Dearest Reader 🙂

Hope my post finds you well and you had a lovely weekend! 🙂

So much has happened since my last post and I needed to take some time away to digest.

For a while now, I have been feeling that I am at a crossroads in many aspects of my life. It was looking more and more likely that I was going to have to make some rather difficult decisions that would take me on the right paths for me. I can clearly pinpoint in my life all those instances when this has happened. I count myself lucky that I can say, hand-on-heart, I made the right decisions for myself each time.

One of these decisions was to take a break from my 121 sessions with my wellness and nutrition coach with whom I have had weekly sessions for the past twenty months. It was a super difficult decision to make because I was worried I will not be able to continue on my own on this health journey. The support I got from her over these months has been immense and when the idea of a break started forming in my mind, it felt like I was thinking about removing all the wind beneath my wings. I wasn’t sure if it was my “old brain” fighting change or was my occasional self-sabotage kicking in… And yet, I took the plunge! I am sure I’ve mentioned this before but, the pandemic has had some weird effects on me, one of them being this loss of believing in my ability to do whatever I set myself out to do. I used to believe I can do anything! No one could ever convince me otherwise. Don’t worry! I still believe that… I just lost my way for a minute… So be warned all ye non-believers 🙂

Talking about making decisions which take you on another path, the best example would be that immediately after, eventually, full heartedly having taken the decision to take a break from my 121 coaching sessions with my wellness and nutrition coach, my GP referred me to the NHS diabetes prevention programme. Yes, yes, I know… how is that good news or a positive? Just bear with me…

My latest blood test results have shown that my HbA1c levels have been worsening in the last two years which means that I am now considered pre-diabetic. I know that sounds shocking and scary (I also thought that after my initial panic) but it means that I can still change things, improve my HbA1c levels and avoid becoming diabetic which is absolutely doable. My GP said that I have done well in the last two years keeping the levels under control but now it’s time to act to get them back to normal levels. This is where my conviction that I can do anything I set my mind to it comes into play again… I was told the NHS programme has a long waiting list, at least six weeks but, after two weeks, I was already registered on the programme. The programme offers several options for interacting with the programme amongst which 121 coaching sessions with a qualified dietician.

Do you see where I am going with this…? The moment I decided that, at that point in my life, it was better for me not to continue with the 121 sessions with the wellness and nutrition coach (which I very much enjoyed and learned so much from), I already created the space in my life for something new to come in… i.e. the 121 coaching session through the NHS programme. I am so very much grateful for both. Having said that, had I not taken that difficult decision in the first place, I would not have had the opportunity to explore the NHS programme.

In hindsight, I relied too much on my wellness and nutrition coach to guide me on the path of change and I have become complacent. I didn’t know how to explain that I needed to move at a different pace which resulted in me feeling overwhelmed. Even when she would ask me how she can help me, I could not tell her what I needed because I was not in synch with myself or the right frame of mind to be able to receive all the knowledge and lovely content and support she was sending my way.

I realise that now as I embarked on the NHS programme. Don’t get me wrong… I am not saying the NHS programme is easy peasy! It took me two weeks to understand that I don’t have to rush through the learning materials, and it is ok if I go through one learning module per week. The app has all these interesting learning modules on all sorts of health topics, such as everything you need to know about carbohydrates, what effects they have on your body or understanding the risk of type 2 diabetes to mention a few. Now I finally understand what type 2 diabetes means and what effect all those lovely sandwiches and desserts / treats I have been so fond of have had on my body.

Those of you who know me, know that I am a very very data and info-oriented person and everything must make sense to me otherwise I cannot really relate or understand. Well… the chips have fallen… things are starting to make sense now.

Lots still to share about this new journey I’ve embarked on. I will be back with regular posts on how I’ve approached the programme and what progresses I’ve made.

Hope you’ll join me on the journey.

Miss B