I was diagnosed with diabetes quite by accident. The law firm I was working at had a health fare, and my boss hadn’t been to the doctors office in over 25 years. I was 32 years old, and while overweight, I thought I was in okay health.
A month before this health fare, my sister asked if we could do Weight Watchers together.
To tell you the truth I wasn’t all that interested in losing weight. I loved all the food! But to support my sister I agreed. We went to our first meeting, got the list of things to do – drink more water, move more, track food, etc.
I went along my merry way that first week – eating what I normally did to maintain my 190 pound body – Burger King for breakfast, special Starbucks coffee in the morning, deep dish pizza slices dipped in ranch dressing – you get the idea.
After that first week when we went to weight in, I thought “I am so screwed.” To my surprise though, the woman who weighed me in said “congrats – you lost five pounds!: What? All I had to do was “say” I was on Weight Watchers and the weight just falls off!
That happened the next three weeks in a row – for a total weight loss of -19 pounds in one month, and I hadn’t changed a thing. But that health fare changed everything for me.
Do you know what the telltale signs of diabetes is? Excessive thirst and rapid weight loss – I thought because I was drinking more water because Weight Watchers was telling me to, that was the reason I was so thirsty all the time.
My boss turned out to be fine. I got a call the next day asking me if I had a primary care physician, because my blood sugar was in the 500s!
My Dad was diabetic, and I watched him struggle with it, and that diagnosis just made me so sad that I would have a chronic disease for the rest of my life – I was only 32!
But knowledge is power. I’ve seen my endocrinologist three times a year for the last 22 years. I wear a Freestyle Libre continuous glucose monitor, and I find great apps to help me, like Healthline’s T2D app. How I wished I would have had this type of technology when first diagnosed because there are so many questions.
What I love about this app is that there are all different types of group chat rooms – you can participate in all or just the ones that spark an interest – for me it’s diet and nutrition – you know I always love to talk about food! I also think it’s funny that people have told me on social media that I can’t eat pasta because I am diabetic. So much misinformation out there!
Every night they have nightly chats, you can pop in to ask a quick question, or answer other peoples question – the biggest piece of advice I can give anyone is that diabetes isn’t the end of the world – it is a manageable disease if you take charge of it and use the tools you available to you, including this app.
There I am on the chat! Join me there if you like, and feel free if you have anyone in your life who is diabetic to check it out – I hope to see you there!
I admit I am afraid if developing diabetes. My grandmother had it and back then it was a bear to deal with. It was attributed to her weight but she simply wouldn’t diet and continued to eat what she wanted and gave herself a needle whenever it was necessary. I always get tested to make sure I haven’t developed it, but it helps to hear that you can live with it. Most of your recipes are diabetic friendly right?
Hi! While there is a higher likelihood that you could get diabetes because other people in your family have it, it doesn’t mean you will. I have a twin sister and a brother and neither of them have it.
You can manage diabetes, but it takes a little work to figure out what works for you. Yes, most of my recipes can be eaten by diabetics, but I take insulin so I can really eat anything I want. :D. Hugs!