I am fabulous at motivation. Motivating myself I mean, not other people.

I have come to realise and accept that I am still that over zealous excitable person I was when I was a kid. I wasn’t born with a silver spoon in my mouth but rather a rather fabulous pair of rose glasses. It sometimes borders on painfully annoying – not for me I might add – and dorkish pleasure in the positive regardless of how uncool it may appear by the onlookers in the ‘Whatever’ department.

And it comes in handy when I need a little motivation but can have it’s drawbacks when I need to focus. I like too much stuff. I want to do EVERYTHING! And I wanted to have done it already.

I have signed up for The Color Run – Perth. Check out the clip here! – it is super cool and with every klm you walk or run you get showered with a bright colour! JDRF is the official charity for the event which is also super cool !

The thing is… I have been so motivated to start training. Downloaded a heap of cool apps to help with the running, managing diabetes and managing diet and have spring cleaned my kitchen and my nutrition.

I just haven’t gotton around to doing much training and I can help but wonder – channelling Carrie again – Why?

Exercising with Diabetes is a royal pain in the arse. Unless you do it all the time then it’s easier as there are not too many fluctuations – sort of. (Yes. I know I need balance) Exercising with Rheumatoid Arthritis is another royal pain in the …. Kinda all over actually and I only have early stages.

Motivating myself and getting excited about health, nutrition and exercise is the easy part. It’s the fun part. But having to plan your workouts around meal times – so that I don’t have to eat too much extra to exercise, blood sugar levels and pain levels can be a real drag. The only way to do it is by recording everything. Data. Data. Data. Knowledge is power and it can improve things immensely from not have a zillion lows or highs to feeling better – and less pain.  And it’s not just the data collecting, it is also the crap you have to take to the gym or out for a run – blood glucose metre, glucose, phone and ID – just in case.

It just makes me want to lay down for a while just thinking about it. Ugh. It isn’t like rushing home from work, chucking on your gym gear and working out. The thought starts a long time before that and if you have a low when you get home from work? Well, that just screwed everything up. And if your high? That also just screwed everything up.

I know that it’s worth it. And I know I can sometimes want to everything all at once and do it with precision. Which is why I am just going to follow some of Ginger’s Diabetes Experiment ideas from her book and just focus on one block of time at a time. Monitor say 12am to 6am basal rates for a week and what a morning workout does. Then I’ll do 6pm to 12 midnight and what evening workouts do.

It’s only 4 weeks until the run and I know I won’t be running the whole thing because I’m not prepared. But maybe this small measurable achievable plan will help me find balance and continuity so that I don’t have to keep going through this as I will be a super fit amazing diabetic triathlon wonder woman doing adventure races and saving the world from poverty and hunger!

Yep. There is that 10 year old me – Little Miss Sunshine, cheering me on with bad singing and a happy dance.

Little Miss Sunshine

I know a lot of diabetics who don’t take all that stuff with them and everyone is different. I would just rather be prepared so that I have everything to take care of myself and if it got to the point that I couldn’t then the person finding me sweating, passed out in the loneliest place in the gym knows the deal and who to call. I say this with humour – strangely – but the seriousness is on the edges of the words still. I have a tendency when I am low to go somewhere quiet and away from people getting all up in my face which is a slight Diabetes hazard.