Saturday, 8 January 2011

Small sustainable changes

It's the start of a new year and every advert on the telly is confirming what I already know. I need to make changes to my life. I was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes in the early summer and my response to this is to be less active and put on weight. Not clever.

Even before I was diagnosed I knew that you can 'cure' type 2 diabetes by losing weight and being more active. So why I haven't done either of those things is a mystery to me.

The number of times have I followed mad fangled attempts at losing weight is perfectly matched with the number of failures. I know I can just eat 1200 calories a day and exercise three times a week but I know myself well enough to know that I won't stick to it.

So this time I'm going to try and find a way that works for me. Small sustainable changes I currently believe is the way forward. With this in mind I now have a selection of small and reasonably sustainable post-its stuck to the fridge door. The are enscribed thus:

      No drinking in the house (unless guests).

I drink too much but I see giving up the drink completely as a form of punishment. It means that I can't socialise which would make me miserable and less likely to stick with it so lets try that small change.

      Fruit or vegetable with every meal.

Speaks for itself really. Again I eat too much but it has to be better for me to eat too much broccoli and apples than chips and cheese.

      TV time -1 hr a day.

I often complain that I don't have enough time in the day to do other things yet I can happy devote several hours a day shouting that there's nothing on the telly whilst watching it. So at least one hour of my normal telly time will be spent doing other things. I was suprised how quickly another post-it was filled with a small list of nice things:

     Learn how my camera really works
     Practice guitar
     Play darts
     Play cards
     Learn photoshop
     Read a book

Not exactly a mastermind of a plan but I really think I can't stick to these small changes. I'm going to review the plan in about a months time and hopefully introduce another set of small sustainable changes that will get me closer to my goal of getting rid of diabetes.

Wish me luck.

1 comment:

  1. Hi Jen, this is quite similar to that system I had a couple of years back, I think it will be quite achievable. By the way what time do you want me to visit each night!! Only kidding, all the best. Don xx

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