Navigating Diabetes Challenges in Winter

I find that my challenges increase in the winter because I feel that I'm stuck at home. I've just sort of recovering from an operation and I feel that it's led me to other complications which I hadn't thought about. I had issues with my eyes even though I have diabetic screening I had issues with my eyes which led to other complications as well which I won't go into now but the big major one that I have is not being able to walk because through diabetes I've developed I've developed narrowing of the arteries I had it in the right leg first and two years later it's progressed to the left leg which I've just recently found out and it's been a huge shock to me to discover that even though I've got medication that I've been taking for two years it's come back. is because diabetes goes through various stages. You can have really fantastic weight control during the days when it's nice and long and hot but in the winter it's like hibernation. You want to eat more comfort food, Christmas is coming so you feel that you need to stack up on your chocolates and your cakes and that all for me is a real challenge. I find this time, wintertime, very difficult for me to stop snacking. You've got long holidays as well from work and I just feel that, you know, you're not out as much so it is tough for me during the winter months. And Samina, who do you tend to for support with these issues that you mentioned? Well to be honest my husband's diabetic but it furiates me that he can eat so much sweet stuff and his sugar is still under control and there's me with one biscuit or two biscuits that I've had for the whole day and it's affected me. So I understand everybody's different, their metabolism is different, their sugar control is different, so I can't turn to my husband for support. I just have to, well because I've been attending the diabetic group I've been getting, and it's online as well, so I've been getting support from them and to say that you know oh this is happening to me what do you suggest and then that's how I discovered the calories and carbs app which then I thought yeah I'm going to start doing that religiously and hopefully get back on track. It works some days and some days I don't record anything because I know I've been cheating. And if you could give advice to someone struggling with their diabetes perhaps maybe they've just been recently diagnosed and struggling with their diabetes during the winter what message you have for them? First of all they need to get medical help, they need to be referred to their GP who can then refer them to a dietitian and I think they could go through that channel and eventually end up with community groups that can also further appoint them because it's a really big and very difficult thing to hear that you've got diabetes because it's an unknown killer and a lot of people don't know and just fob it off and thinking oh I've got diabetes I've just got to eat less biscuits. No it's not about that. It's not about oh I've got to cut out my bread my pasta. No you can eat everything in moderation but you've got to seek the right medical help for your body because everybody's body is different. So it's really essential that first you consult with the medical and then go through maybe a diabetes specialist who then can then further assist you and guide you because before you know it if you don't control it you will be on insulin and you know it's not good to go down it's good to try and change your lifestyle and food monitoring and weight monitoring and then try and see if you can get onto these community groups who will further help you to maintain that stability in your blood sugars. And thinking of the healthcare experts that you come into contact with, what do you want or how do you want them to support you, you know, prepare for the winter months in relation to your diabetes? The medical support team during the winter months do have a tendency just to see you twice a year. So they should be a bit more proactive and they should think okay that person's, I've increased the medication but that person needs more help. So it's really important that the GP or the nurse discusses during the winter months what changes can you make, what can you incorporate. Maybe have some sort of plan to say I want you to make sure you're exercising or going for a walk at least twice a week where in the summer you would do it nearly every day. So I think just to make that person aware of the fact that things they can do and tell them well maybe do, if they can depending on their condition, intermittent fasting and suggest which is a safe way for them and trying to get them to stick to a plan during the winter months so they can have a window of where they can enjoy the food that they like. Because if you deprive somebody of their favourite foods, they will tend to just break and eat whatever they want. But if a doctor or medical team or a dietitian can advise them, this is it, the winter time is coming up, it's the time where you've been really good throughout all the other seasons, but you're going to start going a little bit downhill if you don't take these measures into control.