At first I focused on changing my diet with the knowledge that exercise was also important. I began walking more. In particular I found that taking a walk after my main meal helped reduce my blood glucose from that meal.
Then one day, with my weight already going down and finding that I had more energy and that my muscles didn't get so tired when I walked I decided to try building more muscles by going to a gym.
 |
| Walking even in freezing temperatures! |
Interestingly when I had the initial assessment the coach commented that my legs were already quite strong, no doubt after all the walking up and down hill! I was keen to work on the strength of my arms in particular to avoid 'bat wing's!
I discovered that spending not a lot of time doing the work with weights made me feel good and helped bring my blood glucose down quite a lot. I could get to the gym, do a work out and get home in about an hour. I often saw my lowest blood glucose readings I had ever seen after an hour spent this way and especially when I did the session in the morning it improved my mood for the day.
One of the motivating factors in trying this was that I had heard that muscles burn energy even when you are sitting at your desk. What I have learned more recently is that they also don't need insulin to get the energy into the cells which is good news if you are insulin resistantas I believe I am.
Just last week I learned another useful fact: that muscles actually store their own glucose so act as glucose sponges. This means that the more muscle mass I have the more glucose is stored there ready for use when I am active instead of being stored in my liver or belly fat.
Once I had lost weight and reversed my diabetes I stopped going to the gym due to the cost. However I found that if I lost fitness it was more difficult to keep my blood glucose low. My husband kindly bought me a home gym so I now use that and gardening to build more muscle. I also still walk most days and find that my stamina continues to increase.
