Getting Back In Control Of Your Diabetes!

Here are five things I know for sure about diabetes:

1. Diabetes is a lot of work.

2. Diabetes can make some things in life more challenging, but it really can’t stop me from doing anything I want to if I try hard enough.

3. The more effort I put into figuring out why my blood sugars are too high or too low, the easier it is to take care of my diabetes because I’ve narrowed down what’s causing the drastic changes.

4. I love sugar-free maple syrup…even on egg white omelets or ground turkey.

5. Diabetes is a TOP PRIORITY in my life because if I don’t take care of it, it will hurt other parts of my life, it will get in the way of feeling good, in the way of school, of being with my friends, of exercising, in living a fun life! Diabetes comes first.

Okay…so that’s my list. And I think the hardest one on that list sometimes is #5, because life is busy! While there are usually “lunch breaks” in most people’s days, I’ve never heard of a “diabetes break” where everyone with diabetes is given a moment to slow down, check their blood sugar, giving themselves insulin and eat something healthy.

So, since life hasn’t made time for diabetes, WE have to. There is no way around this. The long we try to keep diabetes on the backburner just because it’s inconvenient and challenging to take care the worse it’s going to be shortly down the road.

We know we don’t feel good when our blood sugars run high for too long. We know that hanging out with our friends. I know I can’t teach yoga every day if my blood sugar is all over the place because I don’t feel good or have energy and because I can’t leave class in the middle of the hour to get some sugar all the time. I need to plan ahead and keep everything in range.

But how do you go from feeling really out of control to making diabetes a major priority in your life?

I believe what it comes down to is that it is a part of human nature to make excuses for our selves. We want to make life a little easier here and there in everything. We make excuses. Whether or not you have diabetes, you can make excuses for eating too much (I’m hungry, I’m tired, I ate vegetables for lunch, etc.), excuses for never exercising often enough (I’m old, I’m sick, I’m tired, I have diabetes…).

As soon as we stop making excuses for our diabetes and our behavior in general, we can start helping ourselves become disciplined to make better choices. It’s sometimes as simple as ordering a salad with grilled chicken instead of the hamburger and French fries. It’s just one little decision that can actually have a huge impact on your health if you make that little decision over and over.

The same goes for diabetes. Sure, you can wait until it’s convenient to check your blood sugar…or you can start trying to remind yourself that diabetes IS A HUGE PART OF YOUR LIFE. You have to take care of it. It isn’t going away anytime soon, so your only options are to take care of the disease and try to be as healthy as possible, OR neglect your diabetes, ignore it and feel lousy, damage your body, and continue to make excuses that will inevitably make life a lot less fun.