On Thursday, I went to the diabetes support group meeting in town. This time, Eve, our diabetes educator, covered the American Association of Diabetes Educators 2010 Convention.
For those of you new to my blog, I've had type 1 diabetes since I was 49 years old. It's more common that children and young adults get it, but adult onset happens. Only about 10% of all people with diabetes have type 1. Most people have type 2.
We talked about heart disease, one of the many complications of diabetes. Whether we have diabetes or not, I think we all know what we need to eat and how much to help prevent heart disease. So I will only mention these two recommendations: Meditation (prayers count) for five minutes twice daily and exercise for 150 minutes per week.
Eve also reported on recommendations that the Cleveland Clinic made to their employees. These included meditation, dietary changes, and exercise, starting with 100 minutes of movement a day that should include 30 minutes of walking. And then build up from there.
Since I just hate the word exercise, I really liked the word MOVEMENT. It has such a nice ring to it. I know I have been unwell and spent far too much time sitting right here, at the computer, writing, blogging, reading blogs and so on. So movement interested me and this morning I decided to keep track of how much I move right now. Of course that made me move MORE, but that's a good thing.
In future Diabetes Support Group meetings we will cover:
Eating Healthy on a Budget
Merits of the Mediterranean Diet
Let's get Physical
I'm looking forward to all of those.
Of all the products that were displayed at the convention, the coolest one, as far as I'm concerned, was an insulin syringe with a retracting needle. Since it's illegal to dump sharps as regular trash, this would make life easier for people who use syringes. They will no longer have to worry about disposing of their needles safely and lawfully in special containers at special sites and so on.
The weirdest (to me) was something called OraMoist – A New Approach to Dry Mouth, Now Available at Walgreen's! So a moisturizer for the inside of your mouth. Hopefully, we will all continue to drink water and remember that thirst and a dry mouth are warning signs of high blood sugars. I guess, to be fair, there may be some who suffer from chronic dry mouth that would be helped by this product.
This morning, I felt motivated to move, so this is what happened:
Starting at 7:15 a.m., I walked Angel to the mailbox to put a letter in for the mail carrier to pick up. We ran into our neighbor on the road and chatted for a few minutes while being eyed suspiciously by his steer. Total time back and forth: 20 minutes.
Back home I cleaned the dog enclosure, did three minutes on the exercise bike, and then decided to rake some of the grass cuttings that were left after Rachael and I mowed the grass/weeds earlier in the summer. Using my bad arm, I figured it would be a good way to help strengthen it.
Yes, I know: This is the smallest stack of hay you ever saw! But I did it using both arms. It will be slow going until I get stronger.
Another thing that has been getting on my nerves outside: All the branches sprouting at the bottom of this tree.
So I went to the shed and got the proper tool, whatever they are called escapes me right now. And started cutting….
Oh boy, using that tool really, really hurt, but I got the thicker branches cut. And no pain, no gain, so I figure I can count that as part of my shoulder exercises for today. Tomorrow, I'll get the rest with a regular pair of scissors. So that was my morning and my score:
Movement: 105 minutes, of which 15 was walking, and 3 were on the exercise bike. So I guess I can sit here for the rest of the day, reading blogs (just kidding)!
I hope you all have a great day!
