The infomercial made the DVDs look like fun and something I might want to try. I found that my local library carries the DVD’s so I checked out the beginning DVD, the Abs, buns, thighs and the Advanced DVD, this way I could decide for myself if these are DVDs I would want to buy.

I participated in modern dance, ballet, jazz, tap, musicals and martial arts up until my late twenties, however it has been a while since I’ve done some serious dancing so I decided to start with the beginner DVD. The beginning Zumba DVD uses Reggaeton, Salsa, Merengue, Hip-hop, Samba, Cumbia and Flamenco dancing as the basic steps for your exercise routine and then builds upon them as you progress to the other DVDs.

Day 1: Like riding a bike the dance steps for the Salsa, hip-hop steps, Cumbia and even the Merengue came pretty easy. I haven’t really tried any of the Flamenco dance steps, although it does remind me of some of the stick routines we did in martial arts, so maybe it won’t be too hard,lol. Now as for the Samba….. well lets just say I look like a bunny rabbit on crack, ;op

Day 2: I re-ran the beginning DVD and my Samba has much improved. I can now do the step medium-slow (I’m not ready to add on the cute little hip twitch yet, ;o)). I popped in the advanced DVD, watched it through its entirety first (Beto’s lack of prep to the other dances for the next step drives me nuts, so I don’t watch him. I follow the girl who does the English translations, she’s got it all down). Anyway I’m able to get through the first dance routine with out totally dying and the exercise program is fun (work but fun).

If any of my past Dance Company comrades read this post ( Arlene, Cassandra, Wanda, JoAnne, Gwen, Pat, Patrick, Connie and Robert, I think that’s all I have on my friends list ), its a DVD you might all enjoy.

For anyone who is looking to try it, the exercise is very fun and seems to work with all fitness levels even if you want to do a modified step. Of note I don’t care much for their Abs, buns and thighs DVD, I’m going to stick with P90X for that.

My next Zumba day will be Wednesday, Tuesday/Thursday I do Abs and arms.

Since I am having so much fun with the dancing, I do believe I will buy this set.

To your blood sugar success
Tina D.
Tweet Me – LifeWithType2

Made ya look with my title didn’t I? I am actually referring to my recent fixation on lettuce and salads, ).  Lately lettuce seems as sweet and tasty to me as Twinkies.  To keep from getting bored I plan to try a variety of lettuces, dressings and food combinations to keep my salads exciting.

Here are some of the ones I plan to try from the Dlife.com site:

Cobb Salad
Seafood Salad
Cranberry Onion salad
Tomato Cucumber
Pickle Macaroni
Artichoke Potato Salad
Jamaican Chicken Salad
Crispy Chicken Salad

Leave a comment with your salad suggestions, I look forward to trying them out.

To your blood sugar success
Tina D.
Tweet Me – LifeWithType2

My morning blood sugar was 124 (with-in my starting point of 130, so I was in a good mood).  Breakfast for me is normally around 15 to 30 grams of carbohydrates and since I knew I was having waffles with sugar free syrup I did .75 units of insulin for each gram of carb I had for breakfast.  This formula has always worked great for me for the last two years with my lowest blood sugar being 79 and that was only after I had a long delay between lunch and dinner.

Well today I had a great scare around lunch time as my head began to feel like it was going to explode. I thought to myself my blood sugar must be low, yep it was, it was quite low, down to 50.  I had to resist the strong urge to just lay down and take a nap, I knew that would not end well.  We keep a few pieces of candy around the house for just this reason, so I grabbed four small pieces of tootsie rolls to start bringing my blood sugar back up.  We don’t keep heavy sugary sodas in the house but I did have a Minute Maid light which had 4 grams of carbs in it so I chugged that down.

As my blood sugar started to come back up it made me really glad that I was at home to deal with the mini crisis but also made me remember to check my purse for a small candy stash and to remind me to always wear my medic alert bracelet ( See my previous post on why a medical ID is not just for your peace of mind .

Ok, well I need to be off to bed, will check blood sugar before retiring to make sure heading to sleep with a great number.

To Your blood sugar success
Great gifts for diabetics
Tina D.

I packed myself up in the car and headed for my urgent care to get relief of the pounding headache, neck and arm pain.  They had me in urgent care for about 20 minutes and then packed me off to the closest ER for possible stroke work up ( could have told them I was not having a stroke, I could walk, talk and chew bubble gum just fine, but better safe than sorry).

By the time I hit the ER it was about 1 pm in the afternoon and I had not had lunch. My FBS was 100 when I got up that morning so other than the headache, neck and arm pain all seemed to be under control.  By 3 pm I was starving and could not eat as they wanted to have me go through the CT machine. After my CT still no release or a meal so I grabbed one of the emergency candies out of my purse to keep me from getting a worse headache and the shakes. 

Of course the nurse comes in and takes my blood sugar around that time and its running 145, she and the doctor both chime in hey that’s a great number 145. I am thinking you gotta be kidding me. I am then educated that in the ER a blood sugar less than 160/180 is looked upon as great (yikes) we must have some very uncontrolled diabetics in and out of the ER then if 145 is considered great.

Needless to say I was finally released around 7 pm, no stroke and no answer on the pain yet. Given medication for the headache so at least that is gone.  Neck and arm pain are all good if I do not sit or stand for more than 2-3 hours at a time, /.

Tomorrow I am off to see my regular doctor to figure this all out as my night job has me sitting 9-10 hours at a time and I’ll have to commit Hari-Kiri if I can’t get rid of the pain, ).

To your blood sugar success everyday!
Tina D.
A Unique Find Gift Baskets.com your source for Diabetic Gifts

Typical symptoms most of us think of
Excessive thirst
excessive urination
Blurred vision
Tingling or numbness in the extremities of the hands and feet
Fatigue or feeling like your muscles have no energy
Sexual dysfunction in men and women

Symptoms that mimic other things but are often due to excessive blood sugars
Cuts or wounds that wont heal
Sudden adult onset of acne
Chronic yeast infections with out cause
Creepy crawly itchy skin
Delivery of a baby greater than 10 lbs
Unexplained high blood pressure
Consistent fasting blood sugar levels over 100***See additional information below on pre-diabetes***
Chronic stress that keeps you in the fight or flight mode causing damage to the pancreas

There are probably other symptoms that could warrant a visit to have your blood glucose checked. Pre-diabetes is so prevalent in the US due to our fast access foods. We probably have five of every ten US citizens walking around in a pre-diabetic state and they are not aware of it. Catching it early even if your doctor is not paying attention can definitely make life easier for you in old age.

In my case I presented my symptoms to my doctor in 1999 while I was in my second year of martial arts training to achieve my black belt in Tae Kwon Do. In 1999 however pre-diabetes was not a buzz word and unless your fasting level was in the then full blow range of 122, you were not informed of any higher than normal levels or given tools to prevent a collision course with type 2 diabetes. For a year and a half I complained of frequent thirst and urination along with multiple fasting glucose test which consistently ran around 118. In 2001 I presented my symptoms to a new doctor who actually paid attention when I explained about the thirst, urination and exhaustion, by then it was too late I was then a type 2 diabetic, (.

So big tidbit here, even if you work out and feel you eat right for the most part, if you present with any of the above symptoms have your doctor check your blood glucose levels.

Current criteria for Pre-diabetes is:

1) A1C of >5.7%

2) Fasting glucose level of >100 (if you have one test come back with a level of 100 be sure to ask to be retested in a few weeks or so to see if it was a one off or not).

3) Oral glucose test >140

To your health
Tina D.

Each individual diabetic will have to tweek the foods they eat  and medication they take to the levels that are the most successful for them.

If you are new to diabetes or even a long time veteran one great resource for a variety of food and recipe ideas is the DLife.com site. When I am bored with the things I have cooked time after time I pop into their recipe section and just type in a food or keyword to find something new to try. Also I’ve been using the site for years but only recently discovered that they have a top recipe area.  That section includes the most popular recipes chosen for the month or for all time. This is a great way to try something new if you want to see a recipe that others find tasty.

To your blood sugar success
Diabetic Gifts
Tina D.

I’m currently listening to an audio book called Killing Time (by Linda Howard) and although this book has absolutely nothing to do with diabetes or the kidneys it made me contemplate my daily life and ways I can protect my health and life a lot better.  The book is about how profoundly what we do or do not do in today’s time can change events in the future.  In the story one of the main characters has traveled back in time to 2005 to work on a case that would change life in 2025 if not solved.  While working with one of the local police officers the co-main character Nakita muses over things like paper and cotton products which in 2025 are endangered species or only possessed by the rich. This made me think about my current concerns with my diabetes and my kidneys.

How does this book relate to diabetes you ask? Well look at it this way, its the little things we do or don’t do each day that eventually affect our future. I would say the same applies to life and ones health. In my case the symptoms that led to my recent labs were lots of swelling in my lower legs and feet to the point of being painful. My doctor put me on Lasix to begin removing the excess fluids from my body and ordered lab test, the recent lab test confirmed protein in my urine.  So although I have done a great job of maintaining my blood sugars something else unknown has changed things and I am a lot more away of the things that can further damage my kidneys.

So I am now looking for small things I can do to make sure I am around to see my son graduate, get married and have children.

Symptoms of kidney disease

To your health
Tina D

We want your feedback. The winner receives a $25.00 Visa gift card

Contest rules: Must be a US citizen and 18 years of age
Contest dates: All comments must be posted between 8/17/10 and 8/24/10
Comments: All comments must be relevant to the blog content (spam, strictly ad comments will not count). Each comment counts as one entry.
How will the winner be chosen?: The winner will be chosen from all comment entrants and announced on 8/27/10 on this blog.

Thanks for commenting, )
To your blood sugar success everyday!
Tina D.
A Unique Find Gift Baskets.com your source for Diabetic Gifts

I became an IPhone owner just a little over a year ago and have found for a diabetic there are some great tools and applications for us to use to make like just a little easier. Along with running my own business I always seem to be on the go and since I am a creature of convenience, I like being able to easily keep track of how well I am maintaining my blood sugars in a quick and easy manner.

The two tools I use for blood sugar control are:

Track 3 (cost about 7.00, one time fee)
Track 3 allows the user to input medications from your insulin to pills, blood sugar readings with time stamps as well as the foods you ate. It also allows the user to set min and max settings for your own personal lows and what you would see as a high for your readings. Lastly you are able to set tailored daily allowances for you own personal dietary needs. This is a great feature if you are really carbs sensitive like I am or are on a low sodium diet. The best part of all the features is that you are able to see the graphs of how well you are maintaining your blood sugars and email a copy of those results to your self or your doctor.

My Fitness Pal (free software)
This program is great if you are trying to loose or maintain your weight. The user is able to set a goal weight based on your height and age, as well as the minimum amount of weight you’d like to loose per week. It is similar to Track 3 in that you are able to log what you eat and see how much of each of protein, carbs, fats, etc you eat each day.

As a diabetic I have found that both of these tools are ones I can’t live with out, ). Both applications can be found on the Itunes store by searching for the software name.

To your blood sugar success everyday!
Tina D.
A Unique Find Gift Baskets.com your source for Diabetic Gifts

My experiment: Drink more water and less diet soda

Started: August 7, 2010
Dietary changes: Limit myself to no more than two twelve ounce cans of diet soda a day, less if tolerable.
Monitor physical changes: Look at water retention, alertness, weight changes

8/7/10 – I first started off adding a little sugar free kool-aide type flavoring to my water to get past the blandness.

8/9/10 – OK, so I am alright with just the water with out flavoring, I am actually preferring it to soda now. Having only one can of soda a day.

8/10/10 – I had a doctor’s appointment today, I had a 7 lb weight decrease between when I started on 8/7 and 8/10. I have a digital scale and it matches what my doctor’s scale shows, so this was a surprise to see such a big drop already.

8/14/10 – Work keeping me bogged down with over time, felt like a zombie at work today, along with all my water I had one can of diet Dr. Pepper, perked me right up, so still need a little caffeine late in the day, )

8/15/10 – Hey I did great today, its 9:13 pm and I have not had a can of soda nor am I craving any, ).

Also check out this funny Youtube video that talks about diet soda and weight gain. The soda part is toward the end, however his video is very interesting.

To your blood sugar success everyday!
Tina D.
A Unique Find Gift Baskets.com your source for Diabetic Gifts