Wordless Wednesday - Spring in Alberta

That snow pile is about 8 foot tall.  Hopefully it all melts before next winter.

Lots of posts to come, been working on them just no time to edit :)

Rescued by a Wet Nose in the Night

I have two dogs, Basil and Kasper (West Highland Terriers) who are the closest thing I have to children.  I adore them both and they are my best little buddies (don't worry Ryan, you are my best big buddy).  Basil is nearly six and Kasper is nearly five and they both live the life let me tell you.  They go to doggie daycare regularly, have sleepovers at their grandparents, get walks galore, eat like kings and want for nothing.  They are very well behaved, for the most part, and are my constant companions.  When at home they pretty much follow me everywhere I go.  I have to close the bathroom door when I shower to stop Kasper from hopping in (he actually did do that once).  I live alone and always thought I would be the type of person who would never let a dog sleep with me.  I grew up a country girl and our dogs slept outside.  Well those little men weazelled their way into my heart and yes I let them sleep with me.  Even when Ryan stays over they cuddle up between us.  Bad habit but tough to break now.  Plus I secretly like having them cuddle up to me when I am alone.

Anyway, last night I was very glad that I let them sleep with me.  I had been to the gym after work and did 30 minutes of weights followed by an intense coached 70 minute spin.  The kind of workout where I felt half dead when I was done.  I ate a good meal when I got home at 8:30pm and was conservative on my meal bolus.  At 10:50pm I was ready to turn out the lights and my blood sugar was resting at a slightly high 10.0.  This is pretty typical for me after a hard workout and I was comfortable going to sleep as I only had .55 units of insulin on board.  

I was dead to the world when I felt a little wet nose pushing on my cheek.  In a total haze I pushed the nose away and fell back asleep.  Seconds later the nose was back and this time was pecking at my face.  It was enough to raise me out of my sleep.  I awoke to Kasper staring at me and I was drenched in sweat.  As I always do when I am low, I insisted on checking my sugars (why do we do this??  its makes no sense whatsoever).  After fumbling with my meter I had a 2.2 staring back at me.  Rolled over and had a juice box in me within seconds.  As I lay there shivering and shaking waiting for the sugar to hit my system Kasper sat next to my head with his paw on my chest.  Once I felt like I was coming back I stumbled down to the kitchen and ate a banana to get me through the night.  Back to bed and felt safe to sleep again.  Kasper cuddled right back up to me unaware of how grateful I was for his actions.  Not sure how he knew something was wrong, maybe my body temperature or my sweating.  Does not matter now, the thing is he knew something was wrong and persisted to wake me.  I have heard many stories about people who have animals who wake them from low blood sugars and can attest that it does happen!  

Interesting to note that Basil slept through the entire thing however, lol.

(That is Kasper in the front)

February 2013 Training Wrap-Up

Hard to believe that another month has gone by!  The month of February was a great month for me training wise.  I got a bit more running and swimming in and also managed some quality time (for me) on the bike.  I have increased my resistance during spinning and am starting to feel the results.  My legs are getting much stronger and my running form and speed is improving.  I have actually enjoyed the strength work I have been doing. As a bonus I have dropped 3 pounds and don't have much more to go now to get to my ideal weight.

Hours of training = 36.5 hours

Spin x 12 = 250.5 km's

Run x 6 = 76.3 km's

Swim x 3 = 8,250m

Row x 6 = 18.3 km's

Weights/tabbatta/kinesis/kickboxing/core= 10.5 hours

Rest days = 4

The month of March started off well today with a 10.9km run.  I hope to get more running in now that the weather is starting to turn while still getting good mileage on the bike and in the pool.  I am almost done my kinesis class and to be honest won't be sad when it is over.  The class has too many people in it therefore we end up doing more cardio than strength and strength is the reason I signed up in the first place. 

I also registered for Melissa's in September in Banff.  I am doing the 22km race and am excited already!  This is one of my favorite races to do.  I hope to get a half marathon under my belt before then.  Looking back to where I was this time last year I have come a long way and could not be more pleased!

The First Five

I have always associated the number five with some of the things I find are the hardest.  This list includes:

The first 5 km's of a run.

The first 5 km's of a spin on the bike.

The first 5 laps in the pool.

The 5 minutes between me waking and having glorious coffee in my hand.

I now have another one to add to the list.  The first 5 minutes of a low blood sugar once I have treated it. It usually takes me at least this amount of time to start to feel the effects of the life saving glucose to hit my bloodstream.  The first 5 minutes usually include flickering eyesight, cold sweat, shaking, the feeling that my insides are shuddering, increased heart-rate and decreased thought process, the nearly uncontrollable urge to eat everything in site and just plain fear.  Just like the other things in my list, after 5 minutes things usually start to improve (not always but that is a whole other post in itself).

Tug of War

Every day living with Type 1 diabetes is like a tug of war.  D pulling on one end and I on the other.  I would say that the majority of the time I am able to keep D in check and pull it over to my side of the line.  However once and awhile D surprises me and abruptly jerks me over to its side planting my face in the mud.  Yesterday was one of those days.

All day I had been battling high blood sugars.  I woke up with a high BS and over the course of the next nine hours I did my best to try and bring it down.  Despite administering correction boluses left right and centre and eating low carb all day, they would not budge.  They hovered between 13 and 16 despite my efforts.  It made me feel like garbage.  On Monday nights I go to a high intensity boxing/cardio class and hoped that some good exercise would help to bring my numbers into range.  By the time I was ready to leave for the gym I had a headache and felt slightly nauseous due to the high sugars all day.  I tested right before the workout and was at 12.9.  Usually I would have given myself a bit more insulin as this is higher than I would like to start a workout with.  Something in my gut told me to leave it alone and in hindsight I am glad that I did.  

We started the class with some light running and then some sprint repeats.  After this came 5 minutes of skipping followed by a series of burpies and work on the bench (i.e. straddle jumps etc).  After half an hour I was sweating and feeling fine.  We started doing some kicks and all of a sudden my world went fuzzy.  I felt weak and started to shiver.  I knew it was bad and before I could do anything about it my legs buckled from under me.  Lucky for me I always stand at the front of the class.  I don't do this to show off but due to the fact that I have terrible coordination and having someone in front of me is very distracting.  I knew I was on the verge of passing out and literally crawled from my place on the floor to my bag of glucose tablets about five feet away.  I stuff five of them in my mouth and drank them down with some water.  A quick check and I was at 2.0.  The instructor rushed over to me to see if I needed assistance and I am so grateful that I was able to somewhat communicate with her as she asked if I needed a shot of insulin!  I shook my head at her violently and just pointed at my glucose.  Not sure if she understood but she said she would come check on me again in a few minutes.  After about five minutes had passed I started to come around, however cold sweat was pouring off my body.  Fifteen minutes later and I was only at 3.2.  I took two more tabs and knew that I would have to call it a day.  When the instructor returned I explained that I had suffered a bad low blood sugar and that the worst thing for me would have been a shot of insulin.  I think she got the message.  At this point I was starting to feel a bit emotional and let her know I would be going home.  I gathered my stuff and slowly walked to my car.

Just like any Type 1 diabetic I suffer with lows. It is not unusual and I know what to do to treat them.  They suck big time but most of the time I get on with it, not letting on how crappy they can make me feel.  Something about what happened last night, maybe it is because I was in public and doing something I love to do, opened the flood gates.  I sat in my car and bawled my face off.  At first feeling sorry for myself (which I rarely allow myself to do) and then feeling extreme anger at this damn disease.  I cried, yelled, swore and pummelled my fists against the steering wheel.  The realization that this is my reality hit me hard and I let loose.  After I got it all out I calmed down, drove home and cuddled with my dogs expressing my frustration to them.  They don't judge and just sat with me their heads on my lap. 

Today I feel much better, albeit still a bit wiped out.  I did not sleep that great and am nervous about my ninety minute scheduled workout this evening.  I cannot understand what happened and why I crashed so badly.  It was like all the insulin I had taken over the day had stored up and unleashed at once. Yesterday diabetes won the tug of war but be damned if it will today!

January 2013 Training Wrap-Up

I thought using my blog to keep track of my monthly training would be a good way to see how I am progressing and to make sure I am reaching the goals I set for myself.  Also I find that when I publish my workouts it gives me the drive to continue pushing. 

January was a good month and I am pleased with the results.  I am not training for anything specific at the moment, just working on getting back in good shape and creating a base to hopefully participate in some races this year.  I did not suffer with any injuries which I am pleased about.  My sciatic and IT band cooperated through the month and I think a lot of this is due to spending more time stretching after workouts.  I invested in a pair of bike shoes mid month and they are making the world of difference for me on the bike.  I did not run as much as I would like, but sometimes that is the way it goes with this Alberta weather.  I also only hit the pool once which is not like me at all, but I made up for it in other areas.  Ryan and I also took off for four days to Las Vegas and I did not do any training then.  However walking around Vegas in high heels was a workout of its own!  Lets break it down:

Hours of training = 25 hours

Spin x 9 = 206.5 km's

Run x 6 = 62.4 km's

Swim x 1 = 3,250m

Row x 5 = 15 km's

Weights/tabbatta/kinesis/kickboxing/core= 7 hours 45 mins

Rest days = 8 (including 4 days in Vegas)

For the month of February my goal is to get some more running and swimming in.  I am loving the bike and can definitely tell my legs are getting stronger.  I am learning to push myself out of my comfort zone once again and I love it :)

Curious Case of the Gluten Disaster

Be warned, this post will most definitely contain poop talk that may border on too much information.  If this makes you queasy (or you are remotely attracted to me, lol) do not read any further!

I was diagnosed with celiac disease in May, 2012, approximately eight months after being diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes.  Celiac disease is an autoimmune disorder of the small intestine.  When people with celiac eat foods that contain gluten, it results in an immune-mediated toxin that causes damage to the small intestine and does not allow food to be properly absorbed.  The smallest amounts of gluten can affect people with celiac and cause health issues.  There is no cure for celiac and the only form of treatment is to avoid all gluten.  For those who don't know, gluten is the common name for the protein in specific grains.  These proteins are found in all wheat as well as related grains such as rye and barley.

Statistics show that approximately one in ten Type 1 diabetics end up celiac as well (yay us). Before I was diagnosed I suffered with all of the classic symptoms such as stomach cramping, gas, bloating in my stomach (sometimes I could look 6 months pregnant), chronic diarrhea, constant nausea, fatigue etc.  A biopsy of my small intestine confirmed the diagnosis and since then I have been avoiding gluten to the best of my ability.  At first it was a challenge as I had to read the ingredients on every single thing I bought.  I was amazed at the things that contain gluten and found that my already healthy diet became much healthier.  As I have to count my carbs to dose my insulin, I find that I often stay away from the gluten free breads and pastas as they are quite high carb. The majority of my diet consists of fresh vegetables, fruits, fish, lean meats, brown rice and quinoa.  Ryan bought me a bread maker and I have found some good recipes to make my own bread, which I like to eat on the weekends for breakfasts before my workouts.

The one thing I have found difficulty with is cross contamination.  I don't buy anything from the deli as it is a breeding ground for cross contamination.  I am careful to read and examine every gluten free menu as often there is fine print advising that cross contamination could be possible.  An example of this would be pizza from Panago or Pizza 73.  They do have gluten free crust, however it is prepared in the same place where regular crust is prepared.  I can't eat it.  To give you an idea of how sensitive I am to gluten, one day at work without thinking I toasted a piece of gluten free bread. I must have gotten a crumb of regular bread on my toast as I was so sick after.  As I said, I do my best to avoid cross contamination but it does occur.  Sometimes the results are quite mild and sometimes they are severe.  Sunday night my friends was severe!!

For supper I had prepared 1/4 cup brown rice, roast veggies and a grilled chicken breast.  Nothing out of the ordinary.  I looked in my fridge and came upon a little bottle of hot sauce I had forgotten about.  I read all of the ingredients and cross referenced them with my gluten bible.  Nothing suspicious at all so I sprinkled a little bit on my chicken and veggies.  This was at approximately 8:00pm.  I went to bed feeling fine.  

At 11:30pm I woke up in extreme pain and discomfort.  I had been glutened and it was bad, I had not felt this way for a long time.  In fear of crapping myself on the way to the bathroom, I crawled there slowly and carefully.  And so it began.  I spent the majority of the next six hours in the bathroom.  Now let me tell you something.  I have had diarrhea from things like the flu or eating something that is off.  None of that compares to what I call the "glutes".  It is violent and nasty and smelly and disgusting.  Like really disgusting.  It even looks different (google it if you dare) and is all oily.  And it hurts a lot and burns (see I told you it may be too much information).  By about 5:30am most of it had cleared its way through my system and I was able to fall asleep.  Needless to say when my alarm went off at 7:00am to go to work I shut it off and called it a day.  Not only was I exhausted from the bathroom Olympics my stomach and every muscle surrounding it hurt.

I am pretty sure I got the glutes from the hot sauce but cannot say for sure.  All I know is that I don't want to repeat that again anytime soon - that stuff went straight in the garbage!