Leaps And Bounds

Lights In the Distance. . .

Walks’ Outdate – 103 Days and Counting

By Steven Maisenbacher

Man, who would have thought that I’m doing as good with the exercise program as I am. When I started on the bikes it was a mile, which then became two miles. Then it was for the duration of an 8-9 minute song off my mp3 player which put me around the 2.5 mile mark. Then one day I forgot my tune machine and got a wild hair to just get on and ride. I did 3 miles and continued that for a week. Then my curiosity kicked in, “I wonder if I could” and I took my first 5-mile ride. Not all at once, first I did 2.5 miles then took a minute standing rest then another 2.5. That was so cool, damn! I rode for 5 miles so I did that a week.

Now, for whatever reason these people did not have an inbound move back to the housing unit after an hour, (moves back and forth from recreation to the units are usually on the hour, 5 minute outbound-then 5 minute inbound) so I said to heck with this just sitting around and went back to the bike. This is when I did my second 5 mile ride! WOW, it was amazing, I had just ridden 10 miles, and was still able to walk and breathe!  All this time I had been thinking I never could achieve that. So I continued this until one day I rode 5 miles straight out, no break – 5 miles in 20:11, then took a standing break of 2 minutes to shock the muscles and drive more lactic acid into them, then did the second half, another 5 miles straight out, but I beat my previous time with 5 miles in 19:47!

This to me was amazing as well as an “A-ha” moment. I’m on to something here, cuz what I haven’t said so far is that from the time I first started to ride the bikes, my sugar levels were changing, going down. I have been on insulin for more than a year, and had recently been struggling with my glucose levels, so these people have been throwing more and more insulin at the problem, but the whole time all that was needed was for me to get off my butt and do some good cardio, nothing crazy but something. Now I’m steadily doing better and better with what I eat and what I do on the bike.

This tells me I can get off insulin, and I AM going to get off it! Maybe it won’t be in here where our food options are so poor. I’ve just got to get out where I can actually do the dietary things I know will be needed as well as the exercise that I have come to love. Already I’m sleeping better, I’m more energetic and my glucose levels are lower. I know why, and what to do to make it even better and I will get off the insulin! This is just another one of those things that I look forward to doing. I’m a firm believer in the precept that if something works then use it, don’t mess with it, and thank the Creator for the knowledge and opportunities that will get it done. Smile.

Now looking back at my life, it’s crazy because I worked out for years. I have never been a small man, but I have always been muscular and “thick” you might say. Guess it’s just the genetic make-up that comes in my tree, so to have allowed myself to get to the point that I need insulin is crazy. For almost all my life I suffered with dangerously low blood sugar levels, so low that I would have difficulty and have passed out from hypoglycemia before. Once I told the pill line nurse, “I don’t feel so good.” She tested me and my blood sugar level was 33. This is called “insulin induced hypoglycemia” where your pancreas produces way too much insulin, so I was constantly craving sweets. I could eat sweets by the handful and the sugar didn’t make me crazy.

There was a time I remember when Bab, my sister-in-law, looked at me and said that was the reason I raided her pantry. Every time I went to her house I’d head for the pantry where they kept the good stuff, the sweets. Sorry, Bab…sheepish smile. Now I even look at something sweet and my sugar goes thru the roof. I was warned by a doctor in 2005 that I would eventually go thru what he called “the flip” where my pancreas just quit producing and I would have to have insulin. Well, the doctor was half right, I need the insulin now, but I’m going to do my best to get myself off of it. It will take a lot of physical exercise and strict diet, but trust me, I will do it! I’m determined and we all know how I can be when I get something in my mind. I told Sings Many Songs I would be off insulin in one year from my release. That’s my goal, so if you see me eating ice cream, it’ll be a cheat day or diet ice cream and if there is no such thing then somebody had better get on the job and invent it cuz I LOVE ICE CREAM!!!!!!!

PS… As of publication date, my bike time is up to 10 miles non-stop 5 days/week… So that means 50 miles per week! Yay! Go Team Walks!