Food and exercise

I am borderline hypoglycemic.  In practical terms, this means that my body doesn't know how to store up energy from food and dole it out gradually (like everyone else's does).  I'm like a wind-up toy: eating "winds me up" and gives me energy...

...and then as I digest my food, I "wind down" until finally I am both extremely hungry and pretty much unable to function as a human being.

I have to "recharge" myself with frequent meals.*


Also, I have to be careful of sugar because it hits me all at once.  Apparently, eating a popsicle or cookie gives "normal" people a bit of a buzz for a few hours as their pancreas(?) rations out the sugar a bit at a time; I get high as a freaking kite for 20 minutes**. 

It's actually pretty fun...until the inevitable crash.

I bring this up because I'm going to the gym today for the first time in years and I'm nervous as hell.  I love(d) weight training, but it's always so hard to time it right...you know, to contrive to be at the gym during that fifteen minutes between when I feel "too full" and "too hungry" to lift weights.  I do have some pills that help even out my blood sugar, but I went off them for a while and just started up again yesterday so probably they haven't kicked in yet (they're called Multi Glyco, if you're wondering. The brand name is Genestra).  But I did make sure to eat frequent, balanced, low-carb meals yesterday and today in preparation, so that's something.

I've got a friend going with me to the gym, by the way.  I've never had a "gym buddy" before, and I'm totally psyched - the social aspect of the workouts will give me something to look forward to no matter now I'm feeling, plus I'm way less likely to weasel out of working out if there's someone to hold me accountable.  Still...I'm afraid I'll have an energy crash today and not be able to do much of anything, and I'll feel like a loser.  Plus, I think at this point I've surpassed "out of shape" and gone straight into "seriously atrophied" so even if my energy holds up, my performance will be...embarrassing.  To me, anyway.

I seriously do turn this red when I exert myself.  Other gym-goers have stopped to ask me if I'm okay.

Wish me luck.


*At my old job, they once took us to lunch at an all-you-can-eat Chinese restaurant.  Later that day, a coworker saw me eating a salad at my desk and said, "How can you be eating?!  We had such a huge lunch!" and I replied, "Dude, that was like two hours ago!" and she looked at me like I was weird.

**Even a piece of fruit can give me a buzz and a crash if I eat it on its own, without some protein to help absorb the natural sugars.  Yes, my life sucks.