It felt like a fairy tale, you know, you'd open magazines "I'm in
remission because I did x plan..". Until it happened, until I did make those
lifestyle changes.
This is something that can happen to real people but the magic is in what you
do.
I'm type 2 diabetic and I was diagnosed in pregnancy going back now 10 years. I
thought it was just something I'd eaten for breakfast or just something an
anomaly, something out of the blue, you know, but then they kind of explained to
me that this is not a good thing in pregnancy and if you have high blood
sugars it can be a danger to the baby. and within no time I was taking 20, 30, 36
units of insulin. I think I built up an inner loathing for food and just
everything you just feel like you've completely lost so much, you know. And I
often say to my husband at the time, I remember saying to him that, you know
just as we were about to start this wonderful life I've lost myself I don't
know who I am. It's like finding out that I'm diabetic
and then relearning what that means, and in some ways I felt like I deserved it,
you know, I deserved being fat, it was easier to be fat I'm used to that, that's
who I am as a package. Everybody in our community always used to think, you know, they eat a lot of sugar so they're diabetic and that isn't the case.
Type 2 diabetes is lifestyle based and it is about your food intake but it's
not necessarily the consumption of sugar that is going to make you diabetic. Yes,
I'm a vegetarian but quite often that's that's a pizza that's a you know let's
let's go and get some chips from the chippy or what's quick can we get a
quick takeout Chinese or and yes it's healthy greens and there as well but
predominantly the diet wasn't what it should have been. I think it's funny
because for the children there was always, I was so overly cautious. I did not want
for them to go through what I'd been through so from a very young age their
desserts were things like tomatoes and cucumbers.
And then do like acrobatics around the house and really active children. And I
did give them bet the best diets and the best all the things you know textbook on
how to be healthy, how to avoid diabetes if you have it in the family
and I'm not sure I did that for myself. It doesn't leave anything untouched
being diabetic is everything, you know, everything you do from the minute you
wake up is about managing it but I'm going to give it a go. We're gonna do
this plan and I'm gonna do it at home and everyone's gonna eat the way I eat
because I'm not cooking twice, I just don't have the time.
Remission for me was a new chance at this,
you know, I'm eating differently, I'm much more active, I run, I go to the gym. I make
that time for myself.
And if I don't grab that then more fool me because not everyone gets this chance.
I'm not the me I was as a diabetic.