JMiah is a Type 1 diabetic and competitive fitness model. He's recently became a major advocate for the use of the Track 3 CarbCounter. JMiah has really dedicated himself to understanding his body and his diabetes in order to pursue his career!
Check out JMiah's introduction and first interview here:
GINGER: How often do you exercise? Is the balance between diabetes and your career in fitness/modeling ever frustrating or challenging?
JMIAH: yeah, it can be VERY frustrating especially when you are trying to shed body fat for something like an event, photo shoot, contest, etc. I just usually check my blood sugar a LOT and now that I’m using the Track 3 Device (http://dmd.coheso.com), it’s making it a LOT easier to keep track what I’ve eaten and regulate blood sugars accordingly. I ALWAYS under no circumstances go without some sort of high-glycemic carbohydrate food on me while working out. You just NEVER know what might happen. I sometimes carry those “Gu-Gel” packets on me and they each have like 20+ grams of carbs in case of an emergency. :) I would recommend everyone to check their blood sugar before and after they work out and have something on hand in case they need it.
GINGER: Was there ever a time with your diabetes when you really had trouble keeping yourself from going low? Did you think exercise and being athletic wasn't something a person with diabetes could really do?
JMIAH: HECK NO!!! The main message to diabetics today should be, “YOU CAN DO ANYTHING ANYONE ELSE CAN DO WITH PROPER EDUCATION AND STRATEGIC PLANNING”. We’re not weirdo's and that’s one major thing that young people deal with especially teenagers... How do I know? Cuz I went thru that phase when I was diagnosed. I hated it... So I took care of myself the best I could to keep from having to tell anyone I had a “disease” ya know?
GINGER: So, today, when you exercise, do you have a routine to keep your blood sugar in check? Like, I usually check my blood sugar and I know if I'm over a certain number I don't need to worry about going low during my workout because my weight training tends to keep my blood sugar higher. And then I check afterwards, too.
JMIAH: Well, if I want to exercise and my sugar is a little high, then I will start or already have been drinking a lot of water to flush my body and make sure I take some insulin to get me back to my range of around 150 before exercise. I wouldn’t start working out if my sugar was under 100 without eating something small to hold me through it. Carbs are good and we need them to exercise adequately.
GINGER: Besides during the actual exercise, how do you think regularly working out changes your diabetes? After I became really active, I was able to cut my insulin needs down by 10 units of long-acting Lantus. Have you noticed changes like that?
JMIAH: OMG yes... And that’s the coolest feeling in the world to be able to feel like you’re beating type 1 diabetes. I remember about 2yrs ago I had dropped my dosage extremely because I had it handled with exercise and a clean diet, I also had dropped my body fat from 14% to about 7-8% in a matter of weeks. Keep your blood sugar stabilized the most natural way you can will help you body in all areas. I wouldn’t suggest stop taking it, that’s nuts... But I would make sure I would get my doctors directive before I did something drastic ya know?
