Categories
Activity Health

The Importance Of Insulin Sensitivity & Staying Active

Exercise is important, we all know that. Whether you’re diabetic or not, regular movement has a range of benefits that have been done to death and I don’t feel the need to go through them all here. However, if you’re diabetic exercise carries a whole new level of significance when it comes to controlling your blood sugar.

Categories
Guest Post Health

How I Coped With Coronavirus As a Type 1 Diabetic

When I tested positive for Covid-19, my first thought was:

Am I going to die?

It sounds over dramatic I know, but I’m sure it’s a thought that goes through most people’s minds — whether living with an underlying condition like Type 1 diabetes or not. I work in media and just weeks before my diagnosis, I’d been reading a news story about how the risk
of dying of Coronavirus is higher for people living with diabetes than people without the condition.

Categories
About Me Activity

100 Burpees A Day For Diabetes Awareness Month

For the month of November I will be doing 100 burpees a day to raise awareness for #DiabetesAwarenessMonth!

That’s 3,000 burpees across the month! My aim is to have a vehicle from which to make people aware of, or remind them about, the serious impact diabetes has on the 422 million people living with it, and the almost 4 million people killed by it, every year.

Categories
Food Treatment

Is Cranberry Juice Good For Diabetics?

Edit: Since writing this I have become aware that what I have discovered and told you about here isn’t pure cranberry juice but a cranberry juice drink, essentially watered down craberry juice with sweetener. May not seem like an important difference, but I am conscious of trying to provide the most accurate information possible on this blog and would hate for someone to go and mistakenly drink loads of pure cranberry juice on my recommendation only to have their blood sugars spike!

So, a couple of days ago I discovered something that I just had to share with my fellow diabetics. I was walking through Co-Op looking for something to go as a mixer with some spiced rum (Kraken Spiced Rum for anyone who’s interested) and slimline tonic (because, no sugar right?) when something caught my eye.

Categories
Food

Top 5 Healthy Sweet Snack Alternatives

There are many times in a diabetic’s life when they’ll have a hankering for something sweet. My opinion is that, depriving yourself of a treat every time you get a craving isn’t the right way to go. It can quickly lead you down a path of resentment and frustration and turn what may already be a poor mood downright nasty. 

However, smashing back a bag of Haribo Tangfastics every time you fancy it probably isn’t the right way to go either. So below is a list of some genuinely tasty, much healthier (but also still sugary so remember to test and correct!) healthy sweet alternatives. 

Categories
About Me

On Diabetes Is A Feedspot Top 25 UK Diabetes Blog

This is just a really quick one to say how happy I am that Feedspot has decided that this blog is in the top 25 UK blogs on diabetes (number 12 to be precise!) Plenty of hard work has gone into the blog so far and it feels great for it to be recognised.

On Diabetes – 12th Best UK Diabetes Blog

Feedspot has a team of over 25 experts whose goal is to discover and rank popular blogs, podcasts and youtube channels in several niche categories. With millions of blogs on the web, finding influential bloggers in a niche industry is a hard problem to address. Our experience leads us to believe that a thoughtful combination of both algorithmic and human editing offers the best means of curation.

You can check out the full list here.

Stick around guys because I’m planning on things getting a lot better still!


Latest Content

low sugar peanut butter, walnut and cashew cookies cover imagejpg
Latest Recipe: Low Sugar Peanut Butter, Cashew and Walnut Cookies
cells and insulin sensitivity diabetes
Latest Blog: The Importance Of Insulin Sensitivty & Staying Active
type one diabetes memes - cover image
Latest Article: 28 of the Best Diabetes Memes

Categories
About Me Treatment

My Diabetic Survival Kit

Very soon after being diagnosed I realised that hardly any diabetic’s kit is one and the same. From the insulin used through to the measuring equipment it seems there are unlimited combinations when it comes to treating diabetes, which I find weirdly fascinating.

I thought I would share my setup with you as I’m guessing you might be as interested as me in how other people treat their condition but also in the hope that others may share theirs with me.

Categories
Activity

Mushroom Picking – Best Unexpected Ways To Control Your Blood Sugar #1

Activity is hands down one of the best ways to lower your blood sugar and keep it controlled. As far as I’m concerned anyway. There’s no question that the food that you choose to put into your mouth plays a big part too, but ultimately you can eat whatever you want if you’re planning on doing enough activity to counter it.

One of the biggest complaints I see among diabetics is struggling to get enough activity in to make a difference. I see myself as quite an active person and, although I may often do stereotypical things to burn through some calories, I also think there may be a few things I get up to that may surprise fellow diabetics when it comes to calorie burning and glucose controlling.

So, this blog is going to be the first in a series of short pieces that showcase a few of the different ways I get off my arse and take steps to help keep my BG in check.

Categories
About Me

Happy Dia-Anniversary To Me (And Bonfire Night To Everyone Else!)

Today is my diabetic anniversary. It’s been three years exactly since I was told to go to the outpatients department in Frimley Park Hospital the Saturday morning after going to my GP to have bloods taken. I will never forget that day, it was a whirlwind of emotions and of unsettling contrasts. Crushing boredom as I lay on a hospital bed getting regularly tested, having insulin administered and being told to go and piss in a pot but all underlined with a mounting feeling of dread and apprehension.

Am I going to be ok? What does this mean for me? What is the rest of my life going to be like? Why do they keep testing me? Am I getting better or worse?

Me
Categories
Treatment

Happy Birthday To The NHS

Where would I be without the NHS?

A few ideas spring to mind:

1. Really, really dead.

2. In a substantial amount of debt

3. With a significantly shorter lifespan

All pretty bad places to be.

Free at the point of use, the NHS has been an incredible thing for so many people close to me and so many more than that too.

From the moment I got diagnosed the NHS has been right by my side, giving me all the support I need whenever I need it. Nothing seems to be too much. The nurses and consultants help keep me accountable to the changes I’ve been forced to go through and what it means if I don’t. All while working abhorrently long hours, supporting an overstretched and underfunded infrastructure. And while smiling…