Signs that I need to slow the f*ck down - diabetes edition
We all go through life, we all live our days trying to fulfill our duties, be good persons, improve and move a couple inch forward towards our goals. We’re all busy.
Living actively and proactively, being committed to one’s deeds is a sign of responsibility and ownership, even of self-mastery if you want to take it that far. That’s admirable, and I try to live up to those standards.
However, despite all my best efforts, I keep failing in what I consider to be the most important facet of this entire process: slowing down.
In training, we call this “super compensation”: the body is exposed to some kind of beneficial stress - eustress - that stretches and tests its limits (a heavy lift, a longer or particularly intense run, etc), and in the hours and days after that has occurred it “absorbs” the stressor.
Not only does it recover from the athletic feat, but it elevates itself to a slightly higher level. That is what we usually define as “progress”.
But progress is only possible when we put our bodies in the right conditions to absorb a training. We sleep enough, eat nutritious meals and…take a rest day from working out! No matter how much we love to train, resting is an essential ability we all need to develop and nurture.
Failing to rest not only impairs the super compensation of one training session, it also exposes the organism to the continuous stress that leads to exhaustion, inhibits progress, and potentially leads to injury. That is called “distress”. Training hard makes us feel great, and our Ego wants to always push harder because “resting is for the weak”. But when instead of a low-intensity workout or a rest day we still push too hard, our Ego grows with pride while our body and mind slide down the slippery slope of self-destruction.
Over-compensation in real life
Back to real life now. Physical exercise is only one part of the equation. We have work to do, chores to attend to, relationships to nurture, bureaucracy to deal with (feel free to add to the list!). Imagine all these factors as bricks of a building that must be stacked in a way that ensures long term stability of the building. Even one brick out of position will cause cracks to form, bricks to fall out of place, and a slow yet constant degradation that ultimately leads to severe damage.
That building is your organism, the damage is real, and among many signals diabetes is a truly ruthless one.
Stress management has to do with the activation of the parasympathetic nervous system (“calm down!”) to balance out the sympathetic one (“we have to run!!”).
We are inevitably exposed to stress - be it by an intense workout, poor sleep, overworking and so on -, which cause the cortisol levels in our body to increase. Stress is needed for growth, but one has to learn to recognise the limits beyond which additional stimulation can become counterproductive (something I have defined as the Inner GPS). If we allow stress to accumulate without any kind of counterbalance, all kinds of problems start to emerge.
Diabetes expressions of stress
While this is not immediately visible to the general public, people with diabetes have a rather easy way to tell when stress is out of balance: all things being equal, all of a sudden managing blood glucose becomes an impossible feat.
In my experience, I have noticed that whenever I have to trade some “rest” due to life circumstances, it doesn’t take too long for my body to react.
The past two months have been hectic: marathon training, cross training, writing, reading, a big increase in workload and some other life things all came together in an explosive mix. While I felt “ok” in the moment, I wasn’t aware that all these bricks were being badly arranged…I wasn’t witnessing that cracks were forming. To be honest, I wasn’t even making an effort to arrange the bricks properly, I was more throwing them on top of one another, hoping they would find the right fit by themselves. But that did not happen. I lost control, and things went out of control…and then it happened.
The first signal was that, with no changes in the quality of my meals (always whole food, plant based, green light foods as per Mastering Diabetes guidelines), no changes in my work and workout routines:
my blood glucose became untamable
my need for insulin increased,
I was desperately trying (and failing) to keep it within range,
I was constantly running after sudden, inexplicable spikes hours away from my meals. My fasting blood glucose was all over the place, a clear sign of insulin resistance.
I knew diet had nothing to do with all this. It was the first clear signal of an over stressed organism.
The second signal was my knee, my “weak link”: whenever something goes out of control, I get knee pain. It is almost mathematical by now. And this time around, both knees started to bother me even outside my running training.
The third one was an increasing inability to stay focused.
The fourth one was a constant craving for food, even processed foods. Adding calories required more digestive power, stressing my body even more.
How I deal with stress
I could go on, but the take-home message is that I had been taxing my body way beyond its capabilities for too long, taking little to no rest, and as you can see the outlets of that accumulated stress can be of all kinds, physical and mental. Connecting a knee pain or food cravings to stress is not trivial, and it took me a while to draw the connection.
That is why it is important to get familiar with these signals and take the time to unveil the hidden patterns. Journaling has been nothing but crucial to keep track of all of it and help me recognise that some pains were always popping out following some stressful period.
Not sure where to start with stress reduction? This is my suggestion.
It allows me to catch these signals in the noise, do that as early as possible, and prevent further damage. My Ego tends to prevail more often thanI am ready to admit, and it still did damage: my marathon prep has slowed down due to the knee inflammation, I had to postpone my races, I felt slower at work and less energetic overall. I was also frustrated by the fact I could not control my diabetes, but for some reason I kept going because “you have to push harder!”.
I am still a rookie, that is evident, but I am learning:
My knee hurts? For a few days I will walk a bit less, take the bus instead of the bike, run slower. I will even stop my run or skip it if necessary, some unacceptable decision for the Ego.
My BG and insulin needs are out of balance? I will eat a bit less, downsize my portions and reduce the stress on the digestive system for a few days.
I can’t focus? I will carve out more occasions for stillness, awe and contemplation by going for a walk (without any digital device!), observing the trees, enjoying the act of cutting down my vegetables in pure silence.
These are all small mindful practices I have used to reduce stress so far, and they have been a tremendous help to get everything back under control, to align all the bricks and make the building more stable.
The trick is to make them the default practice, so that there is no stress to reduce in the first place! Resting is a skill, and it requires a continuous learning process. But with experience and some intentional effort, we can all learn how to draw the line between beneficial and damaging stress. I am still in the middle of this process, but with journaling and mindfulness I see some improvements. What about you?
