Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Cliff Bar Crisis & Team Fat Bird

Yesterday Courtney and I had planned to go for a 2 hour bike ride from my apartment to Prospect Park in Brooklyn. Courtney is preparing for an ironman and I'm getting ready for the Tour De Cure on July 8th (you can also use that link to donate for this great cause). I'll be captaining Team Fat Bird for the event and if any NY riders would like to ride with us please contact me.
Just some background; Team Fat Bird was inspiried by one of my favorite artists - Ed Heck. His paintings have always made Courtney and me smile and one in particular "Love Birds" made us realize how happy people can be just enjoying themselves. My goal with the team is to show people that even with this chronic disease you can still challenge yourself athletically and have a great time doing it; so the title seemed to fit perfectly.

Now back to the cliff bar crisis. I was expecting Courtney to arrive at my apartment around 5:30 pm so I gobbeled down my cliff bar at 5:20 to raise my bs enough for the ride. At 5:30 my phone rings and because of midtown traffic Courtney couldn't make it to my apartment safely (she was run off the road by one too many cabs!). I immediatley freak out knowing that I just had 40 grams of unbolused carbohydrates and am not yet comfortable going for a ride by myself. This really was the first time a plan to control my blood sugar went completly SNAFU.

After hanging up with Courtney I realized I needed to adapt to the situation. I took 2 units of insulin and did a 1/2 hour core workout in my sweltering apartment. Although I didn't burn as many calories as I would have liked I was able to control my carbs and adjust to the situation. This made me realize no matter how much I plan I'll still be confronted by mini-challenges. When that happens I just need to remember to take a deep breath and know that my workout doesn't have to be perfect to control my blood sguar; somewhere a Fat Bird is smiling.

3 comments:

Caro said...

I think you've just discovered that the key to successful diabetes management is problem solving!

You certainly coped better than I have in the last couple of days. Yesterday I failed to make it to the gym because my blood sugar refused to come up sufficiently, but today I've overshot with keeping it up and I'm sitting here reading this while I wait for the insulin to kick in and bring me down enough that I'm safe to go do a workout!

Scott K. Johnson said...

I always say that if diabetes has taught me anything, it is to be adaptable.

"Roll with the punches" is one of my favorite sayings.

This was a perfect example of rolling with the punches.

Dances with Corgis said...

Yay! Team Fatbird! Although I you and I have entirely different interpretations of what being a Fatbird means :) Mine is more abou being fat and happy :)

Regardless, Team Fatbird shall dominate at the Tour de Cure... esp with our jerseys!

I tagged ya, beyotch, so check my blog for your instructions! :)