What I found over that 21 days as I consciously watched my thoughts and changes in thinking surprised me. The first week I was excited and ready to go loved the idea and no problem waking up and jumping on the treadmill. The excitement of something new that would help me was turbo charging me. The second week is where problems started to come in, I was thinking, do I really want to do this? Maybe I should stop just this time. And I recognized this as simply my body’s defense mechanisms challenging my lifestyle change to decide if it really is something I wanted. For one reason or another any change your body fights to you have to consciously make that change a part of you. I think this is to protect yourself.

I pressed on and forced myself. Sometimes coaxing myself to just go stand by the treadmill, then maybe we will just stand on it, maybe just use it for a short period of time. Next thing you know I’m on it doing what I should be doing. In some cases where something really did interfere rather then not doing it at all I let me self do a little less that day and made up for it another day. Stopping for any reasons was like a death sentence for the new habit so I had to keep it going whatever it took.

About the middle of the third week was when acceptance sank it, I recognized that this was just how it was going to be and part of who I am now. So it became as typical as anything else I did so my mind stopped fighting it. I still haven’t missed a day, though some days may be a shorter episode if time really won’t allow my routine that day, but I’m always on it so I don’t give up that habit. Now I think I would feel odd without doing it. Exercise added into my life certainly helped me feel better, more energetic, and happier.

Now I challenge you to think about your goals. What have you really wanted to do?  Start today and make it a 21 days program for each habit, and only learn one habit at a time. Once you make it through 21 days it will be a lot easier, can you push yourself to be happier? When my blood sugars were out of control and exercise was only going from building to car and back it was hard to find the source of my unhappiness. It seemed like the world conspired to get me. Once I conquered my blood sugars I found that not feeling well from high blood sugar was why I was unhappy and not exercising is why I was tired all the time.

Pick you first habit and give this technique a shot.

A good sign that you are constipated is that your stool comes out in little chunks. This tends to mean it’s been in there for a while and hardened up to the little chunks. What I did was first start taking a stool softener such as Colace or a generic. you will need to do this for 3-4 days, do not exceed 7 days or you may cause damage to your intestines. Next was adding fiber into my diet. I tried the fiber capsules and powder and didn’t personally like those. Kind of a pain when eating meals to take them. So when I was looking for a good Diabetic Snack I came across Sunflower Kernals. These were my magic cure. Sunflower kernals are loaded with fiber. 16% of my daily recommended amount, also the carbs are 5g but 4g fiber. So it’s a great 1g snack that also helps with the constipation. I stocked up and started eating a few handfuls with every meal. The kernels added bulk to the stool and made it easier on the intestines to push it forward. That became the fix for my issue I didn’t expect.

For good measure I also started adding Yogart to my meals as a source of probiotics. Basically your intestines have bacterias in them that break down food. So the probiotics helps then flourish which means they are more effective. Those bacterias can be killed off when taking antibiotics, think of it as friendly fire. So rebuilding that is part of your intestinal health.

Lastly for bonus efforts exercise and walking is a great way to improve your intestinal flow. I know it’s very common for Doctors and Diabetes educators to push the perfect lifestyle and diet, and I’m all for that, but don’t think you have to be perfect out of the gate add in one or two things at a time make them a habit over 21 days then add more. Eventually you will get there.

Try these ideas and see if it works for you.

What are the Gestational Diabetes treatments?

Typically Gestational Diabetes is treated with insulin and close monitoring of blood sugar. With gestational diabetes disappearing after pregnancy less focus seems to be placed on understanding and treating compared to type 1 and type 2 that stay with the person for their entire lives.

How is Type 2 diabetes treated?

With Type 2 diabetes the patient is given pills that help reduce the resistance, some more sever cases insulin is added to the to the treatment to provide more insulin into the equation. Lifestyle change is a must for the Type 2 Diabetic. The pills only work so well, and diet and exercise must be added to help out. Type 2 is more likely to see a cure sooner then Type 1 since the pancreas is still functioning, however it can be the most changing to manage and control compared to Type 1 or Gestational Diabetes as there is no immediate relief for high blood sugar glucose levels. It’s critical that the Type 2 diabetic watch their carbohydrate intake to be able to maintain a good overall blood glucose.

So why do you need insulin?

Insulin is a critical part of your body’s natural energy system. Insulin is distributed through the blood stream and attaches itself to the cells throughout your body and basically act as a converter of blood glucose to cell energy. Without it your body’s cells will starve for energy. Because of the way your body works this will trigger a lot of additional problems. Your body will think the problem is a lack of sugar in your system and release sugar from your liver, and begin breaking down the fat cells in your body to create sugar. A byproduct of this process are ketones. Ketones are acidic and start causing problems through out your body, damaging your veins and internal organs, along with all the excessive sugar flowing through out. A person without insulin in their body will end up in Ketoacidosis and require immediate medical attention to rebalance the system and avoid a potentially life threatening situation.

What’s on the horizon for Type 1 diabetes treatment?

There are some interesting new developments in the works at the time of this article. First there are some clinical trails going on testing implanting stem cells into type 1 diabetics still in the honeymoon stage (where the pancreas still produces some insulin but not enough) and see some success. There are some drug companies working on oral insulin trying to remove shots from the equation. Technology is also being used to create artificial pancreases that use a mix of blood sugar monitoring and a insulin pump to auto correct your sugars.

I did my research and found the body has an interesting process it does around 6am. It’s called the Dawn Phenomenon. At about this time the body needs to wake up, since you have been sleeping for 8 hours your blood glucose levels are low. So to help you get up in the morning it releases Cortisol and sugar into your system. The Cortisol is a steroid from the adrenal glands, it’s the same mechanism used as a “fight or flight” mechanism. Release of this steroid helps get your body moving. For some it works better then others making them “morning people”. The sugar released from the liver helps power the body long enough to find other

The fix was really simple. First knowing that sugar is released in the morning told me that it would most likely be high without insulin. So it go me thinking. I am using a regiment of Lantus and Humalog. The Lantus is a 24 hour insulin. However it doesn’t always work 24 hours. So it turned out the fix was as simple as taking my Lantus at night, with a little snack of about 15-20g of carbs. This brough my mornings down to 120-140. Previously I had been taking Lantus in the morning with my Humalog. Another thing I think factored in was that Lantus and Humalog use the exact same delivery system, and I had heard that after about 40 units of Humalog the absorption rate is diminished, requiring multiple shots in different locations. So maybe that had some bearing and that the Humalog was blocking the Lantus from full effect, that I can’t say. With diabetes it’s a constant struggle to figure out the changes in your body and to use trial and error to improve your life style.

Low blood sugar is defined as the blood glucose level being lower then 75mg/dl. In low blood sugar your body has nearly exhausted its supply of blood glucose. Low blood glucose is most common in diabetic being treated with insulin. Typically this will occur as a result of too much insulin compared to the amount of carbohydrates and exercise. As a whole low blood sugar isn’t life threatening unless it progresses too low to fast and is not attended to. At 55mg/dl your brain chemistry is altered and brain cells start to die off. Around 0 a diabetic is likely to become unresponsive and slip into a comma. Generally when you get into low blood sugar your liver will release sugar into your body and begin burning fats to make more sugar.

The most commonly associated symptoms of low blood sugar are

Early Stage symptoms

• Trembling
• Clammy Skin
• Palpitations
• Anxiety
• Sweating
• Hunger
• Irritability
• Fatigue

Later Stage Symptoms

• Difficulty in thinking
• Confusion
• Headache
• Seizures
• Coma

My Experiences

In my history of low blood sugars I’ve had some nasty ones. My lowest recorded being 22 mg/dl. When I experienced a 22 I woke up out of sleep. I had a mild euphoria for a bit where I felt like everything made sense or was understood. Then that euphoria went away and I had pain all over my body that the best way I could describe it was like every cell of my body crying out. In made my way to the fridge battling tunnel vision and feeling almost like I was driven by pure animal instincts to survive. The mindset I was in at that moment had can best be described as if some one had come between me and eating even just to ask me if I was alright I probably would have knocked them aside in a very unpleasant way just because it was quicker then answering.

When a low blood sugar occurs for me I tend to feel it in the early stages around 75-80 if I’m doing something like working on a computer. However when I’m in the middle of physical activity I am more likely to not notice until it’s lower such as a 30-50. So it’s very important to keep tabs while exercising.

Another important thing to note is while in low blood sugar sometimes your body will release a deposit of sugar it’s storing. Shortly after you will probably find yourself doing some sweating, and you blood sugars will go up. If you catch it after they go up what’s counter intuitive is that you blood sugar might say 200 but you still really need to take some insulin and eat a small snack. The sweating seems to be from your body breaking down the fats to create sugar in doing this it creates ketones, an acid byproduct of breaking down fats. I like to refer to these as a bounce. Where you body hits low and bounces back up. When this happens I’ve found taking insulin isn’t enough your body will keep sweating. That’s where the snack comes in. It acts like a cue to the body saying you got this and it doesn’t need to keep burn fat for more sugar.

Quickly combating low blood sugar

First thing to do is to get a snack. Eating solid foods can take a while to process, especially those high in Fiber or Fat, as this will reduce the absorption rate of sugar. My favorite stand-by is a Juice box. It’s typically around 20g Carbohydrate and has fructose sugar in it. Fructose comes from fruits and converts to glucose really fast.

Don’t over correct it.

When your sugars are low it’s important that you don’t over eat and over correct it. Have faith that your food will start working shortly. Give yourself about 10-15 minutes after eating and see if it improves. If very little then consider a larger snack as your sugars may be dropping faster then anticipated.

Long term changes

First you should try and determine what caused the LBG. Most likely the issue was caused by under eating or overdosing. However it is also possible that as you lose weight through diet and exercise your insulin per gram of carbs will change and require adjustment. Consult your doctor about frequent low blood glucose levels and see if a change is required.