Living with Diabetes

For many, living with diabetes is a daily struggle. For some the issue is finding the right medication to regulate blood sugar. For others it’s a fight with self to make the right food choices. I happen to fall into the second category.

When I was first diagnosed several years ago, I realized my food choices were contributing to my health problems. Therefore, I tried cutting out cake, cookies, candy and regular soft drinks. I succeeded in switching over to diet soft drinks with no problem. But the cookies, cake and candy haven’t been as easy to conquer. With these delicacies, my only hope is “out of sight, out of mind”. Otherwise, the battle is on and my senses usually win. My doctor’s advice was, “just one bite will satisfy a craving”. This advice (for me) proved to be not such a good idea.

I discovered I can’t stop at just one bite of ice cream, or just one bite of a cookie, candy bar or piece of cake. Those of you who can, all I have to say is WOW! For me, one bite is all it takes and before I know what’s happened there’s nothing but cookie crumbs left, and the ice cream carton is scraped clean. You who have diabetes know, this isn’t good!

Depression and anger were my next two foes. I didn’t understand at first what was happening to me. I knew what the right food choices were, but I was angry that I couldn’t eat the things I loved and had been eating for the last forty-something years. GEEZE! I also knew that if I didn’t get a handle on this situation with food choices I was headed for serious consequences. I’ve never felt so defeated in all my life.

Crying relieved some stress, but that’s about all it did. So I began searching the internet for answers. I wanted to know how other people dealt with these problems. Fortunately, I found several diabetes forums where I met some really nice, helpful friends. The first thing one lady clued me in on was that I wasn’t going crazy; I was going through the grieving process. It’s a loss of lifestyle I was grieving, and sure enough it was true. Once I realized what I was going through, things began to get better mentally and emotionally. The truth she shared with me helped pull me up out of the crash and burn nose-spin I was in.

Being a part of a community of people who have diabetes has helped me tremendously. I’ve learned how to strategically fight this food choice battle. I now choose slices of cucumber to eat tuna salad on instead of crackers. If I buy ice cream, I choose the smallest carton (cup) I can find, because I know I’ll be scraping the carton clean. Some foods like potatoes I have completely given up. Other foods like bread I eat sparingly. I’ve also discovered a few new foods like spaghetti squash which proved to be an acceptable substitute for pasta and butternut squash makes a nice creamy low carb soup.

After three years now, I’m doing much better making food choices. Old habits die hard, so I still use the “out of sight out of mind” strategy when it comes to cake, cookies, candy and chips. I’ve come to accept the fact that diabetes is something I will live with the rest of my life. But it’s not the unmanageable beast I thought it was in the beginning.

At present time, my struggle is with exercise. I do a quick 10 minute yoga routine each morning and sometimes at night before bed. I have a treadmill, but I don’t use it much. My excuse is “I’m tired”, which is true after working eight hours. However, I still have to figure out how to overcome the excuse and get up and do it.

Weight loss is one of the contributing factors in controlling diabetes. If I can lose forty pounds I might be able to get off some of the medication I’m taking. Walking 15 minutes a day sounds like a good way to start working on this. Consistency is the key to forming healthy habits. Wish me luck! Hopefully at the end of this year I’ll look down at the scales and smile.

visit Sherry at www.wheretheroadleadsweeklyblog.blogspot.com