Turning Hurdles Into My Greatest Achievements

Does an unplanned event cause your blood sugar to suddenly rise? Does your blood sugar bounce up and down to the tunes of your mood/feeling? You did not cheat in food, you did not miss out on your work out, still, the sugar running through your body is rocket high?

A very critical thing to understand here is, we are not different, we have to do things differently. I would like to take you through my journey from 380 sugars pre-audition of Mrs. Fabb India, Mumbai to an 80 Pre finale day in 14 days.”

For all those who do not know about Mrs. Fabb India, Mumbai, it is a beauty pageant contest held by Qunix Advertising, at the city level: Mumbai. It had a photo selection round followed by live training for a week and then the final contest.

What did I do differently during training to avoid a Hypo (Low Blood sugar) and a Hyper (High blood sugar)?

I believe in tackling challenges that are under your control first.

1. Planning my day, one day in advance: I would get to know about the training schedule timing 1 day in advance. I would jot down a plan with tentative time slots with activities besides it. So if my training was from 1 pm to 5 pm I would ensure that my meals and exercise schedule revolved around it.

2. I did not allow myself to sit ideal: I would have my mini-breaks. Come on, we all need them. But I did not allow myself to have any major break where I did not know what to do? While schedules of practice got delayed, I would look up for some news on Google, or even click some selfies along with my newly made friends. Each of the contestants being married would have their own set of challenges, I would sit and hear them. I would never add diabetes to the challenge list. Because I no longer believed it to be a challenge. This helped me to widen my horizon of thought towards other beautiful experiences awaiting me with arms wide open. Do you think i got any time to think about my blood sugars? No way.

3. Maintain routine discipline: As my doctor puts it, the smooth functioning of a car depends on its 4 wheels. Even if one wheel is punctured the car will not move ahead. All four wheels are under my control. I Exercised twice a day, Took proper Insulin doses as prescribed, ate my meals and my mid-meal snacks on time and as prescribed in my diet chat and I ended my day telling myself, “As long as you are doing everything right, your sugars will be right”, this was to calm my over-enthusiastic mind from thinking about hypo sugars.

4. Kept people around me well informed: I shared my health and medical case with the organizers and informed them about the symptoms and the action to be taken in case of an emergency. I also shared the contact details of a family member with the organizers which got me ready for unforeseen situations.

The Grand finale:

The day has arrived. In the afternoon, post-lunch I recorded a sugar reading of 80. I took the necessary remedies to avoid Hyper Blood sugar and I walked the ramp on the final day in a smashing 140. It was a conscious effort by me, to not get anxious as I did during the audition 14 days back. It showed on your face, smiling away I overcame this challenge of anxiety and bagged the Mrs. Fabb India, Mumbai (Best smile) 2019 title.
Do you still think Type 1 diabetes is a drawback? I think it’s an opportunity to eat right, exercise right, and feel right which you never did before”.

Summing up:

Let nothing hold you back. You are as normal as the person sitting next to you.
If you train your body and mind to take your permission, you will not need permission to live the greatest gift of God, LIFE.