At risk of type 2 diabetes? What does that mean for me?

I'm trying to imagine what's going on in your mind if you've been asked to watch a film warning you about type 2 diabetes. You might be a bit annoyed, a bit resentful, a bit scared perhaps. I'm going to give you some information about diabetes and we're going to hear from a psychologist who spends her time trying to help people change the habits of a lifetime and understand their relationship with food. But first, here are some things that are not entirely true about diabetes. You think of diabetes and you think of sugar. Well, I just know my intake's too much sugar, you get diabetes. It's the sugar levels. So I'm constantly watching to make sure that I'm not eating too much sugar. I don't have sugar in tea or nothing. If you change the word sugar for carbohydrate, then we're getting somewhere. You think of diabetes and you think of carbohydrate. Well, I just know my intake's too much. Carbohydrate. You get what that is. Yes. Carbohydrate. Levels. So I'm constantly watching to make sure that I'm not eating too much. Carbohydrate. A lot of health professionals do talk about blood sugar, but they're talking about blood glucose, not bags of the white stuff. When you eat foods containing carbohydrate, potatoes, pasta, rice, cake and also milk, yoghurt and soft cheese, inside your body it turns into blood glucose. When you are overweight, that extra fat in your body slows and eventually stops the ability of your own insulin to turn all that blood glucose into energy. My mum had it and it basically killed her. If I don't lose weight by exercising, because I haven't been able to exercise, then I will get a high chance of obtaining diabetes. I'm a comfort eater, that's all I can say. It's my best friend, food is, the wrong food. I wish lettuce and cucumber was my best friend, but it's not. Even when you know that losing weight can be the answer to reducing your risk of getting diabetes, it can be hard to make a change. Suddenly to be expected to change habits of a lifetime can be quite hard and we would recognise that. So that's why it's so important sometimes to think about how important it is to you to make these changes, what would it mean to you to make these changes and what does the terminology mean, being at risk of diabetes, what does that actually mean to Jim lives in North Wales and after 10 years of trying to ignore first the risk and then the reality of diabetes, has finally started to hear what people have been telling him for years. I've listened the last month, it's only been a month, and by trial and error I am getting there now. I'm a little bit fitter by what I eat and I don't feel so tired now at the end of the day. At the moment, my good days are outnumbering my bad days. A great achievement, but we know that changing your diet can be a real challenge. We often use food to improve our mood, we use it to help us feel better, we give ourselves little treats, and this is almost part of society, what's norm these days, what is considered normal. So that's partly why it's quite difficult to make these changes, even when we know in our heads that this is something we need to do. And it can also be hard to make changes when it means giving up something we really enjoy. Yeah, it's great to have a big plate of chips with a big mushy pea and pies on it. It's great, yeah, I like that. I love that. But you can't always have what you want. You must look after yourself and think of your family, think of your children, think of your grandchildren to come. important to remind yourself of the gains that you've made. You know you might have lost a few pounds in weight or you might be a little bit more mobile than before, you might be a little less breathless than before, you might be able to walk further than you did before. Remind yourself of the positive outcomes of making these changes. When I'm feeling well I'll go and have a walk. I'll walk about 10 minutes and then 10 minutes back. That's a nice manageable walk. The better you feel, the more active you can be, the better you'll feel. Doing what we call a decisional balance sheet is something that's helpful for people sometimes. You'd write down, if I made these changes, what would I gain from it and what would I lose from it? But also write down, if I don't make these changes, what would I gain from it and what would I lose from it. And sometimes by looking at that decisional balance sheet you can make your own mind up about the reasons for changing your behaviour. And when you make up your own mind about something, you're more likely to stick with it, as Jim knows only too well. I'm alcoholic but not drunk for 14 years. I was a welder. We worked away from home, We worked away from home, not a lot to do. I wish I knew then what I know now. And then Jim became diabetic. I thought, oh, it's diabetes, you know, don't eat any sugar. You know, that was the conception I got of diabetes, if you eat sugar you're going to be ill. But it's not that at all. It's more than eating sugar and not eating sugar. It's a case of looking after yourself and being aware of what you are eating and where you are and how to manage it. Unfortunately diabetes does make you vulnerable to other problems. The renal failure, I didn't know I had it until I collapsed. After that, I had five heart attacks. Then I started to take it very, very seriously, my diabetes, very seriously. If you're hearing this and thinking, well, it's not relevant to me, what next? Go back to your GP or another health professional and discuss with them the dilemma that you're in. Maybe you know that you need to make some changes, but it's not always that easy to make the changes that you need to make. Maybe you know what you need to do, but how do you do it is quite difficult. quite difficult. Try and live a sensible life, eat a little bit more vegetables, less cut out the pies and the pasties and the chips. If they have an offer on we'll go and buy oranges, apples, bananas. Fruit isn't as expensive as it used to be now. You can buy fruit and still live within your means. Maybe think about what you eat and when. Sometimes using a food and mood diary can be helpful. You can pick up on little patterns you might not have been aware of where you're using food to help you cope with isolation or loneliness or feeling low or feeling anxious. It's a good example of a practical first step that you could take and here's a second. If your grandchildren are important to you and you know that they play football on a a Saturday morning or something, you might decide that you're going to park the car a little bit further away and walk 10 minutes to where they're playing football. Then it's more likely that you'll actually engage in that goal if you've based that activity around something that means something to you. I want to be around for my family. I'm 70 years of age now and don't have that long, but the time I'm here, I want to do my best for them. Jim is motivated and knows where he's heading. If you're not there yet, don't worry. It's perfectly normal. Just keep talking and thinking about it. It's difficult to make behavior changes. And there are reasons to change and reasons not to change. And perhaps today, you might be feeling motivated to change, and that's great. Make some small changes. And tomorrow, they might be harder to make. But that's normal, too. The important thing is to keep on going in the right direction. You