Diagnosed With Adult Onset Diabetes

by Mary
(Florida)

Even though I have only been recently diagnosed with Adult onset diabetes, I feel like I have been suffering from my condition both physically and mentally for decades. In reality, for the past few years my condition was in control of me and I felt helpless. I was convinced I couldn’t do the things I had normally done my entire life because I did not want to put myself at risk of being somewhere I couldn’t control every aspect of my surroundings, whether my fears were totally unbiased or not didn’t really matter; I didn’t want to be a burden to anyone else. Against my doctor’s advice I continued my unhealthy diet choices and he would become as frustrated as I was since it was if I couldn’t hear what he was trying so fervently to explain to me: my eating and lack of exercise got me to where I was, and if I continued on the same path then my eating and lack of exercise would eventually kill me. A year or so ago something clicked in my head. I’m not sure if the stars were aligned, but for some reason or another it made sense as it never did before: it was my actions that got me here. To assuage my fears of daily activities my doctor recommended I keep a rigorous schedule and track my daily routine in a journal. My question to him was ‘How much of my daily routine should I track?’ His response was very simple. Everything. From then on my journal hasn’t left my side. From the time I get up to the time I lay down in bed and everything in between goes into my journal. Along with a drastic dietary shift accompanied by regular exercise, more frequent yet smaller portioned meals have become a norm in my life. I have the occasional sweet treat, but nothing like my old habits. I’ve learned that I am able to do that if I can act responsibly the other 25 meals that week. It sounds like a lot- but it has become a standard routine in my life to think of it more as snacking throughout the day instead of having larger meals like I am so accustomed to. I can only wonder what my mother would say now that I only snack throughout the day and have thrown dinner almost completely out the window! Either way, I can’t get away from test strips and exercise and fruits and vegetables unless I like the idea of an early death; which I certainly don’t. What I can avoid is the fear of going places, being a burden to others and living in depression for the rest of my life by choosing to live the right way today. I don’t have to keep doing what got me here in the first place, I can choose to live a healthy life and control my diabetes!