Diabetes & Exercise Alliance

The Diabetes and Exercise Alliance is a free grassroots organization led by volunteers.

You’re one of us if…

1) You have Type 1 or Type 2 or another form of diabetes

Our get-togethers are usually just us diabetic folks. Our fitness activities welcome everyone, so bring your family, friends, neighbors, coworkers, kids, parents, whatever. The more the merrier.

2) You’re physically active

From a short daily walk to an ultramarathon, it’s all good. (Or hiking or weight-lifting or roller derby or mountain biking or triathlons or karate or…you get the idea!)

For example, our group cycling rides have had everything from a 10-year old boy on his first mountain bike to a 65-year old woman near the head of the pack on her road bike. Some folks ride about 20 miles at 10 mph while others ride 70+ miles and average 15 – 20 mph.

3) You want to share

…non-judgmental ideas about juggling exercise, food, insulin & meds, testing and doctor and equipment experiences with folks who really get it.

This is not for you if:

1) You just want to complain about how your endo doesn’t get you

We're all diabetics here—and we all had to go through the difficult journey of acceptance, grieving, and getting past the self-blame. If you're still dealing with that, get help. Then when you're in a better place emotionally, can see your BG numbers as data and your challenges as opportunities, come see us.

In the mean time, please don’t post a problem to any of the Facebook groups unless you’re actually looking for a solution.

2) You’re not active

Active is anything from “decided to walk today” all the way to semi-professional athlete.

But if you’re still at the “one of these days…I know I oughta…” stage, don’t count on us to supply your motivation.

3) You just want to sell stuff to diabetics

If you’re selling something relevant to diabetes and exercise, the first step is to actually participate in our community and add value by sharing your fitness know-how, or sports nutrition know-how, or whatever. Get to know us, and chances are you'll be welcome here.

On the other hand, if all you do is post ads on our Facebook page, we will delete the ads and drop you from our list, especially if such posts appear to be exploiting fear, self-judgment, and body image insecurity. Consider this your first and final warning on that matter.

We’re independent

We informally and enthusiastically collaborate with anyone who shares our interests: ADA (especially Tour de Cure and StepOut, naturally), JDRF’s Walk to Cure Diabetes, and local businesses like bike shops and running clubs and yoga studios.

For example, in Dallas we routinely promote training rides to D&E members and also to folks who want to ride in the North Texas Tour de Cure. We're big fans of Beyond Type 1 and we also collaborate with the folks at Medtronic and Omnipod and so on, since the best way to rope in more Type 1s and Type 2s is to talk to people who are talking to them all the time!

But: it’s entirely up to you whether you want to join a group like ADA or JDRF, and you won’t get any fundraising or membership pressure from us. The goal is to stay active and figure out how to do it better and smarter, period.