November is Diabetes Awareness Month! I am pleased to present you with D-Quote, a Diabetes Light initiative that gives voice to our community and helps provide awareness for this challenging invisible condition. Thank you for reading. I encourage you to pass these meaningful quotes and stories along to increase our advocacy and outreach efforts. All advocacy moves us closer to a cure. Thanks for your help!
**A special thanks to our community members for taking the time to write and bravely share their stories and experiences to provide diabetes awareness.
“A successful diabetic is someone who transforms their fears into foresight and vigilance, mistakes and pain into resolve, and desire into undertaking. It’s not an easy path for anyone. Trying to play the part of your pancreas is VERY difficult and I’ll never be able to do it perfectly; it’s simply an unreasonable expectation that many in the medical profession (non-diabetics) demand and guilt their patients into believing is achievable 100% of the time.
Diabetes means enduring thousands of needle and lancet pokes every year, an endless array of medical appointments, disrupted daily schedules and more importantly broken sleep as you wake to treat a life-threatening low or high blood sugar. It’s maddening how many variables there are: stress, sickness, sleep, intensity of exercise (or lack thereof), stars aren’t lined up right…?!?!
Enough of the frustrations. After the initial shock of diagnosis and subsequent life adjustments I came to realize what the truly important things in my life are: family, friends, good health and quality of life. It took over a decade of wrestling with emotions, isolation and erratic blood sugars to seek another path. The Diabetic Masters I learned from, Dr. Richard Bernstein, Ellen Sherman, Cynthia Zuber, DeAnn Mullins, Joslin medalists and many more all inspired me to focus my energy towards positive health progress and embody the mind, body, spirit required to manage and live the D-life.
After being on a Medtronic pump and CGMS for approximately 8 years, I recently came off and went back to Multiple Daily Injections (MDI). The most significant improvement though was radically changing my diet from the ADA recommended one to a very low carb “paleo-like” diet that uses the slow metabolism of proteins through gluconeogenesis to give my cells the bulk of their required glucose.
I can report feeling better than I have in a decade, have lost over 20 lbs and enjoy very stabilized blood glucose levels with no post-meal spikes! I’m never hungry or snacky after meals and feel very satisfied. My sugars are better controlled now than they ever were in the past and I’m really making some serious progress managing this ubiquitous disease. After almost of a decade of trying to be “normal” like everybody else, I’ve realized that is neither sustainable nor safe.
I feel so much better after meeting others in the Diabetes Online Community (DOC) that encourage & inspire me daily letting me know that I’m not alone. The momentum this new regime has given me, the radical improvement in health and the influential people I’ve met have inspired me to start my own page to share the highs & lows we all endure as Type 1, 2 or 3 diabetics. Welcome to Diabetes awareness month and as Mahatma Gandhi said, ‘Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.”
Ian Magary
Type 1 diabetes
Diagnosed at age 31
4/1/2003
Ian’s Facebook Page! https://www.facebook.com/
http://www.food.com/recipes.
You have just read a D-quote, a Diabetes Light initiative to create awareness and support for November’s Diabetes Awareness month. Please like, comment and share to promote advocacy and awareness for diabetes. Thank you!
*Like/follow us on Facebook at Diabetes Light: My holistic journey to health to read more quotes this month from those living with and affected by diabetes. The quotes are also being shared at http://diabeteslight.com
In Peace & Light,
Cynthia
1 comment
Thanks for the recognition Cynthia! I think it’s wonderful that you go to so many efforts to inspire your readers. I know it’s definitely a daily stop for me! Cheers!