I find my most difficult challenge is going to social events. I have control over what I bring into my house for nourishment. Where is the fine line between a "treat" and over indulgence?

@A DiabetesTeam Member until the 1970's those "obstacles" did not exist and the incidence of diabetes was under 2% - it is now approaching 12%.

We got selfish, self-centered, over-indulgent and lazy.

We have got to a place where nobody cooks their own food, they don't believe that "anything" is their own fault - if they have a deficiency it is because "society failed them".

We are accountable for nothing and everything is someone else's fault and we have come to believe that everything is OK.

In the push towards "positive body image" while convinced the masses that you didn't need to look like Twiggy to love yourself we forgot to tell them that carrying 100 extra pounds is likewise just as "not ok" and will lead no end of health problems.

And if someone is not "inspired to save their own life by making some mostly insignificant changes", if instead someone has to make it "fun or engaging for them" perhaps they should just step out in front a bus right now and save themselves a decade or more of debilitating and very painful complications.

We got here all by ourselves and we need to dig ourselves out.

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A Diabete...

@A DiabetesTeam Member Thanks. However the sad truth is T2D is on the rise and I read in the next few yrs 800-1B people will be diabetic and $1T spend globally on this pandemic. At the end of the day proper nutrition and regular physical activity has to be joyful and fulfilling. That's the best way to cure and may be even prevent. The question is how can we as a population find ways to overcome obstacles.

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A Diabete...

Being totally honest, none of it is a challenge at least at this point coming on six years since diagnosis.

I grew up in a house with 2 diabetics so I simply eat now the way I did when I was a kid living at home - I didn't know that things like pizza or spaghetti or hot dogs were a "meal" at the houses of others.

I never tried white bread until after I left home.

Of course once on my own and not restricted myself I dove in to all manner of garbage carbs and chowed down. So I did get about a 35 year "break" before I got back to eating the way I saw as "normal" growing up.

Likewise, when "everyone" in your family - parents, aunts, uncles, grand parents, great grandparents and some older cousins all have Type 2 it is not even some unknown, scary disease.

In my family if you want to be "normal and included and like everyone else" then you HAVE Type 2 Diabetes.

And they all lived "normal lives" so I never saw it as some restrictive burden that I have to deal with - I got back to eating the way I learned and carried on.

There is nothing that I can not do today that I did before I was diagnosed with the exception of eating a half dozen chocolate dip donuts for breakfast and a whole stuffed crust pizza for lunch 😁

Yes, I chart everything I eat and I mean anything - if it has a single calorie then it's counted. And yes I track my carbs - max 35 a meal/target 25 and no more than 130 a day.

Yes, I take a fiber supplement, a probiotic and a couple "supposed to help diabetes" supplements but so far I have not needed diabetes meds. And within 6 months of diagnosis I reduced my A1C to 5.4 and it has stayed there for nearly 5 years now.

Diabetes Sucks but let's be honest. It really is minimally restrictive. If people stopped feeling sorry for themselves and simply got down to controlling it - I have never been tied to a chair by a bag of cookies and then sat there paralyzed while they jumped down my throat - they would probably find that diabetes is neither overly challenging or depressing - just do what needs to be done and get on with it....

The diet sometimes so restrictive. I am not doing well with it at present.