Take a minute
to think about your favorite food. Imagine how it tastes; how it makes you
feel. Maybe it’s macaroni and cheese like your grandma made or homemade bread
fresh from the oven, dripping with butter.
How about a baked potato smothered in cheesy goodness? Pizza? Pasta? Cheesecake?
Brussel sprouts? It’s comfort food, right?
Now imagine
that you are told that eating your favorite food will most likely contribute to
poor health and that you shouldn’t eat it. Dang! Here’s the harder part: if you
eat said food, you still get the same great tastes and comfort and you don’t
feel bad at all! In fact, despite what you’re told, the food doesn’t make you
feel sick. There is no immediate consequences to eating your favorite things
which makes it that much harder to give it up. It’s like having your security
blanket ripped from your hands.
This is what it’s
like to live with type 2 diabetes, specifically if you don’t use mealtime
insulin.
Here’s another
thing that makes this difficult: you are constantly bombarded with the idea
that you can eat whatever you want, in moderation. Well-meaning friends and
even HCP can tell you that it’s “ok” to indulge from time to time. A little bit
won’t hurt! Really? Maybe it will hurt. Go back to thinking about your mac and
cheese or pizza or cheesecake; your comfort food. Can you see yourself being ok
with just a bite now and then? Well, if you’re like me you can’t. Just a bite
of pizza? Get real. And even worse, think about doing without your security
blanket for the rest of your life!
People who live
with type 2 diabetes often don’t receive adequate education to understand how
to make changes and why it’s important. We are often told, ad naseum, about all
the complications in our future if we don’t toe the line and yet we aren’t
really prepared to make the changes we need to make. I mean, I ate pizza and my
foot didn’t fall off! What gives?
My point: (I do
have one). Living with type 2 diabetes is hard. Most people aren’t taught how
to use their glucose meter to determine how foods affect their BG. In fact, many are discouraged from checking
their BG very often (limited test strips and lack of funds). They are told that
they need to moderate and then are chastised if their A1c goes up. "What did you do wrong?" Huh? Society
adores food and we are faced with celebrations where we’re supposed to moderate
while everyone else does whatever they damn well please. We are stigmatized on
social media for being fat and lazy and told that “all we have to do” is XYZ
and we’ll be fine! Come on, what’s wrong with you? Eat this way. Walk this way.
Just freakin DO IT! It’s not that hard!
Yes, it is.
With all the
talk about how to eat in a more healthy way or what diet is best or how we
ought to be exercising, no one ever stops to say, “Hey, I bet it’s hard. I’m
sorry.” Instead we’re told to suck it up and get with the program.
Think about
your favorite comfort food for a minute. Now think about how much you’d miss it
if it disappeared from your life.
Hey, I bet it’s
hard. I’m sorry.
