BeingDiabetic.co.nz won the Best Lifestyle Site in the Netguide People’s Choice Awards, 2010.

Editor: Nicola Reade

Welcome to my diabetes for diabetics site for New Zealanders.

My name’s Nic, I’m in my 30s, and I’ve had type 1 diabetes since 16 years of age. I was born in NZ and have lived here all but nine years of my life – two of them in Sydney and seven of them in London. In late 2009 I had my first child, after a good 18 months of super tight glucose control and ever-shifting insulin resistance.

As I’ve got older,  I’ve been ever more driven to understand my diabetes and be as informed as possible so I can make the right choices and stay in the best health I can. I’ve never been one to sit still, and don’t like to hold back from anything fun or spontaneous – so to say that there have been times in my life when I’ve been a shocking diabetic would only be honest. I’ve gone for months without doing a single blood test. I’ve eaten all the wrong things, drunk what I liked and smoked. My weight has gone up and down, and I’ve indulged in exercise obsessively and sometimes not at all. I am human.

This blog is about diabetes wrapped around LIFE. Not the other way around. Making the condition work alongside you rather than rule you.

Welcome all – I look forward to having lots of discussions with every one of you as we go along. Send me your emails to nic@beingdiabetic.co.nz, or drop me a line in the comments box.

Cheers! Nic

Co-Blogger: Aaron Nolan

Hi guys, my name is Aaron and I’m a 27 year old guy who occasionally makes an appearance on Nic’s site so we thought it might be nice for you to know a little about me.

I’m a Kiwi (born down in South Canterbury) and I’ve been a mixture of shocking to well behaved diabetic since I was eight years old. I try not to take things too seriously, especially myself, while I travel a lot, eat too much and live life like any of my friends or family would. Like most diabetics I’ve gone through the ‘guess and stab’ phase, the ‘what diabetes?!’ phase, the ‘if I don’t test then no one will know including my doctor’ phase, the ‘hypos will lower my HbA1c’ phase and I’ve partaken in several activities that have been well, rather foolish because at the end of the day, I’ve not EVER wanted to let my diabetes rule my life.

What I’ve realised though is that by being responsible, testing and most of all informed I can actually still drink, party, travel and do all the things I want to AND be healthy.

I don’t plan on being an evangelist for healthy living, pumps, testing or forcing my opinions though – I just plan on talking about how I live with diabetes and how it does and doesn’t impact me and those around in my life because this site isn’t about that. It’s about us!

- Aaron