Life down the another path

Like most people, I often wonder what my life would be like if my good friend T1D didn’t come to stay, would I be an athletic person like I am now?

Team Novo Nordisk, the world’s first all-diabetes professional cycling team, races in Tour de Beauce (CNW Group/Novo Nordisk Canada Inc.)

I love cycling both road and mountain, not only does it get you fit but it is great mentally…had I not been diagnosed, I dare say I probably would not have taken up cycling. The cycling addiction for me started in 2008 when I first registered for the Ride to Cure Diabetes held by JDRF Australia, in fact I did not even have a bike at that stage as I ‘rented’ a Felt Z100 from Bernie Jones Cycles who support (free of charge) the ride with their awesome mechanical skills.

So I thank T1D for bringing cycling into my life, although my wife would probably disagree – the saying goes ‘the maximum number of bikes you can own is n+1 where n is the current number of bikes you own‘.

Would I have explored the nutrition value, ingredients and effects of food on the body if I hadn’t been forced into it by T1D? More than likely not, T1D has helped me understand food and what effect it has on the body which in turn has helped me help others understand…down the other path, who knows what I would have done with nutrition, probably not much.

I still would have been reasonably healthy down the other path but definitely not at the level I am now with T1D riding piggy back.

Friends and family often call me crazy or nuts or tell me I exercise too much, what they don’t understand is that I do it to show that just because you have a life long disease which threatens your life daily and the doctors/specialists/educators/nutritionists tell you ‘you can’t do this’ and ‘you must do that’ or ‘make sure you don’t because…’, there is no reason why you can’t live a highly active life and challenge the disease at every turn to make it work for YOU and not for anyone else’s benefit!

My motivation for competing and cycling 329km though wet, cold and darkness in the 24 hour Delirium cycling race this year, was too show myself that I could do what normal people thought unimaginable but with a disease which makes every day tasks difficult, why should I be limited??? I aimed for 400km but was limited to 329km, not because of T1D but because of a knee complaint, so technically I won the internal battle, I didn’t collapse or have to treat myself in anyway, I just rode at a great pace, eating the wet dirt from the bikes in front (I didn’t know water had crunchy bits!)

I make my own path with T1D, not how the world wants me to live!

I am stronger because of T1 Diabetes.#ICan