Mobile Menu

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Menu
  • Skip to left header navigation
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to secondary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Before Header

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter

Annie B Kay

telehealth holistic dietitian, yoga therapist

Header Left

Header Right

  • Home
  • About
    • Start Here
    • Media
    • About
    • Contact
  • Read, Listen, Cook, Shop
    • Blog
    • Quickeners Podcast
    • Easy Healthy Recipes
    • Books by Annie B. Kay
      • Every Bite Is Divine
      • Yoga & Diabetes
    • Herbal, Supplement & Health Products Shop
  • Let’s Work Together
    • Workshops & Appearances
    • Personal Nutrition & Lifestyle Coaching
    • Contact
You are here: Home / Wellness / Prediabetes Symptoms – Here’s How it Feels
prediabetes symptoms

Prediabetes Symptoms – Here’s How it Feels

May 27, 2019 //  by annie//  18 Comments

The last couple years have been tough. Through my challenging time I had a personal experience of how prediabetes symptoms feel – I don’t recommend it. For me, it was the wake-up call I needed to refocus on lifestyle.

One indicator of how life is going generally is my eating – for years I had it together, surfing life’s ups and downs while my relationship with food was stable and happy. It helped that I work at a yoga center famous for its healthful food, and that I’ve studied nutrition for almost 30 years (still fascinated!). Being an “expert” actually heightens the misery – I’m sure many of you know of what I speak.

Over the past two years, when I realized several of those big life fears (I watched the love of my life die, quick and gruesome…then…he came back to life! wait, wha?), the place that slipped was eating (of course!). In my despair, movement-related self-care was also just too hard to keep up. I moved a little but not enough – and I just could not find the joy I always felt with dance, movement and fitness.

Through this time, my A1c creeped up. While I know in great detail how to address it (hello, moderating carbohydrates and moving more) it hasn’t been easy. My progress until now has been rather slow. One thing that I’ve experience (I think) is how someone feels when their blood sugar is on what I call the blood sugar roller-coaster, giving you prediabetes symptoms.  It is a profound feeling and impacted nearly every moment of my day, and has a set of unhelpful thoughts attached.

Prediabetes Symptoms

While many people with prediabetes do not have symptoms, here are a few that can happen.

Fatigue. First, you’re tired. Really tired and unmotivated. It’s hard to comprehend a reason to get up and out of bed, and why-botherism is right there, pretty much all the time. There are moments of light, but mostly grey. Tired and unmotivated.

Unwellness. Then, you feel sort of crummy. Most of the time. Low energy and achy deep inside for no real reason.

Increase Thirst & Urination. I’ve always been a water drinker and didn’t notice this one, but some folks do.

Weird things begin to happen physically – blurred vision, skin things, digestive things, that have never happened before and don’t help with moving forward.

Cravings. For me, eating my favorite comfort/trigger foods (starch for me – mashed potatoes) became a heightened experience. I got trapped in a familiar cycle of emotional eating – stress, think of mash potatoes – eat mashed potatoes, overeat mashed potatoes – wish I hadn’t eaten mashed potatoes as I feel over-full.

What to Do if You Have Prediabetes Symptoms

Get ye to your doctor. Have labs drawn. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), more than 1 in 3 Americans have prediabetes and 90% of those that do don’t know it.

Know that it’s action time.

Gather helpers. My counselor/therapist – weekly through the worst of it, gave me someone to get into the muck with – to go deep deep into my fears and feel them, honor them. I could never have moved on or begun to release my fears around losing my dude without her.

Find yourself a good dietitian. Every town has at least one excellent dietitian – that’s is the right fit for your personality and pocketbook. More dietitians take health insurance, and more dietitians also offer premium services like custom fitness routines, custom meal plans and seriously regular meetings.

What is Prediabetes Anyway?

Prediabetes is when you begin to have problems with your blood sugar but you are not quite to the place of having a diagnosis of diabetes. It is action time, my friend.

Specifically, by the numbers, prediabetes is when:

  • A1c (a measure of blood sugar over several months) between 5.7 -6.4%
  • A fasting blood glucose of between 100-124 mg/dL

There are other indicators, like a oral glucose tolerance test, blood lipid levels that can also point to your risk of having prediabetes.

Here is a quiz of risk factors from the American Diabetes Association.

Why do I say it is action time? Because you can change it.

prediabetes symptoms

Update – My Story

At times, progress seemed a game of inches – sort of exasperating. It does, as you might imagine, heighten the excitement to also be a expert in the field. That’s where self-compassion comes in.  Then, as I tried to show up for my own life, and my family’s life, over and over day after day, it began to slowly shift. I had a great leap forward – normal labs! Now, I’m feeling better, eating better. My mindset is better and I’m heading in the right direction. I just show up, over and over, and participate in my own life (I wasn’t for a while). Recovery is one step forward, one step back. Sometimes it’s two steps forward, one step back and I do my best to notice and celebrate that.

Everyone, when it comes to health and well-being, has both unique challenges and resources. I am not recovering without support and friends. I have support from the medical community – I live in the great state of MA – a place that attempts to provide care for all – and that care for me (and my husband) has been nothing less than life-saving. I have access to mental health and physical health care.

Take Your Next Step

As part of my healing and hopefully helping, I am now in private practice – both telehealth and face-to-face in Great Barrington, MA. Find out more about my personal lifestyle coaching.

Tell Me

What’s your story? What are the challenges and resources you have to heal your life? I want to know!

Category: Heal with Food, Integrated Life, WellnessTag: Medical Nutrition Therapy, prediabetes

Related Posts

You may be interested in these posts from the same category.

quickeners podcast episode 4

Quickeners Podcast Episode 4: Not Your Fault. Now What?

emotional eating to eating disorder

Emotional Eating, Disordered Eating, Eating Disorders

garlic leek soup

Garlicky Leek Soup Recipe

quickeners podcast courage

Moving Grief with Courage: Quickeners Special Episode

Quickeners Podcast Episode 1

Quickeners Podcast: Episode 1 – Finding Inspiration

breakfast salad recipe

Breakfast Salad Recipe

baby bird

How a baby bird taught me to begin again

herbal water

Herbal Water Recipe

Pork tenderloin curry recipe

Pork Tenderloin Cauliflower Curry Recipe

Annie Kay health philosphy

Annie’s Health Philosophy – What’s Yours?

Annie b kay

Practice Finding Peace – Begin Mindful Living Online Group

Annie kay CoSchedule

Getting it Together with CoSchedule

Previous Post: «Pork tenderloin curry recipe Pork Tenderloin Cauliflower Curry Recipe
Next Post: Herbal Water Recipe herbal water»

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Lindsey Pine

    May 31, 2019 at 11:49 pm

    Fantastic post! Love how you broke everything down in such an easy to understand way!

    Reply
    • annie

      June 4, 2019 at 11:34 am

      Thanks Lindsey!

      Reply
  2. Erica @ Functional Nutrition Answers

    June 2, 2019 at 4:30 pm

    Awesome! We just wrote a similar post on our blog about the symptoms of hypothyroidism 🙂 Love these types of articles! So helpful <3.

    Reply
    • annie

      June 4, 2019 at 11:34 am

      Thanks Erica!

      Reply
  3. Stacey Mattinson

    June 3, 2019 at 3:22 pm

    Thanks for sharing your experience! I’m sure this wasn’t easy to talk about. Being in the nutrition space makes you feel like “you should have it all together, all the time”. It’s not always that simple and we’re human and complex like any other patient we might work with.

    Reply
    • annie

      June 4, 2019 at 11:31 am

      Thanks Stacey! Yes I’ve found that while it is definitely a tender place to go, that you’re not always the picture of perfect health despite all your training, it’s helpful – we are all just humans doing the best we can.

      Reply
  4. Didi

    June 3, 2019 at 4:23 pm

    Annie, thank you for sharing your journey! It can help so much to read someone else’s stories!

    Reply
    • annie

      June 4, 2019 at 11:29 am

      Thank you Didi. Glad it helps.

      Reply
  5. Shannon

    June 5, 2019 at 2:50 pm

    Thank you for sharing part of your story – I know it can definitely help people going through a similar experience. This was a really informative post about something that needs to be on more people’s radar!

    Reply
    • annie

      June 10, 2019 at 2:28 pm

      Thank you Shannon!

      Reply
  6. Heidi Moretti

    June 9, 2019 at 1:22 pm

    Thanks Annie! So many people struggle with prediabetes symptoms and are unaware. Very helpful! . So refreshing to see a personal account. I just wrote a similar post about autoimmune diseases

    Reply
    • annie

      June 10, 2019 at 2:29 pm

      Yes – people don’t know why they feel poorly. Nutrition to the rescue!

      Reply
  7. Kara Lydon

    June 9, 2019 at 8:14 pm

    Very informative!

    Reply
    • annie

      June 10, 2019 at 2:29 pm

      Thanks Kara!

      Reply
  8. Bronte @ Genomic Kitchen

    June 9, 2019 at 9:25 pm

    We’ve had so many individuals having questions about prediabetes. This article is a great resource to have in our files. Thank you!

    Reply
    • annie

      June 10, 2019 at 2:30 pm

      O is that the famous and fabulous Bronte? Thank you!

      Reply
  9. Brynn at The Domestic Dietitian

    June 11, 2019 at 4:08 am

    Fantastic article!! So helpful and thank you so much for sharing your personal story, that isn’t always easy.

    Reply
  10. Diabetes Healing

    November 28, 2019 at 3:58 am

    Great post! Thank you for the insightful article. I would like to include a little bit more information that long-term hyperglycemia during diabetes causes chronic damage and dysfunction of various tissues, especially the eyes, kidneys, heart, blood vessels, and nerves.

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating




Primary Sidebar

Topics

  • Heal with Food
    • Nutrition Tips
    • Recipes
    • Yoga of Eating
  • Heal with Nature
    • Plant Alchemy
    • Plant Medicine
  • Heal with Yoga
    • Meditation & Breathing
    • Yoga Therapy
  • Integrated Life
    • Balanced, Happy, Blessed
    • For Health Pros
  • Uncategorized
  • Wellness
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter

Annie’s Books on Goodreads

Every Bite Is Divine: The Balanced Approach to Enjoying Eating, Feeling Healthy and Happy, and Getting to a Weight That's Natural for You
Every Bite Is Divine: The Balanced Approach to Enjoying Eating, Feeling Healthy and Happy, and Getting to a Weight That’s Natural for You

reviews: 4

ratings: 14 (avg rating 3.21)


Yoga and Diabetes: Your Guide to Safe and Effective Practice
Yoga and Diabetes: Your Guide to Safe and Effective Practice

reviews: 1

ratings: 6 (avg rating 3.83)



Footer

Inspiration

“Every day is another chance to get a little stronger, to enjoy a little more, to make choices that help you live a little healthier, and to be a bit more of your own true self.”

Be You

Recent Posts

quickeners podcast episode 4Quickeners Podcast Episode 4: Not Your Fault. Now What?
emotional eating to eating disorderEmotional Eating, Disordered Eating, Eating Disorders
garlic leek soupGarlicky Leek Soup Recipe
quickeners podcast courageMoving Grief with Courage: Quickeners Special Episode
Quickeners Podcast Episode 1Quickeners Podcast: Episode 1 – Finding Inspiration
breakfast salad recipeBreakfast Salad Recipe

Site Footer

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter

Copyright © 2021 Annie B Kay · All Rights Reserved · Powered by Mai Theme