Great article, Joe. Unfortunately, the diabetic community treats carbs as the "enemy." They are only in the sense that if we take in more than we can process, then we run the risk of complications down the road. However, carbohydrates are essential to our well-being and performance in general and as runners, and figuring out a way to get them in us without upsetting our sugar balance should be our goal. In my case, "grazing" throughout the day allows me to take in as many carbs in a 24 hour period (without my BG rising appreciably) as I used to take in durning regular meals before my diagnosis. Even during my long runs I take in a few in my water. I am finding that I am running now with as much energy, if not more, than I did years ago. My personal theory is by not grazing and simply loading the carbs into a diabetic person, rather than the body processing those carbs and storing them in the liver and muscles, the excess sugar will remain in the blood and spill into the urine where it, at best, will do us no good at all and, at worst, lead us on a path to complications. As someone who already is exhibiting neuropathy, I take this fine balance very seriously. Note: My carbs consist of whole grains, fruits, veggies and some pasta in small quantities at at time; nothing highly refined.

Joe, with a few tests here and there, you'll get a good idea how things are going. I fast test only two mornings a week and postprandial test three evenings. Based on the postprandial test I know the nibbling inbetween on fruit, a little cereal, etc. is simply keeping things evened out and not pushing the sugar too high. Once in a while if I try a new snack I might test just to see what it does. I always keep a log (spreadsheet on the computer) so that I can see any trend taking place. Doc wants me to keep an eye on the fasting glucose in case it should start creeping up over time. With the spreadsheet, I can calculate weekly averages and create charts that give me the over-time information I want. If we were T1's, testing would be far more critical as there is a constant, tricky balance that has to be maintained between food intake and insulin intake. You should be able to graze without going broke on test strips. John

I finished my 4 mi this AM, 1/2 hr later I ate a Granola Bar 20/g Carbs 4g fiber and an apple about 15g Carbs. 1 hr after that I tested at 119. Not bad for about 30g carbs. Joe

John, yes I test 1hr after "starting" to eat as a rule, by 2 hrs your well on your way back down. Now that is after STARTING TO EAT, if it takes you a half hour to eat yes then wait longer. I want to catch any spike and avoid them. I try to not go over 140. By 2 hrs after I am below 120, even if I hit 180 1 hr after. There have been times when I would test at 120 and couple hours after that I'd be at 159, liver dumping. I very seldom have seen my numbers in the 80's probably a dozen times in 1 1/2 years. I am very active for the most part and it seems my liver is always dumping. My A1c runs 5.8-5.9 makes no differance what I do. The one thing that bothers me most about this disease is that we have no base of what our natural A1C would look like. I ws Diag at 6.6 and droped it too 5.9 and it stays there. I think that maybe it is my insulin production more than my insulin resistance that is the problem, thus my concern with the carbs during running. I'll have to bite the bullit and start testing before and after the runs, with HRM I should get a more consistant results, then see what happens when I add Carbs to the mix. Joe