The reason that diabetes can be so frustrating is that involves huge lifestyle changes, meaning that dining out is more difficult and less enjoyable and you have to exercise more than you ever used or wanted to. However, a registered nurse in Baltimore who has had type 2 diabetes for a few years, who wishes to remain nameless, says family can be a motivator to get over this hump: ‘I look at my three little girls. That’s why I take care of myself and do what I have to do. I want to be here forever to watch them grow up and make my husband and me grandparents one day’.
According to Kathy Honick, RN, CDE, a diabetes educator at Barnes Jewish Hospital in St. Louis, ‘As with other chronic diseases, there’s a period of time in which the diabetes patient moves out of a level of denial to a level of acceptance of the disease’ but a decrease in motivation can happen at any time and you need to be on the ball with helping your loved one through it.
When it comes to encouraging your loved one to get, or stay, active, this can be difficult if he or she lacks the motivation in the first place. Try giving them a pedometer, as a study showed that diabetics who use pedometers to measure distance walked meet their exercise goals and often exceed them. Also, some people respond better to group exercise than exercising alone so do it together or encourage your loved one to take an exercise class. There is currently no cure for diabetes, and as it is therefore a lifelong change, your loved one may need a little bit of your help along the way, especially when they are adjusting to it.