The Books
LIFE FOOD
INVISIBLE IMPACTS
INVISIBLE IMPACTS
Managing food well is central to being in control as a diabetic. With all the usual challenges presented by busy lives, and modern food options, this isn’t easy.
Having grappled with getting food choices right, not just personally but for feeding her family, and living life, this book describes how Sarah has adapted and managed.
Over 80 r
Managing food well is central to being in control as a diabetic. With all the usual challenges presented by busy lives, and modern food options, this isn’t easy.
Having grappled with getting food choices right, not just personally but for feeding her family, and living life, this book describes how Sarah has adapted and managed.
Over 80 recipes built around the principle that eating well with t1d should be a pleasure, not a compromise. Real food, real life, real enjoyment.
INVISIBLE IMPACTS
INVISIBLE IMPACTS
INVISIBLE IMPACTS
Managing type 1 diabetes means balancing insulin, what you eat, what exercise you do, and many other factors. It touches every part of life. As a young woman, coming to terms with diabetic life wasn’t easy.
This book is Sarah’s personal story of dealing with the diagnosis of her type 1 diabetes and learning to handle all of life’s situati
Managing type 1 diabetes means balancing insulin, what you eat, what exercise you do, and many other factors. It touches every part of life. As a young woman, coming to terms with diabetic life wasn’t easy.
This book is Sarah’s personal story of dealing with the diagnosis of her type 1 diabetes and learning to handle all of life’s situations with it in the mix.
Her experience of making the adjustments required is practical, positive, and encouraging.
For the newly diagnosed, for those who have been managing for years and still feel unseen, and for friends and family.
WORDS & WISDOM
INVISIBLE IMPACTS
WORDS & WISDOM
Achieving a full life with type 1 diabetes is challenging and help is welcome from all fronts.
This book is there when you need something to hold on to. A collection of insightful quotes, covering concepts like resilience, diligence, strength and joy. They're helpful reflections, and a source of encouragement helping when you're focused on not letting your condition limit or define your life.
THE INVISIBLE IMPACTS BOOK
The Able Diabetic INVISIBLE IMPACTS - My type 1 diabetes from diagnosis to getting to grips.
The book is available on Amazon. You can buy it in paperback with Kindle reader version following shortly.
the LIFE FOOD book
The Able Diabetic LIFE FOOD - Food insight and recipes from my type 1 diabetic life.
The book is available on Amazon. You can buy it in paperback or Kindle reader versions.
the WORDS & WISDOM book
The Able Diabetic WORDS & WISDOM - Quotes on strength and resilience for a type 1 diabetic life.
The book is available on Amazon.
excerpt From INVISIBLE IMPACTS
Being diabetic was far harder than I'd appreciated back in 1993. The relentlessness of it, not just daily, but hourly, was suffocating at times. It was incredibly boring to continuously have to remember to get my blood monitor out and perform yet another test. It was beyond tedious that so often the test would have me disappointed in my performance and needing to correct things.
I had forgotten what it was like to just enjoy a meal. Every meal involved mental maths to work out how much insulin, and an extra bit of guesstimating to account for what I might be doing in the 4 hours after the meal. Pure spontaneity was impossible, because at the suggestion of literally anything, I would have to think, hmm, what does that mean for my bloods. A quick walk after dinner... probably will take me into the hypo zone. An ice-cream because the afternoon's turned hot... probably higher bloods in an hour or so. Popping to the pub for a quick meet and drink... the walk will take me down and the drink, depending on what I pick, could take me in any direction. All of it, pouring cold water onto proposed good ideas.
Having said that, I was alive, for which I knew I was lucky. I was healthy, which was not taken for granted at all. I was healthier in my eighth year than I had feared I might be. I was pretty expert. It could all be so much worse.
EXCERPT FROM LIFE FOOD- DHAL PLUS PLus
These days, dhal is one of my favourite meals, and we eat it frequently at home. I do think that just dhal or dhal + rice can be a bit lacking in terms of texture and variety. Also, it’s pretty carb heavy. So, the plus plus is because I like to add other things into the mix and there are several things that I go for. I suggest adding two side orders, maybe three, depending on your time, stamina and ambition levels. Some of our favourites are:
- Easy pakoras – recipe follows
- Roast jeera cauliflower and/or carrots – recipe follows
- Kachumber salad – a mix of raw cucumber, tomato & onion chopped salad
- Raita – yogurt with cucumber and mint mixed through it
- Aubergines, roasted with oil, lots of chopped garlic and chilli
- Spinach, stir fried with garlic
All of these things are low carb, but bring zing, and extra dimensions to your plate.
Writing the Books
I wrote these books because I could not find what I was looking for. Medical and practical information about type 1 diabetes is widely available. What is much harder to find is an honest account of what living with it actually involves - day to day, year to year, across all of the situations that make up a real life.
When I was first diagnosed I tried to keep t1d small. Contained. Separate from everything else. What I have learned over more than three decades is that it does not work that way. The condition is woven through everything. It is invisible to most people around me, and yet it is present in every meeting, every meal, every holiday, every difficult season and every good one.
That is what I write about. Not just the medical facts, but the personal and emotional reality of managing something this demanding, this permanent, and this invisible. My books reflect three decades of experience across very different life stages. I hope that in reading them, you find something that reflects your own experience - and something that helps.