Saturday, April 17, 2010

Spin To Cure Diabetes

So this weekend I did something I have never done before...spinning! Our local gym and JDRF partnered together and held their first ever "Spin To Cure Diabetes". It was a blast!!! I have to say that at first I was feeling a little nervous about the whole thing, I've never tried spinning, and to be honest...I haven't stepped foot in an actual gym in almost 10 years! YIKES! :) Now I do workout at home, but nothing too intense.


They had four different 1 hour sessions that you could choose from to participate in with 30 spots available in each class. The idea was that each person would try to raise a minimum of $50.00 or more, show up for the class and work your tush off with some serious spinning! They had prizes available for the top three men and the top three woman from the entire day who logged the most miles in a 1 hour session.


I decided as soon as I sat up on that spin bike that I was going to place in the top three...crazy right?! A stay-at-home mom who's biggest workout of the day is lugging laundry to and from the laundry room and the occasional workout in my living room. Well, I had my mind set that I was going to push myself as hard as I could and give it my all. The instructors were amazing, they had this energy that was so intense and made every minute of that hour fun and exciting. I will say that about 20 minutes into our session I started to wonder if I could keep up the intensity, but then I would picture my girls and their beautiful little faces and I would get this burst of energy that would push me through my slump.


By the time our one hour session was over I had logged in at...drum roll please...26.4 MILES!!! Woo Hoo!!! I couldn't believe it! I have never, ever, done anything like that before and it felt amazing. The best part was, I placed 3rd for the woman!!! If you can't tell from all of the exclamation points, I am still really excited about this. More then that, I am proud. I set a goal and I did it, my husband and my girls were there waiting for me when I finished with their arms open wide to hug me...sweat and all :) Really I did it for my kids, they were my inspiration and they carried me through it. I can't wait to do it again!


For me this was another great opportunity to raise money and awareness for a disease that has changed my families life forever. I was sporting our t-shirt that we had made for last years Walk to Cure Diabetes, it had a picture of my daughters on the back of it...reminding everyone there that day why we were there.


So, the prize I won...a t-shirt, water bottle, towel and a free one month membership to the gym. Oh yeah, and a whole lot of pride :)


13 comments:

  1. AWESOME!!! Go you! I'm so proud of you! I'm really interested in this spinning....!

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  2. Hallie,

    This event was new to our area, it was the first year that our local JDRF chapter put together an event like this, I can say that it was soooooo fun!!! I had the best time ever...who knew that working out could be so fun?! Even though I was sweating like crazy I had a huge smile on my face the whole time. There was music, laughter, and a whole lot of energy. It was great :)

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  3. How awesome is that... I love this idea.
    And good for you spinning queen. i don't think I would be able to walk afterwards :)

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  4. I really like this too! It sounds like it was a lot of fun!
    I wonder if my JDRF chapter would do this...or maybe I can even get my school involved!
    Such a great idea!

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  5. You are a rock star! Congratulations! What better motivation than your two beautiful little girls? And 26.4 miles!!!! I. Would. Have. Died! Congrats on the big victory!

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  6. WOW!!! Way to go Mama!! That is AMAZING!

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  7. Thats alot of spinning way to go! I just read an interesting article that made me think though if you read it let me know what you think: http://islet.org/forum/messages/53794.htm

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  8. Hi Katerina,

    Thank you for your comment :) I just read the article that you are refering to and it was very interesting. I have never heard of Islet Sheet Technology before, if this is something that could really work it sounds amazing! What a blessing that would be to not have to give multiple daily injections! It wouldn't be an outright cure, but it sure would be an improvement in quality of life.

    It always amazes me when you hear all of the varying opinions out there on a cure, sometimes it can be a little overwhelming, but I feel that all theories should be explored. I will always be hopeful of a cure, wherever it comes from.

    I think the only thing that kind of threw me off was when the article said that there is no way the Artificial Pancreas could ever work. I wanted to know from them "why" they felt that the Artificial Pancreas would not be successful, they didn't talk about that and I kind of feel that if someone is going to make such a bold statement like that they should try to back it up with some real valid points. I realize that the Artificial Pancreas would not be a cure, it would hopefully be a great tool to improve the control of blood sugars and a higher quality of life. Like I said, so many different opinions...

    Thank you for bringing this to my attention :) I look forward to hearing more about this project, I'm curious what you thought about the article?

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  9. I loved it! I have been following a company named LCT that is also doing encapsulation and is testing it on people (Russia and N Zealand) this looks like an improved and more safe way to go. I have been following some discussions about the artificial pancreas and I am not that hopefull about that, anyway I have lost faith in the JDRF projects so I'm going freelance :)

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  10. Sounds like so much fun!! I love spinning!!

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  11. WAHOOOOOOOOO!!! WAY.TO.GO. Sounds like an awesome event and you should be uber-proud of yourself.

    xoxo

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  12. I am impressed!!! I hope you're still feeling proud a week later! You should be! That's a fantastic accomplishment!

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  13. That's great - congrats!

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