When I was first diagnosed with Type II diabetes, I came to quickly understand the importance of daily exercise.
For me, my exercise of choice was and is walking. Not only is it cheap, but it also gets me outside when the weather is nice. Right now, its freezing outside, so a trip to the mall is how I get my daily walk in, making a big loop inside, where it’s nice and warm.
November is Diabetes Awareness Month, and before too much more time slipped away, I thought it important to mention it.
If you read my posts regularly, you know that diabetes has become a nationwide epidemic, with 25.8 million people having the disease, and 79 million people having pre-diabetes. These are staggering numbers.
Take Control Of Your Diabetes recently came out with their latest newsletter. You can get it here. They are a great organization, and if you have diabetes or know someone who does, you should try to attend one of their regional conferences held all over the United States. I attended one with two of my family members last year, and it was a wonderful day of learning.
Diabetes is not something to pretend will go away, but with diet, exercise (and sometimes medicine), many people are able to avoid the very serious complications that come with this disease.
If you have a family history of diabetes, be sure your doctor is aware of it. Get yourself tested. You’ll be grateful you did.
A few weeks ago, a couple of my brothers and I attended a conference in San Diego on diabetes.
Overall, we learned a great deal, and I loved one of they key thoughts for the day: “What are the complications of controlled diabetes? Absolutely nothing.” Certainly an important thing to remember if you’re dealing with this disease. Now, on to the gumbo recipe, which was given to us by Bobby Deen, the son of Paula Deen. We all had it for lunch at the conference, and I hope you’ll give it a try. It was fantastic.
While at the Kickstart Intensive Conference I attended last weekend, I tried this delicious rice pudding.
I’m generally not drawn to desserts, but everyone was raving about it, so I decided to try it. Let me just say there wasn’t any left when I was done. The chef who prepared it mentioned that making this dessert is a great way to use up leftover rice. Hope you’ll give it a try 🙂
At the Kickstart Intensive conference I attended over the weekend, one of the first things that was requested of all attendees is that they get some biometric measurements.
Biometrics provides a numerical snapshot of a person’s health, and I joined the line to get my blood pressure, glucose level, weight and cholesterol checked. Before they even started, I knew that my numbers had been creeping up lately.
Do you ever feel like you’ve lost your bearings and have the sense that you’re not where you want/need to be?
I’m busier than ever, with lots of great things going on in my life, but lately I’ve been neglecting my diet and exercise schedule, and my body is telling me that it’s time to pay attention.
Just the other day, a kid in my neighborhood who belongs to my church mentioned “I haven’t been seeing you out walking lately.” Guilty as charged.
The thing that struck me is that I realized how long it’s been. So long in fact, that people have noticed. Ouch.
There are literally millions of people in the United States who have diabetes. Up until the discovery of insulin in the 1920’s, a diagnosis of this disease was a death sentence. Many didn’t survive a year.
Thanks to countless medical advances and improved patient awareness, it’s not abnormal be diabetic and live long, happy and productive lives. The key to success is knowledge. Sadly, many people are ignorant of the many things they can personally do to either reverse this disease or keep it under proper control. It doesn’t have to be that way.
This past Saturday, I had lunch in Washington DC with one of my professors. He was getting ready to leave for vacation, and I needed to return a bunch of books to the library, so we got together to talk about my doctoral project. It will be focused on helping people prayerfully transform their health, the target audience being folks who are overweight and have type II diabetes.
With the click of my mouse, I’ll be emailing the last of my class papers this morning 🙂 Going back to school hasn’t been easy, but I am grateful for the experience, and grateful that my classes are over until next year.
Now, it’s time to take a breath and then get back to business. I hope you’ve been to your local farmer’s market by now. There is so much great stuff to buy, but I’m still waiting on a few things to appear. Maybe next week…
If you or someone you know has diabetes, you can sometimes feel a bit like this mountain climber.
It takes tremendous discipline and control to reach the summit, and the risks involved might be enough to keep you off the mountain all together. Fear of failure (falling, dying) probably has something to do with it.
When dealing with diabetes, most people start out great after receiving their diagnosis. They eat right, exercise, keep close tabs on their blood sugar numbers, and check in with their doctor on a regular basis. In the end, its a lot of work, and if the person doesn’t get the results they want, they quickly give up. They end up coming down the mountain of diabetic life, tired and exhausted, just burned out. I’m told that’s how it goes with the vast majority of people who deal with this disease on a daily basis. Maybe it’s gone that way for you. If that’s the case, there’s hope!