I don't miss five injections a day

Morning blood sugar: 6.7- don't ask why it's up a little, but still reasonable
Episodes of low blood sugar today: none thankfully, yesterday I had 2 :( Busy day, forgot to bring snacks, was super tired and apparently didn't eat a proper lunch. I am fortunate days like this don't happen too often lately, thanks to the pump.
'C's' mood today: pretty good, having some 'moments' but really overall fairly pleasant. It helps that Grandma and Grandpa are out for a visit-when there are visitors C tends to be on his 'better' behavior. Obviously he was excited to spend as much time with them as possible-he went to bed late and was up early. Currently napping from all the excitement, thank goodness. :)
Donations today: no new ones but found out today that back in May I got an anonymous $250.00 donation to help me hit the minimum of $6,100.00-it turns out this was a donation from my in-laws and brother-in-law. Apparently my bro-in-law couldn't figure out how to attach his name to the donation-that sneaky devil didn't let me know it was him! Mystery solved. :)
Clean eating today:  Isagenix chocolate shake immediately post-workout, a black coffee and a slice of fruit-chia seed bread from Cobs bread mid morning. I am obsessed with this bread and apparently Chia seeds are great for blood sugar, which is obviously why I am able to eat this bread with dried fruit in it and maintain good numbers. Thanks Sunghee for the article you sent me about Chia seeds-awesome!
Workout today: 9 km hill workout with Jeff. Since the grandparents are here and my son is extremely comfortable with other people, Jeff and I were able to sneak out for a workout. We ran on the trail not far from our house. It is paved but really hilly-about 4 km out we stopped to do 4 hill repeats and then came home. Feeling less tired today but I can tell my body needs to pull back on the workouts as I enter the last 3 weeks of training. I crashed yesterday and took a rest day-feeling a bit more re-charged today.

Insulin pens and the miracle drug that is insulin

Yesterday, August 1st, marked one year of being on insulin injections. I remember taking my first injection; in the afternoon I had gone to the Diabetic Education Center at the Nanaimo Regional General. Margaret, the nurse and Diabetic Educator bombarded me with a ton of information, including how to set up my insulin pen, put a needle tip on, load the insulin cartridge, and finally how to inject myself. As you can imagine the whole idea of everything was absolutely terrifying. I went home to a house full of people-my sister and her family had just arrived for a week long visit, which had been planned months ago, and in light of everything that had been happening to me I encouraged them to come regardless. I wanted to see them, and if anything maybe their presence would help me through the challenging week ahead.  My Mom made dinner- a crab manicotti (so delicious!). When she told us it was ready, I was the first at the table. I was starving (having lost 10 lbs from being sick, I was always ready to eat), anxious, and ready to get this scary first needle over with.

That first night was even more terrifying-was I going to go low in the night? What was I going to feel like on insulin? The nurse had assured me that the doses they were giving me were very conservative, which helped to reassure me, but let's face it I was still a nervous wreck. Thank goodness for a snugly dog and husband-they helped me fall asleep.

The truth is, insulin made me feel better almost immediately. When you are averaging blood sugars of 14-18 you are thirsty all the time, you are hungry all the time, and you are spending a lot of your time peeing out the glucose you have consumed. Glucose is found in carbohydrate and is the fuel for your cells. Insulin lets you absorb the fuel for your cells- a healthy pancreas produces this, mine wasn't. All I have to say is if it weren't for the brilliance of  Dr. Banting, I would likely be wasting away on a starvation diet right now (this is how they use to treat Diabetics before the discovery of insulin!).

I remember my sister said to me during her visit that she was sorry to be there 'during the worst week of my life'. I am sure I will look back on it someday and remember it as such, but at the time I really looked at it differently. Yes, it was a rough week, but I can also remember thinking 'this is the week we figured out what was wrong, and now I am doing something about it to make me feel better'. And thank goodness there was a way to fix it! I didn't have a tumor, or cancer, etc, etc. That thought was refreshing in itself. At the time, I was placed on 5 injections a day-2 that would give me long acting insulin to maintain a steady state blood sugar, and 3 fast acting injections with meals. Thanks to the pump I now only have to take 1 injection every three days, when I put on a new pod. A small catheter (looks like a string) is sitting in my skin at all times, and now instead of a needle every time I eat I tell my pod to increase the 'drip' as necessary to cover my carbohydrate intake.

A year ago, I was thankful for my background with practicing acupuncture; needles weren't that scary to me-they still hurt sometimes (sometimes you really couldn't feel them) but it was more the insulin I was afraid of. Even with my background though, let's face it stabbing yourself 5 times a day, for days on end, is fun for no one. According to my husband I am much happier on the pump-can you blame me?  I certainly don't miss five injections a day. 

The Terrible Tuesday-not really :)

Morning blood sugar: 5.9
Episodes of low blood sugar today: kind of feel a bit low at the moment, hang on, going to go and check.....yup 3.3mmol/l, oops! Took too much insulin with lunch apparently. Is it that I took too much insulin or is this a delayed low from my workout this morning? Delayed lows can happen up to 16 hours after an exercise session..... I also think that I likely didn't have enough breakfast.... As you can see there is no 'perfect management' of Diabetes-anyone who tells you there is, is a big liar (no offense). Oh well, moving on, hello glass of Ruby Red Grapefruit juice! Thank you for the fast acting carbohydrates you pack.
C's mood today: C is, what I like to call, "being 2" today. This involves running between the extremes of being extremely happy and extremely unhappy within the span of a few minutes. We had a great morning visiting the neighbors for a play date (we have awesome neighbors :). C was overall very pleasant, except for a few instances where he didn't want to share (he is 2, that is normal!). Came home for lunch only to have him cry through 80% of the meal-I think he was hot, tired and hungry- the perfect trifecta for a meltdown.  He is napping now, so hopefully he can recharge for the afternoon. :)
Workout this morning: 7km Tempo run on the treadmill (2 km warm up, 4 km 80% max effort, 1 km cool down)-it was sweaty and hot, but oh so satisfying to finish.
Eat clean menu today: Lunch was 3 protein pancakes with diet syrup and berries. Yum! I have posted the recipe below for all to enjoy. It is courtesy of Bill Phillips' Eating for Life cookbook. Bill appears to have had a bit too much plastic surgery recently (if you google him, you will know what I mean), but there are some great recipes in this book. I have been using it now for over 6 years-the pancakes are a great go to recipe for breakfast, lunch or dinner! They also don't leave you hungry or give you that crash an hour after you have eaten them like some other pancakes.

The past few weeks I have been putting in some heavy mileage in preparation for my race in 4 weeks. This past Sunday I ran 18km, the Sunday before 20km, and the Sunday before that 18km. Along with my workouts throughout the week my calculations tell me that in the last 3 weeks I have averaged about 34km per week. Nothing to scoff at (unless you are a full Marathoner, then you are likely laughing at me right now). A few of my friends and acquaintances have said to me recently "I don't know how you do it"-or at times if I tell them how much I have been running lately they look at me blankly and I can tell they are thinking 'why would anyone want to do that'. I do it for many reasons-it's empowering, it gives you wickedly good fitness, etc.  But these comments in particular made me think of the adjustments I have had to make since becoming a mother, and of course a Diabetic. Yes, it isn't easy to run that much, whether you are single, married, a mother or not. Here are the top 5 things (I came up with) that Diabetic Half-Marathoning Mothers have to do that perhaps other runners don't:

1-You watch Sesame Street and Curious George while completing a treadmill workout
2-You have to hide your gummy 'Stingers' that you use during your workouts to maintain blood sugar because you may have (once or twice) used them to bribe your son into a-leaving the park, b-putting down a toy in the store, c-stopping a tantrum in its' tracks
3-You have to arrange childcare for 2 hours every Sunday morning so that you can complete your runs (Thank you Jeff-best babysitter ever!).
4-You methodically calculate how long you will be running before every workout, count how many grams of carbs you will need to replace, and pack extra gummies just in case your calculations are off so that you can here the word "Mummy!" when you open the door back at home
5-You wake up in the middle of a Saturday night to watch "The Secret World of Benjamin Bear" because your toddler can't sleep in the heat, and wonder if you are going to be able to get out of bed at 6am as planned for your long run

It's all worth it! That's all I can say. I am addicted to running, that's for sure. Here are a couple of recipes:

Protein Pancakes-By Bill Phillips
serves 4,  approximately 5g carbs per pancake 

2 cups uncooked old fashioned oats
1 cup egg whites (I use the ones in a carton)
2 cups fat free cottage cheese
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp cinnamon

Serve with berries and syrup ( I use diet syrup, of course)
Lightly coat a non-stick skillet/griddle with cooking spray. In a food processor (or blender), combine all ingredients, and blend until smooth. Pour batter 1/4 cup at a time onto a hot skillet. Cook pancake until bubbly on top and dry around edges, about 3 minutes. Turn and cook other side, about 2 minutes or until golden. Repeat with remaining batter.

An actual photo of my lunch :)

Another good Diabetic friendly recipe I made recently is Chia seed jam. Super easy and delicious. I love the idea of homemade jam, but just the idea of buying something called 'pectin' makes my palms sweat. A neighbor brought over a ton of plums last week and they were so delicious! I didn't want them to go to waste and couldn't eat them fast enough; luckily I saw this posted on Facebook.

Homemade Chia Seed Jam
2 cups fresh fruit (I'm sure you could use frozen, I used fresh plums)
2 Tbsps. Chia seeds (I used black Chia seeds)
2 Tbsps. Honey (you could also use Splenda or Stevia, or something like that if you wanted)

Place all ingredients in a food processor, blend as you like -don't over mix (less if you like chunky jam, more if you like smooth jam). Place in a container and put in the fridge overnight-the Chia seeds make the fruit kind of gel-up overnight. Enjoy!

Happy Anniversary!

Today marks 1 year since my diagnosis. You would think it would be a dark day of remembering when my entire life changed forever, reliving what initially felt like a death sentence (and truthfully sometimes still does- not a death sentence, but certainly a life sentence). I remember that day fairly clearly- it was a day when I raced down to the walk-in clinic because I couldn't get in to see my family doctor. A day that I just couldn't wait another minute to find out why, for the last 4 days, I had blurred vision and couldn't see the kitchen clock from the dining room table like I always could. A day that I was seen by a doctor I had never met before, who opened my file and looked at my blood work results and said " so you're Diabetic?". My stunned response was " well, no". From what I can recall there was a pregnant pause of silence followed by a technical explanation of what my blood results said, followed by me melting into an emotional wreck ( ie. there were tears and what I like to call " cry talking" where you cry and try to talk at the same time- pretty sure this doctor had no idea what I was saying and likely was wishing it was professional to run from the room as fast as possible).
No, it was not a happy day in my life. No indeed. This was made worse by the fact that this walkin doctor had no idea what to do with the anomaly that sat in front of her. This 30 year old, Type 1 Diabetic- when 85-90% of Type ones are diagnosed before 20 years of age- so she sent me away to contact my family doctor, on a Friday morning in July. My blood sugar was 26.2.
Thankfully today is not a day to stay in bed and mourn the day my life changed forever,  today I am thankful for how strong this year has made me and for the blessings that surround me. Today I am thankful for:
1- My son: I am bias here, but Jeff and  I have created a beautiful human being. A son who has manners at 2 years old ("thank you mummy!" and " you're welcome"), who's smile can light up a room, and is growing bigger and stronger everyday. I love you C!
2- my husband Jeff-the other half of my team. I married a man whose work ethic never quits, who often misses dinners or goes to work early so that he can support me in staying home part time with my son. Jeff, I know what you do for us and I can't say enough how much I appreciate you and your drive. I love you Jeff!

My handsome guys!

3-my Dad- thank you Dad for being the take charge man that you are. I can remember when I phoned and had blurred vision and needed help your answer was " we are leaving right away". From helping with C, to driving me to the doctor, you were there to help and I barely had to ask. I love you Dad!

My Dad and Mom

4- my Mom- of course I wish you weren't Mom, but thank goodness you are a Type 1 like me. From helping me through those first horrible few weeks, to ingraining in me that things will never be perfect no matter what you do, to being the Robin to my Batman in fundraising, I never would have made it through this year without you! I love you Mom, you Insulin-dependent woman, I love you!

Mom and I after Victoria half 2012

5-The 62 contributors (+plus their hard working families)  to my fundraising campaign- I can't thank you enough. When I felt like I was drowning and I received a donation it would push my head above the waves. When I was feeling strong and received a donation it made me feel like anything was possible! I love you contributors! I received two more donations this week taking me to $6,400.00!

Look what arrived this week-my contributors made this happen!

6-My body- if you can believe this one, yes, I still love my body! I was so mad at you at first for letting me down. How could you after 30 years? But you've made up for it- yes, we still have our  highs and lows, but on Thursday night I finished a speed workout in 28 degree heat which I started and finished with normal blood sugar- I feel stronger now than before I was pregnant, and most certainly stronger than that skinny, sick girl I was a year ago. I love you body- together with my knowledge, insulin, and the pump, we truly are a working team!

A couple weekends back, as I finished the last (uphill) kilometre of a 16 km run, Christina Aguilera's song 'Stronger' came on my Songza app. Maybe it was the'crazy' that sets in when you've run more than 12 km, but the lyrics really spoke to me about what my disease has done for me in the last year-(obviously this song is about someone that wronged someone else but the chorus really rings true):

"Fighter" by Christina Aguilera and Scott Storch

"After all that you put me through,
You think I'd despise you,
But in the end I wanna thank you,
'Cause you've made me that much stronger....

...Makes me that much stronger
Makes me work a little bit harder
It makes me that much wiser
So thanks for making me a fighter
Made me learn a little bit faster
Made my skin a little bit thicker
Makes me that much smarter
So thanks for making me a fighter


http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=RBOJpIwF47Y

Thank you Diabetes- you truly have made me stronger. Happy Anniversary! Here is to counting my blessings, and turning what could have been the crappiest year of my life into a year I will never forget!

A Diabetic's night out

This was basically the view from our table-I forgot to take a photo but filched one from online

Morning blood sugar: 5.8 -better! I adjusted my pump and am now taking more insulin-my poor pancreas is on it's last legs :(
Episodes of low blood sugar today: I took C to the park to meet some friends and started to feel a little funny-I then realized I forgot an emergency source of glucose. To be safe I ate C's fruit to go.
Cutting it close on the way home-before I drove I tested a 4.3-so I ate C's leftover crackers from lunch. Thank goodness for a 2 year old that never finishes his meals these days-I guess.
Workout today: 50 minutes of a Jillian Micheals Kickboxing DVD www.jillianmichaels.com with my husband-was going to do a tempo run on the treadmill but Jeff needed a workout buddy this morning so we sweated it out together.:) I have said it before but I will say it again-serious quality time working out with your man!
Clean Eating today: Isagenix Shakes for breakfast and lunch-I do a half vanilla, half chocolate shake that reminds me of a Wendy's Frosty (ie. A diabetic's dream with only 16 g carbs per serving) :)
Donations this week: A super sweet co-worker who is also a runner found 20 bucks on her 19km run this weekend and offered to donate it to my campaign-what a sweetheart!

I had the opportunity to go out last Friday night with two of my girlfriends. For anyone else who is a mother to small children, I don't have to tell you that this is a mighty big deal! I belly laughed a few weeks ago when another girlfriend of mine told a pregnant (for the first time) friend of ours that one of the things you should do before you have the baby is "go out after 6 pm!" This cannot be more true! I typically eat dinner with my toddler at 5:30 pm and am in bed before 10pm-so if the idea of going out for a late dinner (8pm!) with some wine and two great friends wasn't enough to blow my mind-I don't know what is!

The two ladies I had the pleasure to go out with are also physiotherapists. They are beautiful, strong, health conscious people like myself-what better company could a girl ask for? It was Laura's birthday and she chose The Beach Club Resort in Parksville, BC-www.beachclubbc.com I have been wanting to try this place forever-my parents are always raving about it. But as you can imagine with training, a two year old, and a husband that often gets stuck at work late-I don't get out much.

Eating out is not always the easiest thing, being a Diabetic. At home I can read labels and portion sizes to know exactly how much insulin to take. The carbohydrate I eat must be matched with an injection of insulin to ensure that my blood sugar does not go sky-high. Amazingly in a non-diabetic your pancreas does this for you. I currently don't have that luxury. In other words, often when I eat in a restaurant I am doing a lot of guessing as to how much carbohydrate is on my plate. Sometimes I guess right and sometimes I guess wrong-it's all part of the game.

The food was amazing at the restaurant (as well as the wine-I had a glass of Zinfandel with appetizers and a glass of Sauvignon Blanc with dinner-yes Diabetics can drink, in fact wine tends to lower my blood sugar. But just like you, it really isn't healthy to drink too much). I had the Sea Bass with a mango salsa and what was described as a "quinoa salad". I took my insulin with the appetizers-we ordered some mediterranean dips with pita bread, and guessed at how much quinoa would be with my dinner. Unfortunately when my entree came there was barely any quinoa on the plate. The meal was delicious! But now I was in a bind-I didn't want to end up with low blood sugar (ie. when you take too much insulin for what you have eaten). So I had to order dessert :) Alas!

Angelina and I ordered a fruit sorbet, also delicious. But as I was eating it I was thinking "this tastes really sugary" but again did not want to take too much insulin, so I decided to stick with what I had already taken and not top that up. I didn't want to go low on the way home after all.

I tested when I got home-13.2 (Normal is between 5 and 7, grumble, grumble)  Uggh! I could have smashed my blood glucose monitor.

It was still a fabulous night, with fabulous company, and fabulous food which I enjoyed tremendously. I have been told in books on Diabetic Management to "relax your standards once a month and enjoy yourself" or by some of the health care professionals on my team "don't worry about the odd high" which I feel is valid advice. But it still makes my Type A blood boil when I take all the info and technology I have, and think I am doing everything right, only to get it wrong. Oh well, you live, you learn. I must just be out of practice in the eating out department. If practice makes perfect, I need to go out more! :)

I'm over it!

 

 

 

My workout buddy! What you can't see is I am a sweaty mess-and he still let me hug him. Good kid.

 

 

 

C's downward dog/headstand-he didn't learn that from TV!

 Morning blood sugar: 6.7-still a bit high, thinking I should adjust my pump but truthfully have been feeling lazy about looking in to it.
Episodes of low blood sugar today: none so far, it's 10am
Workout this morning: 2km warm up on Treadmill (walk/run), Les Mills Plyo High Intensity Interval training (30minutes)
Clean eating today: Chocolate/vanilla protein shake for breakfast care of Isagenix and a much needed black coffee :)


It's a week for confessions. My Saturday confession is that I use the tv to babysit my son while I work out. For a long while I had lots of guilt about this- in the world of hyper parenting and 'constant stimulation' using the tv even for one hour a day initially felt like one of the cardinal sins.

My husband has been a huge influence of 'working out even as a parent'. He has done this from the very beginning with my son. Initially when C was a newborn I would marvel at Jeff's ability to 'sweat like a beast' present child and all. Obviously I was amazed at first because I was sleep deprived, recovering from the trauma of a non-complicated labour and delivery ( can't even imagine the recovery from a complicated one!) and I was having the life sucked out of me as a nursing mother. In other words a workout was lower on the priority list compared to my non- lactating husband. I marvelled indeed!

The view from my treadmill-'cheese' says C

Now at 2 years and 3 1/2 months I am so happy with the routine we have created with our son. I watched him today from the treadmill perfectly content eating a snack and watching 'Doc Mcstuffins' on Disney Junior- I thought 'why did I ever feel guilty about this'. I'm keeping my sanity and my confidence by getting exercise, my son is watching less than an hour of tv so that I can do this (in the middle of my workout, he stopped watching tv to copy some of my exercises and at one point opened the sliding door to go outside in the backyard and beautiful sunshine), and I'm being a role model. If that doesn't make me a better parent than what does?

There are people that will read this and say "that just wouldn't work for us" which is fine. If there is one thing I know as a parent, what works for one doesn't always work for another. But for those that are still feeling guilty about taking time for themselves, please don't! I'm certainly not, you could say I'm over it.

Chocolate on the ceiling

Morning blood sugar: 6.6
Episodes of low blood sugar today: none :)
C's mood today: I haven't seen him yet today :( I woke up at 5:45am for work and left before he was up-currently waiting for his nap and daycare to be over so that I can grab him and give him a big squeeze.
Workout today: a scheduled "8km" with my Running Room Clinic www.runningroom.ca-I put this in brackets as I am not sure what kind of 8k this is going to be (ie. hills, fartleks, ??) the email was vague about how gut busting this workout is going to be-if only they knew how annoying this is for a Diabetic who counts her Stinger gummies according to how long, intense, difficult her workout is. Alas.
Clean eating today: leftover Prawn, mango and basil stir fry for lunch; I made this last night for dinner with rice. Yummy.

Confession time. It's been another busy week and here we are Thursday afternoon already.

Confession #1: I have a cleaning lady

My wonderful cleaning lady comes to our house 2x/month for 3 hours each time and I have to say it is the best money I have ever spent. She typically comes Wednesday mornings when I am at work and I have to say that there is nothing like walking in to a fresh smelling house, feeling those newly mopped hardwood floors under your feet. I walked in yesterday and breathed it all in-proceeded in to the kitchen to see this on my kitchen ceiling???

If you can't tell, that is my kitchen ceiling splattered with chocolate protein shake. I quickly pieced together that my husband likely did this in his morning rush. I shortly after questioned him via text message-it turns out he was making his morning shake and scraping the sides of the blender to get all the protein powder off the wall of the blender when his wooden chopstick went a little too far into the blender and -chop, chop! Jeff said C exclaimed "whoaa" Ha! Wish I could have been there. Hilarious. Not so hilarious was cleaning the ceiling with a toothbrush as to not wreck the speckled finish (yes, I cleaned it!).

Confession # 2: Sometimes I don't get things done when I would like to.

As you have probably guessed from the beginning of this post, I started writing it Thursday afternoon. I had thoughts of coming home from my running group to finish it but that didn't happen. I was tired after a tough 8km of hills and I hadn't seen my husband all day. That hour we had before our bedtime was spent together watching our guilty pleasure of CBS' "Big Brother" I know, it's garbage television, please don't judge. Jeff and I don't have lots of crutches but this is most definitely one of them. Awesome episode too! Nick went home and Alyssa stayed! Sorry non-fans, I know you have no idea what I'm talking about. :)

Welcome back Energy-glad to have you!

Morning blood sugar: 5.0 (capital P-Perfect)
Episodes of low blood sugar today: a big fat 0
'C's Mood today: a little sassy, but we made it through morning errands, just he and I without too many scratches. The toddler we have previously nicknamed 'the politician' for his overtures to strangers in the grocery store actually had a moment of quiet and shyness today when we went to visit a great friend, her two year old daughter and her newborn son (the newborn was super cuddly-if only he didn't need to eat constantly I would have snuggled him longer!). It's funny how toddlers already know how to "put on a show" in a different environment-C was shy one minute and all "no listening" the next, I guess because they must know they can get away with a little bit more in front of non-family members. How do they know this already??
Donations this week: none so far. Have to admit I have taken a break from the fundraising since I hit my target. I would love to raise more as it is a fantastic cause but I also feel the need for a mental break from it all. I love to share my story, but after 6 months of "laying it all out there" I feel the need right now to take a step back. I have great friends and colleagues that are still encouraging me to keep things up but for now a little breather is needed.
Clean eating today: Isalean Shake for breakfast with a piece of toast (oh, how I love toast) and a black coffee.
Workout today: A rest day from running. Jeff and I went to my running clinic last night together which was lots of fun-even though he had to hold back so that I could keep up with him (love that fit and fab man but he is a fast bastard!). We did 8km of Fartlek training-this does not involve passing gas as the name suggests but altering your pace throughout the workout. We did a 2 km warm up and 2km cool down with 30 seconds of easy pace mixed with 30 seconds of 80% capacity pace for 4 km. Make sense? I know kind of a confusing description. :) I think I might do some yoga this afternoon to stretch out my tight legs-I have trouble 'resting' somedays, if you can believe it. ;)

Yesterday was day 30 of Jeff and I's 30-day system with Isagenix www.isagenix.com It is a company that has a lot of different products and as with any system that offers things like "weight loss, improved energy, and healthy aging"I'm sure there are people out there that have found success with their products and those that have not. I am not writing today to sell or promote things, I just wanted to share how I feel having used the products now for 30 days.

I didn't start using Isagneix for weight loss, it was the "improved sleep and energy" that really interested me. Anyone with little kids will tell you they are tired. The kind of tired you have never experienced as a non-parent, nor will you ever experience as a non-parent. The kind of fatigue you experience when you are a parent is pretty indescribable-so I am not going to try and describe it here. My experience is also muddled by the fact that I am Diabetic-this disease also comes with it's share of fatigue.

Before I was diagnosed I wondered often to myself how people worked full time and made it through the day without a nap-those few months before my diagnosis there were days when I was counting the minutes to my son's naptime because I was in desperate need of lying prostrate in a room for a few hours myself! Not only would I have a nap during the afternoon, I would be ready for bed by 9 and sleep all night sometimes up to another 9 hours-and still feel tired.

In the last few months things have finally turned around. I think the use of my pump is really helping me as well. Thank you Omnipod! www.myomnipod.ca I was checking my stats today-this cool little device keeps track of things like average blood sugar, my highest and lowest readings in the last 30-90 days, etc,etc. In other words, a plethora of info. In the last 60 days my average blood sugar was 6.4-my highest reading was a 12.2 my lowest was a 2.9. In my last 30 days my average blood sugar was 6.1 my lowest reading 3.3 and my highest was 10.2. Pretty damn good for someone without a functional pancreas.

As you can see-it appears that Isagenix has helped me tighten up my control a little bit more (the Type A in me loves this), it has helped my energy levels extremely, and it has connected me with a whole other world of motivated, healthy people just like me that want the most out of life. Not a bad place to be.

Jeff and I did the system more designed for Athletes-a system designed to have you eating 6 times a day, clean food, and two of those meals are yummy protein shakes. We also did something that in truth I have never done before and that is cleansing 1x/week. I am still not a huge fan of cleansing and am not sure I believe it is truly necessary but I tried it none the less-I stepped out of my comfort zone. The people at Isagenix feel that cleansing helps the body to "burn more fat"- I am still of the mindset that if you are eating a healthy, balanced diet I have a hard time believing you need to have a liquid diet only a few days a month to "boost metabolism" and "give your digestive system a break". But I tried it, and I would still like to complete more research on cleansing because this concept seems to be popping up more and more often these days.

For now I will let the results show themselves. As I said I didn't do this for weight loss-when I started I was 122.9 lbs-when I finished I was/am 122.8 lbs. But I have lost a total of 9 inches from my abdomen, buttocks, thighs and arms. Where did it go? I have no idea. :) And I didn't need a nap today. :) :)

Before May 29/13

After June27/13-I look like I have more energy! Haha.

Drinking a 'cleanse for life' concoction-Day 21