BeingDiabetic.co.nz » Exercise

4, 200 km for diabetes!

Nic — Sun, 12 Dec 2010 21:30:37 +0000

Thanks to Grace McKnight for sending me an email about this challenge. Grace is a T1 (since age 13) and her Dad, Colin and his friend David have decided to bike all the way across Australia (from Perth to Sydney), all the while raising money for Diabetes New Zealand. They started on Thursday.

In their words:

This madness of cycling from Freemantle (Perth) to Sydney in summer was David’s idea but it did not take any arm bending to get on my bike for this. Depending on the winds it should take us between 28 to 34 days, so maybe an average of 120 to 140 km a day. We will carry most of what we need with top ups…

Aaron: Beer, bear and bare.

Aaron — Thu, 09 Dec 2010 21:10:20 +0000

Being essentially on holiday, I have found myself doing a lot of things in Canada that normally just wouldn’t be a part of my life in New Zealand.

Generally speaking I’ve been getting a lot more exercise than previously by walking and biking all over the city (no car you see), I’ve been going and doing decent hikes of 4 hours plus at least once every three weeks and I’ve also been drinking a lot more alcohol too to take just three examples.

All of these can be attributed to still being in a tourist mindset and as such, walking around this amazing city with ‘tourist goggles’ on as I like to call it – getting out to a…

Aaron: It’s Dad’s fault.

Aaron — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 21:00:10 +0000

I was perusing the annals of the internet last week and saw this article on Stuff.co.nz about how scientists have research indicating that fathers with high fat diets may be a cause of diabetes in their daughters?

You can read the full article here.

Seriously, I am all for research and understanding the causes and contributing factors behind T1 but come on, isn’t this a little ridiculous? It feels like there are all sorts of links between so many different conditions (white bread and cancer is one I hear often) and they just keep coming. Certainly, there are links between food and lifestyle which it is essential to know about for preventative measures but I can’t help…

Watch a video, help a needy T1 child. Do it!!

Nic — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 06:29:36 +0000

I got this info through by email today and had to pass it on to the whole BeingDiabetic community!!

It’s World Diabetes Day on Sunday 14 November, and the Diabetes Hands Foundation have set up an awesome initiative at bigbluetest.org where they encourage all people with diabetes to test their BG at 2pm on the 14th November, record it, do 14mins of activity and record it again. The even more compelling part of their campaign is the video below: Roche has underwritten the production of the video and will make a donation to Insulin For Life for every view the video receives (up to $75,000). Insulin for Life is my…

Aaron: Tramping the Laurentians – basal rate success!

Aaron — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 21:15:26 +0000

You know how sometimes it’s the little victories that make the difference to your diabetes day?

Well, I had one of these on the weekend of the 20th September when I went hiking in the Laurentian mountains north of Montréal and, being quite chuffed with myself I wanted to share it with you all.

As I mentioned in my catch up post, the past 4 weeks have been a diabetes HELL for hypos for me and I was starting to get quite annoyed about it. When we arrived, I purchased a 2KG pack of white sugar for hypos at home and there is no more than 750G left of that pack now so that might give you a…

Not the Spring break I had in mind.

Nic — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 20:04:02 +0000

A picture tells a thousand words, and one-handed typing takes a thousand years, so I’ll summarise.

1. Awesome! Husband takes me with him on work trip to Queenstown.

2. Haven’t been on a snowboard for 15 years plus recently had baby so very respectful of zero skill base and altered balance overall.

3. Cousin lives in Queenstown and lends me his wrist guards.

4. Do things right by kicking off with a lesson. It goes really well. However it emerges that cousin has given me two left wrist guards. Wear one and put other in pocket.

5. BG too high to have lunch after lesson (17.1 – had turned pump off in anticipation of hypos but with exercise as you…

Inspiration.

Nic — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 21:08:06 +0000

Thanks to Geoff for sending me this article about a chap in the States named Jay Hewitt, who now does inspirational talks about his Ironman exploits alongside having Type 1 diabetes. A real feel-good, if-you-work-hard-enough-for-it-you-can-do-it type of article, worth a read if you have the time.

A quote from the article:

“How bad do you want it? Ten thousand syringe pricks and 50,000 finger tests later, I want it enough to swim up to 5,000 meters, bike 70 or 80 miles, run 18 to 20 miles, do yard work, and enjoy time with my family on a typical weekend. That is how I earn my finish line.”

Of course the BeingDiabetic community…

Strap on your sneakers, Aucklanders!

Nic — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 23:19:28 +0000

Hi all

I’m pleased to tell you that I’ve just entered myself into the Auckland half marathon on Sunday, 31 October. Wahey! I will be power-walking it, mind. Running is no friend of mine! I did it once before, in 2007…. I was a complete walking purist – even Olympic judges would not have been able to spot me with both legs off the ground simultaneously. I completed it in 3 hours, 7 minutes.

This year I will undoubtedly get less time for training, with a little one in the house. But I’m still going to aim to better my time (I’m pumping this year as opposed to MDI last time which slowed me down when I had to stop…

Row yourself a free gym membership (and support Diabetes Youth)

Nic — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 23:04:13 +0000

From an email from Damian Wiseman of Unique Fitness in Penrose:

Hi Everyone,

Winning stuff is great, we all love a chance to win something. So, the team here at U-nique fitness would like to give you the chance to win a 6 month membership to the gym and support a fantastic cause in doing so!

We will be holding a rowing competition outside the big Kreem Cafe (Building on Thursday the 15th April from 11am-2pm. Row as fast as you can for 500m and the male and female with the fastest time will each win 6 months FREE membership at the gym. Plus we will have a special spot prize of another 6 month membership to be given away…

Aaron: Butter, the diabetic’s sugar substitute.

Aaron — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 21:30:20 +0000

I was talking to a friend the other day who I’ve not seen in a while and she was asking me how everything was going. How is the family? How was the other half, work, life in general and so forth and as often happens (at least with certain friends), she asked after the diabetes.

I’ve not seen this friend in a couple of years and so I told her all about the pump, how much it was helping with my control and how, if just through the change of mindset it provided, I felt like it had given me the ability to feel like I was in control of my diabetes – not the other way round.

My mate…