Air Time.

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about Lucy and Alice's Fixers project, and how it was due some air time. The broadcast was actually yesterday, on ITV Anglia, but I can now share the clip here! 

Oh yeah, and I'm in it...albeit briefly, and a little uncomfortably! It was way outside of my comfort zone, but I believe in the project wholeheartedly, and, as I said in my first post about on this, I'm so incredibly proud of those behind it! 

Fixers: Diabulimia Support.

Today's post is a brief one, but I'm so excited to be sharing this here.

Alice and Lucy (Image taken from Fixers)

Friends of mine, Lucy, and Alice, have been working on a project with Fixers to get better support for people with Diabulimia. 

Taken directly from the website, "Fixers are young people using their past to fix the future. They are motivated by personal experience to make positive change for themselves and those around them. Real people, real stories, real change."

"To date, more than 12,700 Fixers from Scotland, England, Wales and Northern Ireland have started - and are continuing - over 1,480 unique projects and over 535 Fixers projects have been showcased ITV and UTV regional news programmes across the country, providing more than 35 hours of peak-time exposure to their projects."

With Fixers, the pair have created a booklet for health care professionals to raise awareness of Diabulimia and tell their personal stories. 

To read more, and see the booklet they have produced, click here. Their project will also be receiving some air-time, date and time to follow as I can't remember!

I'm so super-duper proud! 

Food, Guilt And Diabetes.

There's a lot of guilt that comes with diabetes. For me personally, a lot of that guilt revolves around my food choices. 

I feel guilty when I have a baguette for lunch, as I know that I really struggle to bolus for bread. 

I feel guilty when I indulge, even though I know it's not a regular occurrence.

I have a complex when I carb count my dinner and the total comes out at 90 grams - I feel like I should not be putting 90 grams of carb into my body in one go. 

Likewise, 90 grams of carb for me equates to 13 units of NovoRapid, and I also have a complex when it comes to injecting more than 10 units in one hit - I tend to split the dose. 

Image taken from Google Images.

And I hate it when other people call me out on my food choices, as, even though it's my diabetes, and I know what I'm doing, I still feel a level of guilt, as if they're right and I should know better.

It's a difficult balancing act, one I struggle with. I've written previously about my issues with food. It's part of the reason this blog was started.

This week is National Eating Disorders Awareness Week (NEDAW). Although this post isn't specifically about an eating disorder, it is about a disordered attitude toward food.

When I was diagnosed with diabetes, everything became about food: good foods, bad foods, carb-free (read: fun free) foods, knowing how different foods affect blood sugars, knowing how to count carbs, having to eat food when hypo. Food was at the forefront of everything for me, and, god forbid I saw food for what it was: food. 

This has lessened over the last year or so, and my attitude toward food is much healthier. It's not perfect, and I have my moments, but on the whole, it's positive. I eat healthily, but allow myself the treats, and know how different foods affect my blood sugars.

Food, guilt and diabetes. It's a delicate balancing act. 

[As mentioned, this week is National Eating Disorders Awareness Week (NEDAW). You can find out more by visiting B-eat's website and the Diabetics With Eating Disorders website (DWED)].  

    

Health vs. Image.

January 2013.

The day before yesterday, I read a blog post from Kayla's Life Notes called "The Body" and I thought it was a really interesting read. In keeping with this topic, yesterday in French class we had a debate, the subject of which was "the body and our changing attitudes". One point that kept on coming up was that the body equals image. It's interesting, because when I think back to before diagnosis, I very much would have said the same thing. Today, a lot of people have issues with the way they look: people are constantly on diets, make up is a necessity for most females, we spend money getting our hair styled, manicures, pedicures, facials, joining the gym, the list is endless. If we're honest with ourselves, we all probably have at least one part of ourselves we would like to change. I know I do!

In spite of this, however, when discussing the body, image isn't the first thing I think of anymore. The first thing that comes to mind for me is health. Now, I know this is because of diabetes, no other reason. Having type 1 means I am very aware of my body and when something isn't quite "right". As far as I'm concerned, there's no way you can have diabetes and not be in tune with your body. When it comes to foods, I know more or less how many carbohydrates I'm eating so I can then adjust my insulin, I know what it feels like to have high blood sugar, I know what it feels like to have low blood sugar (as experienced today, also in French class, rather suddenly!) Because of some of the long-term complications of diabetes, I get my eyes and feet checked regularly too. I've learnt that my body isn't "invincible" and that I have to take care of it.

For people with diabetes, I think the line between health and image is a fine one. It is well known that one of the symptoms of diabetes is rapid weight loss: by reducing your insulin dose or not taking any at all, people with diabetes are able to control their weight. It's neither a healthy nor a safe way of loosing weight, but something that many people do. We're too concerned with the way we look, something we can control here in the present, to consider the long-term consequences to our bodies, and not just with diabulimia (the omitting or manipulating of insulin doses to lose weight), but with other eating disorders as well and things we do in order to "look better".

I am in no way 100% happy with the way I look; like most, I have my insecurities, and I have found myself omitting insulin too. I am by no means a "model diabetic", writing to tell you you should be happy with your body and do everything the "proper way", as that would make me a huge hypocrite. But yesterday's debate really made me think about the lengths people go to in order to have the perfect body and image. What they don't think about however, is the damage they are causing their body in the long-term. We constantly compare ourselves to those around us, or those we see pictured in magazines (I'm also guilty of this), but we forget that we are all different and individual.

So, my message to you today is this: if you want to change the way you look, fine, go ahead, you can do it. Just remember to look after your body in the process: you only get one, so take care of it, and I'm sure it will take care of you.   

DWED.

The unseen eating disorder.

Seeing as today marks the end of National Eating Disorders Awareness Week 2013, I figured I'd write about something very close to my heart: DWED, more formally known as Diabetics With Eating Disorders. 

Most people have heard of anorexia and bulimia and, what I believe is referred to as EDNOS (Eating Disorders Not Otherwise Specified - N.B. I am not a medical professional, full disclaimer here!) But what about diabulimia? The unseen eating disorder. Someone suffering from diabulimia will deliberately give themselves less insulin, or not take any at all, in order to loose weight. This weight loss occurs because when glucose levels in the body are to high and there is a lack of insulin to help convert the glucose into glycogen, the glucose is then lost through your urine, meaning the calories are lost too. Your body's response to this is to start to burn fat stores and muscles for energy, and then produces a by-product know as ketones. Ketones are highly acidic and are very dangerous. People with diabetes can end up in diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) and this can be fatal if left untreated. 

Insulin omission is something I personally have been through. Twice now, actually (not my proudest moments, but they happened nonetheless). Not only that, but I have friends who have been through it and some who are still going through it. For me, it never started out as a weight-related issue, but more like a diabetes burnout, and along side that came the weight loss. It wasn't until people started complimenting me on the weight loss that it then escalated. But whatever the cause, the consequences are the same.

At the moment,  DWED are campaigning hard to get diabulimia more widely recognised here in the UK. You can find out more about the charity and see what they've been getting up to by visiting their website here.  It's a great charity where all the volunteers are committed to what they do, and maybe, at some point in the future, I will have the chance to join that team of volunteers.

(All information regarding DWED on this page has been adapted from the DWED website.)