What challenges do people face in Winter, living with Diabetes?

It can all be massively overwhelming when you are given a diagnosis that will affect so many aspects of your life. Everything becomes a challenge, not only for the person with the diabetes but also for our families and our friends. The fact that the darkness affects the way we kind of perceive things makes it really difficult so you know normally I would do some exercise or do some sort of do something to kind of get you know you're my heart rate up in the summer months that's really easy go for a long walk you know I live in an area where there are hills and you know you go up and down the hills and it's great but in the winter I can't do that because it's cold and it's dark it's slippy outside and I won't be able to do that and also this is kind of like you feel like you want hibernate in the winter so your meals become heavier as well so you know you want to eat something hot you want to eat something that is substantial so even if you eat something that's relatively healthy like a soup but the soup will have like potatoes in it um and lots of carbohydrates and eating rice and um stodgy food just becomes something that you do in the winter because it kind of gives you that comfort. And so your diet changes quite dramatically in the winter months and you have to become really conscious of what you're putting into your food and the way that you do exercise that becomes much more difficult because of the general psychology of being in the winter dark months. The tough things about winter are the shorter days, being less active, being stuck indoors more and some of the coughs and colds that come around at winter and I don't think anybody really enjoys those. I think the major challenge in winter, when the nights grow long, is to keep up a positive attitude. People talk about internal and external challenges. I think internal challenges can be quite difficult if they are linked to your day-to-day activity, because that's often the thing that drags you down. External stimuli are always very important, wherever that comes from. and if you can sort of latch on to those winds that come, you can progress. Finding goals and motivation is a big part of managing those challenges. The emotional and physical strength in you through family and friends and the diabetic community helps you take ownership of your diabetes journey. At Healthshared, we empower you to understand diabetes with the support of our community.