No U-Turns

Setbacks await for those who return to old habits

It’s been said that once we are in remission from type 2 diabetes, or if you’re a pre-diabetic who has reversed their chances of being diagnosed with type 2 diabetes means that the journey is over. Most of us are unaware that a dose of reality is about to hit us head on.

Remission and reversal doesn’t mean dismissal. 

It doesn’t mean that we return to our prior health and nutrition habits before our diagnosis. Diabetes is considered progressive for a reason. The more that we indulge in foods that we know are not healthy and stop the habits that helped us get to the point of remission or reversal, the faster Diabetes will further progress in our bodies, causing us to regress and erase all of the strides we’ve made. This is why type 2 diabetes is a lifelong chronic illness that we will always have to keep in check. 

Friends, this is reality. 

There are many of us who will continue these habits because we know that it works and we know the consequences when we don’t do it. This is the attitude that we need to adopt and live by EVERYDAY! 

But for those who have backslidden and stopped implementing the very habits that have helped achieve remission and reversal in the first place: there’s no turning back! 

There are no U-turns on this diabetes journey. 

The constant grazing of unhealthy foods throughout the day, late eating patterns, the lack of sleep, the lack of intentional exercise and remaining in stressful and toxic environments are no longer options for us and should not be accepted as our normal. We have to ask ourselves, “Why do we even want to return to this life in the first place?”

Is it because we get to eat all of the foods that we’ve missed? 

I get it. There are plenty of days when I have to battle those same feelings, especially while on a strict way of eating where you can’t eat a banana. Not all foods are bad, but for some, something like a banana can do more harm than good. Are you willing to risk eating something that you know will harm you just because you miss it? 

Or is it because you just want to feel normal again…

I completely understand. I’ve mentioned this on several occasions on this blog and on some of the diabetes community platforms that the day I was diagnosed was the day that life that I knew it ended. Changing my eating habits, becoming more active, setting boundaries and staying consistent was the new normal for me. Even though there are difficult days, I know that this new normal is better in the long run. I’ve witnessed the benefits from the daily sacrifice of dying to self and taking a risk that many would find extremely difficult to do. If it wasn’t for diabetes, I would not have the knowledge of what I’ve gleaned from this journey. Why return to a chaotic life filled with inconsistent habits and ignorance? 

Is it just something you had to do and now that you’re done, you don’t have to deal with this again.

“Yes”, I’ve said to myself five years after having my last child.

Dealing with a second bout of gestational diabetes really took a toll on me, causing me to give birth three weeks early. My final A1c check after delivery was 5.3. I was done. I was finally able to get on with my life and not have to deal with anything that had the word diabetes in it and if that was the case then it was not God’s will for my life. Even though I thought I was doing well because I was eating what I believed was a low carb diet (AKA: not eating much, but eating foods that caused insulin resistance.) and being active (AKA: staying busy, team no sleep, no intentional exercise), diabetes still found its way into my life. I did what I was instructed to do just to be free. That attitude brought me here.

Take a page from my book: if you return on the path that you were on prior to diagnosis, then you will find yourself head to head with diabetes at a high rate of speed and inevitably crashing.

Do you know the difference between a trip and a journey? A trip is an act of traveling to another place for a short time and then returning. A journey is when you travel a long distance from one place to another.

Diabetes is not a short trip where you can just make a U-turn, return and revert back to your old ways. Instead, think of diabetes as a long and continuous journey, discovering new ways of becoming healthier, feeling so much better than you ever had that you’ll never want to return to the way things were. Instead you’ll return with a new outlook and mindset, an unrecognizable you, who’s been inspired and forever impacted by this experience called diabetes.

Until Next Time,

The Genetic Diabetic