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In the first two blog posts in this series, I discussed my thoughts on food, particularly why I stepped away from ketogenic diets and the books that have helped me step towards what feels like good nutrition for me on this part of my healing journey… Eating what I want.
Is 'Eating What I Want' Really a Healthy Regimen for Those With Type 1 Diabetes??
It may sound completely inappropriate for me, as a person currently experiencing the condition of Type 1 Diabetes, to have decided to just eat whatever I want. I guess, in response to such a challenge, I would argue that it feels right for me at this point in time. I feel guided by my intuition to step away from the battles of forcing my body to eat in a way that it doesn’t respond to. I am trusting that my body knows at a deeper level just what it needs to heal itself. I am taking this step in faith.
I know that I need to have inner peace if I am going to heal. I can’t have the inner battle of restriction and deprivation. I can’t have the emotional, mental and physical stress of denying myself food that I want. I also know that I need to trust my body and that my body may in fact direct me towards foods that appear, on the surface at least, to be bad for me. I accept that it’s all just part of the healing.
As I came to this decision, a woman I knew in university came to my mind. She had disclosed to me how she had suffered for years from anorexia nervosa when she was younger. Thankfully, she had managed to get help and healed successfully from it, to a point where control around food was no longer an issue for her. She told me that, as she recovered, her body gained exactly the same number of pounds over her ideal weight as she had lost in the thick of her anorexia. Her body then returned naturally to its ideal weight and stayed there ever since.
I wonder if my body might need to go through the same process of overcompensation in order to be able to reset its homeostatic balance after years of diabetic eating. By ‘diabetic eating’ I mean being forced to eat when I wasn’t hungry (due to low blood sugars) and not being allowed to eat when I was (due to high blood sugars), as well as having portion control for carbohydrate regulation and decreased portions due to the medical community deeming me to be ‘unhealthy’ at a particular weight. So, for now and for as long as it needs to be, I am welcoming in excess weight and increased portions.
Concerns, concerns, concerns....
But what about the increased risks to my health as a result of being overweight? Well, I’d like to draw your attention to Megan Jayne Crabbe’s book on ‘Body Positive Power’. In it, she cites a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in 2013. This study investigated the link between mortality rates and body mass index in a series of studies and found that… MORTALITY RATES ARE AT SIGNIFICANTLY REDUCED IN PEOPLE WHO FALL INTO THE ‘OVERWEIGHT’ CATEGORY!! So, being overweight is actually linked to a longer life expectancy!?!
My last concern focuses specifically on the effects of increased food portions, and caloric intake, on Type 1 Diabetes. I am aware that a heavier body weight results in a need for more insulin to maintain healthy blood sugar levels. This is not ideal for a couple of reasons. Firstly, as I discussed in my post here, insulin contains acid and other chemicals that I do not feel contribute to healing. So putting more of the stuff in my system doesn’t feel like a great idea.
Secondly, I am aware that, with more body weight, I have a higher level of insulin resistance and therefore my pancreas will be required to produce more insulin, when it starts working again. I anticipate that becoming non-diabetic will result from a gentle weaning off of insulin as my body becomes healthier. Therefore, the more insulin my body is taking, the longer the weaning period I will need. I’m not sure how to answer that. I guess i trust that, with time and with an attitude of gentleness and not demand, that my body will find its own way to reducing my overall insulin needs. After all, it strives for health and what could be more healthy than that?
I have decided that, for now, I need to trust my intuition. I need to trust what my body is doing and know that it will eventually lead me to where I need to perfect health. But, for right now, that perfect place to be is exactly where I am!
P.S. ... With Love
It’s funny. As I take each new step to healing, I am so surprised at just how often my intuition is guiding me away from what I’ve been taught is healthy all my life. I was told to eat healthy meals in regulated portions but my body/intuition are now guiding me to eat EVERYTHING in whatever quantities I truly want! When I suffered from clinical anxiety and clinical depression, I had to turn away from taking the antidepressants and go to some really dark places in order to eventually truly step into the light and be able to stay there. Maybe there’s more than a grain of truth to this here meme…!
Natalie is a blogger with Type 1 Diabetes. Natalie's special gifts are questioning the status quo and being a rebel. She is using these gifts to question medical 'knowledge' and find a true cure for Type 1 Diabetes.
