Today was a day of rewards, a chance to recharge my batteries, and a disconnect from the ever present list of things that need to be done.

The #HAWMC blog post challenge for today is an unstructured “Health Activist Choice.” I’m good with lack of structure. I like being left to my own devices and given free reign to figure things out on my own. It may not be necessarily what I’m supposed to be figuring out, but a little freedom to wander and wonder appeals to the adventurer in me, and I always end up somewhere interesting.

My day today was a lot like that. I got to sleep in a bit, which was nice (and unusual). Having the option to sleep in is one thing that I can appreciate about having an insulin pump. Back in my multiple daily injections (MDI) days, I can remember absolutely HAVING to get up so that I could take my morning insulin dose. It’s nice having options, and something I try to never take for granted.

I got some fun things in the mail that I had ordered, which I wasn’t expecting until next week sometime. Squirt the Cat especially enjoyed giving the package a proper inspecting, and enjoying the delightful smells that it must have picked up along its travels from wherever it came from to our house.

"All your boxes are belong to me!"

Inside were new shorts for summer, which included (free of charge) just a touch of disappointment. Having shifted to a low carb eating lifestyle, I’ve lost a touch more than ten pounds so far, and the shorts I ordered were just slightly too big. Amazing the difference a week makes, back when I ordered the correct size. Oh well, shrink & be merry.

As I’m losing weight and eating low carb, I don’t need as much insulin to keep things level. I’ve decreased my basal rates overall by about 5-10% so far to keep from running too low. Also to prevent over or under correcting for meals, I have to be more accurate in my SWAG (Scientific Wild Ass Guess) bolusing, and estimate the amount of carbs as closely as possible. I’m not following Dr. Bernstein‘s diet specifically (and I admit, I haven’t even finished reading his book yet), but eating low carb definitely agrees with my diabetes. At least, it agrees with my not having post-meal BG spikes, which is great since I hate being high. I’m continuing to make slight adjustments to ward off the lows, so that’s still a work in progress. But honestly, what isn’t a work in progress with diabetes?

The rest of the day I spent with friends watching baseball. Even though both of my teams lost, I still had a great time.

Today reminded me that we need a day every once in awhile (more often if you can get it) to do some things we enjoy. If that is sleeping in, shopping for shorts that sort of fit if you tighten the belt enough, or going to baseball games, it’s important to unplug from all the daily stresses (even diabetes) for a few moments.

I’m already looking forward to next Saturday, when my adventure continues…