James Norton – Diabetes Diet

diabetes diet Have you made yourself big promises this year? It’s tempting to say, “Well, 2018 is THE year I eat low-carb ALL THE TIME and achieve near-normal HbA1c results every time I get my levels checked…”

I decided on some small goals this year. And when I’m finished, it’s your job to add your own super small goal to the comments – the more modest and dafter the better! As any goal-setter knows, wee ones are achievable and sustainable.

Change the needle on my blood lancer more frequently. There is a video on YouTube where a young type 1 confesses to changing hers infrequently. I’m the same. (Blushes deep red – like, weeks can go by…)
Inject mindfully. When you’ve had diabetes for 35 years, you do injections automatically to some extent. I won’t be the only person who sits down to a meal and can’t remember if the medication has been taken or not. Pump users don’t get this, as their device will tell them. You can also get pens that tell you too. In the meantime, FULL ATTENTION INJECTIONS only*.
Stop going on about my steps. See my earlier post on this. Is there anything duller than the step bore?
Tell people in the gym I have diabetes. Ahem, I don’t bother ‘fessing up when the instructors ask if anyone has anything wrong with them as I hate drawing attention to myself. But it’s irresponsible of me.
Stop reading articles about the ‘potential’ cure for diabetes. Whatever stage this is at, it’s a long way off. I’ll pay attention when it’s the headline article on BBC News at Ten.
Book in for a pedicure. Tenuous, I know, but we diabetics are supposed to take extra care of our feet so an hour of having them rubbed, descaled and anointed with unctuous cream counts, right?
Stop thinking having diabetes makes people fabulous. My example here is James Norton. Before November 2017 I was already in love with James. Then, I found out he’s a type 1 diabetic and my heart imploded. Oh sod it, that’s not a resolution. Clearly, diabetes makes you AMAZING.
Turn down s**t I don’t want to do and use the diabetic excuse. I’ve had 35 years of not using it, so it’s about time I took advantage.

*I joke about this, but there’s a serious side of course. Inject yourself twice accidentally, and you’re at serious risk of hypoglycaemia.

There was a story in the news this week* about a BBC presenter who had to apologise to listeners after having a hypo while on air.

World Service presenter Alex Ritson has type 1 diabetes, and apparently, his introduction to an early morning news programme left him stumbling over words. He later explained what had happened, and said it was appropriate, as the programme would also be running a story on new research into diabetes published in The Lancet.

I’ve often wondered how public figures who have type 1 diabetes cope with hypos. Those of us who aren’t famous only need to worry about treating them—and sometimes that isn’t always easy—but what about if you’re in the middle of presenting a news programme, or fighting with other politicians a la Theresa May?

[Perhaps she can blame low blood sugars for the immense confusion that currently surrounds Brexit. Some people get violent when they are hypo too so she could use that as an excuse to punch Boris.]

When you have experienced hypos over the years, your body adjusts to them, and the symptoms you get are nowhere near as severe as they were the first few times. Nevertheless, confusion and brain fog still occur.

I remember sitting at meetings or trying to explain myself at work and scrabbling around for words that suddenly seemed to vanish. You get a split second where you panic—where are the words, where are the words—before realising what is going on. I reckon that’s what happened to Alex Ritson, and the panic was probably vile because he was on-air and knew millions of people were listening to him.

Alex later said on Twitter that having a hypo on air had been a recurring nightmare for years, but the Twitter community responded really well with people sympathising, and the JDRF tweeted a handy infographic that showed the signs of hypos, a useful guide for family, friends and colleagues of we type 1s.

*While researching this article, I found out that actor James Norton is a type 1, which made me happy. Nothing at all to do with the fact that he’s exceptionally good looking, #T1DLooksLikeMe…

Tag: James Norton

Diabetes Resolutions for 2018

Having Hypos in Public