April 20, 2020 Baking through the pandemic

There’s a silver-lining in our self-isolation, as we #StayHome and do our part in planking the curve during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The constant reminder of living with T1D, and a compromised immune system, has added incentive to build new routines at home.

We’ve been self-isolating for an even longer time, after returning from at trip to Singapore to celebrate the Lunar New Year with family and friends. A dozen time zones away from Toronto, and having been that much closer to the outbreak’s epicenter, we’ve had a month’s head start in adjusting to a new normal.

The shift in activity was sudden. Our business was deemed non-essential, and we suddenly had a lot of time on our hands. We’ve slowed down. We’ve been sleeping in. We have more conversation with our neighbours. Walking along empty streets – and hearing the quiet – is strangely comforting. And believe it or not, we’ve been feeling a heck of a lot better.

But sometimes, giving in completely to this lockdown slowdown has been unnerving. I’ve been coping in the kitchen. I’ve started baking bread. I know, I know, it sounds counterintuitive to our usual low-carb, carb-counting lifestyle. And there certainly is rich irony in creating food that by its very nature challenges insulin delivery. But the process of mixing yeast, flour, carefully measuring salt, waiting for a first rise, then kneading dough to build gluten structure, and waiting again for a second rise, and the loaf to take shape, takes a lot of patience and a lot more time. It’s distracting. It’s calming. It’s relaxing and comforting, and it feels really nice.

The process is complex. There’s a long learning curve for making adjustments to recipes to balance taste, yeastiness, dough and crust flavours. There’s a lot of trial and error. And the outcome is often unpredictable. There are consequences to every decision along the way of baking the perfect loaf.

Does any of this sound familiar? If you’re like me, I often second-guess and constantly re-strategize my T1D self-care and management. When life is busy, it’s a right pain in the ass. But when we have time to stop, and think, and to reflect, living with diabetes gives us an innate ability to deal with much of the unknown that life throws our way.

Be kind to yourselves, and bake on.