Diabetes Blog Week Day 3: One Thing I Can Improve

Subheading for this blog post: Bird Poop, Cat Pee, Dog Drool and Other Challenges 

It’s Diabetes Blog Week, day three!  Today’s topic is “one thing I can improve.”  This is an easy one for me: exercise.  I do not exercise enough.

My excuse is that I’m busy.  It’s a good excuse.  Between mothering and working, I don’t find time for me.  I do strength training workouts twice a week.  Last week I did three!  But it’s rare that I do cardio.  I know I need to do it.  I know that it makes a huge difference in my blood glucose numbers.  But the fact of the matter is that most days I sit down in front of the computer to start working as soon as my kids go to school, and I don’t really get up until it’s time for them to come home.  I spend the afternoons with them, either playing or taking them to their different activities.  If I don’t spend the morning hours working, the work won’t get done.  

I know it’s just about setting aside 30 minutes to take a brisk walk.  But 30 minutes for the walk, another 30 minutes on errands, another 30 minutes on the laundry and other chores… the morning is over in a blink.  Some days it’s so fast I absolutely can’t believe it.  And those are the days I find myself trying to write in the afternoon with Adam sitting in my lap and touching the keyboard, with Guy next to me asking me questions like, Guess what the temperature is in Beijing? and with Tom somewhere in the background telling me he’s hungry and he needs help with his homework.  As you might imagine, it’s not when I get my best work done.   

I wouldn’t change that time with my sons for anything, though.  It’s the most wonderful time, and I’m grateful for all of it, even the annoying moments.  But it comes instead of “me” time.  I’m not good at “me” time.

Yesterday was a classic “no me time” day. Adam was home sick and completely bored with all of his toys by 7:00 a.m. When I served the kids breakfast I noticed something on the kitchen table.  As I got closer, I realized it was bird poop.  We do not have a pet bird.  The big window in our living room was open…  

And the bird didn’t just leave a few plops on the table.  The poop was also in a bunch of places on the floor.  Fortunately, Mike was home so I called him in to  help with the clean-up.  

On some level, the presence of a bird in the house that was not caught must have upset the cats. (Mortified them, no doubt!  What kind of cat misses a live pigeon on the kitchen table?).  As I cleaned the bird poop off the floor, I looked at the dog’s bed and noticed a wet spot.  “It’s not cat pee, right?” I said to Mike.  

“No,” he said.  “It’s probably just dog drool.”

An hour later as I was busy cleaning up the mess from the salt dough Adam and I had made (flour, salt, and traces of blue and green food coloring were everywhere), I noticed the wet spot on the dog’s bed was still there.

“It’s totally cat pee,” I said.  Then I did the paper towel test (PTT), which means putting a paper towel into the wet spot and seeing if the paper towel turns yellow.  It did. I scrubbed the dog’s bed with a vinegar and water solution and then put it in the sun to dry.  Shortly thereafter I noticed another wet spot beside a plastic bag holding one of Adam’s dirty diapers.  I did another PTT.  Yellow again.  I washed the floor.

Somehow in between the cleaning and the games and the laundry and feeding the kids, and everything else, I managed to edit an essay and write a quick blog post yesterday.  Somehow I’m managing to do the same thing today.  Somehow I managed to stick to my diet and keep diabetes in check.  

I’m complaining, but I’m not really.  I love the reasons I’m busy.  I love ASweetLife.  I like some of my freelance projects.  I adore my wretched pets.  (But not uninvited birds!)  

The time I spend with my sons is the best blessing. I love it.  I just wish I could push myself a little harder to make the time I need to exercise.  I know how important it is.  I know it would improve my blood glucose.  

I think I’ll close day three’s post with a question: Shouldn’t cleaning cat pee count as cardio?

Jessica Apple

Jessica Apple grew up in Houston. She studied Bible and Ancient Near Eastern Studies at the University of Michigan, and completed an MA in the same field at the Hebrew University. She began to write and publish short stories while a student, and has continued to write essays and fiction while raising her three sons (and many pets).

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Jessica Apple

Jessica Apple grew up in Houston. She studied Bible and Ancient Near Eastern Studies at the University of Michigan, and completed an MA in the same field at the Hebrew University. She began to write and publish short stories while a student, and continues to write essays and fiction while raising her three sons (and many pets). Jessica’s work has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The Financial Times Magazine, The Southern Review, The Bellevue Literary Review, Tablet Magazine, and elsewhere. She is the diabetes correspondent for The Faster Times. In 2009 she and her husband, both type 1 diabetics, founded A Sweet Life, where she serves as editor-in-chief. Jessica loves spending time with her sons, cooking with her husband, playing with her cats, reading, biking, drinking coffee, and whenever possible, taking a nap. Follow Jessica on Twitter (@jessapple)