bad foods. I mean, you’re right but you shouldn’t condition your mind with this way of thinking because it could create an unhealthy relationship with food. If you like a certain food, like pizza, I strongly urge you to keep it in your diet and to make it fit your macros by practicing moderation. You may want to switch it to a lower fat version, or eat less of it depending on your goals, but do not cut it out. Cutting out the food you like is reading the sign “wet paint, do not touch”. Initially, you had no interest in the paint, but because you have been told not to touch it it makes you curious to see if it is actually wet; the same way the food would make you crave it because it is off limits.

My Current Ratio

While the extra carbs are really improving my strength and performance I feel that I am retaining some water and feel a bit uncomfortable eating that much. I will continue to increase because I know that my body needs more. In an earlier post I said how I had experimented with low carbs and how that really didn’t work for me. I felt so tired and ran out of energy very quickly when I was dancing. Also, I prefer carbs like fruit and potatoes instead of higher fat foods like cheese. This made me realise that a low carb diet wasn’t sustainable for me. It could definitely be a 12 week thing, but it wouldn’t last for the long haul.

Choosing a ratio that suits your goals is essential, but choosing one that is sustainable is even more important. Most people go into a diet blind. They go from 2000 calories a day to 1400, yes they initially lose weight at a fast pace, but then what? What happens when they plateau and the weight stays the same? Those 1400 calories won’t keep you going for long and the longer you eat at that level, the more likely your metabolism is going to adapt to that level. Be smart, have a plan. 12 weeks is a good place to start. Cut 1750 calories for the first few weeks and see how you get on. This is worth hald a lb in weight by itself. If you’re adding in exercise at the same time, don’t cut as much from your calories.

This post turned out to be a little longer than I expected, but I just want you to do this right and to consider your health in the long term, because after all, isn’t that why you want to improve your weight in the first place?

Rowena x

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Holiday Workouts

Rowena

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December 23, 2015

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Last week I went to LA and Vegas for a few days. With the mindset that I want to continue travelling quite frequently it is important that I keep my goals in mind during my holidays, otherwise I would go off track too frequently. So, I took some workout clothes and my yoga mat to ensure the workouts would happen. However, I didn’t track macros (only carbs for insulin) and I ate pretty much anything I wanted. By the end of the trip I felt really bloated, but satisfied and rested from being so strict. Now that I am home I am back to counting and monitoring everything. Pretty hard whilst it’s Christmas time but I manage it because of myfitnesspal and mysugr app on my iPhone. Christmas day will not be tracked, apart from carbs.

On the first day in LA I had planned a rest day so I didn’t do a workout apart from the playing around on muscle beach. I was so excited to be there even if it was freezing and really early in the morning.

The next morning I woke up in Vegas and went for a nice breakfast in Cocos Diner. I got eggs, mushroom, hash browns and coffee. I had been there a couple of times before so I knew it would be really nice. Straight after breakfast I did interval sprints from the restaurant, all the way to the Las Vegas sign and back to the hotel. The weather was crisp and cool so it was really nice to do the sprints outside instead of on a treadmill in a gym which I did in London a few days earlier.

And then of course when I got back I did some yoga. My post workout yoga sessions typically last around 20 minutes, sometimes longer but rarely less. Final BG was 5.2mmols.

Day 3 I did my work out about 30 minutes after a breakfast buffet. I ate the breakfast pictured left, which is not too much different from the one I would eat at home. Minus the bagel from the picture as I didn’t eat it in the end. Instead I ate a plain crepe with Greek yoghurt and blueberries. I had no idea of the carbs so I guessed for 30 and reduced the carb / insulin ratio because I knew I was going to work out shortly afterwards. Here is the workout I did, it was high intensity interval training that lasted 20 minutes. Note, if you do this work out and you squat low enough, you will be sore the next day.

There are 4 exercises; squat jumps, jogging with high knees, burpees and star jumps.

You go for a round of 60 seconds for each exercise with a 20 second rest, then reduce the working time by 10 seconds after each round; 60, 50, 40, 30, 20 and 10.

It sounds fairly easy but it definitely burns and makes you sweat.

I wanted to tie this Hiit workout in with a yoga session, which I did, but during the end of the hiit workout I felt low so I finished it and then checked my levels which were 3.2mmols. I didn’t have any glucose tablets or sugary drink to hand when I was in the hotel room and I was still very full from breakfast, but I had to eat again to be able to get my blood sugar back up and to continue the yoga part of my work out so I went with the trusty old banana which was around 20 carbs. I guess I estimated too much for that crepe at breakfast.

Amongst the planned workouts above I walked a lot, according to my phone it was around 8k a day. More so in Vegas than LA. The casinos are so big to walk through from the car park; it takes 10 minutes easy to get where you’re going and that is with a good parking space. I also went ice skating for the first time which was really fun and I only fell over once. Starting BG was 14.2mmols and end BG after only 30mins was 9.2mmols.

Overall I reckon I ate about 2000 -3000 calories per day which is definitely more than I eat at home, but the foods I eat at home are more carefully selected to keep me fuller for longer with less calories. I find that if I eat something that is really calorific I get hungrier because it’s like I have eaten fresh air. An example of this is a little slice of cheesecake that has 300 calories, I mean literally a bite, but at home I would use those calories more wisely and choose maybe pasta, vegetables and some meat free sausages. A small slice of cheesecake is definitively not enough to fill me up.

As I said earlier, I didn’t feel great after eating so much food. Initially, when eating a significant amount of food, even with extra exercise you will feel as though you have put weight on, you probably have but it is more likely to be water retention than fat gain. The body cannot process fat at such a fast pace so don’t worry straight away. Get back to your normal eating and all will be ok. I will probably weigh myself next week to see what those extra calories did.

Do you travel often? How do you keep up with your diet and fitness goals?

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Rowena x

P.S. – shout out to celineLasvegas.com which helped me choose some amazing activates.

Rasie Your Standards

Rowena

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December 9, 2015

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The New Year is nearly upon us and I know that a lot of you will be setting yourself some goals that are either fitness based, diet related or both. I have a similar focus, although I tend to set goals that include personal development too so that all of my progress is not just physical. Each year I have done this I have found that I have become more confident and honest with myself about what I really want from life. It’s an ongoing process and I am enjoying the journey, the tough times too. So, here are a few things that you could consider adding to your yearly to do list that could benefit your diabetes management.

Expect more from yourself

With relation to diabetes, if you’re aiming for the levels of a non-diabetic you are more likely to be closer to that number that if you were aiming for something a bit higher. I expect my blood sugar to be in the range of a non-diabetic. Yes, sometimes it is off; way off! But I know that if I keep aiming for those numbers between 4 and 7 I will get there.

Diet

If you look at the food you currently eat you might be able to tell a lot about the way you treat yourself. Could you be fuelling your body with something more nutritious? It doesn’t take a PHD in nutrition to understand what foods are good and bad for you. I am totally guilty of eating shit and when I do my blood sugar pays for it. Maybe not to the degree it used to because I have been able to fine tune my insulin to handle crap food, but there is ALWAYS an after effect to eating something that is not real food. It makes me really sluggish and my blood sugars are usually a few mmols higher because my insulin sensitivity has been effected. The choice to eat a healthier diet should not only be for weight loss goals, it should also be because it makes you feel good. If you consistently eat well for a prolonged period of time and then eat something that is not so healthy you will automatically understand and feel the difference of the foods you consume.

Sleep and Stress

The average person needs around 7-8 hours’ sleep per night. Do you know your average sleeping time? Spend a week figuring out how long, on average, you sleep for. What you do before bed and what you do when wake up? Those moments before sleep can really dictate whether you get to sleep on time or not. So many people are glued into social media as a way to relax before sleep, but you have to ask yourself if it is really relaxing you? I know that when I used to play on Facebook just before sleep I would always procrastinate and end up staying awake much longer than I anticipated. In order to put a stop to this so I could get my beloved 8 hours a night I now put my phone onto flight mode before I even enter the bedroom. Try it and you will be amazed at how much better you feel for the extra sleep.

Accept Responsibility

Giving the blame to other people is very exhausting and can often cause frustration and anger which can play havoc with blood glucose levels. However, accepting responsibility for things that are sometimes out of our control can be a way to rectify a situation a bit quicker to feel at peace with it. I’m going to relate to diabetes management again; I know this might be hard to hear but we are 100% responsible for the highs and lows of our diabetes. Maybe not the first time something happens, but the way the second time is managed should be an improvement from the first time. Don’t complain if you are high or low, just try to figure out why it happened and how it can be prevented next time. If I am high because there was a gap in my line I can’t blame the pump for not being primed properly as I have the ability to prime it and to check that it is primed properly.

Even when living with a challenging disease we can achieve feelings of vitality as long as we understand that it is up to us to do what we can to improve and maintain our health. Rasie your standards and expect nothing but the best from yourself.

Rowena x

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Binge Eating and Type 1 Diabetes

Rowena

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December 2, 2015

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Binge eating has come to my attention because of the research I have been doing around nutrition and reverse dieting. A lot of men and women, including me, binge eat without thinking about the negative effects it can have on our body. Binge eating is when you consume a large amount of food in one sitting. You might binge eat for a number of reason including hypoglycaemia, hyperglycaemia and restrictive eating. However, binge eating can be somewhat more serious and is classed as an eating disorder if one feels powerless about the food.

Hypoglycaemia

There have been times when I have been low and I have just had a few sips of Lucozade and I have been fine, but there have also been times when I would eat everything in sight because I felt like I was going to die if I didn’t, at this point I would be shaking and not really able stand really stand up. This happens rarely and only if I am really low like 2.2mmols. The feeling is like I have never eaten before. There is a strange pleasure in the feeling of eating, but the taste of the food is irrelevant and it’s as if it all tastes the same. There are a lot of people who over treat lows and could end up eating more than a meals worth of carbs.

If this sound like you and don’t have a major amount of insulin on board you could reach for your 15 carbs and then walk away from the area that has more food. The chances are, once your blood sugar has reached a normal level you won’t feel the need to over treat it. I have Lucozade in every room of my house, this helps to stay away from the kitchen. Also, if I am in the kitchen I know that I could grab a cracker and that would probably fix the low.

If you do continue to over treat hypoglycaemia it is important to avoid the other end of the scale by paying attention to what you’re consuming and to be honest with the amount you have eaten so you can calculate the carbs and dose accordingly.

Hyperglycaemia

I find it interesting that people don’t tend to talk about this, especially because unexplained hunger it is one of the symptoms that would prompt a doctor to check you for diabetes in the first place. Hyperglycaemia is when blood sugar levels are high because there is lack insulin in the body that would enable the release the glucose from the blood.

In relation to binge eating hyperglycaemia is extremely relevant. In my experience, when I am high, like above 20mmols, I have a never ending hunger that could easily go on a downward spiral of regret. Although, again, it doesn’t and won’t happen often I could literally eat and eat and still not feel full. The way I manage this now it that I have recognised that it is false hunger. This “hunger” is a direct result of my body not accessing the energy that I have given it earlier in the day which caused the hyper in the first place. If I am high I do whatever I can to get it down and then decide if I am actually hungry or not.

Restrictive Eating

I talk about this all the time on instagram and I am totally guilty of it myself. One of the main causes of binge eating is restrictive dieting. If you stop eating the foods you like or you eat too little of the foods you do include into your diet, your body will eventually tell you it needs feeding and so your brain flips a switch where you go onto autopilot and you make the decision to eat anything and everything.

If in general if you find that you are having regular binge eating sessions, it might be an idea to look at your caloric intake for about a week to see if you are eating enough. A lot of people go on extreme diets, cutting out full macronutrients sources such as carbs and fats without knowing how this will affect them other than the size of their waist. Be smart and educate yourself on nutrition. Here is a great calculator for finding out how many calories you need and here is a great tool for tracking your calories you eat daily.

In many cases, binge eating is linked to psychological issues such as depression, anxiety and guilt. There are a number of options for treating this and the main one is cognitive behavioural therapy. Please contact your doctor if you feel that it goes a bit deeper than what is mentioned above.

Rowena x

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p.s. after writing this blog, I became aware of a fellow diabetic who has overcome binge eating so you might want ot read her story. You can find it here.

One Year of Living with Type 1 Diabetes

Rowena

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November 29, 2015

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I was just searching in google for stories of other people who live with type 1 diabetes. I clicked exit almost straight away because it was all so negative. I realise that negative things do happen in the world, but I would prefer to look at the good. Especially when it comes to something I live with. My journey with this disease is going to be different to yours because we lead different lives. People assume that all diabetics take a certain amount of insulin and that some are “naughty” and still eat chocolate and some are good and only eat fruit. Which, for your information, depending on the size of a piece of fruit / chocolate they have a similar amount of carbs and could potentially do the same amount of damage if eaten without a bolus.

For me, the biggest challenge was teaching myself about calculating my food intake and exercise intensity around hypos. I still have the odd hypo during or after exercise but I have pretty much got the hang of it. Sometimes it’s all good and it can be very satisfying to have a good streak of normal blood sugar, so satisfying that it makes me feel as though I am not diabetic anymore. However, things happen – a bolus miscalculation, stress, a dodgy site or a gap in the line to remind me that I am still fully diabetic.

Living with Diabetes has shown me how strong I am as a person. I am proud of my organisation skills, my focus and my willingness to accept something that doesn’t necessarily serve me. To manage diabetes around intense dance training is the only way I know how to do it and I am still working on making it a smoother ride. If this year has taught me anything it is to be grateful for my health and to treat my body with care by giving it proper nutrition and exercise. I’m grateful that I am powering through the emotional rollercoaster that this disease has given me. I say emotional because if my BG goes slightly out of range I feel it in my mood almost automatically. As I’ve said before in my High BG post, my head feels like it might explode and I get ratty.

How was your first year?

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It’s a Bolus Thing

Rowena

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November 25, 2015

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Sometimes I find myself saying to people “it’s a bolus thing”. This is usually when I have to say no to something because I’ve already had a bolus, or if I need to find out specific information in order to manipulate my bolus. An example of this is if I go out for a lunch date with a friend I usually want to know what is going on after the food and at what time roughly, mainly because if we are sitting around drinking coffee for an hour after the meal I won’t have to reduce my bolus, but if we are going for a walk or shopping straight after I will have to reduce my insulin so that the walk doesn’t make me low. Yes, I could just do the full bolus and eat something more if I go low but I don’t like eating extra because I have to. It is a waste of extra calories and the food isn’t as nice when you have to eat it.

Another time I say “it’s a bolus thing” is when I make my food, weigh it and account for all of the carbs is accounted for and I have calculated and took the correct bolus for it. However, a few mins later I could be eating and then someone asks to try my food. Grr, I was never much of a sharer of food anyway, but when I have a bolus in the equation I am actually forced to say no; especially if it is something carby like potatoes or pasta. The spoonful they take could make the difference of about ten carbs which then means there is a miscalculation on my part of the bolus that was already taken.

Does this make me sound crazy or do you do it too? I think diabetes has made me slightly more obsessive than I used to be, but I am ok with that. I would rather be obsessive and in control that relaxed and completely lost and out of control. Mainly because of avoiding hypos, being low when I am out and about is strange. It makes me feel shaky and weird, like I’m not really here.

Rowena x

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Adrenaline and Insulin

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Dance

Rowena

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November 18, 2015

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I’ve spoken about this before in a previous blog post, but today I wanted to look at it in a little more detail. Adrenaline is a hormone that is produced by the adrenal gland and is usually released in high stress or exhilarating situations. In my case, dancing is an exhilarating experience. I don’t often get stressed before performing; I am actually quite calm and relaxed about it.

Here’s the journey of my blood sugar before and after…

I was due to go on stage at 7pm. The piece was only 3.5 minutes long, which is very short compared to what I am used to. Anyway, I first took my pump off around 6pm and had a BG of 7.2mmols. After warming up and stretching, I checked again at 6:40pm and it was 10mmols. At this point I was due to go on stage in 20 minutes so I took 1 unit of insulin to decrease it a little bit. However, I was then told that there was a delay in the start time so I would have to wait another 30 minutes. At this point I had to consider re attaching my pump because it has already been off for and 70 mins. This was not good as I needed my basal insulin, especially with the adrenaline rush. I decided that rather than putting my pump back on I would just have 1 more unit of insulin and then it would be time to perform.

Performance went well. When I got offstage I reattached my pump straight away and checked my blood sugar which was then 12.3mmols. Obviously I needed a correction, but I knew from previous experience that I would crash so I only corrected by half of what my pump suggested. Especially because I knew I had to drive for an hour after I had finished judging the competition. My BG when I arrived home was 7mmols so I managed to manipulate the insulin without the crash, I would like it to be less than 10mmols next time though. I’ll work on it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3Tu3eeCdzs

As always I will share my performance with you. I’m not sure what kind of mood I was when I created this, but I think the movement worked really well to the music and the audience enjoyed it.

When you are met with an adrenaline rush, how does your blood sugar respond to it and how do you look after it?

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Yoga and Diabetes

Rowena

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November 11, 2015

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I was going to call this post “yoga for diabetics”, but I decided against it because there are no specific yoga poses that are targeted at diabetics. People who manage diabetes can actually do any kind of yoga, any position and any discipline. I often do yoga videos that I find on YouTube because it’s convenient, or I go to a yoga class at my gym. Either way I usually combine it with other flexibility training that I have been taught over the years in various dance classes.

The benefits

I don’t do yoga for the strength element; I do it because I NEED to stretch, although I do get stronger as a result of the practice. I stretch because when I have been exercising a lot, especially weight lifting, my muscles get really tight and I find it uncomfortable. Yoga just loosens me right back up. It also has a psychological benefit for me. It makes me feel relaxed, almost like a movement meditation and it gives the feeling of accomplishment when I can reach a new position with ease. Other benefits include improved circulation, ease of migraines, better sleep and it can also help fight off food cravings.

Different Levels

Although I am fairly strong and supple, I am not yet a yogi master. However, I have held my own in a few of the more difficult classes so I would say I’m advanced with lots of room for improvement. Levels range from beginner, intermediate, advanced and expert. I would suggest that most people should start at beginner’s level, but if you are already quite active and consider yourself a fairly flexible body you could potentially go to an intermediate class. Most teachers are happy for you to work at your own pace as yoga is more about listening to your own body, than trying to compete with the rest of the class.

Basal

To avoid those pesky exercise related hypos/hypers we have to look at the basal insulin. My basal for yoga is usually set with a 40% decrease, but this can vary depending the exercise that I am combing with the practice. I usually do an hour pole practice before yoga which is quite physically challenging. However, if I doit on its own with no prior exercise my body reacts to it like it’s a very gentle exercise, similar to walking. For a first timer I would start with a 20% decrease of basal and then go from there.

The results you get from this type of training will obviously be very dependent on your commitment to it and how often you practice. If yoga is your main source of exercise I would say go for three times per week to begin with and then adjust as you see necessary. I would definitely recommend trying, even if you feel a bit nervous about it. Your body is an amazing and it should be explored.

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Happy Yoga.

Rowena x

Insulin Basal Rate for Circuit Training

Rowena

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November 4, 2015

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A few weeks ago I started Sunday morning kettlebell circuits, mainly to add variation to my training in order to keep things interesting and to shock my body to adapt to new exercises. For us diabetics it certainly is a shock to the body if you don’t manipulate insulin for it. This is why I always say that it is about trial and error, particularly with circuit training because it combines strength and cardio. We are in constant experiments with our blood sugar, insulin and carb intake. Here is how I went about my little trial run to get my basal right for circuit training. Let’s look at the first 4 sessions as an example of how to find what’s right for you.

Session 1

Starting BG was 7mmols and post workout bg was 14.1mmols. I didn’t adjust the basal at all because I wanted to use this first session as a starting point to fine tune it for the next few weeks. This indicated a definite increase.

Session 2

I had the same breakfast and same carb / insulin ratio as the week before. However, I did increase my basal 20% and it turned out that it wasn’t enough. Start bg – 7.2mmols and end bg was 8.2mmols. Increase again..

Session 3

Again, I ate the same things to avoid any interference from bolus. I increased basal by 40% and this did the trick. Starting bg was 7 and end bg was 6.5mmols.

Session 4

I ate an hour before this circuit without adjusting the bolus for exercise so I took the pump off because I knew the insulin from the food bolus would cover the lask of basal insulin. Starting bg was 9mmols and end bg was 4.5mmols. Next week I will reduce my carb / insulin ratio and see what happens.

So this concludes that when I eat within an hour of circuit training I am able to take the pump off. However, if I eat a couple of hours before I am forced to increase my basal insulin for said activity. The result can also be dependat on how hard you work or how hard you don’t work. Always work your hardest and you won’t have to worry about that part.

If there are any topics you want me to cover let me know.

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Rowena x

My Go to Meals

Rowena

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October 28, 2015

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This week has been a busy one, my book has been published and is now available for purchase on Amazon and various other platforms for eBook, I have finished my choreography for my next performance in two weeks and I have been working on my business. I find that when I am busy it is easier for me to stick to meals that I always eat so I’ve put a post together of my go to meals that you might like to try. Obviously I have been eating other things, and there was a day with pizza, chocolate and some beer. I enjoyed it at the time but felt crap afterwards. Anyway, here are my go to meals.

Breakfast

I love having eggs for breakfast. I find that if I eat a decent breakfast it really sets me up for the day. The addition of bread is usually dependant on when my workout is going to happen. Mainly because it’s better for my blood sugar if I eat higher carb closer to exercise.

1 whole egg, 1 egg white
Spinach or asparagus
Slice of wholemeal seeded bread or a thins bagel
1 or two vegetarian sausages

Snack (Pre Workout or post workout)

Carbs before working out really helps my energy and I can really feel the difference between low carb and high carb before exercise, particularly if it is something like circuit training. Equally is is great to restore energy if I eat high carb post workout.

Banana
Snack a Jack
Protein shake or cottage cheese

Lunch

The reason I choose salad for lunch is because it’s easy to make as I’m preparing breakfast and I really like it. I can make it light by leaving the carbs out or heavy by adding them in.

Lettuce
Sweet potatoes
Spinach
Tomato
Pumpkin seed oil
Meat free pieces

Dinner

If I cook for myself I will get something as listed below, which is fine for me and makes me happy because I like all of the ingredients. However, when my gf cooks she tends to make high carb / low fat stuff like cabbage and potatoes or lentil dahl.

Whatever veggies are on offer. Broccoli and cauliflower is always a hit
Linda McCartney Burger
Pasta, rice or potatoes.

Desert

I call this “Mix the Macros” haha. It is built on the same ingredients pretty much every time I fancy it, but because it is the last thing of the day that I will eat I usally make it according to my macros. The ingredients are

Protein powder of any flavour, but I’m really into strawberry at the minute
Either low fat or full fat cottage cheese
Natural yoghurt or Greek yoghurt
Oats (only if I need to add a few carbs)
Peanut butter

This whole day of eating is currently about 1800 calories, sometime over but rarely less. Macros are Protein 149, carbs 170 and 48 fat.

What are your go to meals? Leave a comment below or tag me on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

Rowena x