How does more physical activity in Spring affect our Community? Views from our community

Spring is a time when the weather is improving. There's a feeling of renewal and new opportunities. We know physical activity improves our health, especially when living with chronic conditions. Here how our healthshared community tackles the changes from a potentially slower winter period into a more active spring period. With these changes come adjustments in diabetes medications for individuals. Understanding these comes with knowledge but also experience. Our Healthshared community shares these experiences with you here. I'm looking forward to being more active, being more out and about with less of the gear, all the winter coats and jackets and what have you. So it's a positive thing trying to be more active. I don't suppose you can ever be overactive so it's a it's a blessing. It comes down to willpower. People like to take on gym memberships and they plan their routine for spring and generally once it comes to time that you go to the gym and use it it's perhaps a good idea to do it in increments rather than go the full bang on the first day. It's not unusual to have had a light winter of activities and then you go on hit the gym get your aches and pains which will compel you to take a few days off and then your routine is never going to be as streamlined or dedicated as you planned. Might be worthwhile talking to friends who have maintained good gym routines might be good to go to the gym or join a friend in partnership for the gym routines. So one of the things I think is really interesting is the more exercise I do the less insulin I need to take and that kind of moves forward over a number of days. So if I have a really, if I have a week where I do loads and loads of exercise by the end of the week I'm taking much less insulin and that goes on for two or three days afterwards even if I don't do exercise. I think and in my mind that feels like a good thing if I need to take less insulin and without any shadow of a doubt doing exercise is good for you and I enjoy it and so I think that's really important and then what that links in with is that generally the more exercise I do, I find it a really good way of relieving stress. No, it depends how much insulin I put, because I'm a type 2, type 1 diabetes. So I know if I have some small piece of fruit, I know how much insulin I need to give myself. So if I give more of the insulin, then obviously I'm going to eat more. So I tend to go for less insulin so I'm not eating too much and keeping myself healthy at the same time. Yes but when I do go to the gym I do give myself half of the dose of what I usually give. Like for example if I give myself eight units I will give myself four units and go to the gym. Me when I speak to my healthcare professionals what I'm looking for is not It's not advice on how to make things perfect, but how to make things manageable. For instance, if you're traveling a lot, even if it's just on work and you're only going a couple of hours, but you're not eating at your normal times and you're not staying in your normal places, it's understanding, well, how can that impact on your medication regime? How can you try and dampen that impact, let alone when it comes to time zones and things like that? If you're doing more exercise, what's the knock-on effects? How can you try and dampen those, even if you can't fully get round them? Obviously, we all want to aim for the best we can in our health care, but that can't be to the detriment of our wider lives in its entirety, for the sake of our mental health and nothing else. So input on a pragmatic basis from health care professionals, I think, is really important. There are over 500 million people in the world with diabetes, and there is a huge amount of ongoing investment in medicines from industry, and quite rightly so. But it can be daunting hearing so many different thoughts and points of view. Having confidence comes from being familiar with what's out there. But how do you get started? Knowing it's OK to take small steps can reduce some of those fears and anxieties. Join us at HealthShared.com and join the conversation with like-minded people who also want to take ownership of their health. You