shame – Page 2 – Divabetic

December’s Diabetes Late Nite guest, Megrette Fletcher. MEd, RD, CDE, author of Discover Mindful Eating and Discover Mindful Eating for Kids, and the co-author of Mindful Eating and Eat What You Love, Love What You Eat with Diabetes , talks about the shame that people with diabetes may experience during the holidays.

Megrette is a mindful eating expert and registered dietitian and diabetes educator in practice. She is the president and co-founder of the Center for Mindful Eating.

What do I eat?” As a diabetes educator and dietitian, Megrette Fletcher, MEd, RD, CDE, admits that she’s asked this question every day – and even more so during the holidays! Mindful eating isn’t about eating a specific food or limiting yourself to a set number of calories or nutrients. It is about becoming curious and aware so you can make conscious decisions.

Many people react mindlessly to their thoughts. In other words, they re-act—repeating past actions again and again—feeling powerless to change says Megrette’s co-author, Michelle May MD. “For many people, eating is a mindless reaction to their unrecognized or unexamined thoughts. However, your thoughts are just thoughts. Thinking a thought doesn’t make it true or important, or require you to act on it. In fact, a thought doesn’t even need to provoke a specific feeling,” says Dr. May.

Mindfulness is awareness of what is happening in the present moment—including awareness of thoughts—without any attachment to whatever you notice. Mindfulness is helpful because it creates space between thoughts and actions. By increasing your awareness of your thoughts, you can begin to break old automatic or habitual chain reactions between your triggers, thoughts, feelings, and actions.

Each time you choose not to activate your old trigger-thought-feeling-action-result sequences, you weaken the connections. It’s as if the wires rust and eventually break. Further, each time you choose a different action, you create a new connection. With repetition, you’ll hardwire these new pathways—like insulating the wiring. Your new thoughts and responses become your new habits.

Shame is a harmful emotion that is often felt by the young and old, especially when you are trying to manage your diabetes during the holidays. By undertstanding the ingredients that set you up for overeating, you can create the perfect recipe for success and healthy, happy holidays!

Recipe for Overeating by Michelle May M.D.
Ingredients:
1 batch, bag, box, or large plate of food
2 tablespoons of deprivation
1 heaping teaspoon of guilt
Sprinkle of shame
Optional: fatigue, stress, resentment, loneliness, boredom

Studies confirm that some people do gain significant weight during the holidays. Who are those people? They’re the ones who worry about their weight, who try to restrict their intake of holiday goodies only to overeat them out of feelings of deprivation and then guilt. The same studies show that people who don’t worry about their weight don’t put on significant pounds during the holidays.

Learn how to create a self-care buffer zone by regularly nurturing your body, mind, heart, and spirit. from the book: Eat What You Love, Love What You Eat with Diabetes: A Mindful Eating Program for Thriving with Pre-diabetes or Diabetes.

LISTEN: December’s Diabetes Late Nite podcast with guest, Megrette Fletcher scheduled for Tuesday, December 13, 2016, 6 PM, EST. Hosted by Mr. Divabetic. Enjoy music from Leona Lewis’ “Christmas, with Love” album courtesy of SONY Music.

‘What did you do?’

‘You must have eaten something bad!’

These types of condescending and mean-spirited comments are common from family members of people living with diabetes who are experiencing high blood sugar values. From blame to shame, overcoming the stigma of living with diabetes seems to be the biggest roadblock to living well with diabetes. Not only must someone with diabetes cope with the stress of day to day self-care management, they also must contend with the stigma of having a condition that even doctors don’t really understand.

For example, most people with diabetes know that high blood sugars aren’t just a result of what’s on the end of your fork. You can experience high blood sugar values because of a urinary tract infection, or depression, or from a fight with a spouse or children or anxiety over not being able to pay your rent.

A 2014 poll for the diaTribe Foundation reports that most people people with diabetes feel stigmatized by the condition regardless of its origins. And the burden of shame makes it harder to handle the ongoing diabetes self-management required to stay healthy and avoid complications.

“Many people not only feel stigmatized by the disease, but see their diabetes as a character flaw,” says Susan Guzman, a clinical psychologist and co-founder of the Behavioral Diabetes Institute.

“We try to make people understand that they may have contributed to their diagnosis, but it is not all their doing,” says Divabetic Club – Philly leader, Neva White DNP, CRNP- BC, CDE, as reported in the Philadelphia Inquirer.

“We talk about how we need to rethink having diabetes. How can I use this new information as a catalyst not only to change my lifestyle but maybe to change other things?,” she adds.

“I tell people that your numbers are your power and that they help you make your next move,” says Neva White.

“When you don’t take your blood sugars, it’s like driving a car and not knowing how fast you’re going. You can use the number to see what it is after you go to the gym, not only when you ate chocolate cake.”

What’s behind the number on your glucose meter?

“There are so many variables: stress, financial problems, poor access to health care, inability to pay for medications, someone who is forgetful or not organized, depression and mental illness,” says Susan Guzman, a clinical psychologist and co-founder of the Behavioral Diabetes Institute reports the Philadelphia Inquirer.

REGISTER NOW: Divabetic Club in Philadelphia, PA. Our next meeting is Thursday, December 15, 2016, 12 PM -1 PM.

LISTEN NOW: November’s Diabetes Late Nite hosted by Mr. Divabetic. We’re talking about overcoming the shame and blame of experiencing a diabetes health-related complication such as lower limb amputation with musical inspiration from Ella Fitzgerald.

Tag: shame

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