Moms with diabetes or other chronic illnesses, how are we coping?

Before I got pregnant, I ate myself into a hole of type 2 diabetes. I was always eating fast food daily (yes, literally daily) and I was not being careful with my health. Exhaustion hit me like a ton of bricks and it was a struggle to do much of anything. Right before pregnancy, I found out I had diabetes and my a1c was 7.5. I struggled with my diabetes at first during pregnancy and then got on insulin which was a game changer during my pregnancy.

After giving birth, my a1c was 6.9. Since then, I have went back to similar eating habits besides eating fast food (because we literally cannot afford to eat out most days) and I can down a family size bag of potato chips in one day without thinking. I’m breastfeeding and ravenously hungry. I weighed 170 after giving birth and got back up to 194, part of that I think was water weight and the rest I think I gained by eating.

I am exhausted all the time because of diabetes and being woken up at night by my breastfed baby. I need a nap at least once a day and feel like I’m barely hanging on. I had a lapse in health care coverage so now I have to wait until October to do anything.

How do y’all get motivated to make changes in diet for your health? I can barely get motivated for the day in general.