Florey Miller, MS, RD/N, CDE
Registered Dietitian/Diabetes Educator
I love Dr. Phil! He is so empowering, straight forward and he doesn’t take any garbage. Did you know he has had type 2 diabetes for 25 years? Read what he has to say about the challenges and successes of managing his diabetes. (Source: Diabetic Living Magazine, October 2016)
Dr. Phil: What I Know Now
TV host, mental health professional, author, and person with type 2 diabetes
By Bailey McGrath
After 25 years of living with type 2 diabetes, Dr. Phil McGraw has learned a thing or two about managing the emotional aspects of the disease. Now he has partnered with AstraZeneca to share his wisdom with others in the diabetes community through the ON IT Movement, a campaign to help people with type 2 overcome common psychological barriers to successfully manage their diabetes. We asked Dr. Phil about some of the challenges he’s faced over the years. Here’s what he’s learned.
- “So many people feel they’re to blame. Truth is, there are many contributing factors to this disease; you’ve just got to move forward. I was an athlete and worked out—but I had this on both sides of my genetic tree. So I knew I was predisposed.”
- “I’m from the South, and my mother loved us with food. I’d go home and there’d be cakes and pies. She’d say, ‘Come. Eat, eat, eat!’ I explained to her that stuff is poison for me—my body doesn’t handle it well when I eat a piece of coconut cream pie. That’s not in my best interest; that’s not loving me. And she got it. She wouldn’t tempt me with those things and redefined how she could love me.”
- “I’d be caught up in my day and work right through lunch. I’d get home just starving and I’d overeat. That’s the worst thing for a type 2 diabetic and a bad habit I had to replace. You know how you do that? You program your life for it.
- “My whole team knows I have type 2 diabetes. If a show runs long, they’ll have a healthy snack so I’ll sit down for five minutes and eat something. They know if I do that, I’m a whole lot easier to work with for the next three hours.”
- “No one is going to be perfectly compliant. I’m not; I’ve never been. I don’t know anybody who is. When you run off the path, don’t beat yourself up; just get back on. And the minute you put your foot back on that path—you’re back on.”
- “I’m one of those people who believes the difference between winners and losers is that winners do things that losers don’t want to do. You have to behave your way to success.”
- “A lot of people are surprised when I say I have type 2. They have this stereotype about it. I thought, You know, it’s just wrong to not be standing up and waving this flag.”
Original article: http://www.diabeticlivingonline.com/community/celebrities/dr-phil-what-i-know-now
