Number 11 - Forgive me for I have sinned!

We’ve all done it! The time comes when the temptation to go for that little (or huge) something that you just know is not good for you in any way just becomes too much!

People with diabetes become very quickly aware of the human body’s relationship with food, as has been mentioned before. If you were diagnosed as a child you would have been very aware as you were growing up that there were things you ‘shouldn’t’ or ‘couldn’t’ eat - your parents will have controlled as much as they could what was going into your stomach. However, there were no doubt times when you went down to the chip shop with your friends for a jumbo battered sausage or a pie buttie, or ate a whole bag of fun size bounties because you’d been holding back for so long.

Adults too feel the frustration. Whatever your attitude towards diet was prior to diagnosis, all of a sudden you’ve got to start reading the ingredients list on the packets, or rejecting things with red traffic lights on, or just looking straight ahead when walking past the shelves of things you just know are wrong when mixed with diabetes. I spent 49 years of my life eating more or less according to my whims or fancies – whole battenburgs or triple cheeseburgers, family bags of crisps, and pizzas with all the toppings backed up with garlic bread and a gallon of Tetleys.

Sooner or later, something has to give. To continue being ‘good’ starts to affect the quality of life – it’s all you can think about and it makes you gloomy and irritable, and extremely jealous of all those people who don’t have to think so hard. Thankfully, with today’s modern treatment regimes we can afford the odd relapse into our non-diabetic days and partake of the forbidden! But then – we feel guilty and worried and start dreading our next review or that meeting with the dietician that we are supposed to be keeping a food diary for! We feel we’ve let the side down and will be out cast and rejected by our fellow diabetics for our moments (or evenings/days/weeks) of weakness!

Thank goodness then for this thread from Rossi Mac! Here we can crave forgiveness for our lapses by confessing all and await the judgement and penalties meted out by our peers! Oh dear! It seems we are not alone after all, and this thread is still going strong after well over a year and fast approaching 500 responses! I fully expect it to continue, after all we are human beings and being good all the time would be very dull. Good to read what some consider a ‘sin’ – definitely some more sinful than others – and interesting to read what people desire and feel terrible about succumbing to!

Post link: http://www.diabetessupport.co.uk/boards/showthread.php?t=3311