this explains just about everything that has been going on.
does this mean fast carbs, or ANY type of carbs?
For me it depends. Fast carbs for right after exercise, fast carbs for lows or quick drops, complex carbs to stop a more gradual drop.
This is all fixable. Donât be discouraged. Think where you were a year ago. This is just the next thing to figure out.
You can eventually get comfortable with how much you need based on your workout.
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can you give me several examples of what you choose for complex carbs?
I would think any type of starchy food that requires a longer time to digest. But Iâll sit back and continue listening just incase Iâm off base! I love following this thread and totally agree with @Eric. Think of how far youâve come!! This is nothing but another challenge to overcome!
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DM,
Just a few things to mention briefly. I can go into this more in-depth when I have more time to be detailed.
The reason for simple sugars - quick carbs - is that the faster you replenish, the faster you can have them for the next workout. That 30 minute window after a workout is important. Doing it very soon means you can get the muscle glycogen restored much sooner. Fast simple sugars within the first 30 minutes, and more complex carbs in the following hours are the best way to replenish. Thatâs why I have quick sugar first and then dinner an hour or two after I finish.
Muscle glycogen can take anywhere from 24 hours to 48 hours or even longer to restore completely. How fast depends on how you restore.
So for you, I have been pushing you to do it with faster carbs because you are sometimes swimming the next day. But I know you donât always do this.
Letâs say you swim Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday. I think that is your normal schedule.
When you swim Monday and Thursday, you have a swim coming up the next day, so that is a good time to do the faster carbs. But on Tuesday and Friday you have 48 hours or more before your next swim, so it is not as important.
For people who are not working out daily, doing the quick muscle glycogen replenishment is not as important as it is for people who workout out every day.
The easiest way to think of simple sugars and fast carbs versus complex carbs is to just think of what you use to correct a low BG.
What do you use for a low? Chocolate, gtabs, apple juice, a cookie. Those are simple fast sugars.
What are the carbs you usually have for meals? Bread, pasta, beans, potatoes, and things like that are generally more complex (some are faster than others).
This is just a very simple and general description. The real answer is that it has to do with how quickly the carbohydrates can be broken down into glucose when you digest it.
So just think in terms like this:
- what you use to correct a low BG is a fast sugar
- things you have with meals (that you would not correct with) are more complex.
That is the easiest way to think of it (although that description would make a dietician complain 
)
So that is just a quick summary. Hope it makes sense.
If you want to use the Boost shakes, that is fine. But the idea of the fast sugars is just to try to get your muscle glycogen restored faster and prevent big BG drops in the evening. This will take some time and experimentation to get it all figured out.
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thank you eric for all of that. as much as i love the Boost shakes, the milk with the Ovaltine is awesome and i prefer it. i am totally willing to continue to experiment with how much insulin i need for the refuel. and basically, what you are saying is that i can eat dinner pretty soon after i do the refuel??? (i always thought i had to wait 2.5 hours between boluses to avoid insulin stacking. and thats the only reason that i wait. i would LOVE to be able to eat my dinner sooner. 
)
Let me chime in on that one point. Insulin stacking can be a useful tool if you know what you are doing. It is no more dangerous than the strategy of taking a bolus plus carbs when you are at 100 and falling after a workout.
For the beginner, theyâll always say âdonât take insulin when your BG is 100 mg/dL and dropping.â But you already have learned quite a bit about how to take insulin together with carbs after a workout, even if you are at 100 and headed lower.
Stacking insulin can be useful and need not be dangerous, especially with your CGM, or alternatively with frequent fingersticks. You can learn to consider your current BG trend and IOB, what you plan to eat, how hard and recently you exercised, and from that you figure your meal bolus. Then you watch the CGM and make adjustments with more insulin or carb as needed. You donât have to wait 2.5 hours to make these adjustments. You donât even need to wait 1 hour. The âwait 2.5 hoursâ rule is something easy that they can tell you so they donât have to teach you how to make fine adjustments on the fly, as Eric is teaching you to do.
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thanks bkh. i have always been very cautious about the stacking. the times i have done it have been if i bolus for a meal, and then realize i want to eat more (desert for example) i just bolus a 1:10 ICR for whatever i plan to eat (key lime pie, for example 
.)
the other time i stack is after exercise; i bolus to make up for missed basal right after i get out of the pool to make up for the 4 hours i have been off my pump, and then i bolus about 15 min to 1/2 hour later to account for the carbs refueling.
but other than that, i dont stack (unless its for a correction.)
CD, exactly. just another challenge; i just hope that this one doesnt take me the same length of time to figure outâŚmy swimming program took me one year, almost to the day, to figure out .
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But one year when compared to an entire life span is minuscule, especially if that year of work helps the other x number of years!
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CD-
i just love when one of you guys comes along and puts everything into perspective 
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POST SWIM REFUELING EXPERIMENT #2:
so i had a great swim today. a swim i never thought possible as far as maintaining my BG levels in target range throughout my entire swim ! and no panic or nervousness about being on the low side during exercise.
1pm BG 95 left the house and walked to the pool
1:30 BG 102 took 1 Gtab and jumped right in
2pm BG 117
2:30 BG 115
3pm BG 100
3:30 BG 92
at 3pm i gave myself 2 units of replacement âbasalâ insulin
at 3:30 i gave myself (only) 1 unit of insulin for my re-fuel Ovaltine/ 2% Milk drink (28 gms of both sugar and carbs each.)
i dont know whether i will spike or not. i dont know if i will crash tonight. i plan on eating earlier than usual for after a swim. maybe the complex carbs for dinner will keep my BG in check. that would be really nice. but, like i have said, i am nervous; its another new challenge. i know i am up for it; i am doing it, and i will continue to do it until i get it right.
i promise to keep everyone posted. and as i have pleaded in the past: please pray for me. i need all the help i can get. 
signing out,
DM
PS: just tested; its been 1/2 hour post refuel drink. my BG did not spike; its 107 OMG!!!
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This is the best one you have ever had!
What did I tell you in email today?
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SWIMMING WITHOUT ANY GLUCOSE TABLETS # 1:
great swim today. felt strong a fearless. was off for the past 2 days (doctors appointments in the city) so i was well rested and well fueled. (and yesterday was a pizza day )
1:30 BG 107 and i walked briskly to the pool ( about 20 minutes)
2pm BG 126 (dont know why there was such a rise in such a short period of time, but no big deal) jumped into the pool without taking even 1/2 a Gtab !!! (swam a 1/2 hour warm-up period)
2:30 BG 120 swam hard
3pm BG 93 swam intensely
3:30 BG 91 bolused 2 units for missed basal and showered and walked home.
4pm BG 107 10 minute pre- bolused 1 unit and drank 1 C 1% milk w/ 3 Lg Tbs of Ovaltine approx 30 gms of sugars and carbs
5:15pm spiked to 184 (maybe not enough insulin for drink???)
dont know what my night will look like yet, but thats all the news thats fit to print.
signing of
DM
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Great numbers today!
You might need more insulin for the Ovaltine after 2 off days. Especially because of your big meal last night. Today was like a Monday for you.
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Hey, chiming in late to the game here, but I also enjoy reading your swimming thread! Keep it up. Itâs like an epic success journal. Some failure thrown in for perspective now and again keeps it real.
Your numbers are excellent, your control is much better than before and youâre doing it on your own! New endo is good, but you deserve the credit for putting in the hours to improve.
EH has struggled with the post-exercise drop and weâve yet to solve it. But itâs not the right time to put in the hours for us. When it is, Iâll look back at this thread for help!!!
(Unrelated: you should go visit the cherry blossoms, we loved it when we lived in NYC: https://www.bbg.org/collections/cherries)
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Thanks TO, i am glad that my reports are able to help in any way possible. today was a landmark day for me. and i will post it immediately
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DARE TO DARE; SWIMMING EXPERIMENT # 365:
first off, i just want to say that today was a landmark day for me as far as trust and control are concerned. even last week, i would never ever ever have done what i did today. it was a total experiment based on trust. mainly, trust on eric for getting me this far; for his endless wisdom and support, and the never ending hours he has devoted to me, guiding me down this year long path. here are the stats:
1:15 BG 65 took 3 Gtabs, waited 10/15 minutes and jumped into the pool (and prayed 
)
2pm BG 74 took 1 GTab and jumped right back in; swam really hard and very fast
2:30 BG 80 (knew that i had plateaued, took NO Gtabs, ) jumped right back in and swam as hard and as fast as i could.
3pm BG 74 got out and bolused 2 units (turned basal down to 90% TB for 3 hours)
3:30 BG 86 bolused 1 unit for milk and Ovaltine (chocolate Heaven)
EXPERIMENT IN MANAGING EVENING CRASHES AND OVER-NIGHT SPIKES:
since i have been swimming harder and really pushing myself as much as i can in the pool, i have found several things in my body changing. one of them is, as i have mentioned in another post, i need less insulin. another is that my former refueling shakes are not substantial enough for me anymore; i have moved on to what eric has deemed more appropriate fast carbsâŚnamely low-fat milk with Ovaltine. this is high in sugar, high in carbs, and high in protein. my problem with this, so far, is that within 1 hour after drinking this concoction, i spike very high. i have learned to ignore it and whatever i do, do not try and correct it, just ride it out; it always, comes back into target range. it just requires a lot of patience. i have also learned not to bolus for dinner while this process is taking place; i have to wait for my BGs to have plateaued before bolusing.
i have also learned, and YDMV, that at around 6ish to 7ish my BGs start plummeting. when they do, i have to correct with fast carbs. what happens then is that over-night i spike terribly and have to do a correction to bring my BG back into target range (around 3am). this is unpleasant. it is exhausting. you all must be familiar with that miserable roller coaster that drains you of everything youâve got. sometimes, i would rather just have the flu
so, that being said, today i am trying something brand new: at 3pm, when i got out of the pool, i turned on a TB of 90% for 3 hours. hopefully, this will carry me through those crazy lows that pop up over those evening hours. i will see tonight how it works and will be ready to modify and tweak as necessary. but of course, it would be wonderful if it worked this first time
the odd thing about the roller-coaster is that while i am trying desperately to correct the lows with juice and candy, i need to do an elevated TB for over-night (like 110% through till the morning around 5am); the times that i havent done this, my BG went up to 350 by 3am and i had to do an IM correction. (which worked beautifully, but was a royal PITA )
so thats all the latest. and, as usual, i will continue to keep you posted
signing off,
DM
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This is the best ever!
I remember a year ago telling you that one day you would be willing to get into the pool at 120. Do you remember that? And here you are at 65.
This is awesome!
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