"How are you?" The Mr. wanted to know as I climbed to the top of a step ladder in our kitchen last night.

"I'm good, sweetie. Just trying to fend off a potential low," I said.

"Oh?" he questioned.

"It's hard work getting all this wallpaper off," I said, scraping off pink, flowery wallpaper. (Good riddance, finally!) There were several moments when I was actually slightly out of breath and felt my heart racing a bit.

I had tried a new recipe last night: mini pizzas made on English muffins-definitely not a diabetic-friendly meal, but I'm cutting costs and this was yummy and cheap. I snacked a little before dinner and thought I had bolused appropriately for the pizza. But without checking my numbers before getting to work on the kitchen, I don't really know where I was before my "workout."

It was only about 10 minutes into my regimen-spray a combination of liquid fabric softener and hot water on the bottom layer of wallpaper and then quickly scrape it off-when I started to feel funny. I knew I wasn't low, but I didn't feel right. Trouble was, I couldn't tell if I was feeling something related to diabetes, or if my body was just reacting weirdly to the new activity I was putting it through.

Although I didn't want to break my rhythm, I stopped, sat down on the couch and checked my sugar. I was surprised, actually, to see 85. I suspect it was a combination of a slight over-bolus and the scraping.

You might not think it is, but literally any kind of physical activity can do a number on your blood sugar (no pun intended!). Working on an article for a diabetes magazine once, I spoke to a diabetes educator who said she has to suspend her pump for an hour of vigorous exercise, as well as for an hour of gardening. They are two completely different types of physical activity, but can still have such an effect on your blood sugar that you need to pay close attention to the signals your body is sending you.

So just because you can't/don't/won't get out for a 30-minute walk or a 60-minute all-out, full-body exercise extravaganza, doesn't mean that a quick walk around the block-or two hours of scraping off wallpaper-won't do you and your blood sugar a little good.