Caregiving Resolutions for the New Year

My New Year's Diabetic Parenting Resolutions:

1. To say "what was your blood sugar" one less time every day. (I'm a mom I can't just stop saying it!)
2. To have REALLY good and tasty snacks on hand to treat low blood sugar.
3. To NEVER buy that disgusting "sugar free" chocolate that gives everyone in our family stomach aches.
4. To plant two "new" foods in our vegetable garden and get my family eating them (I'm thinking parsnips and some sort of interesting green. I must pull Gretchen's salad blog for ideas there).
5. To figure out the local pizza! Specifically the carb count and fat content so we can bolus correctly for pizza from the neighborhood pizza parlors.
6. To guess less on carb counts and weigh food more. We now have the tool to do this - my husband bought the family one of those nifty food scales with all the bells and whistles. I think Dave Mendosa's blog inspired him to do this.
7. To maximize the insulin pump's extended bolus/combination bolus functions for the pizza and fatty foods.
8. To trust my son to make the right decision and not berate him when he makes the wrong one but help him problem solve instead.
9. And most importantly, to put diabetes second or third in terms of life priorities and make sure living life to the fullest and having fun as a family remains number one!

My son is now Internet-savvy enough to find this list later in the year and print it out. Well accountability, personal or otherwise, is half the battle for change, so I may as well make this list public. On a personal note, my New Year's Resolution is to do pilates twice a week starting at 5 p.m. today.

For more advice on New Year's resolutions:

Dr. Bill Quick's take

Heather Reese's nutritional tips for the new year