Posted on by exercisehelps

When your calendar becomes your workout buddy … huh???

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Let’s face it, there is something compelling when we schedule something on our calendar. We are more apt to follow through and keep a commitment that is on our calendar than one that is not.

It always helps me personally to proactively plan my exercise in the future by committing it to my calendar. If you use a paper calendar, pencil it in. If you use an electronic/phone calendar, then schedule it and you will have an automatic reminder.

I hate to work out, you might also but we know our #diabetes will thank us for getting out the door and into some activity, right?

There is something about human nature that simply makes this work. Let’s make it work on our behalf to help us manage our #diabetes better.

Thank you Mr Calendar!

(Author’s note: I have published a book for diabetics who hate to exercise, ’42 Ways to Motivate the Sedentary Diabetic to Actually Exercise’ … written primarily for my always inactive self … click HERE to purchase on Amazon, purchase and give away to friends and family who need it … purchase and send to your local diabetes society for distribution and if you cannot afford it, let me know)

Posted on by exercisehelps

What you FEEL will make you ill, but what you KNOW will make you go!

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Early in my career, I was a church worker. As such, I had the benefit of exceptional motivational teachings that I would listen to as various teachers came through my territory.

One teacher stressed the importance of not allowing our feelings to dictate our actions inordinately. He focused on the fact that if we allow our feelings to rule our lives, we would never amount to much of anything or accomplish anything significant.

He stressed that we should operate a great deal out of what we knew as fact that we needed to do as opposed to what we felt. He had a great motto for this… “What you FEEL will make you ill, but what you KNOW will make you go.”

Throughout my years, I have always marveled at the wisdom in this saying.

In many ways it applies to motivating us to get out the front door and get exercising.

With that in mind, I think it is vital to reflect on why we are exercising at all. In short, exercising benefits our #diabetic condition in so many ways it is impossible to list.

For starters, if you have insulin resistance which most #type2 diabetics do, exercise will lessen that resistance. Exercise will open the receptivity of your cells for blood glucose to enter them. That way it’s not in your bloodstream and your blood glucose levels of your blood will fall. That’s a good thing.

#Diabetes can contribute to a person being depressed.

Studies show that walking 20 minutes a day is as therapeutic as most medications or talk therapy. Can you believe that? Well you should because it’s true.

Exercise can increase a person’s overall fitness level which lessens the co-morbidities that can spring up when you deal with #diabetes in a person’s life.

This alone makes exercise a fabulous, fabulous option for a #diabetic.

So think about those mornings when you absolutely do not want to exercise. Your feelings are screaming “do not exercise at all because I do not feel like it”. It is mornings like this that what you feel is making you ILL but what you know has got to make you GO. Because you know you need to exercise, you put your feelings up on a shelf and get out the door and get to the business of exercising. Because your intellect is making the smart choice and the smart decision here.

We can do this!

Posted on by exercisehelps

Just moving your clothes will benefit your diabetes enormously … wait, say that again!

PHOTO BY NATHAN FRIED-LIPSKI

In the business world, especially in those parts where efficiency in movement is crucial, efficiency is often achieved by moving things around to make the movement easier. For example, in a warehouse, the most frequently used items will be stacked the closest to the loading dock in order to save time. And it does save an ENORMOUS amount of time.

There is a principle here that you can leverage in becoming more motivated to exercise…make it easy on yourself.

Here is a quick tip:

Put your exercise clothes at the foot of your bed or somewhere where you can easily reach them. Make it easy to find your exercise clothes. If you are a walker, this might pertain only to your walking shoes. If you are a runner, this would pertain to your running clothes plus your running shoes. If you are doing yoga, this is your mat plus your yoga clothes.

It is all meant to remove a hurdle standing in the way of exercise and make it easier to move into it. Believe it or not, I find this to be motivational in itself… you might not but I do. If I have to run all over the house looking for my clothes, somehow I lose a little bit of motivation and find something else to do.

It is too important for me to exercise to allow this to occur so I see this as a very small step that can yield very large dividends for our diabetes for those of us who hate to exercise.

JUST MOVE YOUR CLOTHES! LOL!

#diabetes #diabetic #exercise #YoungerNextYear

 

Posted on by exercisehelps

Write your way out of lethargy and fatigue … A1C numbers just might drop!!

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We are here to help you explode your inertia and get you off the couch to actually exercise! (and your #diabetes numbers will thank you)

Believe it or not, studies have shown that if you keep an exercise journal daily, this by itself will give you motivation to get out the front door.

Studies have also shown that as you record your obstacles, challenges, dead zones as well as your successes, you will exercise at a more consistent pace than the person who does not do this.

As I have alluded to before, the toughest step to take in any exercise program is the first step. Any advantage that we can get on our side to get us exercising and keep us exercising, we should take and embrace it enthusiastically.

This really, REALLY helps me. Seriously. It REALLY helps me!

So go buy a small notebook that you can write in and start today. If you have an iPhone, droid etc that you can keep a journal on, by all means do that!

The manner of journaling does not matter… that you do it is the only thing that does matter.

#covid #diabetes #diabetics #exercisejournal

Posted on by exercisehelps

Spin your way to lower blood glucose numbers, seriously!

spinning

Spinning is basically riding a stationary bicycle. A spin class however, takes a rather boring activity and throws fun and sparkle all over it.

Most YMCAs and other fitness centers, have spin classes, even during covid. You will be socially distanced and maintain all the proper health precautions but spinning is still occurring, trust me!

Typically these are 20 or more stationary bicycles in a large room, that are utilized for a group activity lasting from 45 minutes to an hour with an instructor leading it to the melodies of great music.

To say that this is fun is a huge understatement. It is incredibly fun!

And it is low impact and high aerobic. Almost a perfect exercise. And since you are spinning with other people, the added benefit of socialization is baked right into this.

So many people in spin classes make friends with each other and this serves to motivate each other to higher fitness goals.

It is not uncommon to see people of all ages in spin classes. I’m talking about from teenagers to young adults to middle-age to senior citizens. The spin class I go to has a fellow by the name of Ollie who sits in the corner and participates enthusiastically. He has been doing this for at least 10 to 15years. Ollie is 80 years old. He is in great shape. I do not know if he has diabetes or not but that is beside the point, isn’t it? He may not have diabetes because his fitness level may have been forestalled. Or if he does, he is helping manage it well.

I challenge you to go to your local YMCA or fitness center and see if there is a spin class. The instructors are extremely sympathetic to beginners and you can get in a spin class and going slowly for the entire period of time and no one will say a word because they understand you’re starting out.

Who could ask for more than that?

#covid19 #covid #spinclass #diabetes #diabetics

Posted on by exercisehelps

How a trip to Italy and France reversed my diabetes … wait, what?!?

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It was a normal day for me, much like many others. Except that I was to have my long-procrastinated physical from my physician.

No problem … I jumped in the car and quickly navigated the Nashville landscape in the beautiful October sunshine, arriving at her office in about 20 minutes.

Greeting me, we went through the all of the regular tests, exams, etc. She is a very personable doctor and I always enjoyed my visits.

Wrapping up, I thanked her and went on my way.

All was well with the world.

Until she called me a few days later and asked me to come back in for a glucose tolerance test.

“Sure, let’s set up an appointment. By the way, why?” I asked.

“Your fasting glucose level came back a bit higher than I would like to see it. This other test can tell us a lot more.” she explained.

“Fine, see you then”

Long story short, my glucose tolerance test took about 4 hours with my blood being drawn over and over. I felt like I had given a gallon of blood and was ever so glad to show back up at work that day.

A few days later, the physician called again. Read more

Posted on by exercisehelps

How to throw inertia into the ditch and start exercising again!!

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Today, I’m going to focus on inertia.

Check out the dictionary definition of inertia: ‘a tendency to do nothing or to remain unchanged.’

Inertia keeps us from exercising. It is a force in itself.

Inertia is an invisible hand that keeps us on the couch or in our office chair, when we know better.

It is the hobgoblin that whispers in our ear ‘Put it off until tomorrow’. It is the belief that says, ‘It’s too much effort to find my walking shoes (or workout clothes, etc)’.

Inertia is an internal mountain that we attempt to climb daily.  Did I say climb? More often than not, we just sit and stare at it. Then night comes, we sleep and we get up the next day only to repeat the cycle all over.

Inertia is a paralyzing poison that renders us incapable of forward movement. It throws its thick straps onto us and holds us tightly in place.

This happens to me all the time.

What do I do when this tsunami of inactivity has me jailed?

I find my walking shoes.

I put them on.

I take one step. Then another. Then another.

By this time, inertia recedes a tiny bit. But that’s all I need, an opening. A chink in its armor.

And usually I find myself walking a bit, and a bit turns into a mile and a mile turns into two, you get the picture.

And I will have put inertia in its place until I face it all over again tomorrow.

You too? Sound familiar?

Let me encourage you to punch inertia in the nose today.

Your diabetes will forever be grateful!

(Author’s note: I have published a book for diabetics who hate to exercise, ’42 Ways to Motivate the Sedentary Diabetic to Actually Exercise’ … written primarily for my always inactive self … click HERE to purchase on Amazon, purchase and give away to friends and family who need it … purchase and send to your local diabetes society for distribution and if you cannot afford it, let me know)

#covid #covid19 #coronavirus

 

 

Posted on by exercisehelps

Covid and social distancing and diabetes and … and … I’m still exercising

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As you are reading this, most of America is under some kind of stay-at-home, shelter-in-place, safer-at-home restriction.

Yet many of us have diabetes.

And many of us have to exercise in order to help manage our diabetes.

Well, let me tell you what I am doing. It is springtime in Tennessee and we are now often experiencing days that are warm and full of sunshine. And we are experiencing days that are a bit cooler but still perfect … like any springtime season.

My wife and I have been getting out on our street and walking religiously. We also live near a greenway that we frequent. It can all be done with appropriate social distancing guidelines. (that’s me on a greenway in the photo above)

And the walking decreases my insulin resistance.  And this benefits type 2 diabetics.

But the entire point of this is that there is a way to get off the couch even during a dang quarantine.

If ever I needed an excuse to not exercise, a national pandemic would be one, wouldn’t it? I mean, everyone would understand, right?

But if I didn’t exercise during this national emergency, here’s what would happen:

  1. a key tool in my diabetes management would vanish
  2. my mood would darken
  3. because my mood might darken, depression might set in
  4. because depression might set in, that would adversely affect diabetes (see my post on this)

Exercise brings hope.

Let hope back in!

#coronavirus #covid19 #covid #socialdistancing #YoungerNextYear #ChrisCrowley