food – The Diabetes Football Community

In our third addition we share the thoughts of Jack O’Brien… Jack has a fresh outlook on the way Diabetes has impacted his life having been diagnosed quite recently! His account offers some great insight into how a newbie to type 1 Diabetes feels about the challenge of this condition coming into their life… No more words from us let Jack do the talking…

“First of all, I think I should point out that I am a relative newbie in the Diabetic world having only been Diagnosed 2 years ago today! (I wrote this on 6^thFeb). DiaEuro was only the second time I was going to be away from home, and all the supposed safety that comes with that, since I was diagnosed.

To say I was nervous doesn’t really do it justice! I was fully aware that I was going to be spending the week with a group of people who have for the most part been Type 1 Diabetic for a long time. The fear or seeming like I don’t really know what I’m doing, or “messing up” all the time was playing on my mind because this was for me the first time I would be spending a prolonged period of time with other Diabetics. It’s funny how weird things like this can play on your mind! I was seriously still at a stage where I felt like it was only me who suffered from hypos because everyone else would have it under control!

The first morning we are there, we all go down to breakfast together as a squad to enjoy the spread of food that was being put on. It was this experience that alleviated all the pre concerns I had. Seeing most of us checking sugar levels and injecting insulin immediately eased my nerves. This was something that I found awkward to do beforehand.

Before you knew it, Diabetic chat was bouncing around the table. The same problems I found, others were also talking about. In a weird way, if felt so liberating! That sense of not being in something alone, that others have found ways to overcome similar situations and have come through them to find solutions was amazing for a newbie to hear.

You hear the phrase “trial and error” thrown around a lot when it comes to Diabetes, and I really understood that so much more after this journey. A corner was well and truly turned for me during this week. I am now playing sports more regularly, because I feel more confident. Understanding food on the day of playing football is something that is so important. Seeing other people using the Dexcom looked brilliant. Once I finished my trial run, I missed it so much that I signed up for 12 months.

The whole experience was invaluable to me. I learned more in that week than I would have done in years studying books and speaking to specialists. Seeing people who regularly play sport and manage their Diabetes gave me so many tips and ideas that I use myself now. There really is no better experience than experience itself.”

Thank you to Jack for sharing his thoughts on how TDFC has helped him and the UK DiaEuro team in particular. If you want to follow Jack on social media you can find him on Twitter @DalstonGooner … If you want to know what’s going on at Arsenal FC Jack’s your man to follow!!

My name is Jo Hanna and I am one of the Diabetes Dietitians working at Poole Hospital but also a huge exercise enthusiast! I’ve been a Dietitian for 8 years now and working in diabetes for 5. Secretly I always wanted to be a Sports Dietitian working for Manchester United! I grew up playing football and most of my childhood was spent as the token girl in the team, even playing for Dorset under 12s. Football was my true passion but sadly for me at the time football was still considered a ‘boys sport’ and once I reached the age of 12 I was told by my school I could no longer play football with the boys. I was devastated by this at the time and although I got back into football at University it was too late for me so I ended up running instead. I have pushed myself in this area, winning 6 of the Dorset Road League races last year in addition to my greatest achievement, a sub 3 hour London marathon.

Exercise for me, as I’m sure it is for many of you is my stress release and plays a huge part in my self-esteem and social life. It therefore really saddens me that 36% of people living with type 1 diabetes view exercising to be a challenge. To be honest I’m surprised it’s not higher! I decided along with our consultant Mike Masding that it was worth trying to target this group in a specific exercise clinic to allow tailored advice around nutrition and insulin adjustment, to enable those struggling to enjoy their exercise and de-stress rather than the opposite. Training as I well know is challenging enough without throwing diabetes into the mix! I’m keen to ‘even the playing field’ in any way I can.

I decided I wanted to write for the TDFC to see if I can help advise the wider sporting community and given my passion for football in particular I thought this would be the perfect place. It’s inspiring to see the UK’s first all Diabetic Futsal team (Click for Players’ Blog) competing this summer as well as the results they achieved. I work with children and teenagers with diabetes too and feel these players are a great role model.

My aim is to write a different blog every few weeks with a few tips and hints to help you get your fueling right both pre, during and after. Often we tend to base our advice around timing and quantity of carbohydrates but as I have come to understand the quality of the carbohydrates and protein and fluid intake are also key components I would like to cover. I’m keen to help and advise in any way I can so please if you have any particular topics you would like covered just let me know.

Firstly today let’s consider your overall daily intake as it’s always best to review this whether you have diabetes or not if you’re serious about your sport. Often I’m finding overall carbohydrate intakes are inadequate as the focus tends to be around the actual activity itself. Football is a classic example of a sport that can actually result in quite stable readings at the time due to the fact there is a mixture of slower jogging and sprints. The bigger risk here is hypos after the game or training due to depleted glycogen and increased metabolism, this is a really important aspect to consider when avoiding the dreaded nocturnal hypos. To help avoid this ideally if you’re training regularly you need 50% of your intake to come from carbohydrates (including fruit).Protein should contribute approximately 25% of your diet (timing is key with this) and the other 25% should come from your vegetables and salad. Fat is likely to come alongside your carbs and protein intake but can also be a useful tool in helping to alter the timing of peak absorption of glucose from any carbohydrate. Don’t forget your fluid either as even if you have your glucose levels perfect if you’re dehydrated, even by 2% this will impair your performance.

Over my next blogs we can look at;

Carbohydrates-type and quantity pre, during and post (this might be a few blogs).
Protein -why it’s important and timing of this.
Fruit and vegetables-why these are important too
Fluid-getting this right

Feel free to contact me at Joanna.hanna@poole.nhs.uk

Tag: food

It’s much more than just Football or Futsal… Part 3 (Jack O’Brien)

Food Series Part 1 – Healthy Eating: Getting the balance right