Ketogenic Performance

I began this blog a few years ago with very good intentions. I wanted to share my experiences of dealing with my Type One Diabetes, while living a very active lifestyle as an endurance athlete. My last entry was a recap of my Marathon in Myrtle Beach, where I qualified to run in the 2014 Boston Marathon.

I did get to participate in  that race but I didn't get to actually race it. I was nursing a hip injury that I incurred even before Myrtle Beach. It was still very rewarding to travel to Boston with my now fiance', Juliette, and her children, Wilson and Ella. I will have to post a separate post recapping my Boston experience.

 After that race I have had some really big changes in my life, personally and in the way I treat and manage my disease. Diabetes is something that affects me 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Not only me, but everyone who shares my life including Juliette, Wilson, Ella, even the people who work with me. I couldn't ask for a more supportive, caring, and motivated partner than Juliette! She is not just my fiance, she is my very best friend, we share everything; our love of adventure, travel, fitness, reading, preparing food together, but it doesn't stop there. My disease is her disease, she is totally immersed in every part of managing my diabetes!

 That brings me to the subject of this post. Almost exactly one year ago we started trying to eat in a totally new way, it's called the Ketogenic Performance Diet. It is really not a diet, it is a new way of life. When I was first diagnosed over twenty years ago, the American Diabetes Association had endorsed and prescribed low fat, high carb diet for all diabetics. For almost my entire diabetic life I accepted and followed this way of thinking, they're the doctors who know right?!?! Well I had a teaching fellow at the VA who was treating me on a regular basis. She is now a board certified endocrinologist in Richmond, Va, who introduced us to Keto. Dr Barton is a runner and triathlete just like us. She asked if I had ever heard of Keto and we hadn't. The idea is that we get our fuel from our fat stores instead of carbohydrate stores. The "diet" involves eating HIGH fat,  MODERATE protein, and lots of leafy green vegetables. It involves getting your body into a state of ketosis where your body is almost exclusively burning fat. When we started, it was very hard getting the hang of it and our bodies rejected it at first. Coming off sugar is hard! After living your entire life craving carbs, your body thinks you have to have them even when it really doesn't! During the first few weeks it felt like we had the flu, almost no energy. After you get through the initial transition, your body starts changing. You think more clearly, you don't crave food and while this isn't the reason why we love this lifestyle, you also drop weight immediately! Once you get to where your ideal weight, for your individual frame, the sudden weight loss levels off.  At this point the light went off! This is how humans were meant to eat! We have all been lied to for so long! I know this sounds extreme to almost anyone reading this but think about it from a diabetic frame of mind. 1) What causes Blood Sugar to rise? Carbohydrates, aka sugar. 2) What causes diabetic complications? Chronic high Blood Glucose levels! But........... our bodies NEED carbs to survive right?!?! The answer is NO!

 I know this way of thinking is very unconventional and drastic for most of the planet, especially in America, but I would urge anyone who has diabetes to research it and talk to your doctor. Complications from the devastation of prolonged high blood sugar can be halted and even reversed in some situations. It could save not only your life but the quality of your life.

Juliette and I both contribute to a Pinterest Board that includes articles, recipes and support information on starting and maintaining a Keto way of  life. Please feel free to follow our Ketogenic Performance Board for more information. Also we belong to very supportive and motivating Facebook group called Type One Grit. 

Myrtle Beach Marathon

Well, I started this blog a few months ago with very good intentions. I thought I had a lot to say, I still do but this is harder than I thought! A lot of things can happen in three months as well! Life has a way of interrupting your hopes, dreams, and your everyday life. It is at these times as a person living with diabetes that it is very easy to get out of control as your emotions and the disruption of your normal routine can cause havoc with blood sugar control. My only previous posts where about the City of Oaks marathon and my struggle to run fast enough to qualify and have the privelige to run in the Boston Marathon. I ran into problems with not wearing my pump and not eating correctly during the race. So what is different this time? First of all I do not feel at all trained enough to even run a marathon. I have not been able to put in the mileage or stick to a plan because of injury, I have had a hamstring issue since November, and also due to those life changes that we all go through that change our lives forever1 You never see them coming but they will affect all of us sooner or later! I am going into this race under prepared and still hurting. Why am I running then? Why not just give up and try in another race? All I can say is that I believe when things happen to you, if you will keep your head up and have the courage to keep pushing that you can change your life for the better! I have always been amazed at how closely being an endurance athlete closely parallels life! When you have developed the habits of determination and perseverance that allow you to run any distance and push the pace even when it hurts,you are prepared to better weather the storms of life that come ! I do not really know how to give up, all I know how to do is to keep working as hard as I can and stepping up to the start and put myself out there for everyone to see what happens. I also cannot let down my teammates that have put in the time along with me and know all that we have gone through together, you see when I was about to fail and felt like I could not go on during City of Oaks, my friends came and picked me up and ran all the way to the finish with me. Things like that have a way of changing you and make you want to do the same for others. One more thing I need to add, life also can go right for you all by itself when you keep on pushing and pursuing your passion, life will put new people into your life that will make you know that anything is possible and that you can have everything you have always wanted and dreamed of! I know this has not been a very useful post about the nuts and bolts of running with diabetes, but in a way it is. Things that happen to us either good or bad can affect how we feel about ourselves and dirctly have an affect on our blood sugars. So this time next week I will have either qualified for Boston or not, but I have a plan to get it done and have people behind me that love and care about me and want me to succeed. Ok , I should let you know what my plan is, start hydrating now, get to the race with fresh legs and healthy, wear my pump on a temporary basal rate of -70%, and eat something other than my GU a little past halfway, start out SLOW and run the first part very conservative,whenI get to the twenty mile mark see how I feel and go for it the rest of the way ! I am ready to lay it on the line and see what happens ! That's what I want my life to always be about, go for it! Try things that people tell you can't do, and if you want something go get it !

City of Oaks Marathon.......

Well it is tuesday morning with a day in between running the hardest and most challenging course I have ever run. I know there are harder ones out there, but this one really beat up some quality runners, so I don't feel so bad about it. Did I meet my goal?!?! Well yes and no, lets go with no first, I know what I am capable of running a marathon in, it just hasn't come to pass yet. I guess I have to go through the fire, you know the pain,doubt, and fear that doing anything worthwhile brings. I wanted to run a specific time, qualify for Boston. I did not meet either of those goals by a long shot. That is where my failure ends ! The first marathon I ended up in the med tent with an IV in my arm and the doctor wanting me to go to the hospital because my BG was almost 500 that day.This time I wore my insulin pump the entire race and had no problems the entire time. Specifics : I set a temp basal rate of -70% for 3.5 hours , it worked to perfection ! Post race BG 155, perfect! I have to work on my fueling and hydration as I started cramping in both legs after mile 20 but it didn't have anything to do with my diabetes. That is a huge step forward because if I feel comfortable that my sugar is going to remain stable and I do not have to worry about that, I can just think about what "normal runners" have to worry about while pushing their bodies to the limit! I can't wait to get started training for my next one( Myrtle Beach in Feb)......I hate this recovery crap! Oh well, I guess it is a necessary evil :)

One week till 26.2 part 2

In one week I will be attempting the marathon distance for the second time. Things didn't go as I planned the first time. My overall time was not bad at all for a first time marathoner, but I was attempting to qualify for Boston on my first try and in hindsight that was a very lofty goal. Not only did I face the usual new twists of running that far that fast,but it was the longest run that I had ever attempted without my insulin pump. I have run several half marathon and it works out for me to run without it for that distance and length of time. I found out the hard way that anything over 1:45 to 2:00 I need to keep my pump attached and use a temporary basal for the duration of the run or race. At about mile 17 in the Houston marathon last January my energy completly and suddenly was gone and my body felt like it was shutting down. It wasn't the proverbial "wall" that I had hit , it was my blood sugar near 400. I didn't find out until I had finished the race and I was on my back in the med tent with and IV in my arm. I learned painful but valuable lessons that day and have had good training the last few months , running long and fast with my pump on. I have been using a temp basal of -70% for a duration of 3.5 hrs to cover the whole race. In my training runs I have had blood sugars of 80 to 150 after finishing my 20 mile and above workouts. I usually take in about 25grams of carbohydrate (gels or stinger chews) every 6miles or so and drinking water when I am thirsty to stay hydrated. Diabetics can do anything if they are careful and smart to put in the time to see what works and what doesn't. I am happy to report what has worked for me and what has not, but it will be different for everyone just like we all have different pump settings and carb ratios that work for us. The most important thing is to be willing and not afraid to lead an active lifestyle that works together with our medicine to help our body be the most efficient it can be.It is very important to inform our doctors on the things we want to do so they can partner with us in our lifestyle change. If you have one that tells you should not be a runner my advice would be to find one who is excited about your being willing to take care of "your diabetes" (: Hopefully at this time next sunday I will be able to report that I have run a good strong race and qualified for Boston !

My first blog ever !

I have been told many times that I should put down in writing and share with others what I have learned almost completely on my own about distance running and diabetes. Well I guess I finally got the courage to do it so here I am. I guess I should give some background first. I have been a type 1 diabetic since I was 21 years old, I am now 44, for the majority of those years I was overweight and out of shape. I didn't take care of myself or really even try to manage my disease. I had bad lab results all the time and my doctor would always warn me that I was on track to develop severe complications! About 5 years ago I had some life changing events that kind of shook me up and made me decide to make a change in my lifestyle. I have always been athletic playing sports in high school , but I never liked to run. I knew though that it was the cheapest and most effective way to begin losing weight and getting in shape. So I put on my shoes, went outside and started to run. What follows is a journey that makes my former lifestyle seem almost like a dream to me, I love to run, everything I do is centered around running. It has made a profound change in my health, the#1 test that doctors want diabetics to keep under control is called an A1C test. It measures how good of control you have kept your blood sugars over a 3 month period of time. For most of my life mine were around 10.0 or higher, for diabetics they want them under 7.0, as a direct result of my running I have kept mine at 6.5 or lower for the last three years, My doctor is all for me to continue my running habit!!! I have lost about 50 lbs and kept my weight stable for almost 5 years. I guess you could say that running saved my life. My intention with this blog is to share my triumphs and my failures, what has worked for me and what has not. I believe that living an active lifestyle can change the lives of other people living with diabetes and I want to share the practical things that I have learned. Runners face all kinds of situations in training and in races, but as diabetics we face all those things plus a whole lot of other things that most people do not have to think about. I hope I can help someone else change their life for the better !