Back in early January, I sent an email out to some of my friends asking them if they might be interested in getting away for a ladies’ snowboarding weekend. To my surprise and delight, nearly everyone was immediately in. It was a big deal, since we rarely grant ourselves permission to get away, especially without our families. And even when we do, there are a million things that usually get in the way, from sick kids to looming work deadlines. That all eight of us made it up to Tahoe that Friday in early March was something of a mom miracle.<\/p>\n
As usual, I was the only person in our group with a chronic illness. In fact, a couple of my friends had forgotten I have Type 1\u2014that\u2019s how incognito I\u2019ve become when it comes to managing my disease. That said, perhaps due to our extended time together, I was more vocal about my disease than I\u2019d ever been before with my friends. Over the course of the weekend, I learned a few things that might benefit my fellow people with diabetes out there, and not just the chill mama type 1 snowboarders.<\/p>\n
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Our first stop was Grover Hot Springs State Park<\/a> in South Lake Tahoe. With a natural hot springs pool on one side of the small facility and a cold water swimming pool on the other, this spot provided a great way to ease into our ladies\u2019 weekend. I checked my blood sugar before getting in the pool\u2014187, too high\u2014but knew I wouldn\u2019t have to take insulin to bring it down. Over the years I\u2019ve realized that hot tubs or saunas, when paired with cold pools, almost always drop my bloodsugar by 20 to 50 points (sometimes more). While it\u2019s difficult to find studies to back up this eperience, over 20 years I\u2019ve found it to true for me personally. As I oohed and ahed at the late afternoon beauty of the sunlight playing over the craggy Sierra Mountains from my hot and cold pools, I also knew that my bloodsugar was likely dropping. Sure enough, when I returned to the truck it was 120.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n We stayed at the cute and hipster-saturated Basecamp Hotel<\/a>, which offered a continental breakfast as part of its amenities. Given the cool factor of the hotel, I was expecting its continental breakfast to be similarly progressive. Not so much. I cobbled together a meal of granola with milk, peanut butter (sugar was listed in the ingredients) and coffee. My blood sugars in the morning are historically the highest of the day, so I was going into my sugarbomb breakfast with already elevated sugars. By the time I was walking to the gondola with my snowboard, I knew that I should\u2019ve likely skipped the breakfast altogether and opted for an Epic bar<\/a> instead. My blood sugar was three times what it should be.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cMy bloodsugar is high,\u201d I admitted to my friends Dana and Lisa as we rode the gondola up to the top of the mountain. I had taken out a needle and stabbed myself with a few units of insulin. \u201cIs there anything we can do?\u201d they asked, concerned. In typical fashion, I told them I\u2019d be fine. Still, they kept a closer eye on me than they might usually. I\u2019m known in our circles as being unreasonably capable, and it was nice to have my friends check on me after I let them know that all wasn\u2019t as well as I\u2019d hoped it to be.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I really hate wearing a backpack on a chairlift. It creates one more step in the process (unstrap rear binding, sit down, swivel backpack to front), but the items I had in there were crucial, especially given the high blood sugar that I started the day with. Usually I pawn my insulin, meter and energy bar off on my husband, whose jacket is blessed with copious pockets. However, I wasn\u2019t going to ask any of my chill ladies to carry my kit. And luckily for me, a backpack meant I could also bring a Nalgene of water, which I absolutely needed to stay hydrated on the slopes that morning, especially with my high blood sugar.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n By lunch time, my blood sugar was happily back to normal. My friend Marie and I snagged an outside table while our other friends stood in line to order lunch. We each grabbed a beer or bloody Mary to have with our meal\u2014mamas gone wild! I told my friend Lisa I was trying to keep Hefeweizen as my main carb at the meal. Lisa, who has a wheat and gluten sensitivity, grabbed chili for the both of us, likely the lowest carb choice on the limited menu. While waiting for our food to arrive, we dug into a bag of hazelnuts and an avocado I\u2019d brought\u2014my diabetic-friendly version of mountainside appetizers.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n After we\u2019d spent the entire day riding a variety of snowboarder-friendly blue runs, we headed back to the hotel for snacking and chill time. The snacks table we\u2019d assembled in one of the hotel rooms was impressively stocked with seaweed packets, Cowgirl Creamery cheese, spicy cashews, and myriad other delights, including dispensery-purchased CBD chocolate. (We live in California, where marijuana is legal for the time being.) After our day on the slopes, we all hurriedly changed into swimsuits to head to the hotel\u2019s 16-person hot tub (the chill mama snowboarders dominated that hot tub). Some of my friends grabbed beer and a cooler, and another friend handed me a tiny square of the CBD chocolate. I rarely indulge, but since it was our chill ladies\u2019 weekend, I popped it in my mouth with nary a second thought.<\/p>\nTip 2: Don\u2019t eat the continental breakfast. Duh. <\/strong><\/h3>\n
Tip 3: Let your fellow adventurers know the deal. <\/strong><\/h3>\n
Tip 4: Wear a backpack. <\/strong><\/h3>\n
Tip 5: It helps to have another mama with food restrictions in your posse. <\/strong><\/h3>\n
Tip 6: Careful with the chocolate, brah. <\/strong><\/h3>\n