Yes, I will do a little dance when I drop in weight and when I fit in a smaller size, I am (after all) woman hear me ROAR, NAG, COMPLAIN, GRIPE, NAG, ECT.! Even more so I am HUMAN. I also have worked hard to get where I am and I will celebrate when I see all that hard work making a change in a tangible way.
At one point or another I have mentioned that I have health
concerns with my weight, I’ve said I would elaborate and I never did. Truth is
I am scared of an eight letter word that is closely associated with my family,
more so my mother’s side of the family. Diabetes(Type
2). About 5 years ago I was diagnosed as being a pre-diabetic; I know that to
many people it may not be a very scary word but to me it is. I know and have
family and friends that have been majorly affected by this, and it blows my
mind. My mother was diagnosed with diabetes about ten years ago, she vowed to
beat it somehow, she went to classes and quickly understood that she could
change her diet and life style and possibly one day no longer be a diabetic. Now
I don’t know the ends and outs of diabetes BUT I will say that once you are a
diabetic I don’t believe it’s easy to overcome it. I have seen my mother make changes, I have seen her take care of herself more than ever by staying physically active and making better decisions
when eating, she watches her weight and has brought her sugar level way down, so
much so that her doctor has mentioned she maybe could be taken off her
medication.
Family History.
When my mother was diagnosed I quickly realized that not only was she a
diabetic but so were almost all of her siblings! Some of them taking huge doses of medication and insulin shots...hum I'm not fond of shots. Many stories of people who have lost their sight or had issues with their feet, toes and legs. So about five years ago when I first thought to myself that I might be headed
that way, all kinds of flashing lights and sirens went off! There I was 29 years
old and there was a chance that maybe my own health was keeping me from getting
pregnant… I remember that sinking feeling that I was headed the wrong way. There
was no doctor at this point just me and my gut feeling, that moment a set of
events took place that I will forever look back on as an affirmation that I
have some control over this and what I do will have a direct effect on my
health and my children. I started to exercise again without instruction from
anyone but as a form of my own experiment! I ate better and worked out and lost
some weight, about three months later I was pregnant.
PHEW!? No, not quite,
at my checkup I spoke the words I was afraid to say, I told the doctor I thought
my sugar might be high. At this time the results came back elevated but not so
high that I would be have gestational diabetes, but oh boy did they watch my
sugar like a hawk. AND I got to moving and eating better, throughout my 9 month
pregnancy I lost weight, my little boo was healthy and so was I. I read books
about pregnancy because I wanted a natural birth, and with many mid-wives (insurance)
not willing to take on a patient with diabetes I realized there was a lot to be
done on my part. I read once that preparing yourself for a natural birth is a
lot like training to run a marathon, you don’t just get up one day and say you’re
going to run a marathon, you train and prepare. Mega WOW, for me now as I prepare
to run my first half marathon. My pregnancy
went great and my delivery was just as perfect as anything I could have asked
for, I wish I could tell you that was the end of it… but it wasn't, by the time
my next checkup came along I was diagnosed as a pre-diabetic. The past four
years has been a constant up and down of weight and numbers. Two years ago I lost
weight, I was in the 170’s and my “numbers” were still high, I must have been
discouraged because slowly the weight came back on last year I went in and my cholesterol was high too at that time I weighed in the 180’s by January I was 196, I had
a lot to lose and more to gain than ever – so I started to run- really I started
to walk, slowly I started to run.
My checkup was about two weeks ago, I was nervous to say the
least, then I had to wait for results to come in and last Friday I had a sit
down talk with my doctor. My results? GREAT. All numbers are down, I am NO
longer pre-diabetic {happy dance inserted here} I am off my medication and my cholesterol and my lipids are normal. Again I don't know everything there is to know about diabetes I don't know that I've beat it forever but I know now that I've have delayed it - hopefully for many many years. How about that running... for me personally it means so much - but I will save that for another day ;)
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