Jennifer Auyer of Nashua, New Hampshire, USA, juggles work and family, making it difficult to find a point in her schedule to exercise.
Regardless, her father became the reason she kept exercising.
Jennifer’s father suffers from many health issues related to type 2 diabetes, including heart disease, amputations and visual impairment. As a result of these complications, he died at the age of 61.
Jennifer never saw her father, a hulking man, exercise while she was growing up.
Jennifer, who was also overweight, thought some changes needed to be made. “I said, I don’t want to repeat my father’s mistakes. I’m going down the same path as my father,” she said. “I need to figure out how to help myself.”
One step at a time
When Jennifer heard that the Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston was offering weight loss and fitness exercise classes, she immediately signed up.
She learned to use elastic bands for strength training and started interval training, which is when you switch intensity or speed during exercise to change the difficulty of the exercise. For example, Jennifer could walk on a treadmill for 10 minutes and then run for a few minutes.
“And the next thing you know, an hour goes by and I feel very energized,” she said.
Shahr, the teacher at Jennifer’s class, said exercise makes people stronger, causes muscles to burn more glucose and also burns more calories.
Starting to benefit
To Jennifer’s delight, her blood sugar levels have improved.
“It happened almost instantly,” “I noticed a change in my morning blood sugar, and usually, my early morning blood sugar is really quite high,” she said. After she started exercising regularly, “the blood sugar dropped from an average of about 140 mg/dl to 110 mg/dl. One day, I was thrilled – my blood sugar dropped to under 100 mg/dl.”
Shahr cautioned diabetics, “Your muscles are sleeping, so they can’t burn glucose or calories. However, exercise will keep sleeping muscles awake, and these awakened muscles can keep burning calories, resulting in weight loss, and also allowing glucose to work more efficiently in the body.”
Missing exercise?
Trouble comes when you get sick, go on a trip, or have a busy period at work, for example. It’s important to get back into the habit of exercising quickly. Jennifer’s advice is to remember why you started exercising.
“For me, my father’s experience was the reason I exercised. It’s also what he might want to do, and it’s important.” She said, “Avoiding my father’s experience is what keeps me in sports.”