Ohh, the pressure to be perfect!

Sometimes, it makes me want to give up altogether...until I realize it's just in my head.

NO one should expect me to be the perfect diabetic-it's just not possible. The mere fact that I can say, "I have diabetes," implies that my blood sugars are one part of my life that will be excusably imperfect for the rest of my life.

But that doesn't mean I can't keep "perfect" in mind. I can aim for perfect on a daily basis. I can try to eat right and take the right amount of insulin and exercise and check my blood sugar often-often-often!

And when I slip up, it's okay.

We don't have to be perfect. That's not the point.

I just need to try my best most of the time. Not even all of the time because that's impossible to do -- you can't be at 100 percent all of the time.

I have to admit, this is a hard to philosophy to follow, because I know I'm much happier when I do everything right. Without even meaning to be, I'm simply a happier person when I eat well and I test often and I exercise daily. So aiming to be perfect certainly has its rewards-- happiness!--and it doesn't get much better than that.

But if I was trying to be perfect just because my parents wanted me to be or because my doctor demanded that I be -- that wouldn't be very rewarding for me, because it would be about them, and not about how I feel about managing my own health. And that's really all that matters: how healthy do I feel? Because it inevitably goes hand in hand with how happy I am.

So, I'm going to throw "perfection" out the window, and just focus on trying to be as happy and as healthy as I can be.