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Calories, Joy, and a Box of Crackers (not in that order)

July 28th, 2010

 (Sad) Fitness Truth #2: Calories Burned While Exercising May Not Be As Many As It Appears

(Happy) Fitness Truth #2: You Continue to Burn Calories With an Elevated Metabolism Even After You Stop Exercising

I guess there isn’t anything worthwhile in hiding it, or even attempting to hide it.  I am an eater.  Yes, there are foods I dislike, but if it’s salty and if it’s crunchy and bite-sized, I’ll nearly always say “yum”.  I can put away a box of crackers at lightning speed. 

It’s not something I can say I’m proud of, but I do an okay job at making it through the day and fitting through the door.

So when I hear people talk about looking down at the treadmill readout, or at their heart rate monitor, and shout they just burned 600 calories, I know where that is coming from.  It’s coming from that place of “yum” that I myself enjoy so much.

And this is why it breaks my heart to tell you this: you really probably aren’t burning as many calories as you think.  I’ll steal from Cathe Friedrich yet again to explain: 

To begin with, cardio machines only give an average value for calories burned. The more accurate cardio machines will ask you to input your weight, sex and even height, but regardless the calories burned value displayed is only an estimate and not an exact value.

Still, the biggest mistake people make in calculating the extra calories burned from exercising is forgetting to subtract the calories they would have burned anyway if they had done absolutely nothing. The average person burns about 12 calories per pound of body weight each day just sitting around. The actual number of calories burned at rest (BMR) also depends on your metabolism. Metabolism rates are influenced by many factors such as height, weight, and age, but can also vary because of genetics and other factors. This is why some people can eat whatever they want and not gain weight, while others must keep to a strict diet to avoid gaining weight.

On average a 150 lb person will burn about 1800 calories each day without any exercise which translates into about 75 calories per hour. Therefore, if this 150 pound person did a one hour workout on the elliptical and the computer display said 500 calories were burned, technically it means only an extra 425 calories were burned from exercising on the elliptical during this hour and not 500 calories as the display indicated (500 – 75 = 425).

Depressing, isn’t it. 

Which is why I love this next little factoid so much: you will continue to burn some calories after you finish exercising.  Now, this depends entirely on how strenuously you exercise, what type of exercise you’ve engaged in, and every other factor that goes into your rate of metabolism to begin with.

You have probably heard about or felt the effects yourself if you live with diabetes and even if you don’t.  When I workout for more than an hour and a half, I need to check about 4 hours after I’m done because I usually head low about that time.  If I do strenuous interval workouts, it takes about 1-3 hours and if I do a long run, more like 6 hours.  Last night I ran 12 miles after work, and made sure to set an alarm for 2am.  I was 76 when I checked at 2am so I had some juice to help me sleep the rest of the night without crashing.

It’s kind of nice to know the effects of my exercise last so long.  It’s like a bonus. 

Maybe I’ll go open a box of crackers to celebrate.

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Posted in My Soapbox, My Workouts, Random Musings, Uncategorized

All In Good Time

July 27th, 2010

The first fitness myth I think is out there that we all need to deal with is that getting fit really involves a lifestyle change.  Fitness is not an end goal, nor a static destination.  It is a way of life and as such requires constant change. 

There are, as with almost anything, two sides to the story when it comes to getting fit. 

(Sad) Fitness Truth #1: Getting Fit- Truly Fit- Can Take A While

(Happy) Fitness Truth #1: Getting Fit Shows Continual Objective and Subjective Improvements

I’m not one for weight loss surgery and can’t say I’m a fan of The Biggest Loser.  I don’t think either one of them stands the test of time (and I think weight loss surgery has dramatic long term negative effects on one’s health that they rarely mention when someone comes onstage to reveal their “new” body).

If you have 50 pounds to lose, it’s going to take a while.  If you want to run a marathon, it’s going to involve some training.  If you want to graduate from college, you’ve got to put the time in.  If you want a baby, you’ve got to put the time in.

Nearly every worthy goal involves months and sometimes years of preparation.  If it didn’t, would it be as worthy a goal?  Probably not.

It took me a year and a half to lose the 45 pounds I had put on over many years of inactivity.  I knew it would take a while, and I knew that if I didn’t start that day, it would only take longer to get my body where I knew it needed to be.

It took me many months of bent leg pushups before I was strong enough to do a straight leg pushup. 

It took me several months of walk/jogging before I could run a 5k, more months before I could run a 10k, and a few years’ of running before I could run a half marathon.  My first marathon took a year’s worth of preparation.

But these fitness journeys were not without progress.  I could see that my body was changing and I could feel myself getting stronger.  With weight loss came new clothes to fit my smaller size.  My 15 minute mile slowly changed to a 12 minute mile, then plateaued at a 10 minute mile for a number of years.  Then when I decided I wanted to improve on that pace, I had to put in more work.  And I’ve seen the results.

I admit the results of these efforts have been rather addicting.  I want to keep quickening my pace because I have so much fun and get so much satisfaction and pride in seeing my improvements over the months and years.     

So I guess for you the question is: what are you willing to work for?

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Posted in My Soapbox, My Workouts, Random Musings

But I Don’ Wanna!

July 23rd, 2010

Every now and then someone asks me if I ever have a day I don’t want to work out.  It makes me laugh a little when they ask me that.  I mean, who do they think I am?!  Of course I have days I just don’t want to work out!!

So what makes me different than the person asking the question?  I’m not so sure.  I definitely work out most days, and I definitely talk about my workouts more than some.  I also make other people work out five days a week, so I can see how a perception forms that I am some maniac exerciser.  But I really do think that’s all it is: a perception.  Like most perceptions, it is based in some truth and some fiction.

When I have a day that I just don’t want to work out, what do I do? 

  1. I look at the reasons behind my lack of desire.  Is it the fact my CGM woke me up alarming at a low or high blood sugar every 10 minutes all night long last night?  Is it that yesterday I didn’t eat very well, and don’t feel very energetic?  Do I want to lie around instead of work out because I can’t think of what workout I would enjoy? 
  2. I look at my previous few days’ of workouts.  Were they really intense, or more than I’m used to doing?  Did I run a long distance, or lift heavier weights than I’ve been doing in the last few weeks or months?  Have I been feeling low energy for several days, or just today?
  3. I look ahead for the next few days.  Do I have something coming up that I want to have extra energy for?  A vigorous hike planned with friends or a long run or even a fun run? 

 Most of the time, if I can find a reason, I find it easier to modify or skip a workout.  I’ll either do a shorter workout, or a more moderate workout, or do some yoga instead of anything high-impact.  I try to vary my workout intensity throughout the week, but when my body is telling me something I always try to listen.  If it’s saying “I’m tired and here’s why” I must listen to it.  If I don’t listen to my body, I’m toast.

If I can’t find a reason for my low energy, I promise myself I just need to do the warm up– if I still don’t want to work out, I can stop and forget the whole idea.  It’s not quite like your Mom saying you have to have at least one bite of some new food on your dinner plate, but it’s close.  I’ve definitely changed out the workout in my DVD player mid-warm up on more than one occasion, and there have been a couple days I didn’t even make it through to put in a new DVD before simply stopping.

It is important to me at this point to always listen to what my body is telling me.  I ask a lot of it, and usually it can perform fairly well.  When it doesn’t, I need to respect that and rest instead of push. 

As long as I have a good reason to skip a workout, I let myself rest easy and don’t beat myself up over a missed session. 

It’s good for me.

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Posted in My Workouts, Random Musings, Uncategorized

My Tuesday Workout

July 22nd, 2010

On Tuesdays, I like to run a medium-long run because I have the time that day to make it work.  For the past year and a half or so, I’ve tried to make Tuesdays my Treadmill Day and head to the community center down the street from my house for some interval and sprint work on the treadmill.

Because I’m gearing up to run the Silicon Valley Marathon in October with Run the Coast, I have been gradually increasing the length of my runs.  On Tuesday, that meant I wanted to get in eight or nine miles.

However.

If I tried to run the type of intervals I enjoy for that long, I would be exhausted and unable to continue at the speed I want.  If I skipped the intervals and just ran on the ‘mill, I would be so bored I’d slow down.

So on Tuesday, I decided I would run 5 miles outside first, then go to the community center and spend the next four miles doing intervals. 

Whatta plan!

Except for that 65 meter reading at mile 3.5 of my outside run.  Hmm.

With that reading, I had some decisions to make.  I could have just stopped my workout and walked home (I basically did a strange loop that kept me somehow within about a mile and a half of my house at all times), or I could keep going and skip the treadmill workout, or I could cut the outside run short and figure out how to do the treadmill workout, or I could do what I did: I walked the remainder of the outside run and also ran on the treadmill. 

Of course, there were some other things in there, too. 

I ate two “servings” of carbohydrate for the low at 65.  If I were going to walk home, I would probably have only had one.  But of course I was at the base of a big hill when I checked, and I wanted to keep going on my planned route.  I know that if I keep walking at a moderate effort when I’m in the middle of a run and low like this, I will continue to go low.  So I had two servings.  (I think I had about six with me, left over from my recent 13 mile run on the weekend.)

And then I checked again after the crest of the hill.  Oh yeah.  48.

So you and I know by now that a 48 isn’t going to get me running sprint intervals on a treadmill.   Which is perfectly fine, except that I just haven’t gotten to enjoy a Treadmill Tuesday in a few weeks and I plain and simple wanted to do it.  Harrumph. 

And this is when genius struck.  (I love when genius strikes me at 48.)  I recognized that I have been carrying this $5 bill with me on every long run I have done for the past two years.  I decided today was the day to spend it.  So I walked to the grocery store that was in between where I was and the treadmill.  And I bought a Gatorade. 

Now, I had Gatorade in my fridge at home, but home was 4 blocks past the treadmill.  I knew I wasn’t ever going to get over to that treadmill if I set foot inside my house, though, and since I had that $5 bill, I essentially gave myself permission to call my situation an emergency.

Right; a running emergency.  I had to buy that drink in order to keep running the way I wanted to run. 

By the time I got to the community center, I was 94.  Woot!  I hopped on, ran my sprints for another 35 minutes, and walked home.  When I got off the ‘mill, I was 136. 

I also bolused as soon as I got home.  I had been on a drastically reduced basal rate for an hour and a half and knew that all of the carbs I had consumed to get me through the workout would need some help after I stopped since there was pretty much no insulin remaining in my body. 

I think the highest I got was 226.  Not bad, considering all the jockeying I had done with basals, boluses, fast carbs, slow carbs, liquid carbs, intervals, and steady-state running. 

And best of all, I declared a Running Emergency and spent that $5 bill, and it all worked out pretty well.  Yay!

Now I’ve got to go find another $5 bill…

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Posted in Living with Type 1 Diabetes, My Workouts, Random Musings, Uncategorized

Fitting Fitness In—No Room for Excuses

July 21st, 2010

So this is a pretty simple task, overall, to get you fit.  Really!  You may need to stop hiding behind excuses, but after you have a nice chat with yourself, you’ve already accomplished the hardest part.

(Alright; a valid excuse may be your blood sugar… but that is a one-time excuse and not a pattern.  If it is a pattern, you can address that by making insulin or medication changes or by eating a different amount of food or at a different time.  I hope you don’t like using your diabetes as an excuse for much, so why should exercise be any different??  As much as you feel like you don’t have control over your disease, you always have control over whether or not you exercise.)

Excuses may include:

Not now.  Too light at night.  Too hot outside.  Too dark in the morning.  Too cramped inside.  Whatever it is, it sounds like an excuse!  Quiet that excuse, put on your shoes and get going. 

Or maybe: No time.  Too stressed.  Too busy at work/school/home.  You know what?  That excuse is always there… life is busy.  Living life is stressful.  But aren’t you stressing yourself out whenever you say to yourself “I wish I had exercised today?”  Even if you can only do a little bit some days, still do it.  You won’t regret it.

Another one: it’s too expensive.  Well, you know, exercise is just like nearly everything else: it CAN be expensive.  But then again, it can be free, too!  Exercise can be a trip to a hoity-toity gym that costs several hundred dollars a month, or it can be a trip through your neighborhood and pushups on the floor by your bed.  Exercise can also be a Netflix workout video, or an iTunes yoga freebie.  It can be a trip up the high school bleachers a few times, or a 15 minute session treading water in the backyard pool.  It can be playing tug o war with your dog, or tag with the kids in the neighborhood. 

Open your mind to new activities and redefine “exercise” and make it work for you in your life.  It’s easier than you think, once you clear away those excuses!!

(Yup, I looked up how to spell “hoity-toity”.  I love Google.)

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Posted in My Soapbox, My Workouts, Random Musings, Uncategorized

Fitting Fitness In—Despite Your Stress

July 20th, 2010

I think it’s important to figure out ways to keep yourself working out while you’re stressed and busy.  I know, I know.  It’s difficult.  And some days you won’t be able to squeeze it in.  However, make sure that those days are very few and far between.  Take care of yourself and your body; the rest of your life will thank you for it!

Saw this in the July 2010 issue of Oxygen magazine and I like what they say:

Q: When I’m stressed, I find it difficult to train.  How can I keep myself motivated?

A: Exercise reduces stress, increases energy and enhances mood, so the most important time to fit in a workout is when you’re stressed!  The very act of making yourself a priority counteracts stress and even helps prevent it.  Here’s how:

Pick a time of day to exercise that you are most able to commit to at least three times a week.

Choose a form of exercise you enjoy doing.  For instance, don’t force yourself to run if you genuinely don’t enjoy it.

Train with a friend or personal trainer—you’re less likely to bow out of an obligation to others.

Find a quiet place, take some deep slow breaths and visualize yourself exercising and feeling strong, fit and healthy.

Last, give yourself a reward for sticking to your commitment to reinforce the healthy choices you are making for yourself.

Are you seeing a trend here?  Exercise helps you combat the bad stuff in your life.  Feel good about that.  Make time to exercise, and feel better about what you’re doing for yourself.  Feeling strong, fit and healthy isn’t a quick fix and it is impossible to achieve overnight—but the benefits reach wide and last a lifetime if you let them and keep at it.

So go, carve out some time to exercise.

Enjoy the benefits.

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Posted in My Workouts, Random Musings, Uncategorized

Fitting Fitness In

July 19th, 2010

Cardiovascular fitness is a big thing for me: I like knowing I can run if I need to, and I like knowing I can keep running longer than most.  I find my long runs perfect opportunities to work out whatever obstacles have arisen in my personal and professional life since my last run.  I enjoy the sense of accomplishment I feel after running X number of miles (when X > 10) and I think it’s fun to tell people at lunch how many miles I ran before they woke up that morning.  I generally think any run less than an hour shouldn’t really qualify as a workout.

Yet I know I’m in the minority.   (It has also taken me nearly a decade of running to reach that point, for the record.  I’ve worked to get there because it was something I wanted to do.)

I’m not saying I’m right and I’m not saying I work harder or less hard than anyone during a workout.  I’m saying that for me, running gives me a lot. 

And it also takes a lot.  A lot of time.

Good thing that several shorter bursts of cardio throughout the day can have multiple benefits for your overall cardiovascular health!

Give yourself 10 minutes before you take a shower in the morning, 10 minutes at lunch and 10 minutes before you read your mail at home, and you’ve squeezed in 30 minutes of cardiovascular activity that day.  You’ll get your metabolism kick started several times throughout your day, you’ll have the energy to make it all the way through your shorter session without too much fatigue, and you won’t have as many mental demons to battle for a shorter workout.

You know you can fit in those 10 minute segments.  Honestly; you know you can. 

I’m not saying that if you’ve signed up for a 5k all you need to do to prepare yourself for the run is to jog for 10 minutes three times a day.  I’m saying that if your goal is increased cardio health, try taking smaller bites out of the apple and choke down that exercise in a manageable way for yourself. 

My experiences with exercise and my insulin needs deal almost exclusively in exercise sessions longer than 30 minutes.  I know that for me, I need to be exercising at least 15-20 minutes before I sense any drop in my blood sugar (absent any other strange happenings in my day).

When I first started to exercise, I couldn’t jog a block.  If I did, I’d be low within 15 minutes.  So watch yourself and your effort levels and how they affect your blood sugar levels if you are just starting out.  You can easily benefit by having several shorter bursts of exercise spread throughout your day—if you do it regularly enough you may need to lower your overall basal rates due to your increased metabolism.    

Pretty cool.

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Posted in Living with Type 1 Diabetes, My Workouts, Random Musings, Uncategorized

What a Huge and Beautiful Opportunity

July 16th, 2010

Get Up, Get Out!  and No Child Left Inside!  Are two slogans of the Karno Kids Foundation, organized by ultra endurance athlete Dean Karnazes. 

Dean blogged today about the fact that kids are not participating in being outdoors in nature and being as active as any of us would like for them.  I think we all have fond memories of the summers we spent on our bikes or skates or flip flops to and from the community pool.  We want that for today’s kids, too.

Yet how do parents of diabetic kids feel comfortable taking their kids out and having them run and play and fall and scrape and get all mucky and then check their blood glucose with dirty fingers? 

(alright, that one was an easy one: alcohol swabs and more snacks and less insulin)

I think with diabetic kids it’s easy for a parent to see them as “broken” because they do have a malfunctioning pancreas.  Yet it is essential for them to get out and behave just like any other kid and get their elbows scraped, knees skinned, and every now and then an arm broken, just like their friends.

Our lives are more complicated by diabetes, absolutely.  Yet we still need fresh air and sun-streaked hair and dirty knees, too.

The blog comments are fascinating at Dean’s blog today; if you are a parent and/or someone interested in helping get kids out and active, I suggest you check it out here!  I’ll stop writing so you still have time to go over there and read.  

But, in case you don’t have that kind of time, here’s one of my favorite comments posted by Jason Hayden:

It’s up to us as parents to set an example for our kids. We should be our kids best role models and expose the to all of the amazing activities out there. Bring field guides when you hike so that you can look up everything the kids find, teach kids how to fix their bikes, get out of your own comfort zone and try new things so that the kids see it’s ok to be uncomfortable when trying something new.


It shouldn’t matter what the weather is the kids can still get outside…20 below or 100…appropriate gear, appropriate hydration and food, appropriate duration for the conditions…everyone can still have fun if you plan these things out right.

Get outside, get in the dirt, have fun!

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Posted in Living with Type 1 Diabetes, My Workouts, Random Musings, Uncategorized

Ut Oh. That’s what I said when I read this yesterday at ParentingDiabeticKids.com

July 15th, 2010

My daughter was diagnosed at 4 years old. She is now 9. She does not take her diabetes serious at all. She sneaks food constantly. We hide her 100 cal. snacks because she will eat them throughout the day. She is always high in the evening, and I mean high. I am worried, I don’t feel we are doing enough. We address this with her Dr. every time we go. She says this is normal for her age group. She loves grapes and her snack. 1 point a piece. But I can’t really buy them for her, because she sneaks them at other times in the day. Any advice, I am so worried about her. What do we do to make her believe this is serious. Just a little background…she was adopted at birth so counselors say her diabetes just may be one thing she feels like she can control. HELP

I feel pretty passionately about the fact that kids need help dealing with their diabetes.  Good, quality help and support.  They need tools they can use for the rest of their lives as they encounter the daily struggles diabetes and their lives will bring.

Okay.  So.  Back to the ut-oh.

1. I get how horrifying this must be for an adult watching her child sneak food; I mean, I understand that it is horrifying.   I can imagine how difficult it is for a parent of a diabetic kid.  I think they reflect on their own childhood and project that nostalgia onto their child’s childhood and feel like any opportunity for a carefree life has been stolen from their child.  I think they spend so much time feeling anxious and worried and trying to control their child’s diabetes they are robbing themselves too. 

This all makes sense and is completely understandable.  I feel for each and every one of you. 

I just think you need to do more than worry and try to control the disease and your child’s response to it.  I think you need to deal with YOUR feelings about the disease, too, and let your child do the same.

2. She’s nine years old; how seriously do you want her to take anything?!  Diabetes takes a really long time to ever deal with, and it’s a daily thing even long time diabetics continue to struggle with.  In this particular case, I think her parents here are setting her up for a lot of years of disordered eating by attaching emotional responses to food not only on her part as she hides her eating but also on her parents as they react to her eating.  I am saddened at the thought she may turn to diabulemia as a “solution” at some point to deal with food and her weight and her disease.

 Type one diabetes messes with how we see food mainly because it messes with how our bodies deal with food.  It’s tough; I wouldn’t ever say otherwise.  But just like we need to remove emotion from blood sugar meter readings, we need to remove emotion from the kitchen table, from the kitchen cupboards, from the refrigerator, from the grocery store, from the nearest convenience store or vending machine.  Food is food; just that.  Don’t give it more power than it requires.  It isn’t a menace, it isn’t a salvation, it isn’t medicine, it isn’t poison.  Diabetes dictates how we deal with food when it enters our bodies—let it only dictate that much when it comes to the eating parts of life, and leave it alone beyond that. 

3.  I read a lot of responses from parents to this post and several said they explain to their child that if they sneak food or don’t control their diabetes they will die. 

EXCUSE ME?!?!  Are you SERIOUS?! 

Sorry for this gut-level response on my part: I simply do not think it is appropriate in any way.  A child’s brain is not as developed as an adult’s brain and won’t comprehend “death” like an adult does.  That’s why we’re called the adults.  To use a scare tactic the child cannot comprehend on a child is useless to create anything but an unhealthy relationship between a child and his or her parent.  You have those fears, just like any parent has those fears for his or her child.  Your child simply does not understand how much you love them and how much you would do to protect them, and how threatened you feel on an instinctual level when you see their blood sugars going one way and them behaving a different way. It’s why they are called kids.

So stop using pointless and dangerous scare tactics.  I am confident you won’t like the result.

4. WHY IS THIS KID NOT ON A PUMP.  Really.  Why is she not carb counting and bolusing and beeping and dear me why is she not on a pump.  The pump is one of the most freeing tools a kid living with diabetes has at their disposal.  This girl needs to be on a pump.  This girl’s parents need her to be on a pump.  PUMP.

5. I also disagree with the expert on this, for the record.  I think he’s missing the point.  Although, he hadn’t see the responses from parents when he responded to this initial question, so maybe my perception was skewed differently than his.  I just don’t think he got to the heart of the matter between the parents and the child.  To punish a nine year old child for not taking proper care of her diabetes just seems ludicrous to me. 

I’m sure each parent reading this just rolled their eyes at me.  I’ll take that.  I don’t have kids, much less misbehaving kids.  I just don’t think that “diabetes care” and “behaving” belong in the same sentence.  Diabetes isn’t a chore; it’s a chronic disease.  You can forget to make your bed or clean up your toys, but when you are sent to your room for not checking your blood sugar I think it puts out a dangerous, unnecessary, and unhealthy power play.  Diabetes is hard enough; work together to fight the daily struggles and remove as many emotional power plays as possible.   

Together. 

Please.

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Posted in Living with Type 1 Diabetes, Random Musings, Uncategorized

Living with Diabetes Requires a Continuous Effort

July 14th, 2010

No big news flash on that one, for any of us who have lived with type one or type two diabetes for longer than, say, a week. 

It strikes me now and then just what a toll that continuous effort takes on us and on our lives.  We just always need to be alert for what our blood sugars are doing, and what comes next, and what is around the corner, and how our bodies will likely react to it.  We don’t need to be obnoxious about it, but we are always calculating and always figuring and to some degree always planning.  I go low if I forget to figure or calculate and I go high if I’ve planned incorrectly.  I don’t like being at either extreme and feel I’m not my best self when I am either low or high.

My husband (whose pancreas functions just fine) took me for a hike soon after we met; he wanted it to be a surprise.  I’m all for surprises, but I should have asked better questions and he should have given me better answers.  I didn’t know how far we were going, and he assured me he had low food with him (I had some too).  It wasn’t enough for an unknown and unplanned 2-3 hour hike.  (I would have been fine for a shorter hike, but this wasn’t that.)

I’m sure you know the ending: I was super low and despite eating all of the glucose we had with us, it wasn’t helping.  The story ends fine because we happened upon a group of friends who had apple juice with them.  (It happens a lot when you hike around Bearskin Meadow Camp!) 

I’m not sure what would have happened if we hadn’t bumped into them.

I think I was recalling this story because I know sometimes people perceive me as a control freak or an excessive planner.  I, in turn, am choosing to deflect that perception and focus the blame instead on my disease. 

Living with diabetes does require me to be in control of my body and a certain amount of my surroundings all the time.  My sister planned a bachelorette party for me but hadn’t thought about my pump in a mud bath.   My husband heard my pump alarming on the bathroom counter when I was in the shower the other day.  He was so proud of himself for being able to clear the alarm! 

It’s these kinds of things that, when they occur, remind me how personal this disease is.  I can’t really hand any of it off to anyone else.  I do have some fantasy in my head borne of the four days I spent in the hospital after my diagnosis—I dream that someday I’ll have something wrong with me that sends me back to the hospital where the nurses and doctors will be in charge of my blood glucose for a few days. 

I know that’s kind of a sad fantasy, but there it is.

So, my friends, the best I can offer today is a virtual hug or a virtual hand squeeze not because I can in any way stop or help the continuous effort required of you, but because I know how it feels to have that requirement, too.  

All the best.

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Posted in Living with Type 1 Diabetes, Random Musings, Uncategorized