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Quick Thinking and Fearless Action

February 22nd, 2011

I met Carrie Cheadle in 1998 while working together at Bearskin Meadow Camp.  Carrie is a Sport and Exercise Mental Skills Coach and has worked with Diabetes Training Camp.  She knows what’s going on inside our brains… and if she doesn’t know, she knows what questions to ask to probe for an answer. She may not have diabetes herself, but she has spent a lot of time working with people who do have diabetes and she knows a heck of a lot more than the average Jane.

In the following blog Carrie discusses how our experiences teach us and how we use that learning to guide us when we need to make split-second decisions.  My favorite part is where she says:
“ When you seize the opportunity, at least you have given yourself a chance for it to be great.”

As Spring comes around this year and the weather (most assuredly will) turns more welcoming, I invite everyone to recognize how much your experiences have taught you and let go of your fears just a little bit.  Go after an opportunity you’ve been considering.

Give yourself a chance to be great.

 -Amy

Carpe The Moment

Carrie Cheadle, M.A., CC-AASP owner, Mental Skills Training

If you’ve read any of my previous posts you may have noticed that I like to observe themes that come up for me or my athletes and then write about how they tie into the psychology of sport and athletic performance.  My most recent experience of this occurred when I was presented with an opportunity that had a fast approaching deadline and I had to decide relatively quickly whether or not I should go for it.  In sport, if you have a gut reaction and you hesitate, the opportunity is gone.  There is a time for calculated decision making and a time to listen to your instincts.  So why do we hesitate?  Why do we sometimes hold ourselves back from seizing an opportunity?

WE’RE AFRAID

Often athletes hold back because they aren’t sure if listening to their gut will lead them to making the right decision.  The thought process goes as follows: what if I go for it and I’m wrong?  The other dynamic I have observed is that athletes might hold back if they have stumbled onto new territory.  They don’t trust their gut because they have never been in that situation before.  If any of you have heard me speak, then you have probably heard me say that our ability to learn is directly related to the feedback that we receive.  There are many ways for us to receive feedback and one of them is through the mistakes that we make.  Mistakes help us refine our skill.  If you never risk making mistakes you’ll never perform to your potential.  You have to push through the walls that hold you in your comfort zone in order to reach the next level. 

WE THINK TOO MUCH

If in the midst of competition you are weighing out the options before you and just aren’t sure if you should listen to your gut, that means you are up in your head analyzing and by the time you get out of your head, the moment is gone or the options have changed.  When you have that feeling in your gut that tells you that an opportunity might be presenting itself, that instinct doesn’t come out of nowhere.  You have read into some external cue and your brain has quickly run through your past memories and experiences and presents you with a feeling in your gut to let you know that something’s up.  During a race or a game, you don’t have time to weigh out the pros and cons of a decision.  If you are a novice in your sport, you might not know the right thing to do in that situation so you pause and question yourself.  Athletes who over-analyze the situation will hesitate and miss the opportunity.  As you gain more experience in your sport, you will start trusting your instincts.  Elite athletes with more competitive experience are more likely to tune out irrelevant distractions and go with their gut.  If we didn’t have the capacity for a gut reaction, we would weigh out the pros and cons forever and never be able to take action.  The fact is you may one day seize an opportunity and watch it fail miserably, but as an athlete, being able to trust and listen to your instincts is something you have to be prepared to do. 

The other aspect to consider is that we are simply out of practice when it comes to listening to and trusting our instincts.  In fact, when we hold ourselves back, we are practicing not listening to our instincts.  Some of the greatest moments I have had working with athletes have come from listening to my gut.  I get a feeling about a question I need to ask or a homework assignment to give.  I might hesitate for a moment and think, “What if I’m wrong about this?” – but then I trust my gut and go for it and it turns out to be the exact question that needed to be asked or the exact assignment that needed to be done in order for that athlete to move forward.  Of course sometimes I go for it and it wasn’t the golden moment I thought it would be and I say to myself, “Well that didn’t work out”, and I just have to move on.

So with my recent situation, I seized the opportunity.  Maybe it pans out and maybe it doesn’t – but it definitely wouldn’t pan out if I didn’t seize it.  When you seize the opportunity, at least you have given yourself a chance for it to be great.  Sometimes you just have to take the leap and see where you land.

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

Are You A Good Advocate for Yourself?

February 11th, 2011

I know we see a lot of different medical professionals when we live with diabetes (and we aren’t alone with that!)… and I know sometimes we feel that “well, they went to medical school; they must know what they’re doing”…

… and while this may largely be true, you still need to be your own advocate when it comes to the care you receive.

If you don’t know precisely WHY your doctor changes something or tells you to start something new, don’t leave.  Interrupt her and make sure you clearly know why she is changing what she is changing.

If you don’t know precisely WHAT information your doctor considers important on that lab result, or what a certain procedure is, ask him.  He knows the answer and he should be able to explain it to you in a way you can understand.

It’s your body, you know.  No one else can possibly care about your body in the same way as you care.  (I believe this is also true with parents: a parent caring about a child is probably more intense than a child caring about her or himself, but I think there is a difference between the two.  Just a difference, is all.)

In my recent experience, I had to advocate for myself in a new way.  It did feel a bit odd, but I’m glad I handled it the way I did.

Once my doctor came into the room, I remembered that I’m now treating my doctors as though they are my professional consultants instead of grade school teachers.  I can’t get in trouble and they can’t make me stay after class.  I can, however, learn from them and their experiences to better my own life.

What a difference.

At my last visit, I asked my doctor to refer me to a dietician.  I haven’t seen one in a number of years and my nutritional needs have changed as I run farther distances more often.  Although I am a Lifestyle and Weight Management Coach, I still think it’s a good idea for me to meet with a professional and re-group.

I asked specifically for someone who knows type one diabetes inside and out and who knows marathon training very well.  Of course, that person had transferred into a different department and no longer sees patients, so I felt on my own.

Nevertheless, she sent me to the nutrition department.  They called to schedule an appointment for me, and I asked the scheduler the same questions: how many patients does the particular RD see with type one?  How many marathoners?

She had me speak with the dietician, and I was very straightforward with her.  I appreciated that she would take time to speak with me prior to an appointment, and told her that living with type one diabetes for over twenty years and being a personal trainer and lifestyle and weight management coach, I know nutrition.  However, just like a hairdresser probably doesn’t (and shouldn’t) cut her own hair, I want again a knowledgeable and experienced expert on my side.

That dietician went out and searched her dietician friends for someone who met my criteria.  Now, I haven’t met with anyone yet, but I know I’m going to reach someone who will be a benefit to me, my health, and my performance as an athlete.

When acting as my own advocate, I feel empowered to make healthy choices and healthy changes so that I can keep going as long as I want. 

So can you!

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

I Love Being Surprised!

February 8th, 2011

I have had the opportunity to meet a relatively large number of people in my years of doing bootcamp classes.  This year has been no exception.

I have learned a few things about people and exercise through the years, and of course think I’ve got everything all tied up.

Not.

All of that said, I really do love it when a camper surprises me.  It is always so much fun to discover that others have these little hidden talents.  Sometimes they are hidden from me, sometimes from themselves.

I am thinking about one camper who started with me in September.  She’s got adult kids and wants to get her flat belly back.  She works hard when she’s with me, and she has been making steady progress with her fitness as a result.  I think she’s fantastic.

But I will always remember the day I made the class sprint up a hill. 

She let loose and beat everyone there. 

She knew she had it someplace inside her, but hadn’t let that part out for some time.  (She never told me she was a sprinter in high school!) 

How fun.

I had a new camper try the class out today; all I knew about her was that she hadn’t worked out in a year and a half and had young kids.

Of course I don’t know what someone’s capable of just from a phone call—she could have weighed 300 pounds or she could have weighed 90 pounds and I wouldn’t have known.  She could have been in the Olympics in 1992 or she could have not walked farther than a block for thirty years. 

She did tell me that she was “fairly fit” before she had kids, and she said she wasn’t afraid to work (love that, too!).  But again, I never know what that really means.

So how great was it when I met her today and it came time for me to instruct everyone on some sprints, say “GO!” and watch her leave the rest of the class in the dust. 

She knew she had it in her, someplace, no matter how long it had been since she reminded herself of that talent.

I love that.

I know a few days ago I put up a quote on Facebook that mentioned how we always have something left despite our own belief we are spent. 

So never be afraid to give something new a try: you never know who you’ll surprise!

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

Look at the Size of that BRAIN!

February 4th, 2011

I don’t know about you, but I tend to expect our brains become less powerful as we age.  I didn’t know they actually SHRINK though; that’s weird and I’m not going to lie, scary.

I know memory function declines with age… (in my experience I’m not speaking of only 75 years plus kind of age, either)… and I would have thought it was something we can do very little to prevent.

But this is not true! 

Researchers (those wacky folks) performed a study on 120 older adults to see what they could do to improve brain function.  Now, notice that it was a small study and there is nothing in the abstract to explain what “older” means, so to me this is somewhat vague. 

But the results of the study were fairly conclusive: aerobic exercise training increased the size of the anterior hippocampus, leading to improvements in spatial memory of the 120 participants.

That is pretty cool.

Another thing to note is that they performed this study on participants who were previously sedentary.  They took MRIs of their brains at the start, at 6 months, and again after a year’s time.  The MRIs revealed that exercise training increased hippocampal volume by 2%, effectively reversing age-related loss in volume by 1 to 2 years.

I mean, what more could I want from a study?!

The senior author of the study said: even modest amounts of exercise by sedentary older adults can lead to substantial improvements in memory and brain health.  To me, this is proof that exercise does more to improve dwindling brain function due to aging than anything else available.  I’m on board!

Of course, I want to see the study on active older adults to see what their brain size is to begin with compared to their sedentary peers.  I’ll keep an eye out for it and report back if I ever find it.

In a not-entirely-unrelated note, HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!!!  (He turns 66 tomorrow and is still bootcamping and golfing like he was thirtysomething.  Right on, Dad!)

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Posted in I Can't Believe Someone Got Paid to Conduct This Study, My Soapbox, Random Musings, Uncategorized

Misdirected Energy?

February 2nd, 2011

I know not everyone is going to agree with me on this one; that is perfectly fine.  Sure, I’d like it if you saw my point of view and appreciated it and every now and then you could come over and agree, but I’m okay if you don’t.  I’d love to hear other sides to this one, too, so please feel free to comment and share your thoughts.

I don’t understand the point of the fighting.  Type one diabetes isn’t like cancer: fighting (more specifically the stress of fighting) doesn’t make living with diabetes any better.  In fact, the blood sugar swings stress can cause will in fact make living with type one more difficult.

I see the ones promoting “stick it to diabetes” really more the parents of type one kids than the kids themselves.  It makes me wonder: what are you fighting against?  Are you fighting against the considerable added work that having a type one kid involves?  Are you fighting against the type one kid being somehow different than her friends or siblings?

How is that fight helping the kid with type one?

I can understand fighting against antiquated notions of what living with type one means; shoot, that’s part of what I’m doing with Diabetes Outside.  I can understand fighting against limits uniformed people think a life with type one diabetes involves.

But the “I hate diabetes” campaign to me doesn’t achieve any progress on those fronts.

To me, celebrating a fight against a child’s type one diabetes takes everyone, child included, further from the goal of healthy living.

Diabetes isn’t like a tumor that can be excised from the body and, once removed, life returns to what it was before diagnosis. 

It just isn’t.

I’m not saying to stifle any fight; all emotions are useful to a point.  I just see so many people, again a lot of parents in this category, stuck in the fighting stage.  Being stuck doesn’t solve anything or make anything easier for the type one kid.

How can a child grow into a healthy strong teen, young adult and adult if something about them is something their parents visibly and vocally fight at every turn?

Look at the type ones you admire.  Listen to their messages.  Look at how they treat their own diabetes.  Do they fight the fact they have diabetes?  Do they fight the fact their pancreas doesn’t work? 

Or do they do their best, move past the uninformed person trying to use the disease to limit opportunities available, and: climb mountains, sit on the Supreme Court, sing on American Idol, travel the world to win a million dollars, advocate for equal treatment in the workplace, quarterback for the NFL, play major league baseball, write award-winning novels, make others smile and laugh, earn multiple graduate degrees, give back to the globe, care for the sick, and educate everyone around them.

See, there is a load of living we have ahead of us.  Make sure you are supporting those efforts and not spending too much energy stuck in one unproductive spot.

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

Am I A Broken Record or What?!

February 1st, 2011

Are you one of those people (I’m speaking mostly to the women) who go for 30 minutes on the elliptical or attend spin class or other cardio, finish, shower, and pat yourself on the back for a great exercise session?  Are you avoiding the weights in your workout routine??

Why?!?

I’m quoting an old article here but the points are the same:  reasons abound for you to start lifting weights.  You can call it pumping iron, lifting, weight work, whatever you want.  I just want you to get started on a routine for yourself!

10 reasons we should all lift weights: (taken from Oxygen Magazine, February 2009)

  1. Increase Strength.  Forget about relying on other people to help you lift boxes, carry groceries or piggyback your toddler because strength training makes everyday activities easier than a walk in the park.
  2. Lose Fat.  Each pound of muscle you gain can burn up to 50 extra calories a day and you can gain nearly two pounds of muscle in just two months by weight training a few times a week.  Better still, you can lose 3.5 pounds of fat at the same time.
  3. No Bulking.  Research shows that women do not typically gain bulk from strength training like men do because women produce 10 to 30 times less testosterone than men.  You will, however, define and tone your muscles.
  4. Healthy Bones.  Research has shown that weight training can improve your bone mineral density by as much as 13 percent in just six months.  This becomes crucial as women age to minimize their risk of developing osteoporosis.
  5. Improve Performance.  Hitting the weights on a regular basis can improve your overall performance in sport and decrease your risk of injury.  Extra strength can power up your drive on the golf course and reduce the risk of injury among skiers.
  6. Keep Yourself Healthy. You already know that strength training builds stronger muscles, but did you also know that it increases joint stability by strengthening ligaments and tendons?  Well it does.  And a stronger join helps prevent injury and eases the pain of osteoarthritis. 
  7. Strengthens Your Ticker.  Weight training can keep your heart healthy by increasing your HDL cholesterol and lowering both your LDL cholesterol and blood pressure.
  8. Ward Off Type 2 Diabetes.  Research has shown that regular weight training can improve glucose utilization in the body by 23 percent in just four months.  This may reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes.
  9. Age is Irrelevant.  It doesn’t matter how old you are; strength improvements are possible at any age, even 80 years old.
  10. Keeps You Smiling.  Working out with weights has been shown to improve a woman’s self-confidence and reduce the symptoms of clinical depression.

For those of us living with Type 1 diabetes or Type 2 diabetes, we know how susceptible we are to heart trouble, clinical depression, and carrying around extra weight.  Training with weights will give us that extra strength to fight some of the certain complications we face.

What do you have to lose?  Oh yeah: the flab. 

Go grab some weights.

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

From the Inside

January 28th, 2011

I was driving home this morning and listening to the radio; they had an ad about refinancing a home.  I thought about a couple people I could recommend this specific place to, saying I had heard their ad on the radio and if all were what it seemed, it could be a good deal.

But then I realized neither homeowner I had in mind would be very receptive to such a comment, and it made me curious.  I know as we get older some things become more and more taboo among friends for some reason. 

I may know it, but I don’t have to like it.

And then I thought of my friends with type one diabetes.  I don’t think anything is taboo with them.

They have an instant place in my heart where there isn’t any judgment—really; there isn’t.  No one asks questions that require explanation about a certain number, no one really even asks much at all: we each know what the daily struggles are and the ins and outs and in betweens.

It isn’t to say my other friends aren’t a million loads of support to me (seriously I wouldn’t want to make it through my day without them!) or to say that I ever want my health to be taboo.

I just want to acknowledge that living with diabetes is a pretty individual thing and someone who doesn’t live with it doesn’t always understand what it feels like—from the inside.

So my hats off and hugs around each of you who I know and each of you whom I don’t yet know.  You’re doing an awesome job being, well, awesome and living really great lives with diabetes.

You rock.

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

We All Have Excuses

January 27th, 2011

Adults aren’t the only ones who have excuses for avoid exercise.  The following are the top five perceived barriers to physical activity in overweight and obese children.  Yes, CHILDREN. 

Do any of these sound familiar to you?

  1. Too much homework and not enough time for physical activity.
  2. Self-conscious about looks and body when doing physical activity.
  3. Don’t have anyone with whom to exercise.
  4. Feel too overweight to do physical activity.
  5. Chosen last for teams.

This is killing me; a kid has too much homework that they can’t get outside for a half hour and throw a ball or ride a bike?  Yikes.

The thing that really gets me is this: if you are too busy to take care of yourself by eating well and exercising when you are still growing… what kind of life do you think you’ll have when you’re older?  I expect (and current medical science agrees with me) that you’ll be spending all that time later in doctors’ offices and in hospitals.

Clearly I am not writing to the kids right now: I want to address parents and aunts and uncles and friends and teachers and church members who know these kids.  Maybe this isn’t the time to sit back for fear of offending someone (who is most likely just not sure what to do).

Maybe now is the time to do something.

Invite the kid to play catch in the yard, or to play Wii fit in the living room (no couches please).  Maybe this is the year they get the chore of mowing the grass or raking leaves.  Maybe this year the whole family goes skiing together instead of heading to the double feature.  Maybe this is the year you all join a gym and take a class on weight lifting or other group fitness.

Maybe this year their bike takes them to and from school instead of a car.  Maybe you put up a full-length mirror on the back of the bathroom door. 

You can certainly start by re-considering a “good” parking space to be one furthest from the entrance instead of closest.

The above excuses to avoid exercising and eating better to maintain a healthy weight are very simply off the mark.  Sure, it’s easy to excuse ourselves out of exercise.  But the payment for those excuses is often charged too late—when the physical damage is already done and arteries are hardening and insulin isn’t working as it should. 

The end goal is to live a healthy and vibrant life—not one that involves cholesterol medication before the age of twelve. 

I challenge you now: what are you going to do to help out a kid you know?

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Posted in I Can't Believe Someone Got Paid to Conduct This Study, My Soapbox, My Workouts, Random Musings, Uncategorized

Thank You Jack LaLanne!

January 24th, 2011

Nearly everything I do every day wouldn’t be like it is were it not for Jack LaLanne.

96 YEARS is a really long time to live.  It makes me smile to think about it!  Can you imagine??  Awesome.

Next, imagine CHANGING THE WORLD.  And smiling the entire way along that journey.

Now, combine those two.  That right there is a lucky man.

Thank you, Jack LaLanne!!

Imagine nearly everything I’ve blogged about exercise over the last 10 months stemming from major heartfelt efforts made by one man doing what he dedicated his life to: exercise for everyone.

Jack LaLanne was a truly special man.  He was so passionate and so dedicated and so vibrant we would all love to be just like him, I think.

He explained his exercise-generated enthusiasm years ago:  “…it’s a lifestyle, it’s something you do the rest of your life.  How long are you going to keep breathing? How long do you keep eating? You just do it.”

Thank you, Jack, for letting us share in your passion for LIFE.

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

Searching for Reasons

January 18th, 2011

I did an amazing thing the other night: I went to bed by 9pm.  It was so exciting!  (I wake up at 5 every day so this would mean I was about to get 8 hours of sleep.  So thrilling.)

Except then my insulin hit: 56 before my head hit the pillow.  So, okay, except that I had a zillion units of active insulin still coming down the pike. 

Instead of juice, I had a soda to counteract the onslaught. 

And, 15 minutes later, I’m 76.  Still with the active insulin pending.  So, I ate an entire sleeve of saltines.  Alright.

And then 20 minutes after that I was back to 64. 

Another Sprite.

So, the entire time I’m trying to sleep and not able to fall asleep and I’m drinking and eating and geez.  So completely NOT hungry, and two full-sugar sodas are just not good for any person ever.  I don’t get to sleep until eleven.  (Now I’m down to 6 hours if you are counting like I was.)

And I’m thinking: why do I not want to announce that this is what is going on when I’m yawning at my bootcampers in the morning?

I realized the answer lies in a very natural reaction: I knew that anyone I told would wonder and ask WHY.  It’s the most natural response, of course, and yet that’s a major cornerstone of living with diabetes: sometimes there isn’t a very good answer to WHY. 

I think once you can accept that there isn’t going to be a single reason to answer each blood glucose number or each random response or insulin reaction, you’re on your way to accepting your life with diabetes.  Yes, it’s annoying.  Yes, it’s frustrating.  Yes, all of those things we don’t like because they mean we aren’t in control. 

Of course, a lot of times there are great and very important reasons for figuring out WHY: to avoid a future needless high or low, to avoid repeating dangerous patterns, to help us actually get enough sleep, to simply feel like we are living more normal or predictable lives.

But really, we aren’t living normal or predictable lives.  We always need to keep watch over ourselves and our physical needs.  With that, each day, we do our best and we have to be okay with that being enough.

I think that on the whole, we are all doing a durn fine job, thank you very much, dealing with all of the expectations and explanations that are a part of living with diabetes.  And if today or this week isn’t your greatest week, that’s okay.  Do your best and forgive yourself.  You deserve it. 

Every day.

(To address this for some of the more analytical and engineering types: there were about five or six things I believe all contributed simultaneously to my lows last night.  They aren’t worth listing, but it isn’t that I haven’t asked myself the question.)

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