What do you look forward to and what do you not looking forward to during Winter, living with Diabetes?

We're heading into winter. What are you looking forward to and what are you not looking forward to and why? Winter months bring out different emotions for our patients and families living with medical conditions like diabetes. There are often things that we look forward to in winter with celebrations and festivities, but there are also things that worry us. Cold, dark nights and cold days. My normal routine is a minimum 10,000 steps a day. And during the winter period, that's going to be a real challenge. 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. On working days, I cycle to work. So my first consideration is, is it icy? And if it's wet and miserable and so wet and miserable, I think, right, I'll get on the bus today. Looking forward to spring and dreading the snow. Everything gets frozen up, and you can't go out so easily. I don't really appreciate the long nights, especially if it's extremely cold weather and you're worrying about falling over So if you want to do exercise, you can't really get out. Once you're indoors, you tend to change your eating habits. People often put on weight. I don't like the cold very much, because I know that I've become lazy, and which then affects because I'm not going out to the gym, I'm not going for my walks, that has an effect on my sugar, my blood sugar goes up. And then I have to correct my blood sugar by giving myself more insulin. I hate having to take all my warm clothing out and the idea of waking up in the morning when it's dark, then going to work, working inside a building, and then coming home and it's dark. And that's really depressing, you know, when you don't see real sunlight. And I know it's difficult when the weather's bad anyway and you don't see real sunlight, but the idea of having, you know, being outside when it's daylight and not having that is really, can get your mood down and it kind of affects everything that you do. Often we find people that they are struggling to manage their diabetes, and this all has an impact due to the fact that people are less active. They generally stay indoors. They are eating more than they normally would. You eat more food as well. You're sort of like, you're eating more sort of carbohydrates to kind of bulk up, if you like, because you feel the cold a lot more. If it's darker and it's colder, then it doesn't make you feel as positive as it would as if it's warm and bright. I mean, that's the natural point, but it's how do I as an individual respond to it? And I think one path is that you do become a little bit more, or I become a little bit more aware of it and aware that maybe you're letting routines go and you're letting some of the healthier things you're doing go. You've just heard from a wide variety of people in our community. Winter is a joyous season, but it can also be tricky from time to time. Join the HealthShed community and share your tips on how to spend the festive season.