The Favorite Candies - Thursday Thirteen V6
If there’s one holiday that causes me more problems than any other, it’s halloween. Even before diabetes, we didn’t eat candy, we didn’t go trick or treating with the other kids; it was a treat if we got to go down our street. Whatever candy we got was filtered, we’d eat maybe a fifth of what we got. And then, when I got diabetes, it got worse, I couldn’t have any candy, so then I started sneaking the candy. I’d go steal it from the bowl that we were handing it out from when no one was in the room and I’d hide it. And then, in the middle of the night, I’d eat it, all of it. Whatever I’d thieved, it would all be eaten in the middle of the night.
Nowadays I wouldn’t be able to eat all the thieved candy in one sitting, but I do have my favorites and I have no problem having a piece or 2 as a treat with my lunches.
1) Mini Reeses Peanut Butter Cups
2) Bite size Snickers
3) fun size Butterfingers
4) peanut m&m’s
5) Milk duds
6) bottlecaps
7) fruitie tootsie rolls
8 ) payday
9) mary janes
10) whoppers
11) candy corn
12) twizzlers
13) bit o honey
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Schedules
I hate schedules, I hate schedules the way I’d hate a hole in my head. This causes all kinds of extra resistance where my diabetes is concerned because I have no desire to be on the schedule it trys to keep me on. My typical kind of schedule is the do what I want when I want to except for when I’ve agreed to do stuff like Saturday morning bike rides, or race events, or outings with friends, or going to movies, then I’m on a schedule, well, a schedule that exists of “i’ll be there at x time but anything beyond that is unplanned”.
BUT!
It’s becoming increasingly apparent that I’m going to have to buckle down and be on a schedule. No more of the I’ll go to bed when I please, get up when I please, work when I please (for 8-12 hrs a day), train when I please, eat when I please kindof stuff. That stuff, is causing all kinds of problems because there’s no regularity to anything (except maybe work, that’s pretty regular, it happens 5 times a week).
The problem with my lack of schedule is that I can’t do anything about the upsets in my diabetes because there’s no regularity and thus, I don’t know what’s causing the upsets (some of them anyways, others are like a blinking light in the middle of the night saying “hey idiot”).
And so yesterday, while I was riding up the 6 mile hill, I had lots of time to think. I revisited some things that I learned at Diabetes Training Camp that for the most part have been mulling around in my brain unacted upon.
A lot of that thinking revolved around 2 peeps that I got to sit and talk to. Crawdaddy and [when i think of a genius name i might come back and fill it in here].
Crawdaddy talked to us about our deposits and withdrawals from our stress bank. He talked to us about the 3 groups that we make withdrawals from and the 3 groups that offset stress. My physical, mental and emotional stress banks are so far in the red it’s not funny. My recovery mechanisms for the stress bank are well, kind of broken. (In case you’re wondering they’re sleep, rest (different from sleep), and therapy).
So, my plan.
Sleep: sleep is all kinds of problems for me simply because I want to sleep during the day and stay up at night, but seeing how I have a day job, this is very bad. I don’t generally sleep through the night, when I should theoretically go to bed I can’t because I’m wide wide awake. So if I’m awake that leads to me being on the computer or diving into a book. It’s not good.
I also know that in order for me to operate successfully, I need a min of 8 hours of sleep, but realistically, I prefer 10 hrs of sleep.
And so, basing a lot of this off what I learned at camp. Bedtime is 10am, with no computer an hour before bedtime. It helps calm my mind (generally) if I read before bed. I managed to do this last night (read for an hour and went to bed at 10), and with the exception of my glucose sensor alarming because I was low, I did good and I slept through the night (it could’ve also had something to do with the 50 mile bike ride I did, but whatevs)
I had a goal to get up at 7, but when my alarm went off, I just couldn’t drag myself out of bed, so I slept till 8. That’s pretty normal for me, sleeping till 8, but it’s got to stop, so I’m going to be better about setting the alarm across my room so that I’m forced to get out of bed to turn it off.
So, that’s my sleep plan for starters, all electronics off by 9, lights out at 10, get up at 7. When I’ve mastered that, I’ll start getting up at 6 (that’s the ultimate goal.)
Work: If I’m up by 7, I’ll be at work by 8. I’d really like to work no longer than 8 hours, but in my work environment, that’s not going to happen, it rarely does. I’m usually in for a 9-10 (sometimes even 12!) hour day. My goal there is to be off work by 6 daily. For the most part, I think I can achieve this. I’m also going to strive to leave the office for at least a half hour during lunch. Most the times I eat lunch at my desk, and that’s just not healthy for me, so I’m going to take lunch and a book off site.
This schedule at work will help with…
Mealtimes: I don’t eat with any kind of regularity. I kind of just graze like a cow. Eat whenever I want, eat whatever I want. It’s really not healthy because I don’t always get the full sized meals I should get. Lunches and dinners become a series of snacks. And so, I will eat breakfast by 8, lunch by noon, and dinner by 5. If I’ve not left work by 5 then that’s ok, I can have a cold cut sammich and some fruit and veggies, whatevs, but I’ve got to eat, real food, not snack food.
This regularity will better help me to see the trends in my blood sugars. It will be healthier. It will be like when I was at camp, but all the stuff I’m doing in between meals won’t be nearly as fun.
The regular meal times will also help with…
Exercise: I do exercise, but it’s not as good as it could be. Because my diabetes is out of whack, exercising is not as enjoyable as it could/should be. Getting my numbers into range and eating regularly and properly will help immensely with this. Depending on the night, there’s 1-2 hrs of exercise in the queue per night.
That’s my schedule. And I’m sticking to it.
I got gipped.
So today, I did a 50 mile ride and it was on a route that I’ve been avoiding like the plague because of a 6 miles long hill that’s a 4-5% grade (depending on where you are). That is not my idea of fun. Well, not going up it, that’s no fun, coming down is another story.
The morning began and I’m riding along trying not to get killed, because with 400 people on the river trail and all kinds of breaking going on, the chances were high that I was eventually going to be unable to avoid a wreck and get into one (luckily, I got lucky, and I didn’t ever crash, but all kinds of peeps that were in front of me did). And so at about 8 miles, I was desperately trying to talk myself out of doing the full 50 miles. I was telling myself how 25 was ok (and it’d get me out of having to ride up that monster of a hill). But then, Miguel, one of my Outlaws pulls up beside me and tells me that I should ride the whole thing. It was kindof difficult for me to say no because I had to do a 50 mile ride today.
And so, I conquered the hill, if I can call it that. Conquering that is. I went up it at a measly 5.5-8 mph depending on where I was or if I had just started after stopping (because I had to stop often, because I had no desire to continue going up this hill, but I did continue going because the only way I could feel good about going down the hill was if i rode all the way up it. So, I struggled up the hill, but I made it, and then I was happily going along a flat portion when I had to turn and go 2 more miles up an even steeper hill. That was even worse because I was just completely exhausted. I was ready to go home, but I also wasn’t going to quit, I had come 20 miles, I was going to finish it. And I did, I went the 2 miles up the hill.
And then, I got the joy of going down that 2 mile hill, which was great, because that was the only time I’d get to tuck into my most streamline-est position, spend a few moments pedaling my heart out and then enjoying the speed of 37mph. That just got me more excited because I knew that going down Tramway (the big hill) I’d get to go even faster. Except that my excitement turned into disappointment when I was met with a headwind.
I tucked myself, pushed my gears to the most rockstarish gear (as opposed to the granny gear I was in when I was going up the hill), and hammered away. Most the time I wasn’t even looking in front of me, I kept my head down so that I was arrow dynamic. The fastest that got me was 30mph. I could’ve coasted down that hill at 40 miles an hour if there had been no wind. So I was very bummed about the headwind. I didn’t get to go nearly as fast as I wanted to.
All in all though, the ride was a good ride. It made me realize that if I’m ever going to not mind hills that I need to train on hills so that I get better at riding hills and then I won’t mind them as much.
The Joy Of Blisters - Thursday Thirteen V5
So, I’m still kindof on my half marathon high. I mean, I completed a whole half marathon without running, which was huge for my knee, and without my knee hurting when it was said and done which was huge for me. I could actually walk when I completed this half marathon which was a vast difference from the first half marathon where I couldn’t barely walk for a week.
The only thing wrong with me after the half marathon, besides my hipflexors hurting because I was making fun of the racewalkers were the blisters I had on each foot.
1) I had 1 blister on each foot just below the big toe area.
2) The one on my left foot was bigger and more impressive than the one of my right foot.
3) The one on my left foot was almost the size of a nickel. The one on my right foot was a little smaller than a dime.
4) The one on my left foot hurt more, but it was bigger and poofier and filled with more stuff than the right one. It’s my pride and joy wound from this half marathon.
5) Every morning, every day after work, and every night, I take a look at my blister because it’s that impressive to me. It’s flattened out a bit though.
6) When I came home and saw my blisters (because I had been feeling them for several miles while I was walking) I consulted a wide arrange of fellow runner peeps to find out what should be done. Half said leave it, half said lance it. And one person, the one I listened to, told me to leave it unless the pain was too much to bear. Another person concurred with her and told me to practice some restraint.
7) I walked around in pain for 2 days after the half marathon waiting for that blister to reabsorb itself. It’s still not fully reabsorbed, but it also doesn’t hurt anymore either.
8 ) I wanted to lance my blisters, except had I lanced them, I also would’ve peeled off all the skin because it would’ve bothered me that there was a pocket of skin that was for all intensive purposes not attached to my foot. And then I would’ve gotten infected feet, which is not good. And then that’s where the threats of gangrene and amputation come in.
9) It’s a good thing I didn’t lance my blisters.
10) My blisters are now more like large callouses on my feet, which are almost as bad as a blister because I’d really like to not have that skin there so I’m tempted to remove it, but again, I’m practicing restraint.
11) I’m very proud of my blisters, they’re like a battle wound that I can’t show anyone, but I can tell them all about them. They’re cool, what can I say.
12) Because of my blisters, I get to go for a shopping spree at REI for some sexy toe socks.
13) My blister wasn’t nearly as impressive as this blister:
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Karma’s a MoFo
One would think that I would’ve learned in my younger years that making fun of people won’t get you anywhere but into trouble. But then again, had I actually learned that lesson, I wouldn’t get to write about that which I’m about to write about.
So I’m walking along somewhere maybe around mile 5 during my half marathon on Sunday and the really fast racewalkers are walking past me and if you’ve never seen a racewalker, they’re as goofy lookin as all get out, but they’re faster than blue blazes.
So, they pass me, and I’m with some peeps and we’re talking about the racewalkers and I made a comment about how they look funny but they’re so fast and then I tried to imitate them. And my imitation isn’t nearly as good as what they’re doing when they’re out there, but one day, I’ll be able to do it myself.
So, everytime a racewalker would pass us, we would giggle and I’d do my imitation.
These last two days, I’ve paid for that imitation. My hipflexors are killing me so much so that I can barely walk and when I do walk, well, it’s not a pretty sight, and it’s not nearly as amusing as the racewalkers.
Race Day Shoes - A Duke City Half Marathon Race Report
I’ve not seen the light of day since the 5k Skirt Chaser she ran back in September with Lolo. I got put into her tri bag and that was the end of everything because of her knee injury. The only running shoes she wears now adays are her training shoes. Since I’m the racing shoes and she’s not racing, I don’t get worn.
But then, Saturday afternoon, I got pulled out of the bag, put on, walked around in and had a timing tag put on me. That was excitement, I was going out for a race!
Race morning arrived and she was running late. She put me on, tied me and out the door we went. When we got to the starting line she found some people she had known from when she worked at Intel and decided she’d walk with them. She didn’t last long with them, they were out of the gate too fast and shin splints kicked in right before mile 1. It was reminiscent of the Bolder Boulder she did in May, except that time she was running. So we had to slow down a bit.
Considering that she wasn’t trained for this half marathon and that her longest walk since her injury from her first half marathon was only 5 miles, we did well. There were no complaints until mile 8 when she wanted to run and couldn’t because that would be an automatic DQ (yes, automatic DQ, when you register for a walk, you have to walk, you can’t run, if you want to run, you register to run). So her not being able to run frustrated her to no end. We just had to keep walking, and she wasn’t happy with that, that was where she just kind of gave up. That was where time didn’t matter anymore and she just wanted to be done.
At mile 9 the attitude went way down hill as she started hurting, her feet were hurting, for the first time in her life she got blisters on her feet. They weren’t my fault, I’m blaming it on the socks. Remember, I’m a good pair of shoes, I’m what she ran her first half marathon in, and she didn’t blister that day, so it’s all the socks fault. Mile 9 is also where she started feeling low, and sure enough she was. You should see the attitude she gets when she feels low, you think the attitude she gets when she is low is bad, it’s worse when she actually feels it. That’s a feeling she doesn’t like one bit.
We finished the walk, and we finished it strong, we finished it too strong, and she felt that, she wanted to just all out run the last mile.
Her head says it’s about time, her heart says she wants to run, her knee says she can’t run, and so her shoes, me, I say, let’s just finish, even if we have to walk, it’s ok. We can walk 500 miles, and it may not even take us that long if she really thinks about racewalking, she could walk as fast as she could run if she’d just train.
Thoughts for my second half marathon - Thursday Thirteen V4
1) This weekend, Sunday to be exact, I will participate in another half marathon (The Duke City Half). You may remember my last (my first) half marathon, I could barely walk when it was all said and done. This time, I’ll be walking the entire half marathon, so I hope that I can still walk when I finish and that I won’t be in as much pain when I’m done.
2) I’ve done the math, and I should finish in a few minutes less time than I did in my first half marathon where I ran (the first few miles until I destroyed my knee and then I limped).
3) As far as I know, I won’t know anyone out there on the walk course so I’ll be flying solo this “run” but I do know that I’ve got some of my Outlaws on the run course so theoretically, I’ll be running with some peeps. I’ve also got Lolo, said she’d get up and run on Sunday morning and run with me. It’s more enjoyable to do these races and train when I know that someone is out there with me, even if they’re not “with” me.
4) Walking is the new running. It’s kindof like pink being the new black.
5) Things with my diabetes should be interesting because I’ve not ever trained to “walk” so I don’t know what to expect from my blood sugars. A large piece of me really doesn’t care. It’s a walk, so a large piece of me just wants to get out there and walk and throw diabetes out the window and just got at this as though I don’t have diabetes.
6) This race will give me some idea of what I’ve got to do in preparation for the marathon I’m “running” in January at Walt Disney World.
7) This race will give me an idea of how fast I gotta swim and bike to be able to make it through a half ironman before the cut off time.
8 ) I’m already thinking about how I want to run this race…I gotta stop that
9) I probably shouldn’t worry about time considering I’ve not really trained to walk this distance. I mean, the longest distance I’ve walked since my first half marathon is only 5 miles…
10) I don’t think it matters though that I’ve not trained to walk, I mean, I walk everyday at least 2 miles. Anyone can walk as far as they want as long as they believe they can, and I believe that I can walk 13 miles…actually, I can do better than believe, I just straight up know I can walk 13 miles…I just may not enjoy walking it as much as I semi-enjoyed running it
11) This run is on the river trail which is great because it’s flat, the trail isn’t sloped for rain runoff like a normal road which is good because I fully believe that the worst part of my last half marathon was when I got put on the road and the road was sloped for rain runoff, that just really caused me all kinds of pain.
12) I just thought about running it again, but then I had this image in my head of my feet hitting the pavement and the pounding of it revibrating from my foot to my knee and how it’s going to hurt…I gotta keep thinking “walk walk walk” and I’ll be good.
13) I’m really excited for this run because…well, I don’t need a reason, I’m just really excited.
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The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!
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In Which The Pancreas Does More Than I Thought
Today was one of those 3 month appointment with the CDE days.
The majority of the appointment seems insignificant compared to the realization that my pancreas serves more of a purpose than to just give my body insulin. That even though it’s dead to me, it’s not dead to the rest of my body. Or if it is dead to the rest of my body, it still retains the right to rot and kill the rest of me. I mean, seriously, I have diabetes, I never thought that I’d hear the word “pancreas” again in conjunction with any other illness I may come up with. I just kind of figured that since it wasn’t worth replacing (read: transplanting) that it was just one of those organs that could work or not work but it didn’t matter either way because it could just stay there in it’s little corner of the body, end of story. Apparently, that’s not the case, as I so learned when the word “pancreatitis” came up in conjunction with my stomach aches, nausea, and vomiting. Tests are being run for pancreatitis, although, they’re just running them so that they’re doing their due diligence, they really don’t think it’s pancreatitis, but they’re making sure. (at least, that’s how I rendered what I was told)
It’s more likely that my issue is celiac, they’re testing for that also. (But celiac didn’t cause any bright lights to turn on in my head, it’s just one of those things where I think life could become more closer to impossible to handle than it already is…i mean, seriously, think of starbucks, something tells me that will be leaving my list of good places for breakfast if I have celiac, and that will be a big bummer)
In other news, well…there wasn’t other news. My A1c was 6.8 and it really didn’t matter to me this time because I really didn’t put anything into my diabetes in the last 3 months. And me not putting anything into my diabetes actually brought my A1c down a who tenth of a point from last time. (Last time it was 6.9)
Abalisciousness
It’s been a while since I’ve actually taken the time to really do any training/working out…in fact, it’s been a couple weeks. I fell off all kinds of wagons what can I say…
So, last night, I called Lolo and asked if we could do 2 bike rides, a swim and a run this week; but when I was asking that, I forgot all about her triathlon that she has on Saturday and that she’s tapering this week. Luckily for me she’s all about meeting me in the middle so I’m getting in a bike ride, a swim, and an ab workout. Tonight’s hardcore ab workout. If I keep this up, I’ll have nice abs and a good core.
Tonight’s workout came from Women’s Health Magazine and it’s entitled Gold Medal Abs. I couldn’t do all the moves because I didn’t have all the equipment (and one of them is near impossible anyways, The Wicked Wiper, which if there’s one person I think can do it, it’s Nancy because she’s got a rock solid core).
I was able to do 7 out of the 9 moves and for the 2 I couldn’t do, they were substituted with the plank and the bicycle crunch.
I did the whole routine and then I did it again. I was hurting when I was done. Heck, I was hurting before I was done. But, pain is beauty, and aren’t these abs beautiful:
Yup, those are the goal…and when I get there, I’ll be abaliscious.
Because it’s cool and it’s important to me
Every time I open firefox or safari, the page opens to Google. Most of the time, there’s the normal Google Logo.
On cool days, we get a special image, a Google Doodle. Ok, not “cool” days, (although, I think they’re cooler days because we get an abnormal picture), but days where some important person had a birthday,
like sir Arthur Conan Doyle
or an anniversary worth remembering,
like the Lunar Landing
or holidays,
like the winter ones
or St George day (which I just liked the picture so I’m including it)
or important days, like World Diabetes Day on November 14th, oh wait, we don’t have a doodle yet 
But we want a doodle, because our day is just as important as all the rest of the days. And we’re hard at work to get our doodle, but we need your help. And it’s really easy to help. It’s so easy, it only takes a couple seconds to help. We’re in pursuit of 20,000 signatures on our petition. Will you please be one of them?
