Welcome To Diabetes! 1

Welcome! This is the very first post in a series dedicated to understanding the difficult and often confusing world of diabetes. I hope I can help others in their journey to living a healthier life with diabetes. By sharing my experiences, my successes, my pitfalls, and some really tasty recipes, maybe diabetes will become something less scary and more approachable for others. Much like the surprisingly common condition diabetes, not every post will be sunshine and rainbows in this series, but I do hope I can keep this a positive place. I hope this can be a place where others can find inspiration to make small and easy changes in their everyday actions that can grow into lasting change for the better in their lives. Diabetes can be very scary and difficult to learn to live with, but with a little extra info and a positive approach, almost anyone can find a new balance in their lives that is both healthier and less scary.

A Little About Me!

I'm a hobby writer, I'm a cat mom, I love to walk in nature, and learning about other cultures, and experimenting with new food. I'm a curious person that always wants to learn more about the world around me . . . and I happen to have diabetes. This condition doesn't define me, and I don't think it should define anyone. I was diagnosed about a year ago, and since then I've made some huge changes in my life. Honestly, they were changes I should have made a long time ago. And from those changes, I've lowered my blood pressure to a healthy range, I've gain more energy, I've lost 150 pounds, and I've gotten into diabetic remission! Though my diagnosis was scary, really scary for me, the end result is a longer, healthier, more active life ahead of me.

Now let's look at what this whole series is going to be all about!

What is Diabetes!

If you are here, than there is a good chance that you already know what diabetes is. Like so many people, you are a loved one has probably already been diagnosed with the condition. Your doctor and dietitian have probably already given you a lot of information about the condition and what it is. Maybe a little too much info to handle at once? So, here's a little easy to swallow summary of what the condition is , what types are there, and why it might happen.

To put it simply, Diabetes is your body having trouble handling sugar. There are three main types of diabetes, Type 1, Type 2, and Gestational.

Type 1 diabetes is a very serious condition in which your body doesn't make the hormone called insulin to balance your blood sugar.

Type 2 diabetes is much more common and is often a problem of too much sugar is being consumed for your body to handle. Your body does still make some insulin hormone to balance your blood sugars, but not enough and your cells are resistant to the insulin's effects.

Gestational diabetes is a condition in which pregnant ladies develop diabetes while their hormones are all out of wack while they have a little bun in the oven. Unlike the other types of diabetes, Gestational diabetes might clear up on it's own after the baby is born.

All of these types of diabetes can be caused by a variety of reasons. It can be genetic, due to old age, it can be because a person is pregnant, but the most common cause of the most common type of diabetes is life style and eating habits.

What's Coming Soon?

In this series, I'm going to be focusing on Type 2 diabetes because that's the type I have, but a lot of my tips can be useful no matter what type of diabetes you're dealing with. With all forms of diabetes, it's important to live a healthy lifestyle with lots of healthy meals, exercise, and being mindful of your well being. I will not be giving any medical advice! I'm not a medical service professional and if you have any questions about your personal condition, you should contact your doctor. The tips in this series will just be me talking about what I found via research and tried out that I've found useful. Please keep in mind that every human body is different and what might work for one person with diabetes might not work for all people with diabetes. For example, I'm super sensitive to corn products. I can eat a bowl of oatmeal with 15g of carbs and be perfectly fine. My blood sugar wont do anything to wacky. But if I eat one corn tortilla with only 5g of carbs, than my blood sugar will skyrocket! Needless to say, this is not how most people with diabetes react to corn products, it's just me.

Ta-ta For Now!

Well, this is just a simple hello from my new series, so I'll keep this post short. Please join me on my journey through the complex world of learning to live a healthy life with diabetes. From the Big Scary "C", to the wonders of walking in nature, to the hype around hydration, I hope you enjoy the additions to come!