Hy everybody!
So I'm 21, and a chef for bit over 3 years now, and have diabetes since I was 14. When I was in school, I managed my bloodsugar very well. But 3 years ago I moved to the UK, quite the school in the country I came from, and decided to work and help my parents. Since then I'm a Chef. At least I was.
I have to say it isn't easy. When I started to work in a kitchen, I was in a very busy local gastro pub. It wasn't easy even for those who had no issues with health at all. I worked really hard to get higher within the ranks, and I thought my bloodsugar could take it. I mean I checked daily 2-4 times, took my insuline as I had to and all seemed to be working perfectly until I had my annual Hba1c, where my GP said that if i continue doing whatever i was doing I could lose my legs. If I remember correctly I scored over 120.
The year before this happened I ended up in hospital, due to lack of control. After that, I started looking after myself again as I did back at the days in school. Only difference is that instead of being in school and after going to gym, I worked 50-70 hours weekly. I loved doing this. It was hard, but felt good. Then all the sudden, it fell apart. I had that above mentioned Hba1c test. Doctor said, I have to change my lifestyle, because its clearly not working out for me. The only thing I could possibly change in my lifestyle was the place I worked. I didn't want to lose my legs, or even get into hospital again, so I quit my job. But I couldn't help it I went to another kitchen, less busy of course. Well it didn't play out either. So I was working time to time, and by last year I had the oportunity to finish up my studies. But only on distance learning, so I can work, because I have to pay for it somehow. Then I got a job again in a restaurant, as a head chef. I liked it very much, but my bloodsugar went haywire. So I started visiting a diabetes specialist.
She said I could lose up a littlebit on my strickt daily 6 meals on time diet. My bloodsugar was good, for about a month or two, until we started to getting busier in the restaurant. Turned out the tanents were leaving the place, so I had to look for another job again. So went back to the one that wasn't too busy.
A friend of my family, who also a doctor, suggested that the kitchen is too stressful, for me so I might be better off to just change. I wanted to prove him wrong, so I started monitoring my bloodsugar very frequently, while at work and well, the result was pretty bad. In one hour, my bloodsugar from 7.0 went down to 4.0, then up to 13. I didn't have anything to eat at the time, i had only a glass of water and about 50-60 customers to serve. That was a busy hour when I had pressure on, and it happened every single time, I started to have headaches, those turned into really bad migrain, that I got a pill for it. I'm not a big fan of pills so I really take it when I can't bare it anymore. But there were times I had to take it and go home. So right now I'm not working for about 3 weeks maybe 4, my bloodsugar is back to normal.
Im planning on booking an apointment to the specialist again, and have a long discussion about what I can do with myself, because the kitchen is not an option anymore. I knew before, its not easy to find a job, even with experience, but right now I have to start from ground zero.
If anybody has any thoughts I would love to hear it, specially if you are a chef and can manage it very well, I'd really want to know how.
So I'm 21, and a chef for bit over 3 years now, and have diabetes since I was 14. When I was in school, I managed my bloodsugar very well. But 3 years ago I moved to the UK, quite the school in the country I came from, and decided to work and help my parents. Since then I'm a Chef. At least I was.
I have to say it isn't easy. When I started to work in a kitchen, I was in a very busy local gastro pub. It wasn't easy even for those who had no issues with health at all. I worked really hard to get higher within the ranks, and I thought my bloodsugar could take it. I mean I checked daily 2-4 times, took my insuline as I had to and all seemed to be working perfectly until I had my annual Hba1c, where my GP said that if i continue doing whatever i was doing I could lose my legs. If I remember correctly I scored over 120.
The year before this happened I ended up in hospital, due to lack of control. After that, I started looking after myself again as I did back at the days in school. Only difference is that instead of being in school and after going to gym, I worked 50-70 hours weekly. I loved doing this. It was hard, but felt good. Then all the sudden, it fell apart. I had that above mentioned Hba1c test. Doctor said, I have to change my lifestyle, because its clearly not working out for me. The only thing I could possibly change in my lifestyle was the place I worked. I didn't want to lose my legs, or even get into hospital again, so I quit my job. But I couldn't help it I went to another kitchen, less busy of course. Well it didn't play out either. So I was working time to time, and by last year I had the oportunity to finish up my studies. But only on distance learning, so I can work, because I have to pay for it somehow. Then I got a job again in a restaurant, as a head chef. I liked it very much, but my bloodsugar went haywire. So I started visiting a diabetes specialist.
She said I could lose up a littlebit on my strickt daily 6 meals on time diet. My bloodsugar was good, for about a month or two, until we started to getting busier in the restaurant. Turned out the tanents were leaving the place, so I had to look for another job again. So went back to the one that wasn't too busy.
A friend of my family, who also a doctor, suggested that the kitchen is too stressful, for me so I might be better off to just change. I wanted to prove him wrong, so I started monitoring my bloodsugar very frequently, while at work and well, the result was pretty bad. In one hour, my bloodsugar from 7.0 went down to 4.0, then up to 13. I didn't have anything to eat at the time, i had only a glass of water and about 50-60 customers to serve. That was a busy hour when I had pressure on, and it happened every single time, I started to have headaches, those turned into really bad migrain, that I got a pill for it. I'm not a big fan of pills so I really take it when I can't bare it anymore. But there were times I had to take it and go home. So right now I'm not working for about 3 weeks maybe 4, my bloodsugar is back to normal.
Im planning on booking an apointment to the specialist again, and have a long discussion about what I can do with myself, because the kitchen is not an option anymore. I knew before, its not easy to find a job, even with experience, but right now I have to start from ground zero.
If anybody has any thoughts I would love to hear it, specially if you are a chef and can manage it very well, I'd really want to know how.