My ongoing type 2 diabetes recovery

I blogged last year about how I had a diabetes relapse and was making a recovery. I'm really pleased that at my follow up check up today, my recovery from type 2 diabetes was well established. 

My HbA1c - the measure of blood glucose over time that shows if you have diabetes - was down to 38. (It needs to be below 42.) 

At the end of April 2025, my HbA1c was 54, so I have dropped it by 16 points in 13 months. The nice practice nurse, Fiona, printed out my graph for me. Check it out:

This graph doesn't have the very first HbA1c result that got me sent to hospital way back in January 2015. But it wouldn't fit on this graph anyway because my score then was 91. (Strangely that first result doesn't seem to be on the system at all, which might explain why I keep having to tell my diagnosis story every time I see a different healthcare professional.)

Anyway, this is the lowest my HbA1c has been since 2020. I'm not saying the pandemic is to blame, but the shift to home working didn't help my waistline much. Losing 11 kg since April last year is what helped me drop my diabetes score. (I recommend canvassing - my foot mileage in election week was quite high!) 

I feel I can now safely say I have reversed my diabetes twice. The challenge will be keeping it this way. That's why I like to refer to it as Recovery. Every day I have to make the conscious decision to make choices that are better for me - what to eat and when to exercise. 

Some days are easier days to make that positive choice to stay diabetes-free. But on the hard days I now have a graph to remind me what's possible.

Rocking it like it's 1990

Two years ago I was given some medical news that prompted me to change my diet and lose weight. This has meant having to buy new, smaller clothes and clear out a lot of my XL stuff that is way too big and was long overdue for removal.

In the process I found this sartorial delight that I bought when I was about 14. 

Lovely, eh?

It came from C&A (remember them?) in the summer when everything was fluorescent neon. Shell suits were the other big craze at the time. It would be another year or so before the grunge hoodies and baggy jeans would take over.

I could never quite bring myself to dispose of it, even when I was far too large for it. But one benefit of being smaller is that it now fits. And according to one friend I might vaguely be on trend with it. I guess 25+ years is long enough for the fashions to come around.

Someone else commented that it makes me look like children's entertainer, Mr Tumble. I got quite a few comparisons to Mr Tumble when I was chubbier so this has given me pause. I'm not sure I want to dress in a way that is reminiscent of him.

On the other hand, I owned this shirt first...