It’s been over a year since I’ve was diagnosed with type two diabetes. I don’t think I’ve done that badly with improving my lifestyle. For my first six months or so, until the end of last year, I concentrated on my diet and although I do have the occasional small cheat, I do my best to stay on the straight and narrow when it comes to eating sensibly. I’ve managed to keep my blood sugar readings at acceptable levels that my GP is happy with, so that was my first goal last year, to maintain a healthy diet, which I believe I have achieved.
Humans are great though at living in a state of convenient denial though. I am a nurse, so I really should have known better. My Mom was diagnosed as a Type Two Diabetic when she was in her mid forties, so I was in my early twenties. If I had had the sense back then, I would have been sensible with my diet, and exercised regularly, and not put on those extra kilos through the years. In my twenties, I did exercise, I enjoyed mountain biking and walking, but definitely once I hit my thirties I slowed down. Maybe I am making excuses, but as a nurse working twelve hour shifts, weekends, public holidays and night duty haven’t helped me in keeping up a good exercise schedule.
At the beginning of the year I joined a group called Run/Walk for Life, so I could become more active and get fit, which was my second goal. I’ve never thought of myself as badly overweight, but if one goes by the BMI chart, well it’s bad news for me as I am 18 kilos overweight, which puts me at the start of the obese category. I know people who are at least twice the size of me, so if I compare myself to them, I am not hugely overweight but 18 kilos is still 18 kilos overweight and it probably has contributed to my developing diabetes. Not to mention that my mother is also diabetic so weigh in on the genetic predisposition and that doesn’t help much either. Anyway, at Run/Walk for Life, I began walking on the field/track, 400 m laps and to start with and it seemed like I could have done more than the ten minutes I was allowed, because a ten minute walk didn’t seem like much of an effort, even for an unfit person like me. I was told to walk at a pace that I was comfortable at, and not over do it, especially in the beginning, but it was frustrating not to be able to go longer and it didn’t seem like “comfortable” walking was much of a challenge. Once I was allowed to do more laps, I pushed myself more & tried to keep up with the faster walkers, but I struggled to keep up with them. I guess having not done regular exercise for well over ten years, trying to keep up with those faster walkers was not easy. I would console myself by looking back at the even slower walkers than me, and tell myself I wasn’t doing too badly (even if those slower walkers were bigger and older than me!). I think though, maybe I am not a fast walker anyway, but then again maybe I’m being too impatient. At the beginning of May I started running a little, as I felt I needed more a of a challenge, and that it certainly was. I could barely run 50 ms and my leg muscles, particularly my calf muscles would be aching. Slowly I pushed through it, running through 100 ms, 200 ms 300 & so on and now I can run about 1 km before I need to catch my breath. When I start off, I huff and puff, and probably sound like I’m trying to blow a house down, but I do start off too quickly. I am trying to start slowly, but for some reason, I find it difficult. At school I was a good sprinter, and did well in the 100 & 200 m races, so maybe that’s part of the reason why. Once I have run 2 or 3 k s then I settle down and find that comfortable pace to run at. Although seeing I am only running 5 ks at the moment, once I have found that good pace it seems the run is almost over. I have just about made the transition from field to road, and have done a 3 k run on the road and a 5 k on the road now. Unfortunately when I did my 5 k on the road on Tuesday, I fell over a uneven bump on the road, as it was an evening run. For that fall, I had the pleasure of getting several small “roasties” on my knee an shin, but I did fall onto the side of my left foot and initially it didn’t feel that bad, but when I woke up on Wednesday, I couldn’t put much pressure on it, although it wasn’t visibly bruised or swollen. I soaked it with an essential oil infusion a couple of times on Wednesday , and again on Thursday. It’s feeling much better today and I am lucky, I know, that I didn’t sustain a more serious injury. I was tempted to go and try and tough it out with at least a walk on the field this evening, but the manager/coach said to rest it, which I guess means no! So I will be sensible and not strain a current injury that is healing. Hopefully by the next session that I am able to go to, on Tuesday next week, it will be healed and I will be ready to run again. I feel disappointed enough with a minor injury, I am really glad nothing serious happened and I hope nothing serious does happen in the future! Lesson is, I must keep my eye on those bumps on the road……….
If any one had told me this time last year that I would be running now, I don’t think I would have quite believed them. It’s all about discipline. It’s not been easy getting up for the 6 am Saturday sessions on these wintry South African mornings, riding on my motorbike and it’s about 5 degrees centigrade, but it feels a whole lot colder with the wind blowing through my helmet. Still, I have stuck it out, for the greater good, and I am feeling better for it. I am not getting any younger, and I guess my only regret is that I hadn’t done this a good ten years ago.
Rants and Raves of an old hen. 