When you wake up in the morning and you don't feel great, what's the thing that gets you moving? On the days when you're feeling fantastic, what do you like to do, what really makes you smile?

Winter is full of ups. Many festivals both religious and non-religious are during these months and we overindulge. We get invited to parties and our lives are often in flux. This affects us all differently and sets up challenges that we need to adjust to which adds to the anxieties and concerns when you have a medical condition like diabetes. Here what some of these worries are for our health-shared community. We worry about things like with what's going on in the country with cost of living and heating and you know they're quite fortunate they have always looked after themselves and so they're quite good at all of that but you know they are cutting back on things and things like food are a big deal so and they cost more and they've tripled some of the things that they would eat which are staple things in their diet which are actually quite healthy and that's the biggest problem. Healthy diet is now much more expensive and it's finding another way so it's giving them tips, telling them where to go you know to communicate with other members of the community who have diabetes or family members who already been through this struggle so they can have these conversations, telling them where they can find things even though they're quite elderly, where they can find things on the internet to get information from that's really important because it builds that kind of their knowledge and then their ability to self-look after their processes and their healthcare issues. And then it's not always, I'm gonna turn to my daughter who's a doctor and talk to her about everything because then they're much more self-aware. I'm much more self-aware for them. It matters to me how they're looked after. Obviously they're my parents, But, and obviously they're different to my patients, but in some ways, no, they're not really different. I would give the same advice to my patients that I would give to my parents, because I, as a healthcare professional, care about the people I look after. But if we look from a patient's perspective, there are some people who might miss appointments or might miss their essential reviews during the winter months. They might miss those blood tests because they don't want to go out. It's icy, it's cold. And it's really important as healthcare professionals we do check up on particularly the frail and elderly community who might not necessarily want to come out because they're afraid of falls and trips. So those virtual communications is very very important for us and to remind people that if they can't come to the practice they can always contact the practice virtually or via email and that has been very popular during Covid. Whatever your worries there is someone who's been there before and hearing their story can give you some peace of mind. Overindulgence is part of the human frailty and something we all have battles with because it brings with us feelings of guilt, annoyance and sometimes depression. Alcohol is sometimes one of those excesses at this time of year. It's important to understand how much it affects your diabetes and how to manage and treat yourself. The Healthshare Diabetes Committee shares with you their stories and you can join that conversation. You