Pleasurable Changes for the Better

Going grocery shopping has always been a pleasure for me and Joani. Like me, the delight and excitement sweeping across her face upon seeing all those foods on display, as we enter the grocery store, is immediate. Something about being surrounded by shelves filled with rows upon rows of food of every imaginable kind fills our hearts with glee like no other. Apparently, having a love for food and a hearty appetite to match is inherent in our family genes, I and Joani in particular. Thus, it is unsurprising why I grew to be the size of the blimp I am today. But on Joani's part, her fondness for food has nothing to do with her acquiring juvenile diabetes.

Speaking of diabetes, ever since Joani's diagnosis, we have radically changed our style of grocery shopping. Gone are those days when we just gave in to the compulsion of grabbing any food item that caught our fancy, and dumping them in our cart without looking at the nutrition label. You just can't take any chances with diabetes when it comes to food. The risk of throwing caution to the wind is so great that Joani and I had seriously resolved to conform to strict dietary standards mandated by her doctor, every time we have to pay the grocery a visit.

It is not easy, believe me. And resisting the temptation of all those sweets and tasty foods that are major no-no's in Joani's diet, as we enter the grocery, can prove too much at times. Needless to say, the need to conform has sapped half the excitement we experience every time we do our grocery shopping. Yes, we still find it pleasurable to be in the grocery store. But the thought of having to avoid certain sections, so as not to get tempted, not only reduced our shopping hours, but our shopping pleasure as well. A real bummer, I know. But diabetes left me and Joani with very little choice, or maybe none at all.

On the upside, though it took quite some time to get used to, changing our grocery shopping ways has paved the way toward our becoming healthy eaters. The shopping experience may have declined somewhat, but the excitement of cooking up delicious meals stayed intact. In fact, it made it even more exciting than ever. The challenge of coming up with great tasting meals that would conform to the dietary standards set for Joani thrilled me so. As with everything else done during the first time, I have had my fair share of flops—tasteless foods, burnt or uncooked ones, you name it. However, with practice, I got better at it. Over time, I finally learned the ins and outs of good diabetic cooking, that these days, more often than not, I find myself looking forward to cooking up our latest grocery finds even more than the process of hunting them down at the grocery store.