I seriously love everything Dr. Dodell has to contribute; I feel like I learn something new every time I hear him speak or read something he's posted on Instagram. I had (have?) **so much** shame associated with my diabetes diagnosis, it was quite impossible for me to deal with at first. In retrospect, it was very much a case of disease progression and/or genetics that I probably couldn't do much about... Sharing my story here in case anyone else can relate -- you aren't alone!! -- but I was diagnosed with insulin resistance fairly early in adulthood, have probably always had genetic issues with insulin resistance, and it progressed to Type 2 diabetes last year during the pandemic. What discouraged & surprised me at the time was that when my diabetes appeared, I was in a process of actively practicing Intuitive Eating. So I was eating well, making peace with all of these foods I had a troubled history with, learning to joyfully move, doing all these things to have such a more positive relationship with my body and food. And when the diabetes appeared, at first it was like, "What's going on? What am I doing?"
But what I have learned over time is that sometimes things just happen with health. And everything Dr. Dodell says here is right. A diabetes diagnosis has not changed my life that much. I still eat candy... Actually my relationship with sweets has never been better. And that's because following Intuitive Eating or doing any other health-promoting behaviors doesn't really change if you're diabetic, you're still very much checking in with your internal body cues and seeing what feels good to you, what's working.
Also-- seriously, if you haven't, his wife's book is an excellent read. I've read pretty much every book under the HAES/Intuitive Eating umbrella, and her book had some unique insights that really helped me.
This is so useful. I have a family member who is rail-thin and has diabetes, and early on, he tried to follow whatever rules he was given for eating with diabetes and dropped a kind of alarming amount of weight (especially given that he started out very thin), so he has very much had to find his own way on diet.
I have two family members who have been given advice by their doctors to lose weight and avoid carbs because of “bad” lab work. One was very strict about it. She was just retested and her numbers didn’t move. She’s very discouraged. The other isn’t strict at all. His latest numbers also didn’t move. I’m going to share this information on how stress and sleep affect them. I hope it will help them let go of their focus on weight and food.
I seriously love everything Dr. Dodell has to contribute; I feel like I learn something new every time I hear him speak or read something he's posted on Instagram. I had (have?) **so much** shame associated with my diabetes diagnosis, it was quite impossible for me to deal with at first. In retrospect, it was very much a case of disease progression and/or genetics that I probably couldn't do much about... Sharing my story here in case anyone else can relate -- you aren't alone!! -- but I was diagnosed with insulin resistance fairly early in adulthood, have probably always had genetic issues with insulin resistance, and it progressed to Type 2 diabetes last year during the pandemic. What discouraged & surprised me at the time was that when my diabetes appeared, I was in a process of actively practicing Intuitive Eating. So I was eating well, making peace with all of these foods I had a troubled history with, learning to joyfully move, doing all these things to have such a more positive relationship with my body and food. And when the diabetes appeared, at first it was like, "What's going on? What am I doing?"
But what I have learned over time is that sometimes things just happen with health. And everything Dr. Dodell says here is right. A diabetes diagnosis has not changed my life that much. I still eat candy... Actually my relationship with sweets has never been better. And that's because following Intuitive Eating or doing any other health-promoting behaviors doesn't really change if you're diabetic, you're still very much checking in with your internal body cues and seeing what feels good to you, what's working.
Also-- seriously, if you haven't, his wife's book is an excellent read. I've read pretty much every book under the HAES/Intuitive Eating umbrella, and her book had some unique insights that really helped me.
This was awesome. Thank you so much, both Virginia and Dr. Dodell. These kind of conversations are so good for healing from weight stigma.
This is so useful. I have a family member who is rail-thin and has diabetes, and early on, he tried to follow whatever rules he was given for eating with diabetes and dropped a kind of alarming amount of weight (especially given that he started out very thin), so he has very much had to find his own way on diet.
I have two family members who have been given advice by their doctors to lose weight and avoid carbs because of “bad” lab work. One was very strict about it. She was just retested and her numbers didn’t move. She’s very discouraged. The other isn’t strict at all. His latest numbers also didn’t move. I’m going to share this information on how stress and sleep affect them. I hope it will help them let go of their focus on weight and food.
I think you could make a line of merch featuring some of the many brilliant statements in this conversation! I'm only half-joking. ;)