23 November 2021

The diabetes diagnosis took me by surprise, but not completely by surprise, if that makes sense, and my immediate response was to start to work out how to use it as a motivator for change. I didn’t find this especially difficult, although I can understand that other people’s mileage may vary. Reflecting on it since, I think there are a number of things that have contributed to my attitudes.

I wrote here some time ago about being older than Dad was when he died, and picked up the theme again earlier this year. Taking care of myself as the years pass is something that sits in the back of my mind a lot, and I’ve been conscious for a while that my approach has been somewhat casual. In that sense, I was ready to change and the diagnosis gave me a kick up the arse and encouraged me to get on with it.

A second aspect has been Covid itself. I’ve been itching for a while to get back out and do something that involves wild places, and to do that I need to be well enough to enjoy it while I’m young. I fantasised about this a couple of nights ago in the hypnagogic state before sleep – about taking a bus or train north with a rucsac and tent and getting out there to a northern beach. There’s no physical reason why I couldn’t do that, but there are mental reasons that have crept in which inhibit me (as well as family considerations). And yet I really want to do it, and addressing issues raised by the diabetes diagnosis plays into looking at my self-imposed inhibitions, which have a lot to do with overall fitness.

A third motivator, and one that has become much more present for me as I’ve researched the diagnosis and my practical responses, has been reading, and watching stuff on iPlayer and YouTube. I mentioned in my previous post in this sequence that the initial emphasis here is lifestyle over medication (and I was interested when two North American friends both responded to my diagnosis by telling me about their medication.) My doctor said I should get hold of a copy of Dr Michael Mosley’s ‘The 8-week Blood Sugar Diet’, and I did. The book will form the basis of my approach to the next three or four months.

I first encountered Mosley on a BBC Horizon programme in 2012 (Eat, Fast and Live Longer). It is still on BBC iPlayer (here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01lxyzc/horizon-20122013-3-eat-fast-and-live-longer ) or on Daily Motion for those outside the UK (https://dai.ly/x370lox). This led him to develop the 5:2 diet that he adapted for Type-2 Diabetes in the book and which I plan to use.

More affectingly, I watched the Whitington Brother’s film Fixing Dad, that is on YouTube here:

The conclusion I’ve reached, and this ties back to motivation, is that Type-2 Diabetes is – or can be regard as – a symptom of something else, as well as a predictor, if unchecked, of a future that I don’t want for myself. None of us is immortal, but I’d rather extended health than drifting into decline.