GETTING BACK INTO THE POOL (after 2 years away)

Sports & Exercise
123

MEDITATION AND RELAXATION DURING EXERCISE; EXPERIMENT #1:

I never thought to ask this of you guys yet, but I do know that I have put it out there into the cyber FUD world. When I am swimming and yes, I know that I have said this previously, I find it is just the right time and place for me to meditate. People have asked me how on earth I can enjoy swimming back and forth and back and forth doing laps. Its not like running where you’re outside and there are beautiful trees to look at, a pond or river, other people passing you by(or vise versa). And I have tried to express that the swimming is buoyant and rhythmic. Its like a song playing somewhere off in the distance. The sound and motion of the strokes that pull me forward.

I have also mentioned previously that when I am in the pool, I am not diabetic. I do not define myself as a diabetic. I am a swimmer, an athlete, a worker among workers, I am no better or worse than anyone else. I am just MYSELF, skin, muscles, bones, a brain and a heart. And I am at peace with myself. When I get into the pool, I leave everything else behind.

Now I know that many of you guys exercise. Whatever your fancy. And I was just wondering how you use your exercise time. Do you do it alone? Do you do it with a partner? Do you do it in a group setting? And, when you do it, do you find the time useful for meditation or anything else? Any other thoughts or ways of thinking?

just wondering. And I wonder bc when I post my swims, my accomplishments, my frustrations, my proud moments, my wishes for betterment, the focus is on me. But what about YOU?

This is my invitation to start a conversation. How do you learn to do what you do from others? How do you move yourself forward. What brings life into your living? And how do you get there?

Todays stats were simple and uneventful, but here they are:

my overnight stats:

12am BG 79
5:45am BG 62 took 4gms carbs
6:30am BG 75 woke up and watched some TV

morning stats:

8am BG 93
8:20am BG 84 ate breakfast
10:45am BG 79 2gms carbs
11:30am BG 93

stats while preparing for my swim:

12:15pm BG 93 turned off pump to Zero Basal
12:30pm BG 102 left the house and dashed to the pool
12:50pm BG 110 took 6gms carbs and jumped into the pool
1:25pm BG 93 got out of the pool and bolused 1U (for total time off basal)
at 1:45pm I bolused 3.2U to cover my refuel shakes while I was walking home, so I could let the insulin sink in before drinking the super fast carbs( which would spike me if I merely waited 15 minutes. I need about 30 to 45 minutes pre-bolus time to accommodate the shakes if I want to stay in TR)

I would call that a successful chunk of change :star_struck: :ok_hand: :swimming_woman:

signing out,

DM

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124

I find the same when cycling, especially on a solo ride. It’s something to do with the rhythm, I think. Often something that has been bothering me is resolved, even though I am not thinking about it or really anything. I suspect this is true for other endurance exercise.

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125

Thanks for sharing. Its so nice to read about what other people do and how they do it and what happens to them as a result of doing it. :+1:

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126

I’m 71 3 years ago I had a minor muscle tear. It wasn’t minor to me, I saw streaks of light when it happened as I descended out front stairs.

Anyway I had 3 sessions with a physical terrorist, sorry therapist. She told me that cycling was great but to think about some cross training. I do whole body workouts twice a week. That’s been really beneficial but doesn’t give that contemplation of long bike rides.

I bet Daisymae has more upper body strength than me. :rofl:

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127

Do you find that your D responses differently to the different types of exercises? How dod you prepare for your exercise? Are you on a pump and/or CGM?

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128

Type 2 on Tandem with C-IQ and Dexcom. My BG displays on my bicycle computer most of the time :grin:

I generally cycle after breakfast. Always there is a steady drop starting 20 to 30 minutes. I have a flask of my own recipe glucose potion handy. If BG is 77 with a downward trend arrow, I will drink about 1oz for 6 grams of glucose. Doing hard sprints can raise BG.

The resistance workout will raise BG while doing it, but it drops well shortly after.

It is the physical stress of the sprints and lifting that probably elevate cortisol, thus BG. LSD, not the drug, but long steady distance just increases insulin sensitivity and steadily uses up glucose in the blood without causing stress, actually reducing it.

My guess is that swimming laps is more like LSD except maybe butterfly. When I was a teen I was pretty good at butterfly, but it sure winded me.

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I respond to swimming the same way I responded to long slow distance running. Right now I am only swimming for a half hour, so I dont need much fuel along the way as I did when I was swimming for 2 hour periods. Back then, pre-surgery and CoVid (when they closed the pool), I was swimming 2 hours between 4-5 days a week. I had a completely different modification for my swim prep and also needed to test my BG every 1/2 hour and refuel with carbs to stay afloat. The longer I was swimming, the longer I was off my pump, so the less and less carbs I needed. I might have needed 8gms before jumping in, but toward the end of my swim I could have a BG of 75 and need nothing. But being on Zero basal for so many hours, I had to immediately pump myself up with insulin the minute I got back to the locker room to keep from spiking.

Ive heard about this from reading other FUD members experiences. It faccinates me how our bodies respond!

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130

I am almost always alone. Except when it is a race or the rare group run.

Do I mediate? Not sure if I would call it meditation. But I certainly think. What else can you do during that time?

But - (and this is important!) - the things I can think about are things that do not get “thought” any other time. They are unique thoughts that only happen when I am running.

How do I move myself forward? That is actually much easier than standing still.

There is so much I want to say about that statement.

Take a look back. From May 12, 2017…

Lemme say it again, over 5 years ago!

From May 12, 2017…

Here is a link to that thread from over 5 years ago. Read this.

So now you are saying that being between 93 and 110 is “simple and uneventful”.

I want you to re-read all of that and let that sink it. That is a perfect illustration of how far you have come and what you have accomplished in the past 5 years.

Can we celebrate that today? I am so happy for you.

Ya, no kidding!
:grinning:

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131

Eric, you really know how to make a gal giggle. I remember how you would keep telling me that I was swimming with too much basal on board and I couldn’t wrap my mind around how else it could be done. And then you pulled me along. It took a while, but we figured it all out together. Now I know how to navigate it much more. I still text with you with endless questions, but having found The Force, it is much easier for me to figure it all out on my own. I know that so much of it is based upon on experiences. I am definitely gleaning a lot of info and putting it into action. Trial and error and trial again and again. Thank you for your continuous friendship and support.

And btw, I blame most of my misinformation on having a terrible Endo during that time. He would tell me to eat a Snickers Bar and wait patiently for my BG to rise. That I should go into the pool when my BG was at least 200!!! Shortly after meeting you, I switched endos. He was a nightmare for anyone who wanted to be healthy. (and he was a pump wearing T1 D as well. What a schmuck.)

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132

I also mostly run alone these days, since covid. I try not to think of anything, and just enjoy the beauty around me, like the trees, birds, and other animals that I run across. That sometimes causes me to blank out, and suddenly I find myself already done with my run! I don’t even recall doing it except the time has passed! I know that isn’t possible with swimming in a pool so meditation is probably a great idea for swimming! If I’m troubled though by a particular problem, I may subconsciously think about it, and not too infrequently, I may find that I have a good solution to it at by end of run.

You swim yesterday was again fantastic and so inspiring!!! :man_swimming: :two_hearts:

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133

CORTISOL SPIKE;SWIMMING WITH IOB EXPERIEMENT#1:

THIS WAS A NEW ONE!!!

this morning I had to give a presentation to a group of around 75 people. I had been putting my thoughts together for the past week, and last night I put them down on paper with bullet points, etc. I was anxious about it last night and I wasn’t able to sleep soundly. by 6am, I couldnt sleep anymore so I got out of bed and tried distracting myself at the computer, waiting for the inevitable. my heart was pounding. I tried to ignore it. I knew my BGs were going to spike. I didnt know when, but I know my body by now and I know that when I am that anxious about anything, BAM, big spike very very quickly. odd thing was that my BGs barely rose from the time I got out of bed to the time I finished with my speech.

However, after my breakfast (which was right after the speech), I was so exhausted, that I lay down on the couch and turned on the TV. I fell asleep immediately and didnt wake up until 10:30!!! OMG. What a lounge lizard I can be :rofl: It had been almost 2.5 hours since I ate, so I did a finger stick and checked my BG : 155 !!! Holy Sh*t. and I had about .6U IOB so I couldnt just dash off to the pool and swim all of that off. I had to have some patience and wait the spike out. I just sat back and watched this God awful show (utterly mindless) and tried to change my focus off of my spike.

finally, at 11:45, when I had .3U OB, I decided to leave for the pool. My BG was 149, and I figured that is usually a safe place to start swimming bc I wouldn’t crash too low. I dashed off to the pool.

before my swim, my BG was 146 with .2U OB, but I knew that I was nearing the tail end of my last bolus, so that .2U reflected on my pump was pretty meaningless. I wasn’t really concerned. AND, I am not diabetic in the pool, so I didnt have to think any more about the issue from the moment I slid into the water.

when I finished my swim, I landed nicely at 93 BG. I went up to the locker room, bolused .5U, showered, dressed and walked home. On my way, I bolused 3.2U for my refuel, knowing, from experience, that it usually takes longer for that insulin to kick in before I can drink my shakes, so there was no concern that I would crash before I got to my refrigerator.

but for some reason, when I sat down at my desk, I thought, “why dont you just do a finger stick to see where your BGs are so you can watch how the (typical) post swim BG high comes down.” OMG, my BG was 57!!! I took 6gms fast glucose and drank my shakes ASAP. Interesting, bc this has never happened before. There were only 2 things that I did differently today that I have ever done in the past:

  1. I swam with IOB
  2. after I bolused the .5U for the time I was off my pump, I chatted for about 10+ minutes with some lovely ladies who wanted to know what my pump was. They actually asked me if it hurt to put the needle into my belly. (this question always amazes me; I mean, what do you think? Of course it hurts. Have you never gotten your blood drawn by a flabotomist before? Doesnt it hurt you when they draw your blood? DUH.)

I did everything else exactly the same as far as timing was concerned. Could that extra 10 minutes have brought my sugars down that much lower that quickly? It usually takes about 30-45 minutes before my sugars get into their TR. Hummm. Interesting. I took 6gms of fast carbs and drank those delicious shakes, and feel 100%.

but now its been an hour since I took the carbs and finished my shakes, and my BG is 50. Im confused. So im eating some chocolate. I truly dont know what to expect. This is all new to me. My dinner was the same last night. My bfast was the same this morning. My swim was pretty much the same as usual. How could a 10 minute laps in time have such an effect upon my BGs? Maybe its just because its Friday and sunny out? :crazy_face:

I’ll let you know how this all plays out. I’m letting go of all expectations for now. Im just going to keep a close eye on my sugars and see how things work out for me.

This is all very suspicious… Hummmm. :smirk: :woman_facepalming:

signing out,

DM

PS: last nights overnights required extra glucose as well. perhaps that has something to do with it. Maybe its time to turn my basal rates down again???

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134

Good observation. If it happens again tonight I’d try that, if it were happening to me.

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135

I like to see if there is a clear pattern emerging before I start futzing around with basal changes. Also, I keep notes of what’s been going on in my life to see if anything is specific to that day, or happening every day no matter what.

Today was my 3rd day swimming this week and sometimes the exercise accumulates and my body needs less insulin after Friday’s swim than it did on Monday’s.

we’ll see. Before dinner my BG was 76. And that was after all the chocolate I had eaten too! But I’m all prepared with a bag of Lindte Chocolate Truffles if needed :yum:

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136

The big difference was swimming with IOB. That insulin is amplified so much from the exercise.

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137

JUST AN EXTRA 5 MINUTE SWIM, EXPERIMENT # 1:

in the locker room, right before I went down to the pool, I mistakenly took an extra 2gms of glucose. I didnt mean to. I wasn’t thinking clearly. My sugars were on the high side (126), and I opened up my Gtab container and dumped 1.5 tabs into my mouth and ran downstairs. Then I realized what I did. OOPS. Not a huge mistake, but it would account for around an extra 10 points in my BGs. There would be two possibilities: 1) I could get out of the pool as I usually do, after half an hour, and if my sugars were higher than I would like, I could bolus a little extra insulin, or, I could swim a little longer and see if that would bring my BGs down into my favorite TR. Of course, knowing myself, I pushed for the extra 5 minute swim (please dont tell my doctor :rofl: .)

So, you may wonder, why were my BGs so high before my swim? Well, I woke up earlier than usual this morning and my BGs were low. I took 4gms of glucose, to bring up my BG but nothing happened. So I took another 2gms. Uh O, my BG popped up from 61 to 115. Of course, in the scheme of things, this is absolutely no big deal. I realize this. I would have preferred to be in my TR, but when I bolused for Bfast, I just added a little extra insulin as a correction (.3U).

I was totally relaxed, so doubtful I had a cortisol reaction. But my BGs had popped up from breakfast to 123, knowing I would go higher the closer I got to zero bfast bolus OB. I was able to leave the house a little earlier with IOB of .2U, knowing that by the time I got to the pool and I walked quickly, my sugars would most likely come down a little bit.

It was very crowded today and I got stuck swimming in the “Fast Lane” ( I dont qualify for this lane, but the other lanes the swimmers were practically at a standstill they were going so slowly.) So what was good was that I was pushed to swim faster than my usual pace, and it was a much harder swim. more challenging. (But I do love a good challenge). And in any case, once I was in the water, I was no longer diabetic, so that was wonderful.

overnight and morning stats:

12am BG 68
6:45am BG 61 took 6gms glucose and got out of bed
8am BG 115 (jeez Louise) bolused regular ICR and added .3U and ate Bfast
10:45am BG 123 knew I would go higher, but nothing to do bc I had IOB
11:40am BG 135 had .2U OB but knew that once I got to the pool I would have zero left from my Bfast bolus due to timing , so I left the house and walked fast (20 minutes, as usual)
12:05pm BG 126 took 6gms glucose and jumped in

Post pool with extra 5 minutes of swimming:

12:45pm BG 86 bolused the usual .5U for replacement of time on 0% basal
1:05pm pre-bolused 1/2 hour 3.2U for refuel shakes
1:45pm BG 106 Drank my shakes.

at 3pm, my BG dropped to 66. I think I pre-bolused too long. After my next swim, I wont wait that long to drink my shakes.

signing out,

DM

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138

To me, this looks like another fantastic day for you, @daisymae! I really appreciate how you give all the details including your thought process of how you overcome the (very slight) highs! I know it helps me, and I can only imagine that it helps many out there trying to figure out their own strategies!! You are awesome, @daisymae!! :two_hearts: :star_struck: :swimming_woman:

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139

JUST WHAT I SAID I WOULDNT DO BUT DID IT ANYWAY:
EXPERIMENT #2:

Why oh why am I so slow to learn??? This exact situation happened before and I promised myself that I would be mindful of it for the next time. But of course, I think I am some sort of TR Wizard, and I wait too long with my pre-bolus before drinking my refuel shakes.

I bolused at 1:45, waited 1/2 hour, did a finger stick and had a BG of 121 ( the rise from being off the pump before and during my swim before the bolus kicks in). So I figure I will wait a little longer before I drink my refuel shakes so I wont go high when I drink them. I waited another 15 minutes, and my BG had come down to 83, so I started drinking my shakes. All seemed well. Then about 20 minutes later, after having polished off the first of two shakes, I felt a little wobbly and did a finger stick. My BG was 50. Darn it. Why did I wait so long to drink up? Why am I trying to be such a darn control freak. I thought I was making a wise decision with my patience but obviously not (as this has happened before and I swore I would not do it again). So I just took 4gms of carbs and continued drinking.

All that aside, I had another great swim. The pool was empty. no children screaming, no splashy swimmers having to share my lane with. Just me and my thoughts and sheer enjoyment of swimming.

But I think that I am addicted to a little excitement. An adrenaline junkie. Kind of the way you get when you lock yourself into your seat on a very high roller coaster at a theme park. You’re going up, higher and higher, and the closer you get to the top, the higher your anxiety becomes, the greater your heart pounds, cause you just know you’re gonna drop hard and fast. You’ll be waving your hands in the air like a complete lunatic. screaming like you’re on fire. mouth wide open, not certain if you are breathing or not.your stomach is dropping through your seat…

This is how my body responds while I get closer and closer to leaving the house for my swims. I can wake up in perfect TR BGs. I’m relaxed, I wash up and get dressed. I eat a healthy bfast, I carefully pack up my swim gear…but as the time gets closer for me to leave the house or decide I need to do some zero basal, the cortisol kicks in and my BGs begin to rise. sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly. but they climb. And as aggrevating as this can be, its exciting. how high will my BG go before I get to the pool? Will I need to take any carbs before I swim? how many carbs will I need? Will I take the “right” amount?..blah blah blah. Almost answerless questions. And thats the excitement of it. not knowing. Kind of like flying blind.

of course, as I have written many times, once I am in the pool, I am no longer diabetic, so all of those crazy thoughts and wild feelings melt away. Of course, every now and then, a diabetic thought will pop up, but I push it back down and swim along with complete delight.

so I did that finger stick when my BG was 50. OMG. I took that Gtab ASAP and continued drinking my shakes. I waited 1/2 an hour and retested. My BGs had dropped to 40!! Drank 1/3 C cider. waited. retested at 5pm. my BG had spiked from 40 to 136! Better at 136 than at 40, thats for certain. Easy enough to correct. But I MUST remember to drink my darn shakes 15-20 minutes after I bolus.!!!

stats:

7:30am BG 69 1/2 Gtab
8:15am BG 88 bolus for Bfast
10:45am BG 112
12:15pm BG 113 turn off pump to zero basal, wait 15 minutes and leave for the pool
12:45pm BG 120 took 1 Gtab and jumped into the pool
1:25pm BG 96 BOLUSED .9U to make up for total time off basal
1:45pm bolused 3.2U for 2 refuel shakes
2:15 BG 121
2:30 BG 83 drink my shakes
2:55 BG 50 took 1 Gtab and kept drinking my shakes
3:30 BG 40 had 1/3C apple cider
5pm BG 136 Higher than my TR but certainly better than 40! Easy enough to correct at mealtime.
retested at 5:30 and my BG had climbed to 158. I’ll surely be keeping an eye on this for the rest of the evening! I think that next time I will remember what happened today and not try and be such the control freak!

I plan to be diabetic on Friday, so after my swim, after I bolus for my shakes, I will not wait so long to drink them!!! :crazy_face:

signing out,

DM

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140

Great swim, DM! I love your posts! You certainly have the knack for writing, too, besides being so helpful to T1s!

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141

REALLY ROUGH NIGHT, BUT BOUNCED BACK EXPERIMENT #1:

last night was absolutely horrid.i was up at 4am and did a finger stick and my BG was 179. Holy Moly! I looked down at my infusion site and I was all bloody. I ripped it right off and it was just leaking blood. I pressed and held a tissue on it still it stopped bleeding. I went and got a new infusion, slid it easily under my skin, taped it up, did a correction bolus. All of that would have been fine, but then I couldnt remember (I was still 3/4 asleep :crazy_face: ) if I had primed the infusion. I figured better to have more IOB than less, so I primed the infusion. I couldnt get back to sleep. I woke up my husband and just cried. I hate this disease. it can be just to much work and very overwhelming at times.

At breakfast time, my BGs had come down to 120. I bolused and added a correction (I am VERY insulin resistant in the mornings, so if I would normally bolus with an ICR of 1:60, I need to bolus 1:40)

by 12pm, my BG had come down to 88. Success. I turned my pump off.

I waited 20 minutes on zero basal and dashed off to the pool. Right before my swim, I did another finger stick and my BG was 94. I thought I was taking 10gms carbs, but I couldnt remember how many I actually took (just as dopey as I was when I was changing my pump in the middle of the night.) I decided to take 2 more grams just in case so I wouldn’t sink, and deal with whatever happened (too many carbs, not enough carbs) It was a disappointing swim bc I couldnt get my mind off of figuring out what I had done or not done. This was a diabetic swim. I spent too much of my time calculating my dosing, my overnight mishap, and what outcomes may be.
And this really stunk bc the pool was totally empty, the water was the perfect temp and refreshing, and I could just glide like a dolphin. But like I said, my mind was elsewhere. What a shame. But courage in the face of fear (and confusion). I pushed through each unhealthy disruptive thought, and swam on.

stats:

4am BG 179 changed bloody pump and bolused correction (1.4U)
4:20 primed canula (.7U)
7am BG 144
8am BG 120 bolused for Bfast and added on .7 extra units
11am BG 97
12pm BG 88 turned off pump
12:15 BG 96 walked to pool
12:40 BG 94 (took some Gtabs but no idea how many :grimacing: )
1:10 BG 75 got out of pool and bolused .8U (less than the last 2 times, thinking that this may possibly be the reason that I crashed the last times; too much IOB from post swim bolus)
1:40 bolused 3.2U for my refuel shakes
2pm BG 133 ( post exercise spike)
2:15 BG 91 drank my shakes
3pm BG 73 (better than the BG of 40 that I had after my last swim!!!)

I did my best. I hope it all works out smoothly. Perhaps next time I will give myself even a little less insulin after my swim. I mentioned this before on another post: the longer I have been back in the pool and swimming, the less basal insulin I have needed. This bolus ive been giving myself lately could be the culprit

signing out,

DM

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142

BASAL AND BOLUS AND THEIR IMPACT ON ONE ANOTHER; EXPERIMENT #1:

So I’ve been very sick for the past 3 weeks. I definately couldnt go swimming which is why you havent heard “Boo” from me. I could barely get out of bed. Aches, pains, massive sensitivity to light, full time exhaustion. But oddly, no fever at all.

My husband insisted on my taking 4 at home CoVid tests. All negative. He followed me around with a thermometer. Finally, my PCP suggested I go to the Hospital or Urgent Care for tests and blood work and to see the doctor. Well, in Brooklyn, there is a wonderful Urgent Care run by Mt Sinai Hospital. I am in their system so its easy for them to just look up my info instead of sitting for extra hours and filling out forms.

They did a Gah Zillion tests. My lungs were clear ( I could have told you that after surviving bi-lateral pneumonia about 5 years ago). My temp was normal, my heart was strong, my oxygen level was very high, my BP was low (it is always around 90/60, which is why I have to drink soooo much water to keep from fainting). They did both CoVid and Influenza tests. Both came back negative (I knew this…it was a no-brainer).

But while I was sick I was queasy and had no appetite at all.I was relying solely on my basal rates bc just looking at food made me feel ill. At first, I was on a Temp Basal of 140% and had to adjust all my ICRs by about 20-40%, but as I was slowly able to come back down to 100% basal I needed less and less insulin just to stay in TR I couldnt understand why my BGs kept going low…and I mean LOW, like in the 40s. So each day I kept lowering my basal rates and surviving on any fast acting glucose I could hold down. Oddly, for me anyway, the lows only followed meal time (I pretty much obsessively eat at the same hours every day).

After educational phone calls with Eric, he explained to me something I will now take to my grave: The body does not know whether bolus insulin or basal insulin is any different. The body just recognizes insulin and responds. Well, not being able to eat allowed me to recognize that my basals had been too high, and my ICRs had been too low, so when I was eating, I was having great BGs bc the combo of my timely basal would compensate for not enough bolus insulin. Everything was balancing out.

Yesterday morning, I woke up with a small appetite. I had neglected to consider that I had lowered my basal so significantly and that I had not changed my breakfast ICR. After eating my usual 1+ Cup of 4% Cottage Cheese (only 12gms carbs, but high in protein), my BG skyrocketed from about 85 to 198! I thought it was a pump issue. I did a correction bolus and waited. Nothing. Not a budge. Another correction. Success. BGs bk in TR. then I realized what had happened. I remembered the conversation with Eric. It all made sense.

This morning I changed my Bfast ICR from 1:7 down to 1:5.5. Success. And I am feeling better. I lost almost 4 pounds from 3+ weeks of barely eating. Holy Moly. And the one thing I was able to keep down during those weeks were my Refuel Boost Shakes (they are D friendly with Glucose Control and easily digestable : They were recommended to me about 6 years ago by my GI Specialist.) They are very high in calories, and provide serious protein and carbs.

I just wanted to check in and pass along this bit of new info I gleaned. I thought it may b helpful to someone. I hope it is.

I am looking forward to being back in the pool on Monday! I have 2 days of watching my morning BGs with breakfast to see if this new ICR change is a consistent and successful one.

Signing out,

DM

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