Diabetes Blog – Happy-Medium.net

It’s Diabetes Blog Week, Day 2. Today, we’re all talking about one great thing that we do well.

I tend to be one of those people who rarely sees anything that I do as great. I like to think (hope?) that I have the two great qualities all PWDs seem to have: empathy and perseverance. But if I have those qualities, and all PWDs have these qualities, does this make me great? Am I off topic here? Let me re-focus and get back to the subject at hand.

If there’s one thing that I seem to do well, it’s been staying as physically tough as I can be. Now, I’ve never been a stellar athlete. But I love to compete. And even though I’ll never make the Olympics, especially at my age, I’m still able to perform at a level that’s better than average. While that’s helped me complete my first two triathlons last year at age 49, and while I’m training for a two day 150 mile ride in four weeks, that still doesn’t have much to do with diabetes.

But maybe the physical training has made me physically tough when it comes to my diabetes. I know it’s helped me with my A1cs in the last few years (in order the last year and a half: 7.1, 7.0, 6.7, 6.5, 6.4, 6.3). And I don’t really know for sure, but I get the feeling that it’s helped me recover from energy-sucking lows too. Those kind of lows you get in the middle of the day, when all you want to do after is find a sunny spot, curl up, and sleep for about 5 hours, but you pick yourself up and say “Let’s do that important thing now”. It’s either training or pride that keeps me going in those moments. I hope it’s the former.

And the thing is, I like how it makes me feel too. I totally buy into the endorphin rush. I like that I’m doing more athletically than most people my age. And now that I’m starting to read about some of my fellow d-bloggers who have experienced depression in one form or another as a part of their diabetic life, I’m feeling like I really need those feel-goods any way I can get them.

So I know I’m totally tooting my own horn here, but I’m digging the fact that my diabetic life also includes an athletic component. And I’m going to keep it that way as long as I can.

A Disclaimer
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