D-Blog Week Day 2: We, The Undersigned

It's D-Blog Week...join your favorite diabetes bloggers as we write about/share/mouth off about different diabetes-related topics all week.  Links and learn more at: Bitter-sweet Diabetes!

Tuesday: Recently various petitions have been circulating the Diabetes Online Community, so today let’s pretend to write our own. Tell us who you would write the petition to – a person, an organization, even an object (animate or inanimate) - get creative!! What are you trying to change and what have you experienced that makes you want this change?

A PETITION FOR GREATER SEXINESS AMONG PEOPLE WITH DIABETES

(I'm pretty much addressing the grownups here.  D-Moms & Dads, I'm not trying to make your kids grow up too fast, but face it.  Your kids will be my age one day.  This is just to say...we're all grownups at some point.  We'll be okay.)

We, the undersigned, hereby believe that people with diabetes are just as hot as people without diabetes.  Many, many people with diabetes are in successful domestic partnerships and marriages.  Many people with diabetes have rich, interesting dating lives.  We are tired of seeing various postings on the internet that reflect self-doubt over body image or worthiness of loving relationships, just because of having diabetes.

Say what you will about Halle Berry, she does look pretty good in a bikini.  Recent scientific studies have shown that people with guitars have greater sex appeal, so what about Crystal Bowersox?  And there's always the cutie-patootie from the days before One Direction, Nick Jonas.  There's delectable chef Sam Talbot. There are actors, musicians, athletes, racecar drivers, and Supreme Court justices, all with their own brand of hotness.

The point we are making is that people with diabetes are cute, sexy, wonderful, loveable people. 

We, the undersigned, agree that:

...we have the right to walk out on any date who would consider our diabetes a dealbreaker.

...we can be confident happy people who ask for what we want in bed, even when what we want is a glass of juice because we're going low.

...it is not a burden to check a BG or disconnect a pump before getting intimate.

...diabetes alone is no excuse.  You can have a love life/sex life just the same as anyone without diabetes.

...there are challenges we may face as people with diabetes in relationships, but people in any sort of relationships have challenges.  Always remember you're not alone.

...PWD are allowed to be just as kinky as people without diabetes...and we're not talking bent cannulas or insulin pump tubing.

...we are dateable.

...we are worthy of finding partners we can love and trust.

...we can be just as gorgeous and confident as any celebrity.  We can strut in our favorite non-diabetic shoes.  We can get nekkid with an infusion set on.  We are just as smiley and charming as anyone.

...we're sexy, and we know it.  Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle, wiggle, wiggle, yeah.



PS--How dare I leave out the intellects, artists, authors and scientists with diabetes?  You guys, statistically speaking, are probably the ones I'm most attracted to.  Sexy smarts, grrrrowl.

Part of This Carb-y Breakfast!

It doesn't matter if you're a Type 1 or a Type 2, carb counting can be surprising.  In preparation for a ravenous run to the Panera Bread which shares a building with my office, I checked out their nutrition facts online this morning.

Did I want a whole grain bagel, or was I more in the mood for an egg soufflé?

The entire whole grain bagel clocked in at 70 grams of carbs, with a measly 6 grams of dietary fiber.  I'd be bolusing for about 64 grams of carbs!  Yet again proving that "whole grain" products are not necessarily "high fiber" or "low net carb" or "good for you".  I tend to eat carbs with reckless abandon some days.  I'm sure we've all done it at one point or another, but today I was feeling responsible.  How much worse could the egg soufflé be?

I was pleasantly surprised to find the egg soufflé (I was ordering the ham & swiss) had only 35 grams of carbs, with 2 grams of fiber, so it meant I'd be bolusing for only 33 grams!  Sure, half a bagel could have sufficed for the same amount of carbohydrate, but I was hungrier than that.  By ordering the soufflé, I also got a whopping 19 grams of protein; therefore, I was not starving two hours after like I would have been with a bagel!

I enjoy many breakfasts and lunches at Panera Bread.  They didn't ask me or pay me to write this.  Hell, they may not even know that I'm writing this.  If you enjoy eating there as I do, check out Panera Nutrition, their nutrition calculator website.  It's very helpful, and also a bit shocking!  Did I mention my egg soufflé had grams of fat in the double-digits?  Yeah, I guess what you sacrifice in bagel carbs you make up for in eggy, cheesy fats.  Oh, but they were tasty fats.