Dr. Visit…

Ugh. I’ve not been looking forward to this.

Last week I went for my blood work so my doctor would have it prior to my visit. Friday was my appointment.

She was thrilled. My blood work was great. A1C = 6.6. She was happy, I was disappointed, actually, amazed!  “If you saw what I’ve been eating, you’d never believe that’s accurate.” Dr. G responded, “It will catch up to you, you know that.”  Yeah, yeah. I didn’t respond — she’s ALWAYS right.

For awhile now, I’ve been taking two Metformin instead of three. My goal is to get off them completely. The ONLY way to do that is to stay on track — no diversions. Lately, I’ve been the Queen of Diversions! 

A little over a week ago denial crept in (with a vengeance). I actually ate potato chips and onion dip. 😦  It didn’t kill me, but what a stupid decision. And then there was the pie…cookies… Yes, I didn’t fall off the “wagon” I took a deep-dive plunge. Ugh.

The good news is, I’m back to healthy choices. If I have to have desserts, I’ll be heading to my sugar free Jello or small portions of fresh fruit.

Celebrating with a Gala!

JELLO — Sugar-free and Cook and Serve, Sugar=free pudding. (BLUE box)

Just remember there is such a thing as TOO MUCH OF A GOOD THING (fruit can fall right into that category!)

Monitor glucose regularly

Obviously, I didn’t do too much damage, or 6.6 would have been WAY higher. I absolutely do NOT want to go back to 3 Metformin/day, so I’m re-committing myself again to staying on track — DAMN IT! It’s all about accountability, as always. There’s no hiding those numbers and not taking my blood sugar, is just plain irresponsible. I’m determined.

I know that when I’m dedicated and determined, I get involved in a project using my hands. I know when I do the artsy/craftsy thing, I won’t snack/eat the wrong foods.

Stress Relief

I know that when I sit and watch TV, I’m putting myself at risk. Gigunda risk!!! I become bored and troll the cabinets for something “bad.” Rarely do I find anything, because I don’t buy the foods/snacks that I know I shouldn’t be eating. I wish I could tell you that I give up and go back to watching the tube. That would not be true. There are times when I cave. I’ve walked and driven to the corner store or the gas station for a candy bar to “tide me over.”  (I sound like a drug addict. Well, sugar IS a drug!) .

Diabetes sucks. Yes, it does. BUT, there are worse diseases, that’s for sure! So, I’ll be grateful and get back on the bike and do the right thing — one day at a time.

This disease is one heck of a roller-coaster, that’s for sure. Better days ahead.

Back to DAY #1!

 

Monitoring Blood Glucose = #1

Seriously, what could be more fun than stabbing yourself three times a day???

Okay, nobody ever said it was going to be fun, but it’s important — no — imperative! If you’re new to this “game,” trust me, JUST DO IT! It’s the only real way to know exactly where you’re at, in terms of your blood sugar and, your glucometer WILL tell the truth. In truth there is no denial.

Monitor glucose regularly

It’s easy to be in denial when you have Type 2 Diabetes —

• you look like most people,
• you sound like many people,
• you think like your friends (or not),
• you eat like everyone else…

WAIT!!!  You EAT like everyone else? You do? I sure hope you’re surrounding yourself with healthy eaters. 🙂

I’m meeting friends for lunch tomorrow, and there’s a routine I follow prior to going out.

1. I go onto the website of the restaurant.
2. Check out the menu and pay attention to the healthy choices. Usually, I decide what I’m going to order, but I also give myself the option of choosing one or two of the other acceptable alternatives. This process gives me a range of possibilities that will allow me to make a good decision. I IGNORE THE REST OF THE MENU!
3. Remember: You’re in charge of your decision. Grilled chicken is usually an option in any restaurant and be sure to add lots of veggies to your dinner plate — it will be colorful and appetizing!   
4. Before I leave home, I drink a glass of water and take my blood sugar. And then — I’m off, and destined to have a delightful meal with my friends.
5. When the conversation turns to DESSERT, “No thank you. I’m full.”  [By the way, you will be full.]  GREAT decision, congratulate yourself! While they’re piling on the pounds, and adding toxins to their bodies while sifting through their dessert, feel free to enjoy a cup of steaming hot tea/coffee or an ice cold glass of water (something to look at, instead of their dessert). It’s also nice to ask the waiter to add a wedge of orange, lime or lemon, or even a strawberry or two to your water — you deserve it!
   

   

   I find that adding fruit to my water makes it look and taste so much more refreshing.

6. Once home — sometimes, in the car before I leave the parking lot of the restaurant,  🙂 I check my blood sugar. If it’s elevated, as soon as I get home, I grab my sneakers and go for a quick walk, even if only for 30 minutes — walking will bring that number right down — never fails!

So there you have it folks. CHECK THAT BLOOD SUGAR — no matter what. NO EXCUSES! You’ll be glad you did.

I promise.

 

UGH! What happened? –OR– Back to the Basics! Burnout..?

February 18, 2017

No matter what I do with my Type 2 Diabetes, all roads point back to the BASICS! I know what to do, we all do, correct?

• Monitor my blood sugar
• Eat properly
• Exercise
• Blah, blah!

It’s just NOT all that difficult, folks, so why my frustration? Sometimes, I just don’t know which direction to go… 

London

Maybe it’s the repetitiveness of it — day in, day out… But, c’mon. People have WAY worse diseases/conditions than diabetes. So much of it is simply an inconvenience, the real issue for me is the cravings. Yes — it’s ALL a pain in the butt, but not an earth-shattering nightmare. Is it diabetes burnout? Is there even such a thing? Yes! (See link)

Look at that! — not really a surprise, but I haven’t read about it (burnout) in a  l o n g  time.

 

It’s the answers that count. Here are a few, if you’re “feeling the pain” — (not literally pain, but feeling the burnout of T2D:

*Accept the damn diagnosis! Again.  I do think it has to be accepted every day, otherwise, the denial builds up. (Faster than a speeding bullet!)

*DO monitor blood sugar regularly and, yes, a chart helps to keep track. [Putting my big girl pants on and just charting it AGAIN.]

Monitor glucose regularly

 

*Put on the damn sneakers and move your butt. (That’s called EXERCISE, which in my world is walking, and walking, and walking.)  If your exercise of choice is the gym — go for it!

 

NO!!!!! NOT LIKE THIS! 🙂

                                                             [A little levity never hurt.]     🙂

*Eating properly — yeah, yeah, yeah. I think the answer to that might just be changing it up a bit. “It” being the menu. I KNOW I need to work on that, because I’ve been bored to tears with what I’ve been eating lately — and, a lot of the time I’ve been eating on the run. “On the run” has never worked for me, so I’ll be doing some extra planning.

Many posts back, I ended by listing my blood sugar level and my weight. Somewhere along the line, I stopped doing it. What was I thinking? It’s certainly a good practice to keep me on track and accountable. So, I’ll be doing it again — starting right now:

Blood Sugar:     109          Weight:     149 lbs.

There — I did it!

I have a doctor’s appointment on the 24th, so I’ll see what she has to say about my A1C. 

                 Good luck, folks! From your very DEDICATED  and  DETERMINED DIABETIC.

“Tick-tock, tick-tock — Excuses, excuses, around the clock”

Are you a procrastinator? An excuse-maker? A clock-watcher?  Join the group! I try, I really do try to make the most of the time I have each day. NOTHING frustrates me more than to look at my list (Yes, I’m a list maker too!) at the end of the day and see that I haven’t accomplished what I set out to do! It makes me crazy.

My brother used to say that we have the “procrastination gene.” We were a family of last-minute doers! When I was in school, I thought it was the rush to get a paper done that gave me a “rush.” Now, though, I’m not interested in that; I want completion. Period.

I listened to a wonderful TED Talk on the subject of making the most out of the time we have. Funny, but true; it smacked me right in the face with the fact that I waste time. I detest the thought of that — I feel strongly that we’re put on this earth for a purpose and wasting time is the worst thing I can do. The TED Talk helped to set me back on track — including in terms of my ” life with diabetes.” SO many things are important to fit into my day, to care for my T2D. They bear repeating:

• PREPARE MEALS  a h e a d  of time. Cooking two meals and freezing one may seem like it takes a lot of extra time but, that’s simply not true. It’s such a pleasure when, a week later you can defrost the (second) meal, heat it up without the rigamarole of the chopping, cooking, etc., that you did the first time around. Give this gift to yourself — you WON’T regret it. I promise. If you’re working full time and can devote a couple of hours on a weekend, you can probably get four or six meals done and frozen for the weeks to come. Sheer joy. 🙂

• MONITOR my blood sugar. Two to three times a day “depending,” is what my doctor suggests. It’s so annoying, I tell myself. Put your big girl pants on and just DO IT! is my next thought. I’ve devised a chart and just fill in the numbers. There are also websites that accommodate this issue, but I believe in keeping mine simple. I include the date, times of testing, and the resulting blood glucose number. I have, at times, included the food that was consumed. Discuss it with your doctor. My purpose in bringing up the subject of monitoring is that, for ME, it keeps me aware and pushes away that damn denial. The NUMBERS DON’T LIE! 

• 

  Monitor glucose regularly

• EXERCISE. The time I spend walking keeps me a lot healthier than time vegging out in front of the t.v. When I schedule “hoofing it” into my calendar, I KNOW that I’m doing the right thing for me.

  

  Start WALKING!

• TICK-TOCK folks — let’s make the BEST use of the time we have!

IMPORTANT: If you didn’t listen to the TED Talk, noted above, I strongly urge you to do it now. Take the “TIME!”   🙂

LOL! Winter? Spring? What to eat?

Monday, March 21, 2016

In my post from last night, I told you about my fears for my daffodils.  I was pretty sure what the effect the snow would have on them.  😦   We got about 2 1/2″ of the white stuff; so, not too bad.

THIS was MY vision of Spring, 2016.

FIRST DAY OF SPRING, 2016!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here’s Mother Nature’s vision…

SECOND DAY OF SPRING, 2016!

Oh, Mother Nature, you have some sense of humor!  

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yesterday, I mentioned that salads don’t do it for me in the winter, they just don’t. Here’s my  COMMITMENT  for today:  IF the temperatures live up to the predictions — 50’s, 60’s for the rest of the week — This T2D WILL dive back into my salads!

P R O M I S E!

 

 

 

 

 

Blood Sugar:   111     Weight:   147.4 lbs.     (Thinking my scale must be broken. NO WAY did I lose that much wait in one day!  Will give it a couple of days — to bask in the “denial,” then I’ll buy a new one).    😦

Not looking too happy, but the snow IS melting!  ^ ^ ^ ^   🙂

 

 

Spring — Holy Cow!

Sunday, March 20, 2016

This baby finally opened completely this morning.  So pretty.  For a moment, I actually believed that Spring had Sprung!

 

But, Alas! It’s 10:00 p.m. and the view from my bedroom windows looks more like New Years than Spring.  IT’S SNOWING!  I know it was predicted, but I was in denial — Big time.  I just made a mistake and checked the weather station. What was I thinking???  My area is expected to get 2 – 6 inches of the white stuff!

 

My poor baby daffodil will probably be dead by morning, along with its “siblings” and the lone crocus, “twins,” cold and covered by the…”S” word.

 

 

I’m telling myself, —it will be fine, soon it will be beach weather, and this will have just been a bad dream.  Soon.

AND, as the weather warms up, so will my diabetes management routine.  Lots of rough spots this winter; I’ve admitted it. I flipped and flopped like crazy, but I gave it my best shot.

I LOVE salads in the summer but they just don’t do it for me when the weather’s cold.  Tonight’s dinner was grilled swordfish, asparagus, and a slice of tomato. That’s it.  It was good and my walk, prior to dinner, added to my appetite. But, remember, it’s the walk after dinner that will help to lower blood sugar levels.

Looking forward to the “real” spring — it’s coming, I just know it!  🙂

Blood Sugar = 130   Weight: 150.2 lbs.

 

Reassessing Acceptance

Second Post for Jan. 28th, 2016

So, I’ve been contemplating whether or not I REALLY accept the “fact” that I have diabetes, OR am I in denial?  Hmmm.  I thought I had this down pat.

I remember well, when I accepted that I had this disease and that I could manage it, and that it wouldn’t be a big deal. Doing EVERYTHING right, I called myself the “poster person for diabetes.” But that didn’t happen until I went through many stages, some of which I’ll mention.  These are all very normal and typical, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy.

The anger, (This is crap! Why me?). I actually ate AT the diabetes. (While stuffing cake and cookies down my throat, I remember thinking,  I’ll show you!)  Needless to say, that didn’t work out well.

The bargaining (O.K., so maybe I have it.  I’ll just cut down on the carbs, and I’ll be off the hook.  I’ll be fine.  C’mon God, work with me.).

The denial stage is wicked (NOT ME; NO WAY! NO, NO, No!  The lab made a mistake.) …and the beat went on and on and on, until FINALLY — ACCEPTANCE!

WHY then, after all this time, am I floundering, doubting? Why is acceptance even an issue or something that I would be discussing, at this point?

Simple. What I didn’t realize was that because you HAVE acceptance, does NOT mean you’ll keep it!  Acceptance, it seems, is fragile. If I’m not as vigilant as I should be, acceptance can slip away.

Over the years, I’ve learned the importance of education in relation to diabetes. I spent a great deal of time today reading about diabetes.  I have LOTS of what I refer to as “spiritual reading,” on the topic.  🙂    Books — TONS of them.  Article, after article (including the ones noted, via the links on this page).  It helped. It clarified what I already knew, and brought it right to the front of my mind where it belongs. The information is important, it’s a tool, sometimes a weapon, to defend my health. If you are struggling, I highly recommend going back to the resources that you have. Read, read, read.

I know, we all know, that we have to keep our diabetes management right at the forefront of our minds.  I HAS to be the most important thought that enters my head.

Are you familiar with Steve Harvey?  I’ve read his books, and I love his positive attitude. Today, I heard him say, “Inch by inch, everything’s a cinch!”  Isn’t that the truth?  One step at a time, one meal at a time, one day at a time.

** Now that I’ve “reassessed” whether or not I really have diabetes, I’m laughing at myself.  How absurd! Of course I do. But, trust me, that denial just creeps in when you least expect it.  BE AWARE!

Moving on — tomorrow will be another Day #1!

The Blame Game

The “Blame Game”

Hmmm. Responsibility?

It’s not my fault, I’m diabetic, is it?

I blame my forefathers!

Search that family tree — I’ll bet there’s diabetes hanging from those branches somewhere.

I picture myself in the “family forest,” (pic. below) reaching up and pushing away the leaves. “They’re in there somewhere, I just know it.” I walk for miles, climbing trees, shaking branches, hoping those diabetic family members will fall out onto the ground, make themselves known to me and accept their responsibility for MY dilemma, MY disease.

Did I say “MY?” Hmmm, I think I did. Could it be that it’s not their fault? Could I have done this to myself? I consider this premise — but only for a moment. Denial creeps in. No way! Back to the forest. I review my family tree: Mom, Dad, Grandpa, Nana? Nope. I continue on my journey, in search of the culprit(s). Aunts, Uncles? C’mon! Cousins, somebody? Where are you?

                  (The “Family” Tree)

Then, right in front of me, on one of the newer, lower branches, I see someone. He’s got the “D” tattooed on his shoulder. It’s my brother! Sure enough, there’s my genetic link. He has diabetes. Somehow, I feel better. But, why? What difference does it make? He didn’t do this to me. He didn’t give me diabetes. The reality is, even if there are more of them, way up on the higher branches (and I’ll bet there are), it doesn’t matter. It’s time to accept responsibility for my own life.

The “Blame Game” just doesn’t fit into my story of diabetes. Blaming genetics is a waste of time. I have it. Period. I accept it. Now, if I don’t do what’s best for me, who do I have to blame?
ME!

Time to move on, accept responsibility for my life and do the best I can to help my body fight the diabetes. Eat right, exercise, monitor my blood sugar. Do the RIGHT thing.

Here I go (again) — One day at a time.
I’m counting EVERY day as Day #1.

Wish me luck, and H E L P! [please…]
🙂