Hi! My name is Gracie Lambrecht and I am eleven years old. I have been living with type 1 diabetes for 7 years and have been an advocate for the Children’s Diabetes Foundation for almost one year now. I use the Medtronic 670G insulin pump to manage my diabetes. It has changed my whole life. Just because you have type 1 doesn’t mean you can’t go outside and get exercise or run around for fun. I am very involved in getting outside. I play soccer and basketball and love to swim, hike, bike, and run. I have learned over the past 7 years that with a little planning ahead you can keep your blood sugar at a safe level during exercise.
Over the past summer, my family and I went hiking a lot! My favorite was a 4-mile hike in Eldorado Canyon at Eldorado State Park, Colorado. My mom, Joelean is great at helping me not to go too high or low during these times. Before this hike, I prepared by packing a Camel Pack backpack with my meter, water, juice boxes, and trail mix. I also made sure that I was wearing a pair of hiking boots that fit me properly. Taking care of my feet is very important. I tested my blood sugar before beginning the hike to determine how many carbs I needed. Depending on where my blood sugar is, determines how I treat myself for each activity. The scale I use to determine how many carbs I need before exercise is shown here (everyone is different, so the scale I use may not work for everyone). With a little trial and error, people with diabetes can come up with a scale that works best for them. Here is mine:
BG Treatment
- Under 100 Treat with 15 grams of sugar. Wait 15 mins before eating a snack then begin exercise.
- 100-150 Have 15-gram snack, 5 grams of sugar and go on temp target.
- 150-200 Have 15-gram snack and go on temp target.
- 200-300 Just go on a temp target.
I mentioned something called a temp target in the graph above and you may be wondering “what is that?’’ A temp target is a feature on the 670G that you can turn on during exercise. A temp target pauses my daily basal delivery when it predicts my blood sugar will drop under 150 during exercise. This helps me to prevent low blood sugars. In this case, my number was 130, I had a snack, a little rapid acting sugar (juice), and went on a temp target for the duration of the hike. Then we began hiking. This is a beautiful hike that takes you up to view the Continental Divide, as well as, the ruins of the old 1900 Crag’s Hotel. When I got about halfway up the trail, I tested my bg and had a quick snack to hold me over until we got to the lookout at the end of the trail. Before we got to the end of the trail, we stopped at the ruins of the Crag’s Hotel. There wasn’t much left but, the coolest part was that the only thing left was the huge, brick fireplace.
We finally got to the top after two hours of hiking. I stopped and admired the beautiful scenery and checked my sensor. I had a few arrows going down indicating that a low bg was on the way. I had a juice and an apple and waited until the arrows were gone before we headed back down the mountain. My little sister, Mia insisted we make a “stack of rocks” to show we had been there. We both sat down and carefully stacked intricate rocks on top of one and another.
My dad finally said that we should head down the hill to go get lunch. We slowly walked down the hill passing the hotel ruins and the groves of colorful aspens and pines. I powered the whole way through, not needing any extra snacks or sugar. We made it back to the car much faster than it took us to get up. I had a great time with my family. Hiking is so much fun!
Some people may worry about exercising with diabetes for fear of having a low blood sugar, but the truth is that we can do it just as well as people without diabetes. Getting outside can be so much fun. When you prepare for lows and highs, it can be even more fun not having to stop all the time to take care of things you could have done earlier by planning ahead. I hope this article will help to convince any person with diabetes that with a little preparation, you can do anything anyone else can do!
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