Fall is officially here in Canada, but I am surprisingly not too sad to see the sun go, we have had an amazing summer here in Vancouver, it was perfect and reminded us a lot of a San Diego Summer.  We had plenty of beach days, volleyball, bike rides, quite a few awesome hikes and I know once the rain starts and doesn't stop for months on end, I will regret my above comment. 

One of the most famous "hikes" in Vancouver is called the "Grouse Grind" and it has become somewhat of a right of passage up here.  The hike time ranges anywhere from an amazingly envious time of 30ish minutes to 1hr 30mins if you are in good shape, but not really in a hurry. Basically, it is an hour-ish hike straight up the side of Grouse Mountain with makeshift stairs built into the mountain.  It is really intense and narrow with people passing eachother throughout the hike up.  You are only allowed to go one way... up and then $10 bucks gets you a ride down to the bottom in a tram.  

Being a Crossfit instructor, people at work were always asking, "Well, what is your Grind time?", as if it is the ultimate level of fitness, so, I decided to give it a try one early morning without really knowing what exactly I was getting myself into.  I went with a couple buddies from Lululemon and we got there around 6:30am, which is much earlier than I am used waking up.  When my eating and/or insulin delivery schedule get switched up, it usually leads to unintended consequences like it did this time around!

Hi all - Just a quick post about some news that was announced this morning from Medtronic. I was excited to read the announcement because it shows that companies are continuing to innovate in a effort to ease the burden of diabetes management.  I currently do not use any Medtronic devices or any insulin pumps, but am actively invested in a CGM competitor, Dexcom and use the Dexcom G4.

Medtronic announced today that it had obtained FDA approval for a device that will monitor patients' glucose levels and automatically shut off insulin delivery when glucose levels reach a certain point.  I see this as a benefit if you are wearing an insulin pump and are unaware of your low blood sugar, be that you are sleeping or distracted for whatever reason, the device is smart enough to know to stop delivering insulin to avoid dangerously low blood sugars.  This is a great step forward because it means that the devices are becoming "smarter" and are able to react without user acknowledgement.  For me, one of the most costly effects of diabetes is the constant mental drain of "active management".  Diabetes is a full time job, even when you are sleeping.   

I never thought it would probably happen in my life time, but the artificial pancreas is looking more and more promising as devices like these get approval.   

Yesterday, when I was checking out at the corner store I saw a magazine that read OJ Simpson only has "months to live", I was intrigued. So when I was on the way to a friends BBQ, I looked up the cause of this terrible diagnosis on my phone. To my surprise, another confusing and skewed public announcement on "Diabetes".  Supposedly,  now OJ only has a few months to live from "TERMINAL DIABETES"!! 

So I have mentioned a few different times on here that I have been reading and following a Paleo diet.  A few posts have even been tagged "Paleo".  What does that mean?  Well, the short answer is that it is a diet based on how the caveman would have eaten - meat, vegetables, fruits, seeds and nuts.  No refined sugars, grains or dairy! 

I actually grew up allergic to dairy, so that is easy for me, but the grains is usually where people get caught up. Being diabetic and having to deal with erratic blood sugar levels, removing grains has been amazing for me.  I really feel great.  Some might say that it is removing gluten from your diet, which I would likely agree, but I dont like using the processed foods that removed gluten either because the carbohydrate level is still typically the same and doesnt help me with my blood sugars. 

If you have been struggling with blood sugars and diet, it is worth a try.  My philosophy is that everyone is different and not every diet is perfect for everyone, so make it what works for you. There is somewhat of an 80/20 rule in my life and diet, Paleo meals 80-85% of the time makes a huge difference in my mood and energy levels. 
 
If you want some more information read Robb Wolf or Dr. Loren Cordain.

I have been spending the last couple of days updating my zazzle apparel store.  I received a couple of really great suggestions from a couple readers, so I added a few different options in the triathlete area.  Now you can choose from a SWIM, RUN, or BIKE focused Triathlete Shirt (thanks Briley for the great suggestion!).  I want all of the TBI apparel to have an athletic focus, to showcase that PWD can compete in all sorts of athletics and diabetes doesn't have to hold anyone back.   

I am now coaching CrossFit a couple times a week and I have made previous posts about how following a Paleo diet is beneficial to PWD (click here to read more about the Paleo Diet) so I loved a suggestion made (THANKS Dale!!) about adding a CrossFit or Paleo refrence design. It's perfect for PWD who are into CrossFit or following a Paleo lifestyle..."INSULIN is PALEO".  It probably wont make sense to a majority of people out there, but still love the idea.  Click on the photos below to go directly to the TBI storefront.

We are donating all of the money made by these sales to help research JDRF so if anyone else out there has anymore great suggestions comment below, and maybe you'll see your idea up for sale! 

With friends and family members participating in the annual JDRF fundraising walk, my wife went online to look for t-shirts.  She is an apparel designer and was pretty disappointed by all of the -what she called, "cheesy designs".  Okay, so her standards are quite high, but still, the options were pretty limited!

She wanted to create a line of designs to be sold that would also benefit JDRF and well as having a younger appeal.  I am going to be adding a collection of other designs to my Zazzle site, but for now I added a couple different Trained by Insulin Logo T's and when you purchase them from my shop, ALL profits go to charity to benefit Juvenile Diabetes!  Whats great about Zazzle, is that you can choose what type of shirt you want & color you want.  They have really nice quality american apparel t's that will last forever and only get better with each wash, but if your looking for something less expensive you can choose that as well.  I am trying to think up new tag lines too, so if you have any ideas that you want to share, let me know and we will add them to the site!  click here to view what we have so far!!

Hi All - Hope everyone is enjoying the shift into Spring!  My new move to Vancouver has been great and when the weather is good, probably not a more beautiful city.  Moving to Canada was pretty big for me and as I found out to my disappointment, Dexcom was not available in Canada! In my opinion, outside of insulin, there is not a better way to control my blood sugar levels than the Dexcom G4, so I have been using the 3 month supply I got prior to moving sparingly.  THINGS ARE CHANGING AS WE SPEAK!

I heard about wheatgrass a few years ago and started ordering shots from the local smoothie shops, mainly because I know I didn't enough "greens" in my diet.  The  benefit I was seeking was to help increase the alkalinity in my body.  I had also read about all of the other benefits of wheatgrass and it sounded like a magic potion! Everything from increasing red blood cell counts, cleansing the digestive tract, stimulating the thyroid gland, to using as a topical agent for cold sores and skin irritations, so I gave it a try.  I know it's called "Wheat"-grass, but it is gluten free. I really believe in most of the benefits, it might not be a magic potion, but it has so many benefits going for it that you can't ignore.  I found I really did feel much better and it did help my bodies PH levels.  Also, I made a paste from it and used it as a topical agent when I got poison oak and it worked amazing!  You can also apply the paste to cold sores and it will clear it up faster than anything else out there.   

Came across this pretty cool video showing what 2000 calories looks like, puts your meals into perspective.

So I had decided last minute to compete in the 2013 Crossfit Open, after some convincing from my coach.  There are something like 130k people signed up to compete. Basically, each week for five weeks a random workout gets announced and you have to complete it within 3 days of the announcement.  Typically it is as many rounds and/or reps you can do in a designated time. Sounds FUN huh? I will not be anywhere near the top of the leaderboards, but good experience and helps me stay focused to get back in shape.

I wonder how many type 1 diabetics are competing? Im sure there has to be more than me? There are a lot thing to think about with the  diabetes logistics, sugar low, sugar high,  but  I had my wife there to actually watch my sugars with my Dexcom G4 and let me  know if  things started to go out of whack.  This was her hastag for me... #highmaintenancehubby  :) heehee

So I have been somewhat on a mission to figure out the best way to wear my Dexcom G4 and get the most out of each sensor.  Between working out, yoga and showers, it usually only lasts a few days before it starts to peel up.  I had received a bunch of 3M Tegaderm adhesive patches when I got my pump, so I made a little template and cut a space out and put it directly over the Dexcom patch (white adhesive part).  It helped with the skin irritation and the peeling versus medical tape that I used to use.  Once the Tegaderm started to peel, I was able to remove it and replace with a new fresh one. I was able to get 12 days out of the sensor and it made the Dexcom G4 feel a lot more secure.