I Am Not SICK with Diabetes!

Powerlifting competition in 2009 with a 300 lb. deadlift

Have you ever seen that look on a person?s face when you explain to them that you have diabetes? It?s that look that is filled with pity and sorrow. Following the look, sometimes, is something like, ?Oh, you poor thing,? or ?Oh dear, how horrible for you to have to suffer with that every day.?

Which brings me to the phrase, ?suffering with diabetes.? It?s often used in the media: ?So-and-so has been suffering with diabetes for 15 years.?

I am not suffering. I am not sick. I am not a sad case that deserves your pity. The word ?sick? implies weakness, struggle, misery, and woefully sitting on the couch.

Several few years ago, I was casually in conversation with a professor from my alma mater. I said something about ?helping people live healthy lives with diabetes.? His response was, ?Well, a person with diabetes can?t ever really be ?healthy.??

It was infuriating, because?yes, we can be healthy! More than healthy!?

Living with diabetes can be a reason to watch what we eat. To be?aware?more aware?of what we eat than the average non-diabetic. Living with diabetes can be a reason to exercise regularly, because we are?aware?of our own insulin sensitivity and how it?s impacted by less exercise, more exercise and weight-gain.?Living with diabetes can be the reason why I know how to estimate how many calories are on my plate while a non-diabetic might not have a clue of where to begin counting, or how.

Living with diabetes has led me, in my own life, to pursue health and fitness not as a hobby, but as a part of my being that keeps me happy, strong,?healthy,?and continually empowered to live a long, full life.

Many decades ago, sure, diabetes was essentially a death sentence. But if you stack up the list of everyday diabetics who finish marathons, teach yoga, win the olympics, compete in gymnastics?oh this list could go on and on! It would be a very long list, because the diagnosis of diabetes does not mean we are sick.

Instead, it means something in our body isn?t working correctly. And we are required to compensate for that by working harder to achieve and maintain health. But we are not sick?not if we choose to face our diabetes and live well. I am not sick with diabetes. I am strong, and maybe, even stronger than many of the non-diabetics around me.

Related:

Source: http://www.diabetesdaily.com/voices/2012/12/i-am-not-sick-with-diabetes/

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