Tuesday, October 20, 2009

That Whole Hydration Thing

This post is going to get filed in the "I'm an idiot," category. Just because it's the offseason does not mean I should forget about nutrition or hydration. Thus far I've done a pretty good job with nutrition, even if I've enjoyed some of the delightful fattier foods like burgers, fries and guacamole my weight hasn't really gone up and my body is still pretty much the same. However, I have been totally lax on the amount of water I've been drinking and electrolytes I've been taking in. Since Friday I swam 2,000 yards, biked for 30 miles, lifted for an hour and ran 11 miles; add to that drinking three of the five nights and some very high blood sugars on Friday gives the recipe for some dehydration.

Last night I had a couple of glasses of Malbec while I watched House and then my buddy Joe came over for some beers during Monday Night Football. Each time I got up to fill my wine glass or grab a beer I felt dizzy but really didn't think anything of it. After Joe left I turned off the TV and went to bed, after tossing and turning for 10 minutes I decided it was time for a change of venue; I haven't been sleeping all that well and moved to the couch. At 2 am I woke up pretty light headed and went to make my way to bed – huh what….. smack, my face cracked into the beam of my door and I was down and out. This is the first time I've passed out since a pretty bad stomach bug in my first year after diagnosis.

Worried, I crawled into my bedroom and tested, blood sugar of 160 so I was a little high, a relief as I was worried I was headed for some glucagon. I got into bed, gave myself some insulin and was out. When I woke up this morning it dawned on me – I have hardly been drinking any water. During the season I was having at least 60 oz of water outside of exercise with some thermolyte tabs for electrolytes. However, I'm only having one or two glasses of water right now (plus some coffee and diet coke) but the alcohol, exercise and high blood sugars pretty much canceled out any of the hydration I was trying to take in. Thankfully my gorgeous mug isn't bruised and I learned my lesson – it's back to carrying around my water bottle at school; just because it's the offseason doesn't mean I can ignore the important stuff.

1 comment:

Missy said...

DA move for sure! All it takes is one moment like you had to get back on track. Scarier for you than most but nothing like having it hit you square between the eyes. Hahaha!