Blood, sweat, and fewer tears

So, the hubby and I just finished exercising. Exercise is one of those things I wish I really liked. I always feel better after I exercise. I even think better of myself when I'm doing it. Finding the drive to get up off my butt and actually do it can be tricky. Dealing with the blood sugars after can also be tricky.

Expectedly, after an intense workout (or even a mediocre one) I find my blood sugar drops. Not always a bad thing, especially if I had a slice of key lime pie for dessert like I did tonight. When I first started really exercising a couple years ago it surprised me how quickly I could go from hot and sweaty from exercise to hot and sweaty from a massive low (seriously- sweatiness is a symptom of hypoglycemia. Look: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0001423/ Gross, right? And not at all a reliable symptom when it's August and you've been doing aerobics.) I can't tell you how many times I've worked off 180 calories on the elliptical machine only to consume 210 in whatever flavor juice we had in the fridge twenty minutes later.

I used to count my calories pretty religiously. Everything I ate was counted, including everything I ate to bring my blood sugar up. I once consumed 500 calories worth of Jolly Ranchers and orange juice on a particularly bad day...which seems like a lot. It seems like even more when you take into account I try to keep my calorie intake at 1500 or so. A whopping one third of my daily calories went to just keeping my blood sugar up. That's where the tears come in. I was purposefully not eating meals over 300 calories just so I wouldn't go over my daily goal with hard candy. I wasn't good about eating right so long as I was good about eating a certain number of calories.

Wait...I thought it was a pyramid. I've been doing this all wrong.

When I exercise, I don't have as many lows. I know that sounds counter intuitive, but it's true- or at least it appears to be. I use less insulin and am more likely to eat better, therefore I don't have those crash and burns. Also, being on the pump and using a continuous blood glucose testing monitor have helped in more ways than I could properly express in a single blog post. I still have days where I can't seem to get out of the 50's, but I'm much more likely now to just turn off my pump, eat a couple pieced of hard candy, and not worry about the calories than I used to be.

As much as it pains me to admit, my husband was right about not counting those calories I consumed for my blood sugar. I've had much better control since I stopped doing that, and while it probably has more to do with what I eat and the fact that I have been a lot better at exercising now that I have a partner to do it with, the mental strain that came with adding every drop of juice and every little piece of candy or glucose tablet to my calorie calculator is gone, and that's a huge relief, and fewer tears. In fact, since I counted those "diabetes calories" for so long, I can say that even not adding them into my daily totals I'm eating fewer of them than I used to, which means tomorrow I'll be getting up off my butt and exercising again.