While people are happy to talk about their experiences with diabetes, I WASN’T comfortable with talking about diabetes. My wife is Type 2, as are several friends of ours. The “other Type” of diabetes was what caused the death of my Best Man a year after my wife and I got married. He was diagnosed with diabetes when he was a kid. It was called Juvenile Diabetes then. Today it’s Type 1. Since then, I haven’t WANTED to talk about diabetes at all. But…for my own education and maybe helping someone else, and not one to shut up for any known reason, I’m reopening my blog rather than starting a new one. I MAY take a pause and write about Breast Cancer or Alzheimer’s as medical headlines dictate; but this time I’m going to drag anyone along who wants to join my HIGHLY RELUCTANT journey toward better understanding of my life with Type 2 Diabetes. You’re Welcome to join me!
FOR THE NEXT SEVERAL POSTS, I’M GOING TO DRAW FROM THIS GUIDE:
https://diabetes.org/health-wellness/weight-management
So, the thing here is HOW DO I LOSE WEIGHT while being Type 2?
PART of the problem, is that I have NEVER been able to lose weight on purpose. I’m pretty sure there’s this psychological trigger that the moment I tell myself I’m not going to overeat, going to eat the “right things”, or that I HAVE to lose weight, the “C’mon! I DARE YOU TO MAKE ME!!!!” reflex kicks in.
What does the RESEARCH say about losing weight when you’re Type 2? I’m going to start at the beginning – NOT FOR YOU, but for me. (You can ride along if you’d like to!)
Get back to basics. The key to weight loss for most people is simply finding the right combination of exercise, healthy foods and portion control. No fad diet required.
While I’m not GREAT yet, I have made a solid start (for the past 3 years) with increasing my exercise. I LOVE biking. That wasn’t hard to start doing more often! However, I learned to LOATHE putting my bike on a stand in the basement or in the “spare room” and pedaling while GOING NOWHERE! I even tried reading while biking, and while I did that for a while, ultimately, I came to hate that as well. So, I’ll bike during the season.
But we live in Minnesota. Weather is entirely…unique. For example, it started snowing a few hours ago. We’ve got about four or five inches. It will CONTINUE all night. It will also continue all day tomorrow. AND, the wind will begin to whip it around at blizzard speeds. Virtually EVERYTHING will be shut down tomorrow until it blows itself out and we dig our various selves out, then continue to snow sporadically until next Friday, encouraging further forays with the shovel and snowblower.
At that point, the daytime temperature will be 60 degrees F.
At that point, I will have walked several MILES while blowing snow (and hauling, digging, throwing, and otherwise abusing snow whilst muttering dark threats to move to Florida or Hawaii. But walking for “exercise”? I hated that. But I created a routine for myself: I walk down the steps with my “step tracker” turned on, walk toward Palmer Lake Park Reserve (a TEENY urban slice of near-inner-city, that was entirely undevelopable because it’s a frequently overflowing SWAMP (also politely called a “marshland” at the end of the street), then along a sidewalk, slightly uphill to the street separating the neighborhood from a cemetery.
I turn around, follow the reverse path home, and when I arrive on my doorstep, I have walked 1.06 mile. On purpose and aiming for every other day when it’s WINTER out – and it’s enough that I willingly go out when it’s sub-zero, and without a care when it’s merely below freezing.
So, I’m exercising. A good friend of mine has suggested methods of dealing with sore hips (I AM almost 69!) that I’ve started doing…
Anyway, that’s it for now! Later.
Source: https://diabetes.org/health-wellness/weight-management
Image: https://diabetes.org/sites/default/files/styles/card_container_3_column_392w_2x/public/2023-09/exercise-type-1-card.jpg.webp?itok=6Autlf4i
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