Well it’s the New Year and many of us look at this time of year as a time to wipe the slate clean and start fresh. I know it sounds cliché but I think it’s a good thing. For some of us that have great habits all year long it may not be that important to make a new year’s resolution but for others who may have gotten off track, its symbolizes an opportunity to hit the restart button (me being one of them). But in order to want to make positive changes it’s important for people to have hope that the changes that they’ll be making will be worth the effort.
Too many times I hear people describing diabetes as a chronic disease that will just get worse over time and (if you have type 2 diabetes) you will eventually end up on insulin. Following, is talk about making positive behavior changes.
I don’t know about you, but it’s not too motivating to me to want to make lifestyle changes if I think that it will not impact the long term outcome of the disease process I am trying to improve. This goes not only for diabetes but for anyone. If someone told me to exercise 5 days a week for an hour a day but “oh, by the way, you won’t lose any weight or feel better”, why would I do it? I need that hope to know that the behavior changes l’ll be making will help me reach my goals.
I feel like we don’t always give people enough hope to motivate them to make the changes to live a better life. I think to an extent, you do have a lot of control over your health. It may take some time and some experimentation but I believe you can reverse direction, start to feel better and have a better quality of life.
Maybe your goal is to lose weight or have more energy, get off of a certain medication or keep your blood sugar in a certain range. I think if you taking the steps necessary to see changes one day at a time, and feeling better, that you are changing the course of your health. I think if we stop describing diabetes as a progressive disease and instead start describing it as something that is possible to manage, then more people would be motivated to make the changes needed to have a better quality of life.
One member once told me, “I finally feel like I am in control of my diabetes rather than it having control over me” and I thought that was a very powerful statement. I would love for everyone to feel that way and I think they could if we just give them hope.
I am making some changes to get back on track and I will be setting some goals for myself, what are some of your goals for the New Year?
I'm back on the treadmill for 2015 - haven't been able to due to foot surgery on both feet - but I'm starting slowly (15 min each day first week)and adding 5 minutes each week or 2. Tonight I go for 25 minutes.
Aweosome! I only exercised 3 times last week but the holidays were rough this year so I am easing into it, going for 4 times this week. Good luck!!