Balancing Diabetes with Seasonal Changes

I think not so much many challenges over the only with regards to going out and socializing and being with friends and you tend to eat a lot more and non healthy stuff because you're out you're in the fresh air enjoying company and you tend to have picnics which are not also not always the healthiest choices because you're just enjoying yourself in the sunshine so I tend to feel I do it overindulge and but also I love to walk and be out in nice places so there is the advantage of that I really really enjoy the summer months when it like for example this summer it's been absolutely wonderful I've done so much stuff I go out with my grandson so that helps me to the walking aspect the exercising aspect but I've had other health issues which is due to my vascular blocked arteries which is obviously related to having diabetes for a long time and that is something that I need to control and make sure that I walk a lot continuously so the summer does help me to do that and I'm really really happy with when when it is some of the sun shines and it just makes you feel all better you forget about your stress and your worries and that's just wonderful. Thank you and how do you manage with the longer days and the shorter nights, particularly the shorter sleeping nights, how do you manage with that and you know how does it affect your health? It's been the shorter days and the longer nights has been affecting my health quite a lot because I'm quite stressed and I do have other issues regarding lack of sleep and fatigue and uncontrollable diabetes due to an operation that was recently done about three months ago, so due to that my diabetes has been out of control, but usually I do feel that in the winter months I don't go out so much, I become very lazy, I don't want to even step out the door for weeks, unless obviously I'm working, but because I've had an operation I'm not able to go to work and it's made me less mobile and that has led to other problems for example I have a problem in my leg with narrowing arteries. We can talk about that when we come to the winter season yeah so this is summer sorry and what about the changes in food and activity during the summer. Sorry, that means, when you said shorter nights and longer, did you say longer nights? Longer days and shorter nights. So was that still the summer? Summer, yeah, yeah. Oh, I completely missed that. Ah, no, that's OK. I thought it was way to you was talking. Ah, no, that's OK. I can rephrase that. So how do you manage with the long days and the short nights in the summer, you know, in terms of how it affects your diabetes? During the summer months I feel because the days are longer and the nights are shorter I don't have my full sleep and I am a bit stressed with it but because I tire myself in the long days and maybe I snack a lot more because the days are longer and I feel I'm not always making the right choices even though I know I get led into temptation because I may be out with someone or friend or family and we're out on long days having sort of outings going to the countryside so it does weekends are really more difficult in the weekdays I try to rein in and think yeah I've got to think I've got to keeping control of what I'm eating. I do use an app but it's a hit and miss because it's not consistent to control my carbohydrate intake because I've only just discovered the carbohydrate is the sugar. Somehow I always thought sugars was different when it was labeled in the packets. Oh I just got to look at the sugar content, no I've got to look at the carbohydrate and then I can have a look at the fiber which is really important because then you can balance it out. So I'm learning through the diabetic groups, community groups and I'm just self teaching myself to read the labels more thoroughly so it's really important I keep on track. There'll be days when I won't but a lot of the days I do. Okay, and if you can just pick up that piece of paper just opposite you if that's okay, and if you have a look at the list of behaviors and characteristics, is there anyone that sort of feels, if you can pick out one that feels most relevant to you and your diabetes in the summer and how you plan on managing that? Once you're ready to answer, you can put the paper down and then look at the camera. What's participation in screening? Any screening for the eyes, for the kidneys, that sort of thing. I have all of that done. So if you pick one that's of interest to you, and you're diabetes, now you manage that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So you can talk about that. Yeah. Just last question. Yeah. Um, I think what I find most difficult during, um, to manage is the stress management, especially, um, in, in the shorter nights, I, I worry a lot and I don't find that I sleep as much. But because the days are longer, I do try and get a nap in during the day and that sort of compensates for the lack of sleep that I have had. I do find that is because the sugars are quite high in the night and I do feel as if I'm on a, you know, I'm more thirsty, I'm getting up several times and then that leads to going to the bathroom a lot so I do find that a huge problem but I try to try and get about six hours sleep every day.