Hi guys Dine In For Diabetes! is about start in 2 days!!

Hoping you have checked the Dine In for Diabetes http://www.diabetescounselling.com.au/initiatives/dine-in-for-diabetes page at our website so you can find some great ideas for recipes, menus and themes for events, as well as links to the fundraising page here http://www.givenow.com.au/dineinfordiabetes

We are also taking up the national 1 million kilo challenge as team Diabetes Counselling Online starting today! What an exciting month!

People who are interested you can register here 1 Million Kilo Challenge and then add yourself to our team - Diabetes Counselling Online. This is a free event, we are not asking you to do any additional fundraising :-) Although you are welcome to! You can find us on Everyday Hero if you select to fundraise you are taken to their page and you can find us and set it up.

Our aim is to create some community spirit to do this challenge together.

As we also have our Dine In For Diabetes! event during February you might like to try some of the recipes off our site, or the 1 Million kilo site and have a healthy party dinner with friends to kick off the challenge!

I am personally aiming to lose 11 kilos -this is over the 10 weeks. You can read all the details on the site  http://www.1millionkilochallenge.com.au/view-team?TeamId=11178 You get free meal plans, recipes, shopping lists and exercise regimes. As well as discussions on our team pages we will have discussions on our facebook page and a special forum on our forums at our site - so join us! You may already be doing your own healthy eating plan and exercise - that is fine, keep doing it but join us for supporting each other - good luck! 


Bye for now and please feel free to share your event on our Facebook Dine In For Diabetes page, or email us and we will share on our website
Helen

It's our 10th birthday in 2012!

When I started www.diabetescounselling.com.au all those years ago in 2001, there were not many voices in the online space for people living with diabetes. The Internet was still new and in Australia, the wonderful Type 1 Diabetes Network http://www.d1.org.au (then just Reality Check) was the loudest voice I could find and a fine one at that. But at this time in their history, their voice was very specifically for people with type 1 diabetes who were 16 – 40.

Online counselling was not heard of in Australia and the idea of people with diabetes needing support and counselling (other than learning how to prick their finger and use insulin) was rare. So our adventure into the online space offering free counselling and support to people with diabetes was interesting, scary and somewhat mad!

Yet here we are in our 10th year. As we have evolved over the past decade down here in Australia, the DOC (or diabetes online community for those  not in the know) has grown at a very fast rate – almost as fast as the Internet itself.

What I have noticed is that in places like America in particular, there have been many champions who have lead with their voices, their heads and their hearts, such as TuDiabetes http://www.tudiabetes.org Six Until Me  http://sixuntilme.com/ Diabetes Mine http://www.diabetesmine.com/ and many more. As a result there are a multitude of amazing peer support sites, bloggers and the like in the US and a strong voice across social media in particular.

In Australia, the growth of the voice of people with diabetes in the online space has been somewhat slower, despite the growing recognition of the importance of peer support, a shared voice and mental health support.

What you tend to hear down here in “Oz” is the voice of diabetes health care professionals, pharmaceutical and diabetes device companies, research groups and major “consumer advocacy” organisations. What you hear less is the actual voice of the people who live with and are affected by diabetes each and every day.

Groups have sprung up on places like facebook and more voices are being heard, yet it is not enough.

So our challenge is to get as many Australian voices of people living with or affected by diabetes heard as possible. This challenge starts now and begins with this blog and other forums and chat rooms at Diabetes Counselling Online, facebook, YouTube and as many places as we can place ourselves – most importantly we want people with diabetes and their loved ones to add their voices to the conversations in word, video and pictures.

So many people feel alone with their diabetes. Isolated. Guilty. Scared. When you hear someone elses voice and what they are saying makes sense you feel better. And you feel better knowing that someone else feels better because of what you shared.

Sharing our voices helps.

Take the challenge and let’s hear your voice!

All of us at Diabetes Counselling Online would like to wish all of you a wonderful, peaceful, healthy and happy Christmas. May you have some time away from stress, pressure, thinking and doing. Time to be with those you care about and who care about you. Some yummy food and plenty of rest. A walk in the sunshine and a good sing at the top of your lungs. Most of all may you all feel unburdened by your diabetes and enjoy Christmas first and foremost as a human being and second as a person with diabetes.

May the food police stay well and truly out of your sight!

And if you are not so fortunate to have people who love you, a roof over your head, or food in your belly, or you have a heavy heart for whatever reason - please don't do it alone - reach out and talk to someone who can help

http://secure.smilebox.com/ecom/openTheBox?sendevent=4d6a67334d546b784d44593d0d0a&sb=1

See you all in 2012!!!!!