P90x For Diabetics: The Completion Vlog...2 Years Later

I recently noticed through my site-tracker (thanks Kerri!) that I get a lot of traffic from my P90x blogs back in 2008 and 2009 and I realized that I never wrote a review of the work out program or told everyone about the results I got after completing the program! If you don't want to spend 5 minutes watching my video, my main results were the following...

1. Lost 30 lbs over 4 1/2 months, kicked my metabolism into gear and I've kept the weight off

2. Decreased my basil rate by 20 units per day on my insulin pump over the 4 month period

3. It gave me a lot more energy and strength to chase around my kids and enjoy life! :)

I am having a slight panic attack about the decision to include before and after photos in this video, but I am definitely never running for public office, so hopefully these will never come back to bite me in the you know what! Enjoy and be kind! :)

In closing, P90x is definitely not the ONLY way to get this kind of results. Any type of commitment to daily exercise and healthy eating will give you some type of results! The more you put into it, the more you'll get out of it I'm sure! The hard part, as always, is sticking to it and not giving up! My best wishes to all of you! Cheers!

2011: BLOOM

I've never officially done a word theme before. I mean it's not like I've been busy these past few years having babies, raising babies, or moving three times. *insert sarcasm here* I decided to try it out this year and have been praying for about a month that a word would come to mind for me to use as a focal point for some emotional and spiritual goals this year.

Yesterday I spent some time praying for friends, family, my community, and myself at a Prayer Journey at our church. It was a pretty powerful experience to be able to go from station to station and really spend some quiet, alone time focusing on God. Then I got to the healing table...

I always have a hard time with the healing table, because my pancreas broke when I was 7 years old. And it's still broken.

I began to pray and read some of the Scriptures that were provided at the station.

2 Corinthians 12:7-10 hit me in a way it never has before.

"Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. ⁸ Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. ⁹ But he said to me,“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me..."

^{Here's the awesome part!!!}

^"10 That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong."

I began to cry.

I've lived with a disease where I am reminded that I have a "thorn in my flesh" almost every hour of my life. Finger pricks, set changes, carb counting, low blood sugars, high blood sugars, ketones, insurance coverage; there's always something on my mind.

But the God of the whole universe gave me His grace. His grace is manifested in me. And when I am weak in myself, I HAVE to go to Christ and receive His strength. He sustains me in all my troubles, my hurts, and my frustrations.

I have learned so much over these past few years.

2007= A year of extreme pain and learning

2008 = A year of forgiveness and letting go

2009 = A year of growing and new experiences

2010= A year of new beginnings

This year I feel I am finally ready to BLOOM. I feel rooted and thankful and excited.

I feel refreshed.

This year my children will both become school age. I will turn 30. And I will have been blessed with a "thorn in my flesh" for the 23rd year. A thorn that reminds me every day that my strength does not EVER come from myself, but ALWAYS from Him.

Happy New Year Everyone!

6 Things I Want People To Know About Diabetes

Happy D-blog day everyone! If you are a person without diabetes, I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for reading this! I hope you learn something useful!

6. Do not under any circumstance ask the question, "Should you be eating that?" If I'm being completely honest with you, when people ask me that question, every ounce of me wants to round house kick them to the throat. Even with good intentions, what it communicates to us is a narcissistic view that you think you know more about managing a disease that we live with day in and day out, with no weekend vacations. Trust me, if I have a muffin hanging out of my mouth on a Sunday morning at church, I've probably already done a math equation involving carb counts, blood sugar levels, fiber, stress and exercise. So in a nut shell, shut it.

5. With that being said, don't be afraid to ask diabetics honest questions about diabetes. Though it bothers me when the "diabetes police" come out to try and arrest me for my food choices, I do love it when people ask me honest questions about my diabetes or my insulin pump. I am ALL about explaining the differences in Type 1 and Type 2, explaining how my pump or glucose monitor works, helping new diabetics with recipes and giving encouragement! Advocacy is actually something that brings some peace and gratitude to the situation of dealing with a broken pancreas each day!

4. Speaking of differences, I really want the world to know the difference between Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes! So here it is cut and dry......

3. Type 1 Diabetes: It was formerly called juvenile diabetes and typically (but not always) occurs before the age of 20. People with type 1 diabetes are usually thin, and the cause of type 1 diabetes is that the pancreas, the organ that secretes insulin, is destroyed by autoantibodies, that's why people with type 1 diabetes always need insulin, either injected or through an insulin pump. Type 1 diabetes occurs in about 10-15 percent of all the diabetics in the country. It can not be reversed. There is no cure.

2. Type 2 Diabetes: Is the most common type making up 85%-90% of all diabetics. Type 2 diabetics are usually heavy, usually diagnosed after the age of 35. The cause of type 2 diabete is primarily a complicated medical condition called 'insulin resistance.' In fact, in the early stages of type 2 diabetes, there's plenty of insulin around, it just doesn't work well. To treat type 2 diabetes, doctors typically use lifestyle (diet and exercise), oral medications, and/or insulin with oral meds. (Excerpts taken from Dr. Steve Edelmen's interview on Abc.com)

5. But wait! There is one more! Type 1.5 LADA: Latent Autoimmune Disorder in Adults: A genetically-linked, hereditary autoimmune disorder that results in the body mistaking the pancreas as foreign and responds by attacking and destroying the insulin-producing beta islet cells of the pancreas. Simply stated, LADA, is an "allergy to self." In its early stages it typically presents as type 2 diabetes and is often misdiagnosed as such. However, it more closely resembles the juvenile form of type 1 diabetes, although it is not classified as the same disease.

I'm seriously proud of you if you've made it this far! Consider yourself a smart, well informed person who cares about diabetics! Seriously, go hug the nearest pancreas to you right now! Or eat a salad in celebration!

6. Lastly, INSULIN IS NOT A CURE. It is a dang good treatment, but it is far from a cure. Please contribute to worthy causes like the DRI or the JDRF who are working hard on a cure. If you can't donate, watch this video! For each view in November 2010, money will be donated to help children get lifesaving children in underprivileged countries. (Plus you get to see my friend Manny bite it on the ice, and my favorite Ninja make an awesome swoosh on the court!)

P.S. Yes, I know my numbers don't make any sense on this post, kinda like my life with diabetes!!

Thankfulness

I thought it was a good time to remind myself some things that I am VERY thankful for despite having Type 1 diabetes. After reading about a 13 year old child who lost her life to Type 1 diabetes from the "dead in bed" syndrome, my heart sank and I was reminded, once again, how blessed I am to LIVE each day. My heart and prayers go out to this family. It says in the description that this affects 20-60 people each year, which doesn't seem like a lot, but to this family, one of those 60 was their baby. And that just destroys my heart every time I think about it.

November is the month of both Thanksgiving AND also World Diabetes Day. I would love to challenge you to write a post about thankfulness and diabetes. Those are the only parameters! I think we could ALL benefit from reading each other's positive perspectives on the hard days that we sometimes have! I am not TOTALLY super blog savvy lady. I'd love to make a little "button thingy" (that's the technical term I'm sure pffft.) for us all to use and link up somewhere. Anyone wanna partner with me on spreading the word and hosting??

Here's a few of the things, at age 29, after having Type 1 for 22 years that I am thankful for.

* I am so thankful, that despite how freaked out my parents must have been at times, that they let me go to summer camps and foreign mission trips and school overnight field trips and experience a semi-normal adolescence full of travel and life lessons!

* I am so thankful that I am blessed to live in the United States, where insulin,technology, and information is so accessible.

* I am thankful that diabetes motivates me all the more to eat healthy foods and be an active mom with my kids.

* I am thankful that I have diabetes and my children do not.

So there's just a few! What are you thankful for?

My List of Diabetic Friendly Snacks!

My husband is a youth pastor at a local church and I constantly have people who are newly diagnosed come up to me on Sundays and ask, "What can I eat? What can I snack on?"

I've made a list of snacks that I like... (keyword "I") printed them on index cards so I can hand them out and hopefully people can find a few things to springboard their own snack ideas off of. I also found some of these ideas from a social network for people with diabetes that I belong to called TuDiabetes. It's a REALLY helpful resource. :)

Celery dipped in hummus, cream cheese, or peanut butter

Any type of veggie dipped in ranch dressing

Blueberries

Apples with peanut butter

Cooked, cut up chicken, wrapped in a big fat Romaine lettuce leaf with a little dressing

Low Carb yogurt (plain with a little sweetener or fruit, or a dab of honey, Greek Yogurt)

Cottage cheese (THE MOST DIABETIC FRIENDLY FOOD EVER!)

Low Carb: Mini cucumber sandwiches (cream cheese in between two cucumber slices)

Higher Carb Variation: Cucumber cut up on whole wheat bread with cream cheese

Turkey Pepperoni

Trail Mix (peanuts, almonds, sunflower seeds, raisins, M&Ms)

(Watch out for those carbs, but a good mix of carbs and protein before a workout!)

I would love to add to this list! Leave your favorite snacks in a comment!

Walking Pneumonia And Type 1 Diabetes

Hey party people. It's been a while. Apparently we moved twice in one year and I decided blogging wasn't a priority. My amazing husband is now back in youth ministry full time and life has been so much more fun living with a man who gets to live out his passion. :) We are settling in and establishing doctors, schools, hairdressers.......... and making new roots. I'm pretty excited!!! Our new church is pretty awesome and seriously knows what it means to help the community and not just sit in a pew. Exhibit 1- we bought a homeless man who has been attending church for a while now a home. His name is Victor and he's super cool and just needed someone to give him a second chance.

Now.... on the diabetes front.

I'm sick.

I've been sick for 3 weeks and have been trying to just DayQuil/NyQuil my way through it (which actually usually works for me with colds) and hope it went away. My kids have been sick, it's been freezing cold, then hot the next day, and really the Cobourne's are exhausted and grumpy and the junk hit the fan this week.

On Tuesday we took our daughter to the ENT to schedule some surgery for her ear tubes and her doctor told me I should see a doctor for my cough. So I caved and went. Apparently I have walking pneumonia and was sent for chest x rays and put an entire CVS pharmacy in my SUV.

I've never had to use a nebulizer in my life, but my little ones have. My PCP doctor is AWESOME and not your typical "I'm a family doctor and know nothing about Type 1 diabetes and how it is different from Type 2" Hallelujah. She let me know the Albuterol was a steroid and would probably raise my blood sugar. Holy Mother of Jelly Beans, she wasn't kidding. 341 after my first treatment..... also, I kinda felt like the Hulk..... like I turned into a crazy little anger ball of steroids who wanted to pull a Mia Hamm and rip my shirt off and go, "AHHHHHHHHHHRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!" then run out into my driveway and throw my SUV down the street. But I didn't...... but man, steroids suck. I'm trying to stay mindful of my mood and just stay relaxed..... but when your heart is racing like a Kentucky Derby champion, it's hard not to go nuts. Anyone else use this drug before for a breathing illness? Tips welcome!!

So this week I am trying to balance this stupid Alaskan Barking Seal* cough and my stupid broken pancreas disorder with chasing around two preschoolers.

My goal right now is to not die and to try and rest. Which if you have small demanding little people in your home, you know is difficult. I'm sooo overdue for an A1c, but because of this sickness my sugars have been NUTZO and I refuse to have a "sick" A1c and want to wait till a few weeks after the magical CVS drugs have worked and I get back to some degree of normalcy in my readings.

*Note: There is not really an Alaskan Barking Seal but it just sounded good, alright?

Eyes Eyes Eyes

Hey folks! I'm still here...... looks like you can expect about a monthly update from me now! Life is just so busy and it doesn't look like it will slow down anytime soon! Life is full of wonderful things however...... teaching music to children, working, playing with my own pre school aged children, tee ball games, ministering to local teenagers, softball games, worship services, BBQ's with friends, new babies (not my own!), weddings, housework, cooking, jogging, walking and shopping! Do you need a nap yet?

On the diabetes front, things are going okay. A few weeks ago I was blessed with the news that my retina's have started to slightly leak fluid. *That was sarcasm kids!!* This is also known as diabetic retinopathy. Don't get too freaked out by that link like I did when I first read it. I'll admit.... the first day after I got this news I was a nervous wreck and bawled my blurry little eyes out for the remainder of the day.

I went to a new eye doctor who was very kind, as was his entire staff. It was the oddest thing, every staff member at this office, including the doctor looked like they stepped out of a Ralph Lauren ad. But when the appointment was over it could kind of be summed up as, "You have retinopathy which means if you don't keep your sugars down you will go blind. Here's a pamphlet to read. See you in four months. Have a great day." Out the door I went with my sexy polorized glasses and waited for my Mom to pick me up, sobbing on the curb. I immediately let the "What-if's" get the best of me fearing thoughts of missing my children's weddings, grandchildren's births, not being able to read music anymore, etc.

After about a day I came to the conclusion that it was time for the pity party to end and worrying about this stuff was doing nothing but robbing me of the joy of TODAY. TODAY I am healthy, and have 20/20 vision, and life is WONDERFUL. Tomorrow I could get hit by a bus. Or drop dead with the swine flu. So today is going to be awesome.... I'm going to continue to keep my A1c down, wear my sunglasses and pray for the best... God will take care of the rest. I've had a peace about it since.... truly. If and when the surgeries come, or the vision starts to go.... I'll worry I'm sure, but not now. Waaaay too much life to live right now. :)

World Diabetes Day

Happy World Diabetes Day! Today is the day where we come together to bring diabetes awareness world wide. There is much promising research by many organizations and brilliant minds, so there is much hope for a cure within my lifetime!

There are currently about 23.6 million people in the United States that suffer from diabetes. (Source: ADA website) I encourage you to take a moment and learn a little more about diabetes! If it doesn't effect you currently, there is a VERY good chance it will (or someone dear to you) someday.

KNOW THE WARNING SIGNS! No child should die of this disease, but unfortunately many do because people do not catch the warning signs. Pay special attention especially if there is a family history.

Every day 200 children develop Type 1 diabetes. (That is crazy!)

Symptoms of Type 1 Diabetes:

Frequent urination
Excessive thirst
Increased hunger
Weight loss
Tiredness
Lack of interest and concentration
Blurred vision
Vomiting and stomach pain (often mistaken as the flu)