Every Day is a Struggle with Type 2 Diabetes

Grocery shopping on a budget, preparing food, making the right choices, fighting fatigue, living with a non-diabetic person, sharing meals, getting exercise - all of these things are a struggle for me. I suspect these issues, and a lot others, are struggles for most diabetics!

I want this blog to be a place where I can document my struggles (both successes and failures), and let other people share their struggles. I'd also like to share tips, recipes, anything at all that has helped me in my struggle, and I'd love for you to share with me. i also want this to be a place where you can find other resources to help you with Diabetes. Things like books, podcasts, and magazines. We can learn from each other! And it always helps to vent to someone who understands exactly what you're going through - because they are living through it themselves.

LIVING WITH A NON-DIABETIC

This is as good a place to start as any, and it has been a very big challenge for me. My husband of four years is NOT diabetic, bless his heart. Not only that, but he has a sweet tooth out of this world in addition to being a "meat and potatoes" guy. Oiy. All the things that I can't have (and long for), with the exception of bread. He's not a bread or rolls eater but I miss bread like crazy.

As I look around my kitchen, I see a bowl of Hershey candy that he brought home from work, a Tupperware container of cookies that he asked me to make him, and a big assortment box of Pringles for his lunchbox. I know he has ice cream in the freezer, mashed potatoes and mac and cheese in the pantry, and orange juice in the refrigerator. I realize that I just made it sound like he eats nothing but junk - he does not, I promise! He has come a long way in the six years that we have been together. We only eat one meal together five or six days a week and so I try to fix something that is healthy for me, but also enjoyable for him. That's also why I let him have the chips and ice cream, but that will be changing soon...

So how do we do coexist without taking away everything he loves but not making me a sugar junkie too? It has taken a lot of little things, and one bad set of lab results, to get me here. I mastered being at home and surrounded by food I can't have - and staying out of it. I do still have a weakness when it comes to evenings, or weekends, when he is home. He'll hand me a miniature Reese's peanut butter cup and I'll eat it. He knows they're my favorite. I'm really not sure if I should completely stop giving in to those moments or not. On one hand, it is milk chocolate and sugar and I definitely don't need it. On the other hand, the last time I deprived myself of everything, I fell off the wagon and hit the ground hard. Gained back the sixty pounds I had lost, plus another twenty. I don't want to do that again.

Here's a list of things that help me get through the day and stay on track with my Mediterranean diet:

1) My husband is my biggest cheerleader, and we talk about it all the time

2) I check my fasting blood sugar every morning, it reminds me of my goals

3) A visual aid on the refrigerator of positive reinforcement

4) I give myself options at breakfast and lunch, as many as the budget allows.

5) I remind myself constantly of how good I feel now and how absolutely horrible I was feeling just a few months ago, all because of high blood sugar. More on that episode in another post.

I think I'll end this post by saying that right now I am doing very well. My blood sugar levels are where I want them to be most of the time, I am slowly losing weight, and I feel so much better.