Category: Diabetes

Hot Or Cold, The Debate Rages On…

Water. Fluid of life. Our bodies are primarily composed of it, we need to drink copious amounts of it on a daily basis to stay alive and maintain our internal bodily functions. In fact, the average adult needs to drink anywhere from 3 to 5 litres of water a day in order to meet that requirement. This is dependent on size, weight and even gender. And I should clarify that we also take in a certain amount of water through food, as well. So it ain’t all about chugging it down from a glass. Wait, whiskey has water, right? Moving on…

When I was younger, I was always discouraged from drinking icy cold water. There were a number of reasons behind this, including the contraction of tissues that could make it harder to digest food properly, shocking one’s kidney and causing bodily cramps. Most of the time, this was encouraged by Sensei, who explained it was preferable to sip water at room temperature; a practice I maintained for years afterwards, thinking that he had a point. Although how you choose to take in your H2O and like most things in life, there’s a good and a bad side to everything. And the temperature of your water is no exception.

I decided it might be time to examine exactly what is so bad about drinking cold water. Is it genuinely bad at all? Turns out a lot of people wonder that very thing. I’ve read a number of different articles and papers on the subject and they’re al pretty consistent in terms of current findings. My preferred one is posted by Healthline.com, which may be bias on my part since it’s one of my favourite websites. But the article addresses some of the pros and cons of drinking cold water.

One of the points the article mentions that appeals to be is how practitioners of Chinese Medicine have a belief that drinking cold water with a hot meal creates an imbalance. On the flip side, consuming hot water is said to improve breathing, which is likely one of the reasons why people are encouraged to eat chicken noodle soup or hot tea when trying to recover from a cold or flu. All that being said, the article suggests that drinking cold water can cause increased congestion and migraines in people who suffer from them.

Cold water can be beneficial during fitness routines. Not only will the cold water help keep your core temperature cooler as you exercise but it may also help you burn more calories since your body will fight harder to warm that same core temperature up. That’s assuming you can actually get your hands on cold water. My current gym doesn’t even have a water fountain available and if I bring cold water, it’s warmed up by the time I get to the gym, workout and finally take a drink, it’s pretty much reached room temperature.

I can easily agree that the consumption of cold water on a hot summer day may SOUND like a good idea in the moment, but it could potentially increase the mucus in your throat and the difference in temperature between your core and your water can cause cramps, pains and shock the body in uncomfortable ways. I’ve also gotten a mild version of brain freeze on days I’ve come back from cycling and chugged water from a refrigerated water bottle. So while the jury may be out, it’s up to the individual person to decide how good or bad the consumption of chilled water could be.

One way or another, any water you get into your system is good. There isn’t enough evidence either way to suggest total overall benefits or loss of drinking cold or hot water. My older brother, the Light rest his soul, used to enjoy a cup of hot water at supper. Without tea in it or anything. He used to say it helped him digest his food. Maybe there was something to that. As long as you’re getting enough water to stay hydrated and healthy, that’s what’s important. And for my Dia-buddies currently reading, proper hydration can help with proper blood sugar control. ☯️

A Prime Example…

I made reference in my post yesterday, during my not-so-subtle jab at the current state of the world, how this past week has been a bit of a rough one. There are a number of reasons for this and most of them are the result of compounding effect by virtue of medical issues, scheduling issues, triggering issues as a result of PTSD and just plain old life not caring about my plan.

By the time Monday had rolled around, the weight of the previous week had already caused me to sit in a dark corner holding my knees and rocking like a injured school girl, so I tried to find balance by setting some clear goals for myself. One of these goals included making it to all three scheduled karate classes for the week. Monday night would have been the first, which was scheduled from 8 to 9 pm.

This is a bit of a later class than I’ve ever been used to, with the majority of dojos and schools I’ve trained in ENDING their classes around the time that this one is slated to begin. I got home from work last Monday in reasonable mood and hellbent on making it to this class. I helped with dishes and my wife made a wonderful supper of pizza rolls made with crescent roll dough. They were delicious. They were also difficult to carb-count for…

I took what i thought was a reasonable dose of insulin for the amount of pizza rolls I ate. Although I prefer to err on the side of being slightly above normal than below with my blood sugars before engaging in exercise, I’m also aware that there’s a significant level of grogginess that can accompany high blood sugar (not to mention the damage I’m causing to m self) so it’s often a bit of a balancing act. I often fall off the high wire in these balancing acts, and the results usually fuck my night like a bad prom date.

Since I had arrived home a bit late to start with, my window of time was reasonably shortened from what i would usually enjoy but I partook of a dose of caffeine to give me a boost and ate appropriately to prevent an over-filled or bloating tummy. Within an hour, I noticed I had dropped to about 4.5 mmol/L, which isn’t BAD per se, but I knew I would have to wolf down some fast-acting carbs to compensate so I could make karate class.

Within fifteen minutes, my blood sugars had dropped into the 3’s, leaving me dizzy, groggy and sweating like Peter Griffin during a heavy meal. Bear in mind that this was WHILE I was hungrily downing jelly beans like they were going out of style. I hadn’t actually taken enough insulin to prompt this sort of a reaction, especially in light of the fact that I had basically eaten dough with a bit of meat in it for supper.

I had an hour. I worked towards ensuring my gear bag was packed and ready to go, including a book on techniques I had borrowed from the dojo that I intended to return. I worked through that hour in trying to get my blood sugars to level out. Needless to say, they didn’t. Ten minutes prior to the start of class, I was still sitting in my home office with my head in my hands, munching away and trying to bring my levels up. I had barely grazed the 4.0 mmol/L mark.

My wife came to checks on me and I explained what was happening. She passively suggested that given these things tended to happen on karate nights when i was trying to make my way out the door, maybe my body was trying to tell me something. Maybe it is. Who knows? Once I had successfully made my peace with missing Monday night’S class, I changed into some sleepwear and sprawled on my couch to recover and cuddle my toddler. Within the next hour, just long enough to have completely missed class, my blood sugar levels boomeranged in the other direction.

A part of me acknowledges that this is a prime example of life not caring about one’s plan. I may have planned and intended on getting to class that night, but fate and my body had different plans, effectively destroying the goal I had set for the week before I even had a chance to attempt it. Such is life. But like waking up in a bad mood, this somewhat set the tone for my whole week. Luckily, I did make it so some classes.

Long gone are the days where i could rush off to a fitness class, train like a man possessed and throw caution to the wind as I would neglect to worry about my blood sugar levels until AFTER class was done. As I’m getting older, I need to acknowledge that life has changed. And as I’ve written before, one needs to change with it in order to ensure the proper progression of life. My solution will effectively be to have a light snack in the mid-afternoons on karate days and have supper AFTER class. This will help ensure that my blood sugar levels accommodate what I’m trying to accomplish. I’ve only just started returning to karate. It’s not time for me to stop, as much as my Diabetic body is telling me I should. ☯️

An Itch You Shouldn’t Scratch…

Nobody likes getting injured. For someone living with Type-1 Diabetes, having a cut or scratch on the outside of the body can present a unique set of challenges. Especially if you develop a scab. Everyone dislikes scabs; they’re ugly, they blemish the skin and they usually itch like freakin’ crazy! This is what usually brings people to scratch the shit out their scabs, even pick them off. And speaking from experience, there’s nothing quite like that satisfying feeling of ripping off a scaly scab, revealing the fresh, pink new flesh beneath. But there are some very good reasons why you shouldn’t. And if you know anything about me, you should know that this is where I’ll talk about a bunch of it… Buckle up!

First and foremost, let’s discuss what a scab actually is. A scab is the body’s way of protecting a wound in order to allow the body to heal properly. It usually forms as a red or brownish crust and works to keep germs and other nasty shit out of your wound while the body rebuilds the skin underneath. Most people hate scabs because of how they look and feel. But the reality is that they do a lot to help with the healing process, which is interrupted when they’re scratched off.

According to a post from HealthLine.com on dermatillomania, (a completely separate subject) “Scabs might not seem important, but they play a crucial role in protecting wounds against infections. Beneath the scab, your body is repairing damaged skin and blood vessels. […] When you pick off a scab, you leave the wound underneath it vulnerable to infection.you also increase the amount of time it’ll take for the wound to completely heal.Repeatedly picking off scabs can also result in long time scarring.”

Considering people with Type-1 Diabetes have difficulty healing from wounds due to circulatory problems and neurological issues, there’s no need to add to the pile by constantly picking off one’s scabs. We already have this tendency to be prone to infection when we get injured. The last thing one needs is to make it worse. Injuries that happen to be somewhere where the flesh flexes and moves during daily use are even worse, as scabs will have a tendency NOT to set or will break open and bleed, making the healing process take all that much longer and increase the risk of infection.

Another post by HealthLine.com explains that scabs tend to itch because sensitive nerves beneath the skin are stimulated by the healing process. The scab itself will also cause itchiness, which can be a real pain in the ass. The article goers on to explain that if a wound hasn’t healed within a month, you should consult your doctor. I’l add that if the scab starts to develop an angry, red ring around it and becomes painful, hot or sensitive to the touch, you should seek medical help immediately.

I’ve had a number of injuries throughout the course of my life; some of which have left me with scars. But it’s most important NOT to scratch this itch as it can lead to complications that are simply not worth it. And should you happen to scratch off a scab, bear in mind that you’ve just eliminated your body’s natural bandage so you’ll need to replace it. Keep the wound moist (yes, I said “moist,” let’s move on!) and apply a sterile bandage with an antibiotic cream or salve to help replace what you just compulsively scratched off. Food for thought… ☯️

Some Winter Supplementation…

Most of this material was part of a post I wrote in June of 2019. It was one of my favourite posts and one of the most researched. This is one of those posts where I should point out that I’m not a medical practitioner, dietitian or health professional. So, consult your physician or medical practitioner before starting any supplementation. That being said, this is my third time posting this material in the past three years, and for good reason. I haven’t met a doctor yet who hasn’t recommended using a daily multivitamin to supplement my meals. And since any given doctor has no way of knowing which vitamin I’ll purchase and it isn’t a prescribed item, the conspiracy theorists can’t even spit out their usual bullshit about “big pharma” trying to coerce us into buying them. It’s one of the few things where one needs to acknowledge that it can be helpful. And since the winter weather causes everyone to catch every little bug that comes about, I thought it would be a good idea to remind people of the importance of vitamins and minerals in the everyday diet.

One of the key reasons behind the consumption of food is to obtain carbohydrates for energy. The human body requires energy to carry on normal functions and, well… stay alive! But what else do we get from the food we eat? A proper diet will also include a number of vitamins and minerals that we require to maintain proper health, growth and energy levels within the body. We’ve all heard about getting enough vitamins from a young age. I remember getting my Flintstones vitamin everyday as a kid.

But if you’re like most people, you’re likely wondering what these vitamins are for and what they do. My goal is to cover off the main ones here:

Vitamin A: This is an all-around vitamin that provides a number of functions including but not limited to the proper health of various bodily functions, tissues and helps to fight chronic disease and is known to be good for the eyes.

Vitamin B: This one is a bit complicated, as there is a large grouping of enzymes, vitamins and minerals that fall under the “B” category. In general, B-vitamins are used for energy production, immune function and absorbing iron. Some them include B2 (riboflavin), B3 (niacin), B9 (folate) and B12. There are a few more that I can’t recall, but B12 is considered amongst one of the most important of vitamins overall because it helps you turn food into energy.

Vitamin C: At some points, this one has been referred to as the sunshine vitamin. I’m thinking that’s mostly because people’s main source of Vitamin C is from citrus fruits. But this vitamin also helps with iron absorption, immune function and is a natural antioxidant that helps with the elimination of free radicals. Eating citrus fruits are also what sailors used to eat on long voyages to prevent scurvy.

Vitamin D: This vitamin helps with the strengthening of bones and teeth. Our bodies are designed to self-generate this vitamin naturally through exposure to sunlight, but obviously that needs to be done in small doses. Modern life has created an environment where more people spend their time indoors, away from the sun. So supplementation becomes important.

Vitamin E: A pretty straight forward vitamin, this one helps with proper blood circulation and clear skin.

Vitamin K: This vitamin is essential for blood-clotting. In order words, if you’re deficient in this vitamin, small cuts or injuries can cause excessive bleeding that can become dangerous.

Folic Acid: We hear people speak about this one as being necessary during pregnancy. And they would be correct! Folic Acid helps to prevent certain complications during childbirth but is important to everyone for proper cell renewal. This one is also known as Folate, or Vitamin B9 (as listed above).

Calcium: Most people should be familiar with this one. Teeth and bones, people! Teeth and bones! Good calcium levels are required to keep those body parts healthy.

Iron: This helps to build muscle tissue naturally and helps with proper health of the blood. As an interesting sidebar, it’s also what makes your blood red through the reflection of light!

Zinc: Immunity and Fertility. I’m a little unfamiliar with this one and haven’t had the opportunity to research it a great deal.

Chromium: This one is near and dear to my heart. Because it helps to control blood sugar levels. Chromium is what helps all the systems of your body to get the energy they need when they need it. Some traditional medicine practitioners will suggest Chromium supplements for Type 1 Diabetics who may have difficulty in maintaining proper levels.

Magnesium: This one helps your body to absorb all the other vitamins and minerals. It also acts as something of a relaxant to muscle tissue and play a role in proper muscle contraction.

Potassium: This mineral helps with the proper hydration of your body and helps to control blood pressure.

There are many others of course, but I’ve tried to cover off the main vitamins and minerals required for a proper diet. We get most of what we need by eating regularly and including a variety of healthy foods. A lot of people take a daily multi-vitamin, which is fine. But unless you are experiencing symptoms or unexplained illnesses, there shouldn’t be a need to actively try and take added amounts of anything. Your medical practitioner should be able to advise you if further supplementation is required. For example, patients who are recommended to take Folic Acid and Iron during pregnancy.

Obviously, all of this is extremely important; not only for proper health and fitness, which is important to me, but to help with Type 1 Diabetes as well. Taking a daily multivitamin can help to ensure that your body gets everything it needs, in combination with carbohydrates, lean proteins and fibre. My wife Laura originally gave me the idea for this post in 2019 when she asked about B-vitamins. So, I should once again extend a shout out to her for keeping me inspired and constantly feeding me ideas. ☯

When The Day Starts Out Bloody…

I had an interesting incident this morning as I was waking up to start my daily routine. My pump buzzed, pestering me for a blood glucose reading without calibration This is something I’ve come to expect from the pump although it annoys me to high hell, having it occur during the night. To add insult to injury, it happened fifteen minutes before my alarm was scheduled to go off. this is especially annoying because fifteen minutes isn’t enough to fall back asleep but it’s certainly enough time to piss me off. But I digress…

As I sat up and silenced my pump and turned off my alarm, I felt a light itch inside my nose. I wriggled my face a bit as I rose and started walking towards the kitchen but the itch was too much, so I scratched it. Now, before any of you get all high and mighty, saying, “Eew, Shawn picks his nose…” keep in mind that your fingers are designed to fit in your nostrils. Ever see someone with small, slender hands? Usually a tiny nose. See someone with massive meat hooks for hands? Typically a massive bulb above their lip. Nature didn’t design us with facial tissues in mind.

Although I want to be clear that I don’t typically go around picking my nose like some obsessed maniac, there will be times when I need to scratch or something, which is perfectly normal. And you all do it. It’s a bit like masturbation. There are two types of people: those who masturbate and those who lie about it. Nose picking falls under that same category. But since I seem to be going off on a tangent here and straying from the topic of today’s post, let’s move on, shall we?

I lightly scratched the inner wall of my right nostril, barely a half centimetre inside my nose. It relieved the itch and I figured all was well. Then, I felt what I thought was a runny nose. This was odd since I had woken up with a dry nose and felt no buildup prior to something leaking out of its own volition. I swipe at the nostril to no avail. SOMETHING wiped away but the leaking continued. I walked downstairs, still in a half-awake state and made my way to the downstairs washroom.

Once there, I looked up and saw something akin to a horror movie scene. My nose, mouth and chin were covered in blood. Not just a tiny trickle, I’m talking saturated. I felt a momentary stab of panic. And I should probably explain that… With the exception of the very few and rare occasions where someone has managed to land a strike to my face, I have NEVER experienced a bleeding nose in my life. Ever. So to have it happen unexpectedly like this caught me by surprise.

I walked to the sink and spat a couple of times, reached down and grabbed some bathroom tissue and pinched my nose, angling my head slightly forward. I remembered the steps to stop a bloody nose from hearing it all through my childhood. Plus, my brother used to get bloody noses quite often as well. Once I had pinched for a few minutes, I took my hand away to reveal that the bleeding had stopped. Perfect. Now, I had to deal with the fallout; blood on the stairs, blood on the basement floors and blood all over the bathroom sink and floor.

Once I cleaned everything up so it didn’t look like a bad murder scene from a horror movie, I took a hot shower and cleaned myself off. Many of you may be thinking, “Why tell us all this? A nose bleed is not a big deal…” Although you would be right, as I previously mentioned, it was my first time dealing with this and all life is experience, so why not talk about it. Plus, it’s my blog and I write about what I want, so there (walks away stomping his feet).

Interestingly enough, i learned that nose bleeds are called Epistaxis and are usually caused by dry air (like using increased heat during the winter) or picking one’s nose. Other common causes can also include the frequent use of nasal sprays, which I do. In reading some articles on WebMD and the Mayo Clinic website, the common thread is that a nose bleed can be considered serious if you have a known injury, such as a strike or impact to the face or head, bleeding lasts for more than 20 minutes or if you’re bleeding so much that your breathing is impaired. You should seek medical attention or contact your doctor if any of these occur.

It was certainly an interesting (and unwanted) way to start my morning. I wasn’t able to clean out the downstairs sink properly before leaving, so I expect it may draw the attention of my family. But what can one do? Just another one of life’s many unexpected scenarios. Today just happened to be my day to experience it. ☯️

One Foot In Front Of The Other…

People aren’t usually thinking about their feet. Other than having one’s partner or one’s children tell them that their feet smell bad, we don’t give them much thought, other than to ensure their properly covered when going outdoors or giving them a cursory wash while showering or bathing. But for a Type-1 Diabetic, the care and attention of one’s feet is critically important; all the more so when one is a martial artist.

Over the course of my life, I’ve trained on a variety of different surface including but not limited to, polished hardwood, concrete, tile, sand and rocks. And let me tell you that not all surfaces are created equal. What even funnier, is that your feet will tend to callous in a very specific way that accommodates the surface you’re training on, so that training on a different floor that’s still made of wood will affect your feet.

So why do Diabetics have such a difficult time with their feet? The short answer is that Diabetes causes a bunch of secondary conditions that relate to the limbs, including arterial disease and neuropathy. This will decrease circulation and make one more susceptible to sores and infections. Left unchecked, it can lead to serious complications that often result in amputation. This is why you hear of so many people with Diabetes losing a foot.

Besides being one’s main method of moving around, the feet are what support us. We use them to walk, run, maintain balance and, oh yeah… KICK! Pretty much every martial art I’ve come across uses kicks in some given way, shape or form, so maintaining the health of my legs and feet is definitely important to me in several ways. But there’s no denying that training in karate normally involves training bare-footed, which can present its own set of challenges, depending on the floor’s cleanliness and soundness.

There’s plenty you can do from the Diabetes standpoint to ensure the proper health of your feet. This includes the usual laundry list of things I mention in almost every second post, like consistently working out, monitoring your blood sugars and blood pressure and eating a healthy diet. Reducing your stress can be a big one too, since increased stress will affect al the other things I just mentioned as well as cause other issues.

The reason Diabetic feet are prone to easier injury and infection is mainly because the decreased blood flow and neuropathy will cause a loss of sensation. This means that if you get a cut, bruise or sore on your foot, you’ll be less likely to feel it and you’ll keep walking on it, ignoring it and putting pressure on it, which can cause certain injuries to aggravate. And THAT’s exactly what you want to prevent.

We discussed what can be done from the medical side. What about the practical side? First and foremost, wash your feet daily. That should probably be obvious. But also CHECK your feet. Visually look at the soles, between the toes, at your heels… Watch for injuries, cuts, scrapes and sores to ensure an injury doesn’t go unnoticed and gets infected. Perform self-checks on your feet to ensure you still feel light sensations, pressures and different temperatures.

One good thing to remember is something that seems minor or menial to the average person can pose some serious risk to someone with Diabetes. If you DO have any injuries on your feet, make sure you aren’t picking at them or removing scabs. Keep your toenails trimmed and avoid going barefoot unless absolutely necessary (like during karate class). ☯️

Not Just The Boy Scout Motto…

Even if you’ve never been in the Boy Scouts, you’ve no doubt heard of their motto, “Be Prepared” in television or movies at some given point. I myself, was a Beaver Scout in the early 80’s, until I was diagnosed with Type-1 Diabetes and my world was turned on its head. But before I turn this post into a pity party, let’s focus on the motto, which is the aim of today’s post. Being prepared in life is important. Since we live in a relatively comfortable environment where most resources and amenities are available to us (at least here in Canada), people have a tendency to overlook good preparedness.

Now, I could be very generalized and discuss how one should be properly prepared in ALL aspects of their lives, including the care of their home, family, health and property. But what I’m going to focus on today is specifically as it relates to one’s fitness, especially in conjunction with Diabetes. It’s no secret that having Diabetes presents a plethora of challenges, especially when you’re working out. This means you need to be prepared for the inevitable issues you may face when training.

First of all, we need to agree that it’s somewhat easier to function with high blood sugar than it is with low blood sugar. There’s a certain where where either one is an issue but if you’re doing something fitness-related, you’ll find you can at least push through and won’t pass out if your blood sugars are high. The same can’t be said if your blood sugars are low. For that reason, it’s important to ALWAYS bring some fast-acting carbohydrates with you. For me, jellybeans work best. I know that some people will use a variety of juices, gummy candies and even straight sugar and water. You’ll want to find what works for you and be sure to keep it on hand. You want to avoid certain foods like chocolate, which is basically just a block of fat that will take forever to bring your levels up.

Next and equally important, is water. If you haven’t noticed from the thousand+ posts I’ve put up (yes, I am now in the thousands), hydration plays an integral role in fitness and overall health. Proper hydration is also helpful in maintaining balanced blood sugars. Most sources will say that we should all be keeping a reusable bottle with us and consistently siping from it, throughout the day. My wife is far better at this than I am. When it comes to fitness, you want to strike that proper balance and try to avoid dehydration AND drinking too much water.

You probably read that last sentence and asked, “Can you really ever drink TOO much water, Shawn?” Why, yes! Yes, you can! Consuming too much water in the wrong conditions will cause something called hyponatremia. This condition can be caused by an increase in diuretics, severe or excess sweating or consuming too much water. The result is your body’s concentration of electrolytes, namely sodium, gets too low. Back in the summer of 2020, I experienced this condition firsthand. I woke up on a day off and chugged an energy drink, which I unfortunately seem to do every morning. Then, I performed the longest bike ride I had taken (at that point) where I peddled from Regina to Balgonie.

It’s a 56-kilometre trek, back and forth, which is far from the farthest I’ve managed to achieve since then. But it was summertime, with temperatures in the mid-30’s and dry Prairie air… My phone shut down halfway due to being too hot, I was sweating like a hog and chugging back water ever five minutes. To my credit, I had brought plenty of water and fast-acting carbs, but little else. This meant that I kept pumping the water in to slate my thirst but I was losing electrolytes through my sweat. Like, a lot!

By the time I got home, every joint was killing me, I had a headache, nausea and difficulty focusing. It took several minutes of trying to look up the symptoms and my wife helping out to discover that I needed to take in some sodium. I slugged back a couple of bottles of Gatorade and ate some salt & vinegar chips and laid on my bed with the A/C going at full strength. Once my body slowly started to regulate, I got groggy and fell asleep for a while. It was probably the most uncomfortable and painful experience outside of a tangible injury or Diabetes.

Since then, I maintain a practice of mixing electrolytes with water as I cycle, which has served me well on my 70 and 80-kilometre treks. But it was an important lesson to recognize that getting to the end of a significant workout can require more than just sheer will. Easy things to carry with you, whether at the dojo or while out doing cardio, are little things like a portable battery pack to charge your phone in the event of an emergency and bandages or a small travel first aid kit. You may never NEED any of those things but it’s always better to have it and not need it.

Being prepared is an important aspect of anything one does in life. It can mean the difference between potential facing a dangerous or hazardous situation or being temporarily inconvenienced. it all depends on how prepared you want to be. For most people with Type-1 Diabetes, being prepared and constantly dragging along a small bag with carbs, testing equipment and food can mean the difference between good health or a hospital trip. Why not take the few minutes required to ensure that you always have what you need for any workout or outing you go on. ☯️

One Step At A Time…

Habits. Vices. We all have them, in one form or another. Sometimes it can be associated with our state of mind; either suffering from self-image or mental health issues or we’re simply unhappy, which is a big part of life for most people. As a result, some will seek comfort or relief from various sources including but not limited to food, drugs, smoking, alcohol and even sex. You could think that using that last one wouldn’t be a negative thing but there are a number fo negative aspects to USING sex as a coping mechanism that most people wouldn’t consider.

For me, I’ve indulged in a number nasty vices, including cigar smoking, eating and alcohol. The first and last are mostly by virtue of my previous career, relaxing me and providing calm in the middle of emotional tempests. The middle one typically happens when I’ve indulged too much in the last, as I don’t always make the best decisions. Hey, I’m human. More often than not, I somehow manage to rationalize what I’m doing to myself, with “I can work this off later” or “just this last time” (followed by buying another bottle on the way home the following day).

It can be difficult to overcome certain bad habits on your own. Especially if those habits become severe enough to be an actual addiction. In those cases, getting help from medical professionals or specialized programs can be important. But if it’s something you feel you can overcome on your own, there are a number of things you can do to help get you out of your funk. I’ll provide a few of my thoughts on what’s worked for me in the past:

  1. Don’t Put Off Exercising: Thanks to the frequent ups and downs of blood sugars, the amount of grogginess and lethargy I deal with can be a real pain in the ass. But if you can push past the fatigue and do something physical, it has a dynamo effect. Once you hop on board the exercise train, all you want is for it to move faster. Start slow and easy at first and increase resistance/distance/challenges as you go along. After a while you’ll look back and realize you’re at the level you used to WISH you were at.
  2. Don’t Quit Everything At Once: Sometime during the late summer, I decided to quit cigars, alcohol, junk food and excessive caffeine. Those sound like good ideas, right? Maybe, but doing it all at once wasn’t the greatest idea. Besides the physical toll it takes on a person’s body, you’re more likely to regress and slip up if you deny yourself everything completely. Most sources I’ve read agree that you should allow yourself the occasional indulgence. Doing so means you’ll be less likely to slip up. So if you have a habit of binging junk food, maybe allow yourself to eat out once a week.
  3. Buddy Up: A problem shared is a problem halved, right? If you need exercise, join a club, a gym or fitness group. If you’re trying to eat better, there are groups for that, too! Or you can just commit to eating better with a friend. You can keep each other on track, remind each other of your goals and step in if you happen to be “falling off the wagon.”

Improving oneself and making oneself feel better takes time and effort. If you think it’s hard, that’s perfectly normal Anything worth achieving in life is hard. Just remember that you don’t have to do any of it alone and there are always resources out there to help you reach your goals, whether it’s weight loss, increased fitness, learning a new skill or quitting a bad habit. ☯️

Shake Things Up…

As I’ve often written about before, fitness and weight loss involves something simpler yet more complicated than a fancy fad diet or weird food restrictions. And contrary to what some people still believe, crunches and sit-ups won’t do anything but firm up your ab muscles and likely won’t do much to melt the fat in front of it. You need a healthy combination of consistent exercise and proper diet, which includes eliminating unnecessary sugars, excess fats, carbonated beverages and alcohol as well as junk food in general. That sounds pretty simple in print but to someone who has unhealthy habits built into their daily routine, change isn’t without challenge.

One of those big changes for me, in recent months, has been the inclusion of breakfast into my daily routine. When most of us were kids we always heard that “breakfast is the most important meal of the day.” I was never fond of breakfast, since eating a massive bowl of cereal before school without the proper amount of fast-acting insulin to deal with it, meant I would spend my morning classes groggy and struggling to stay awake. It led most of my teachers to think I was lazy or unwilling to learn. To their credit, I didn’t understand what was going on myself, so how could I have articulated it to them? But I digress…

My point is that even in adulthood with an insulin pump and a control over my Diabetes that’s better than what in was in my youth, my morning routine usually involves forcing myself out of bed, grabbing caffeine in whatever form I can get it and getting ready for work before rushing out the door. The concept of that first meal is usually the farthest thing from my mind until I’ve been at work for an hour or two and my stomach starts protesting at the lack of tenants it has. This will usually result in my purchasing something quick and less than healthy during my morning coffee. Not so great a habit to maintain and it contributes to one’s gut.

Breakfast!

As a reasonable alternative, I’ve been using my Blendjet to carry my breakfast to work with me. I posted about this device before Christmas and as much fun as I was having with it, I haven’t been using it QUITE as much as I should have or for its intended purpose. In fact, I think my wife has been using them mostly to make smoothies for our kids, which isn’t a bad use but my intention was to have a low-carb, easy to manage breakfast. So on Monday of last week, I buckled down and started including the mini blender into my daily routine. Once I’m up, my first stop is to the kitchen, where I prepare Nathan’s lunch for school. While I’m in there, I’ll put all my ingredients into the blender and bring it downstairs with me where I shower and prepare for work. I’ll run the blender once to mix the ingredients then store it in my work bag until my arrival at work. Then, I’ll blend it again as the ingredients settle and I can gulp it down at my leisure as I work.

It’s been working pretty well. It hardly adds five minutes to my morning routine, provides me with something that keeps me filled and prevents hunger until I make it to lunchtime and the mini blender is convenient and easy to lug around as opposed to packing a meal or ordering out, which does nothing good for one’s overall weight loss and fitness goals. Granted my weekends are still reserved for a more traditional breakfast with my family. For example, this morning will likely see me preparing bacon and hash browns for my wife and I, and toast for the boys. My toddler enjoys a strip of bacon but my 7-year old absolutely hates bacon. I know, I know… I’ve failed somewhere. Moving on!

The calm convenience of breakfast in the morning sunlight

As great an addition to my morning routine as a shake may sound, it’s important to recognize that what you put INTO the shake is almost as important as including breakfast into your routine. If all you’re doing is tossing bananas, milk and chocolate syrup into your blender, you’ll be lacking some key components to your nutrition and health. I mean, eating a banana at breakfast is inherently a good thing, but you want to make sure that you’re giving your body some good stuff to help it along as well as fuel it. Normally, my shake includes half a banana, a dozen or so blueberries, a tablespoon of flax seed and a cube of frozen spinach. The frozen spinach is nice because it not only provides me with all the good stuff that spinach does, it substitutes for ice, which allows more room for the key ingredients.

I was basing all of this with water at the start, but I found the taste left something to be desired and I was still getting hungry during my morning. So I started using milk instead. This isn’t a bad thing, you know, calcium and all that jazz… Diabetics just need to remember that one cup of milk has enough carbohydrates to require additional bolusing. Plus, you can use skim or 2% milk to cut down on the unnecessary fat. If you find that your overall shake is a little bland, you can BAM it up a notch with a small squirt of maple syrup or honey. I occasionally steal a bit of chocolate syrup that my wife uses for the boys’ smoothies but again… carbs!

I know that when most people think of weight loss, their thoughts immediately go to either exercise or eating less. But it’s important to remember that your body needs rule in order to function. So eating less can only be done so much. And when all is said and done, it’s not the amount so much as WHAT you’re eating. But it’s another chicken or the egg scenario… If you eat less, you have less fuel and won’t be able to burn at your workouts as efficiently. You gotta feed the machine! But I find that having a shake, especially one loaded with fibre and good stuff, eliminates the problem of skipping breakfast, doesn’t affect my overall morning routine and is helping to get me healthier. Food for thought… (pun intended) ☯️

Your Comfort Zone Is A Horrible Place To Die…

When all is said and done, you’ll really only get as much out of life as you put into it. Want to lose weight? Eat right and exercise. It won’t happen on its own if you’re sitting on the couch scarfing potato chips and doing fuck all. Wanna learn a new skill? Buckle up and settle in to study, train and develop yourself. Wanna learn karate? It ain’t a knitting circle so you need to be prepared for the blood, sweat and tears that will ensue over the next decade or more to become proficient. Notice that I say “proficient” and not “master,” as karate is a lifelong journey that you’re never really done studying.

An important lesson I’ve learned recently is just how little I actually know. I’ve been studying Uechi Ryu for over three decades at this point, with one third of that time being on my own by virtue of living 3,400 kilometres away from my Sensei. The passage of time and lack of travel ability has brought me to my current state where I made the decision to transition to a new style. Still karate, of course. But I recently joined a Shotokan school and it’s already been quite the ride…

Besides the fact that I’ve become older, slower and thicker (not in the complimentary way), the challenge is significantly different for me, this time around. Add to that the fact that I’m an old dog, teaching me new tricks is not without challenge. My hat’s off to the team of instructors in my new dojo that has to deal with the skilled, unknown black belt gracing their dojo yet doing everything just a LITTLE bit different than how they do.

And this is where the relevance of the title comes in… The past couple of weeks have certainly taken me out of my comfort zone. I’ve started learning different stances, different ways of doing the techniques that ARE familiar, as well as being exposed to a plethora of new forms and katas. I’m definitely enjoying learning new things but it’s been a humbling experience to acknowledge that even though I’ve grown proficient in my style, I’ve also grown comfortable and complacent, which is a horrible state to be in. Complacency leads to loss of proficiency in a terrible “chicken or the egg’ scenario, when it comes to one’s training.

I’m glad that I’ve been able to hammer on and start learning again. Despite how long I’ve at this and the realization that I don’t quite have the same amount of piss and vinegar that I used to, it’s humbling to recognize that there’s still a lot to learn, still a long road to travel and still some exciting surprises for me in the world of karate. I attended my second class of the week last night and my legs are definitely feeling it, with the last class of the week scheduled for tonight. Between work and other obligations, I’m hoping I can keep the circulation going and hammer through tonight’s class efficiently.

Find something you’re passionate about. I think that’s my main message. It’s important to have goals to achieve, but it shouldn’t be torturous and you shouldn’t come out of it feeling as though it was a chore. It’s okay to acknowledge that it was hard; anything worth your time will be. But hard and torturous are two entirely different things. Karate started out as a way to save my life. That’s why I started training. But it’s become a part of me and something I love. I’m blessed to have found a new path on this journey and would encourage all of you to find the path that’s right for you. ☯️