The Gym Is My Jam

REPOST from former blog My Type 2 Diabetic Life ©

January 25, 2020

Image: My Type 2 Diabetic Life ©

As I continued my reading and researching of what I should be doing to lower my blood sugar and my A1C, there were three things that continued to stand out:  DIET (what I’m eating), WATER, and EXERCISE.  

My new endocrinologist told me that regular exercise will increase my insulin sensitivity, causing my insulin to better use the glucose in my bloodstream not only during the workout, but afterwards, too, and regular exercise will help to lower my A1C over time.

Exercise helps a Type 2 diabetic not just lower their blood sugar level, but it also helps to decrease the risk of heart disease complications that could result from diabetes.  The Harvard Medical School has a great article that has helped me to understand a lot of the “why” it’s important for diabetics (me) to exercise.  

Back when we lived near the Houston Medical Center (“inside the loop” as Houstonians say), we lived across the street from the YMCA.  We walked across the street multiple times a week, to work out.  When we moved to the suburbs about 10 years ago, we didn’t keep that habit up.  

After I received my recent T2 diagnosis, and we had time to process the idea that my life (our life) needed change, we decided that we needed to join one of the gyms near our house.  We asked neighbors and friends, and I asked my hair stylist. (You know, if you ever need to know anything, your stylist is going to be the one who is in the know – Steel Magnolias!)  We ended up joining one of the two gyms that is closest to us, which also happened to be the one that my stylist goes to, also. 😁  

We made the commitment to go to the gym 5 days a week – that is every Monday through Friday.  So we grab our earbuds and make sure we’ve got some good tunes to listen to during our workout. (Tunes are very important!)  We rest our bodies on the weekend – well sort of.  We also run all of our errands and such over the weekends.

I had forgotten how much I enjoy going to the gym.  We spend anywhere from 2 to 3 hours each day that we go.  I spend 1 hour on the treadmill, and the rest of the time doing weight training.  And the weight training… well let’s just say I’m not talking about lifting a 5 pound dumbbell.  I have worked my way up to 70 pounds of resistance on the ab machine (crunches), and I’m pulling 70 lbs on the lat machine, as well.  80 pounds on the leg press machine, and 80 on some kind of machine that I call the “thigh master.”  I do 16 count reps, and repeat it 4 – 6 times, depending on what machine I’m using.  Sometimes we use YouTube to find workout regimen ideas.  One guy that we follow on YouTube is Chris Heria.  Click on his name to see some cool workout videos.  

Of course my sweet husband puts me to shame when he does his 150 pounds on the leg press, and lifts 125 pounds over his head with the bar, not to mention all the other awesome lifts he makes. 

I had a video of my sweet husband, but for some reason it won’t upload. I’ll work on it. 😩

Each day before we go work out, we eat a light lunch or snack, to fuel our workouts.  We eat about 1 hour before we go to the gym.  At first it was really hard to get motivated to go, and the time seemed to just drag on while we were there.  But now that we are starting our 3rd month of working out, the time really flies by.  We’ve met lots of really cool people, too.   

Together, we have lost a combined weight of over 25 pounds!  We both have also noticed that we are sleeping better.  I think it may be a combination of more healthy eating, weight loss, and working out.  This gym thing has become a permanent part of our lifestyle, it’s very enjoyable, and a great thing to do together as a couple.  

Everyone is different, so talk to your doctor and listen to your body about what kind of workouts are good (and safe) for you.

Thanks for stopping by to read the blog.  I would love for you to subscribe and follow along, as I document my journey. If you have questions or comments, please post them in the comments section below.