Author: Shawn

I am a practitioner of the martial arts and student of the Buddhist faith. I have been a Type 1 Diabetic since I was 4 years old and have been fighting the uphill battle it includes ever since. I enjoy fitness and health and looking for new ways to improve both, as well as examining the many questions of life. Although I have no formal medical training, I have amassed a wealth of knowledge regarding health, Diabetes, martial arts as well as Buddhism and philosophy. My goal is to share this information with the world, and perhaps provide some sarcastic humour along the way. Welcome!

It’s Not About The Sugar…

It can be hard to teach an old dog new tricks. And before everyone swamps my comments section (not that any of you ever do), I’m not necessarily calling my parents old dogs. But sometimes we learn something during a time when it’s relevant and important, only to have it disproven or updated decades later. Most people will hold true to the previous knowledge they had learned, especially if the results were quasi-positive. When I was diagnosed as Type-1 Diabetic, or “Juvenile” Diabetic as it was inaccurately called back in the early 80’s, my parents were told that combatting Diabetes only required two things: take insulin and don’t eat sugar.

Obviously, we now know that this isn’t correct. It’s about the proper balance of insulin use and carbohydrate-counting, not sugar intake. You can have something with no sugar indicated on the label but will have lots of carbs and will require a dose of insulin. This was something my parents didn’t recognize, way back when. You’re thirsty? Sure, have a glass of milk. There’s no sugar in that… Not only is that incorrect, milk has approximately 12 grams of carbs per cup depending on the brand. Oh, you’re hungry? Sure, have some a piece of toast. toast doesn’t have sugar… Although wildly incorrect and a slice of bread has anywhere between 10 to 25 grams of carbohydrates, depending on brand, thickness, etc.

I hold no malice against my parents, as they did the best they could with what they knew. But it explains a significant number of issues I’ve had to deal with, such as suffering through a number of Diabetic comas in my youth, as well as having damage to my eyes throughout my 20’s and began requiring eye injections in my late 30’s (as opposed to my 60’s or later). I’ve always fought very hard to be as healthy as possible, and I like to think I’ve done a pretty god job since I still have a clean nervous system, no amputations, good circulation and I can still outrun many people of equivalent station in life who AREN’T Diabetic. But I can’t imagine the different it would have made in my youth, had carb counting been a part of my childhood.

I was reminded of this recently when I was on the phone with my mother and we were talking about how Diabetes and how the total number of people with some form of it in Canada was continuously increasing. Then she made a comment that it was because these people were “eating too much sugar.” Although certain dietary and lifestyle factors will contribute to Type-2 Diabetes, this isn’t the case with Type-1. But try explaining that to someone who was taught and truly believed that “you just shouldn’t eat sugar” as a means of treating ALL Diabetes.

There’s a lot more to Diabetes than avoiding sugar. It requires proper diet, which includes carbohydrate counting. It requires frequent blood sugar testing to ensure you’re remaining “in range,” if you happen not to be wearing a CGM. you also needs regular, consistent exercise, control over cholesterol, blood pressure and ensure good oral and cardiac health. Diabetes is a rich mosaic of crap that one needs to stay on top of, in order to have a full, healthy life. ☯️

The Uechi Chronicles, Vol. 1: Ricky

It stands to reason that I’ve met and trained with a number of interesting people over the past 33 years that I’ve been studying karate. I’ve seen the entire spectrum, from folks who walked in and tried it out before walking away, to those who toughed it out and developed themselves beyond the basics. And I have a handful of long-standing friendships that have developed as a result. By virtue of this, I thought it would be interesting to get each of their perspectives on what brought them to karate and some of the details of their material arts journey.

I’ve known Ricky for a little over twenty years at this point, and met him while visiting one of my Sensei’s students who had opened a dojo of her own. Over the next couple of years that followed, the student body at this dojo dwindle to the point that the lead instructor chose to close her doors, leaving thee remaining students with little options. Some went off to different styles but a few chose to join Sensei’s dojo and continue their development in Uechi Ryu. Ricky was one such individual.

The man, the myth, the legend… Ricky!

Friendly and always quick with a laugh, I’ve come to appreciate Ricky for his warm-hearted and level-headed approach to life. He currently holds a brown belt and is one of the few active, remaining students of my Sensei’s dojo. I had the opportunity to ask him a few questions. Here are the answers:

1. Why did you join karate?
“I joined Karate for confidence and reassurance. I needed that protection not, only physically but mentally as well. I didnt want to go somewhere and be afraid of conflicts. I wanted to protect myself and/or people I cared about. Also, I watched a wack load of movies about martial arts and seen many demonstrations that I found “out of this world” and instantly caught my interest.
Plus, it was cool and deep inside wanted to impress people like they impressed me. Lol”

2. When did you join karate?
”I joined karate in 1997. I was 12-years old at the time.”

3. How many years have you been training?
”When I was younger, I wasn’t taking my training seriously. So it became an on and off thing but when I began to upgrade in ranks, I felt like I needed to change to become better. Focus, determination had to be in me to succeed.
So to answer the question, I’ve been training for over 20 years give or take.”

4. What have you gained/hope to gain from karate?
”I gained the power of mental discipline and a focus I never thought I could acquire. I gained not just friends but a family outside my family.
Physically, I am stronger, faster and tougher.
I truly gained a skill that I can now pass on to people that need it, like I did at the time and to my children one day.”

It’s definitely interesting to hear the different perspectives and reasons behind peoples’ choice to enter into the martial arts. Sometimes, it’s hard to believe I’ve known Ricky for half my life and although we’ll never know for sure, we likely never would have met if not for karate. Another shining example of how the martial arts can provide so much more than just the skills and knowledge of the style. I’m looking forward to providing interviews from a few other people. Stay tuned. ☯️

The Pandemic Taketh Away…

There’s no shortage of areas that have been affected by the pandemic, including work, schooling and social aspects. Some businesses have closed, some jobs have sent their staff to work from home and schooling was largely done online in the past year with graduating classes having virtual ceremonies or none at all. For me, the biggest effect was having the karate dojo close,

Although I recently wrote about how good it was to be back in the swing of things, we got word last week that we were once again closing amidst increased restrictions. This came after consulting with a martial arts association that the dojo is affiliated with, as they regulate what conditions we can train under and what’s permitted. Although we were scheduled to have class, last Tuesday, we got word on Monday that training in the dojo would be temporarily “paused” until it could be properly determined what we were safely permitted to do or not. A wise precaution. Or, is it…?

To some extent, I totally get it. Karate is a contact art, requiring practitioners to have some hands-on contact with each other while training in the dojo. Having someone literally in your face while training, without knowing their medical status, vaccination status or whether to not they may be a carrier can be a concern. And it certainly doesn’t conform to social distancing requirements. But one needs to recognize that to an extent, some conditions are more of a society-calming placebo than an effective means of stemming the virus’ propagation. That’s strictly an opinion, of course.

As it stands, we lost the entirety of last week without any word on what will become of classes for the foreseeable future. We were doing Zoom classes last year, which was a good alternative but it lacked a certain “oomph.” With this 4th wave hitting Saskatchewan, who knows what may come of all this. I don’t have a crystal ball. After 33 years of studying karate, I’m well-suited to continue training on my own, despite the fact the ambiance and joy of training with others definitely brings something to the table. If the world and society could just right itself, all of this would be significantly easier. I guess we’ll just have to wait it out. ☯️

Some Cold, Hard Facts…

I’ve noticed in the past week that the weather seems to be at single digits in the morning, prompting a lot of pain in my old joints and signalling that the warmer, summer months are gone for another year. With that comes the need to recognize that one’s fitness routine may be altered or NEED to be altered in order to accommodate the colder weather. We all know what’s coming next…. That wonderful white stuff that makes getting to work ion the morning an absolute nightmare.

But we aren’t going to talk about THAT, since we still have time before it starts hitting the ground. Hopefully. Today, we’re simply going to talk about colder weather as it pertains to fitness. For the most part, our brains tend to tell us that comfier and easier is better. This means that when we notice cold winds or a drop in temperature, we may be less inclined to step outside to do something physical. But there’s some inherently good and bad aspects to working out in the cold.

On the positive side, doing something physical outdoors will help with blood circulation, will wake you up better than a cup of coffee and will leave you feeling even cozier once you DO decide to hit the couch with a blanket and a warm cup of joe. Working out in colder temperatures can improve your mood and provide a somewhat different challenge than working out in the warmer weather.

For me, I’m slowly falling into the season where cycling for long distances is becoming less-favoured as a form of working out. Besides being cold, the colder wind whipping my face while cycling is a definitely no for me. I prefer to work up a sweat than try and defrost myself, so I look to different workouts, such as punching bag workouts or karate in my garage. I’m still outdoors, but without the Prairie winds taking advantage of my award-winning face. Kidding.

There are definitely some things to keep in mind, when stepping outside in cold weather. The first, is that you WANT to feel cold. Don’t believe me? The problem is that if you step outside feeling warm and comfortable, you need to understand that once you start exercising, your body heat will cause an increased amount of sweating, which is a recipe for disaster when you’re outside. Dress appropriately with a layer of moisture-wicking material first, and something insulating and breathable over that. This prevent the sweat from staying wet against your body.

When you sweat, your body inevitably loses heat through the evaporation of that sweat, which can leave you susceptible to being chilled. So, if you start off feeling cold but start working out, your body will take care of itself. The other side of the coin is to know what you’re personal and preferred limits are, and stick with them. Cold is cold, but only you will know what’s TOO cold for you. Is there a weather warning in effect? Maybe work out inside on that day.

Lastly, people tend to ignore a lot of the important steps when training outside, like applying sunblock to your exposed skin if it’s sunny and staying properly hydrated. The cold doesn’t protect you from UV rays and you’ll dehydrate just as easily in the cold. In some cases, easier. Not least of which is the fact that cold weather can have adverse effects on underlying health conditions, like asthma and Diabetes. Although subjective to the person, blood sugars will vary from prolonged exposure to the cold.

Keep an eye on yourself for warning signs of frostbite or hypothermia. Drink plenty of fluids and monitor your blood sugars frequently. And remember that if you FEEL it’s too cold, there’s no shame in moving your workout to the indoors. After all, winter is coming…. ☯️

Don’t Push It, Let It Come To You…

Writing is a kept skill. If you don’t write often and consistently, it’s a skill that will dwindle with time and you may find yourself lacking if you have to draft something pertinent. When it comes to authoring a blog, trying to o provide daily content to keep people engaged and reading can be a challenge, especially if inspiration and ideas tend to run dry.

Considering the number of posts I’ve written, I’ve challenged myself to always provide something daily. This has been reasonably easy, considering I try to cover any topic related to Buddhism, Diabetes, Health & Fitness and martial arts as well as generous sprinkling of some opinion pieces that don’t always fall under those categories. And after posting well over 500 daily posts without missing a day, I’ve learned one important lesson: you can’t push ideas. You need to let ideas and inspiration come to you naturally.

As children, imagination and inspiration are the dominant ways that we process and interpret information. This can be proven by taking a quick look at my 6-year old son, who can make a solid box out of plastic LEGO’s and consider it to be a vault, a fortress, some kind of a square spaceship or even a weapon’s array (which was premised by one of his cartoons). On the negative side of it, a brief creak of a floor during a nighttime bathroom trip will suddenly turn into some malevolent presence seeking to do harm, despite logic arguing against this.

As we get older and leave childhood behind, we tend to draw on knowledge, experience and logic for our inspiration and ideas. But some of the world’s best authors have created the best stories and manuscripts based on the free-range imagination they had as children. I think that for the most part, this is because children aren’t trying to force an idea in order to formulate it on paper (or on screen). This is one thing that becomes more difficult as we move forward in life.

Because I like to share credit, I always have an open invitation for people to share their thoughts, ideas and inspiration. And I’m going to go ahead and invite any of my readers to do this, now. If there’s a topic and/or idea that you’d like to see me cover, please indicate it in the comments. If you have something you’ve written that you’d like to collaborate and share on my blog, I’m always willing to share posts with full credit going to the author, provided the material fits with the normal parameters (no racism, hate writing, etc…)

Inspiration can be fleeting, and ideas don’t always come easily. As with all things in life, it never hurts to reach out and ask for some help. And I’m certainly not afraid to do the research if someone suggests something I could be writing about, so don’t be shy. I’ll always do my best to provide daily content. But in order to for that content to be inspired, I can’t allow myself to push. I need to let it come to me, naturally. in the meantime, I invite anyone’s inspiration to pay a visit to mine. ☯️

Supplements? We Don’t Need No Stinkin’ Supplements…

Supplementation can be an important tool for proper fitness, but it’s one of those things that is very specific to the user. What works for one person may not work for the other, and if you happen to have Type-1 Diabetes, you need to be very careful about what you may be putting in your body, as it may inadvertently affect your blood sugars.

So, what are supplements? As they pertain to this specific post, supplements are anything you consume in order to help improve performance, muscle growth and/or energy levels in order to allow one to develop better. They can come in various forms, including pills, powders and even pre-mixed shakes. They vary in their delivery, meaning some need to be taken prior to working out, some after and some don’t really matter and simply need to be consumed on a daily basis.

I think that one of the important aspects to bear in mind, is that there’s no “magic pill” or supplement that will do anything for you. You have to put the work in, even if you take supplements and use them on a regular basis. I’m always reminded of an old friend of mine, from years ago. I stopped in during early morning to go for coffee. before we left his house, I noticed he scooped out a spoonful of some unknown powder and consumed it with a glass of water. When I asked him what the powder was, he said it was creatine, because he was trying to gain mass. When I asked him what workout regimen he was following, he gave me the curious puppy look and asked, “Workout? What workout? That’s what the supplement is for…”

Here’s the thing: a supplement is defined as something that completes or enhances something else when added to it. This means that there’s no supplement that will make you lose weight, help you gain muscle mass or burn fat on its own. The important thing to remember is that ALL of these supplements need to be used in conjunction with proper diet and exercise. It won’t DO the job for you, it may simply help make it a touch easier.

Another important aspect to remember is that most supplements are substances that you either already get from a proper diet or that your body already produces. Creatine or whey protein for example, can be good supplements to help push you along your fitness routine, but these are substances produced by the body and/or can be obtained by consuming certain foods. “Pre-workout” supplements, that I’m aware a lot of people I know consume, are basically just B vitamins, caffeine and creatine, which you can obtain naturally or elsewhere. I would argue that unless you’re feeling sluggish, there may not be a great need to take a pre-workout supplement.

From a Diabetes standpoint, it’s important to recognize that a lot of supplements may contain sweeteners, carbohydrate amounts or simply affect the body in such a way that will cause fluctuations in overall blood sugars. I’ve noticed over the years that almost everything indicates “not suggested for people with Diabetes” for exactly this reason. It isn’t that it will inherently cause issues. But it COULD affect Diabetes, which is why it becomes important to consult your doctor prior to starting any supplementation.

I’ll be the first one to admit I’d be hitting up my pharmacy, should they ever create a pill that will melt the fat off my gut. Otherwise, know what you’re putting into your body, consult your doctor and remember that there are no shortcuts to fitness. It’s incumbent on the person to include proper diet and exercise in order to reap the benefits of supplements. The body is programmed to do what it needs to, but should you feel the need to use a supplement, just be wary. And keep a close eye on what secondary effects you may get from using them. ☯️

Tired Because of Exercise, Or Trying To Exercise When You’re Tired?

Life is exhausting. If anyone says that it isn’t, they’re lying to themselves. I could get into the whole reason behind some of that exhaustion, including the plethora of Diabetes-related issues that can cause lack of sleep or fatigue, even when you are well-rested. But that ins’t really the purpose behind today’s post. I recently wrote a post about the issues surrounding working out when you’re hungry. Therefore, it stands to reason that my next step would include addressing the issue surrounding working out when you’re tired. Buckle up!

Maintaining a fitness routine is difficult at the best of times. Between work, family and home responsibilities and health concerns, being able to say you work out at specific times on fixed days is spotty, at best. So, hat’s off to the folks who manage to be part of fitness clubs with scheduled classes or who go that extra step and manage to maintain consistent fitness at home, because I personally know it ain’t easy. It becomes all the more difficult when you’re tired.

Being tired is one of those things where one needs to find a balance, or perhaps compromise with oneself. On the one side, being tired will often elicit the response that one should take the opportunity to rest. On the other side, sometimes you just gotta push through your fatigue or you’ll never overcome it or get anything done. Assuming you can tell or “feel” the difference, here are some potential effects of working out when tired:

1. You’ll Resent Your Fitness: It’s hard to concentrate and be motivated when you’re tired. If you find yourself “pushing through,” and I’m not saying you shouldn’t, you could find that exercising when tired will do little more than tire you further and possibly make you resent exercising. Much like the bedroom should only be associated with sleep, associations help to form our opinions on certain things;
2. You’ll Make Mistakes: Being tired or exhausted could lead to making mistakes, being inadvertently clumsy or working out improper. Ever drop a dumbbell on your foot? That shit hurts, and can potentially break bones., which leads me into my next point:
3. You Could Injure Yourself: Fatigue can be distracting, and if you’re tired to the point where you’re making mistakes, you may potentially harm yourself as well. Besides dropping random weights on yourself, fatigue may distract you in karate class enough to cause injury. These are just some examples, of course;
4. You Won’t Achieve Your Fitness Goals: This is a big one for me and pisses me off to no end. There’s nothing I hate worse than being out on the bike for a solid 20k, thinking I should push through the fatigue, only to completely drag ass and have it take twice as long to complete my distance AND I’m just further exhausted afterwards; and
5. You May Require Longer To Recover: If you push yourself too hard when you’re tired, it may take longer for you to recover and feel better. This applies both to feeling rested and to recover from any fitness-related healing you may need, including muscle and tissue repair.

So, what can you do to prevent some of this? Obviously, I’m a big fan of naps. If you’re tired and you know that you have a workout coming up, grabbing a quick snooze on the couch can be helpful. One need only be cautious about sleeping for too long, which can have the effect of leaving you groggy and slow-moving, which isn’t the best when you’re about to get into some physical exertion. Keep your naps short, about twenty minutes or so. Just enough to take the edge off.

If your fatigue is light and perhaps just the result of the typical daily grind, this might be where you want o push through. Fresh air and movement will often be an effective means of wiping out fatigue and getting your day back on track. I’ve lost count of how many times I sat on the bike or went to karate class, feeling as though I should be hitting the bed instead, only to be re-energized and rejuvenated once I got through it.

Ultimately, there will be times where you may simply need to take a step back and take a break. Naps and pushing through notwithstanding, there will be times when the best alternative will be to simply acknowledge that you need to take a day and just rest. The key is knowing one’s body enough to recognize whether it’s a “take a nap” scenario or a “push through” scenario. But in there interest of being rested and allowing one’s body to heal, sometimes taking the day and saying “screw it” may what the doctor ordered. ☯️

It’s Hard To Be “Social” When Everyone Focuses On The “Media”

Anyone who’s been following along on my journey will know that I have something of a love/hate relationship with social media. On the one side, participating on social media platforms allows people to connect, communicate and potentially get in touch with some folks they may not have seen or heard from in years. I, myself, recently reconnected with a handful of people from my high school graduating class, which is saying quite a bit although I won’t age myself by saying how long it’s been. But it could be easily argued that this is the intended purpose behind social media: to connect and communicate. To be social, albeit over a digital environment.

Unfortunately for me and many others who seek a peaceful existence, this is rarely the reason behind people’s presence on social media. Most choose to use it as a platform to argue their views and opinions, which often leads to unnecessary conflict, once again albeit on a digital forum. It takes away from the experience of maintaining contact with those we aim to remain friends with and becomes all the more convoluted when some of the involved parties causing this “digital suffering“ happen to be good, close friends.

About three years ago, certain events took place that altered the course of my life. Although I could arguably say that these changes were in my best interest and that I’m happier now than I have been in a LONG time, it doesn’t remove the fact that these changes came at the cost of great, personal suffering. As many of you know, the elimination of suffering is kind my thing. So, it makes life difficult when others who should be understanding and compassionate cause MORE of that suffering instead of trying to eliminate it.

I’m getting slightly off path here, and the point is that a big part of the difficulties I faced years ago were due, in part, to social media. When the world spends its days living in a way that involves sharing what they’ve eaten, where they’re going and where they’ve been, as well as personal details of their everyday lives online, it should come as no surprise to have those who wish to do wrong use that information against you. When I discovered that this was the case, I made the difficult choice to take a step away from social media and permanently closed all my accounts.

This was a difficult step for me since, like most people, my day was filled with frequent checks of my phone and computer, looking at people’s updates, sending messages and getting a laugh at memes and jokes. What made things worse is that I had a handful of people with whom social media was the ONLY form of contact I had. And even though I spent some time posting the ol’ “I’m leaving social media, flip me your phone number,” there are a number of people that never got back to me. A necessary step, thanks to someone else’s negative actions.

In recent months, life has gotten progressively better, despite the current state of the world. So, I tentatively dipped my toes back into social media, which is where I managed to connect with the aforementioned folks from high school. But it’s in FACT the current state of the world that has now begun causing issues for me, through social media. I’m sure I’m not alone in recognizing that the world is currently divided on the key issues involving vaccination, masking, health requirements and the overall state of the world. It’s pretty much THE hot topic and is hotly debated by even the closest of friends and family members.

I’m not having it. By definition, peace cannot be imposed. It’s up to the people to recognize what’s required in order to achieve peace and sustain it. Understanding, compassion and open communication are part of those requirements, to name a few. But these are things that are in short supply in today’s society. And it’s for that reason that I’ve found myself in a compromised position where I am once again considering stepping away from social media. Then I thought to myself, why am I depriving myself of good communication with family and friends for the sake of the few who choose to use this platform to argue their opinions with others? Rather than eliminate social media, why not simply cut out the negative energy?

I’m tired. The daily grind of life is difficult enough without people making it more difficult amongst themselves. The ideal scenario would be for each person to keep to themselves and exercise their choice without broadcasting it to the world. You do you. I’ll take it a step further and won’t even bother saying which side of the line I fall on, because it doesn’t matter. I don’t care what your choice is, just don’t give me shit if it happens to be different than mine. Vaccinated, not vaccinated, pro-mask, anti-mask, whatever. Do what you gotta do to survive this roller-coaster called life and stop picking on each other. Life’s too short.

For this reason, I’ve made a compromise with myself in order to eliminate some of the negative in my life. Rather than remove social media, I’m removing those who spread negativity, hate and ignorance of the facts. Some people may suddenly be disappearing from my social media. The irony is I started this practice almost two weeks ago and the removed parties have yet to notice. Or at the very least, they’ve yet to reach out and ask why. Maybe they’re too busy arguing “their rights” over “what’s right.” That’s a balance we all have to work on. ☯️

Sometimes, You Gotta Feel The Burn… Inside!

For most of my childhood, our household meals involved a pretty bland selection. Part of that had something to do with the fact that it seems to be the cultural way back home to basically throw everything into a pot with water and stew it until it’s mush. But another big part of it is the fact that my older brother had gotten a kidney replacement shortly before I came along and had a plethora of stomach and digestive issues, so spicy foods (any spices in general, actually) were taboo in my childhood home.

This meant that I was stuck eating a bland Acadian diet with very little to no exposure to spices and, well… flavour! Picture your pasta being nothing but the noodles and plain tomato sauce with fried hamburger meat. That’s the basic idea, except for every meal. Every. Day. So it’s no surprise that the past twenty years or so have seen me taking advantage and making frequent visits to “flavour town.” this has included experiencing and enjoying a wide variety of ethnic, spicy foods. This has earned me the unfortunate nickname of “Butter Chicken,” for that and others reasons. But that’s a story for another time…

It’s a rare occurrence to look in my refrigerator and NOT find a bottle of hot sauce, Buffalo Sauce or both. And some of my favourite snack foods of choice involve Buffalo Chicken in some way, shape or form. This is why a recent concoction prepared by my wife has had me drooling and begging for more. I’m talking about a slow-cooker Buffalo Chicken dip. See the below image…

As you can see from the image, the ingredients and their respective amounts are all included. It’s a pretty simple recipe. My wife made a batch last week and we gorged ourselves on it using tortilla chips. But once prepared, it can be added to a tortilla wrap on a bed of spinach to make a decent spicy Buffalo wrap or eaten in a kaiser bun as a spicy pulled-chicken sandwich. It’s a pretty versatile recipe. She made another batch this weekend and I gotta say, it’s been a pretty good weekend!

People have a love/hate relationship with hot, spicy foods. Given that consuming too much of it can cause all sorts of digestive issues, including heartburn, diarrhea or ultimately compound or aggravate any of those conditions, it should come as no surprise. But what likely WOULD surprise some folks are the actual health benefits from consuming spicy foods. And just to be clear, when I refer to “spicy,” I mean the spices that bring heat.

According to an article posted on HealthLine.ca, there are a number of benefits based on some studies, including potentially lowering mortality, speeding up the metabolism and suppressing fat cell increase, fighting cancer cells and killing bacteria. The article even makes mention of spices helping to reduce inflammation, arthritis, headaches and even nausea. With all those potential benefits, who WOULDN’T want to bring the heat.

The article goes on to mention that the belief that spicy foods were a leading cause of ulcers has been disproven, and that certain short-term symptoms like stomach pain and diarrhea are temporary and are caused by overstimulation of the nervous system. Good to know. I’m glad I get to add a bit of spice to my life. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go finish the leftover Buffalo Dip. ☯️

When You Feel Like A Yo-Yo…

One of the biggest issues I face with Diabetes is the occasions where I become exhausted from going above and beyond what’s required for a normal day. For example, when the average person wakes up, they go to the washroom, wash their face and get breakfast going. Likely, they’re including coffee in that mix. Although if they aren’t, the light help them. But for me, my morning start with the consumption of three different medications, testing my blood sugar and depending on the day I may need to change up my insulin pump’s infusion set. THEN I get to use the washroom and potentially consume breakfast. But caffeine is a must. Obviously. Moving on…

Once in a while, I’ll succumb to this exhaustion in the sense that I’ll skip steps in the process that I likely shouldn’t. this was demonstrated last Tuesday night when my CGM sensor decided to expire at about ten o’clock at night. Now if you know anything about the process for getting one’s CGM going after a replacement, it’s a lengthy one. I’ve written about this before and in fact, I’m pretty certain I’ve thrown up a video of the CGM installation as well, but the bottom line is that it takes anywhere between 4 to 6 hours for a new sensor to be up and running.

This is because once you’ve injected the sensor and installed the transmitter, there’s a 2-hour warm-up period required. then, the pump prompts you for a blood glucose test to calibrate the sensor, followed by another one sometime in the following few hours. Starting this process at 10 o’clock at night when my head should be hitting the pillow doesn’t sound appealing. So, I did the only thing a reasonable and exhausted person in my position would do; I shut off SmartGuard, plugged the transmitter in to charge for the night and went to sleep without it.

That night wasn’t such a huge problem, although I did have a waking blood glucose reading of about 10.4 mmol/L, which is a tad higher than I’m used to. But I could live with that. Since I primarily place my CGM on my triceps, I usually recruit my wife to help install the sensor and transmitter since I can’t see the back of my arm, especially if I’m pre-coffee. Insert whatever nurse-fantasy jokes you’d like, here. But given that she was quite exhausted from dealing with my hyperactive loinfruit the day before and she was still asleep, I figured what the hell…. I’ll go a day without and install it tonight. No biggie, right?

Don’t get me wrong, I love my insulin pump. Honestly, I can’t understand how I survived as a Diabetic for as long as I have without it. It has the potential to make life SOOOO much easier…. Please note that I used the word “potential” in that sentence. I didn’t think I would ever have to admit that I could become addicted to an electronic device, but apparently I have become incapable of managing my blood sugars properly with the use of a CGM. By the time I got home from work, I had fluctuated from high to low at least three times and I was exhausted and just wanted to sleep.

Let me break down why this scenario is a problem…. When you DON’T use CGM, your pump delivers a pre-programmed base rate of insulin, referred to as a “basal rate.” But as your blood sugars fluctuate, the pump doesn’t take that into account until you test your blood sugar to discover that you’re either high and need more insulin or low and need to eat something. Meanwhile on CGM, SmartGuard will begin to trickle in an extra bit of insulin on top of your basal rate in order to stem higher blood sugars and will set off an alarm if you start going low. The result is better time in range, better overall control and less feeling like you just want to voluntarily curl up into a coffin and stay there. Still with me? Good.

Once I had the CGM installed, my evening started to go a little bit better but my blood sugars somehow managed to creep up a bit. So I corrected. This started a yo-yo effect that lasted through the night. My correction caused a low. In my sleep-induced haze, I ate a few too many jellybeans. Fell back asleep. My many jellybeans caused a high and I was woken by an alarm. I treated. Then I woke with my alarm in the early hours of the morning with a low. Bloody lovely.

Despite the fact that some of that can be attributed to human error (too many jellybeans, etc), it stands to reason that this can happen frequently depending on a number fo different factors. I’ve written about this type of this before but once in a while, it’s good to remind people that it ain’t all joy and jellybeans, even with the advantages of an insulin pump. And that complacency can start to have an effect if you get to used to the technology you’ve been given. ☯️