The Power of Exercise

Hold on to your hats, folks.  Exercise dramatically improves blood sugars and insulin sensitivity.

Pre-exercise:
I:C ratio = 1:5
Daily Lantus dose = 25 u.

1/28 - 5 p.m. - 5:45 p.m.:

• Jogged at 5.0 speed for 15 minutes (hard to breathe, had to stop)
• Upper-body weight lifting (minimal)

Immediately following the workout, and for hours after, my blood sugars stayed steady and low.  Ate a late dinner and my inner diabetes voice said, "Katie, lower your I:C ratio for this" and I listened to the voice.  Instead of taking 6.5 units for 35 carb meal I took 4.5 and blood sugars were perfect the entire night.  The next morning I decided to drop my Lantus to 24 units.

1/29:
Lantus worked like a charm.  I was not high during "fasting" times.  Continued to use modified (read: making it up as I go) carb ratios with success. 

1/30 - 5 p.m. - 5:30 p.m.:

• Jogged at 5.0 speed for 30 minutes
• Started going low toward the end so didn't do any additional exercise

Post-exercise:
I:C ratio = 1:6 or 1:7 (depending on time of day)
Daily Lantus dose = 24 u.

What blows my mind about all of this is that the impact on my blood sugars and insulin sensitivity was so dramatic after only one (incredibly modest) workout.  It didn't take months of cardio - it took ONE SESSION of cardio.  Here's hoping I can keep it up...