Welcome to Day Four of Diabetes Blog Week. As we pass the halfway point of the week I hope you’ve been having fun and discovering some great new blogging friends. In case you haven’t heard, yesterday Lauren’s Hope announced a surprise DBlogWeek contest so head over to their blog and nominate another DBlogger to win a fabulous prize that will be awarded tomorrow. Today we are getting back to the positive with our topic Mantras and More. Yesterday we opened up about how diabetes can bring us down. Today let’s share what gets you through a hard day? Or, more specifically, a hard diabetes day? Something positive you tell yourself, or mantras, or what you fall back on to get you through. Maybe we've done that and we can help others do it too? (Thanks to Meri of Our Diabetic Life for suggesting this topic.)
As much as I hate it, I’m a worrier and an obsessor. This applies to life in general, but also to diabetes. I often need to tell myself to take a step back and a deep breath and just stop for a minute. Because when things are getting hard and everything is going wrong, I come up with huge sweeping plans to immediately fix everything to the last detail. Diabetes off the tracks? Well, I will only eat healthy foods, consume no more than 20 carbs per meal, exercise 45 minutes a day seven days a week, test my blood sugar every two hours and track every single diabetes detail. Can you imagine how that turns out? Big ol’ fail with a side of burned myself right out. So the mantra I concentrate on most is this . . . .
It doesn’t have to be perfect, it just has to be better than it was.
I need to remember things didn’t go to crap all at once, so they won’t get perfectly fixed all at once. They just need to be improving steadily.
- Haven’t exercised in months? Shoot for once or twice this week and keep going from there.
- Blood sugar sitting at 253? Don’t expect it to be back in range when I test again in an hour, just expect it to be lower than 250 and DON’T rage bolus!
- Snacking gone out of control? Trade one bad snack a day for an apple. Reach for a piece of cheese instead of a piece of chocolate. One trade off at a time can get me on the right path.
- Bolusing off my CGM instead of fingersticks? Before meals reach for the meter instead of looking at that CGM!
I’m not perfect. Diabetes isn’t perfect either. Neither of us ever will be. But if I can make it better than it was before, I’m headed in the right direction.
What is Diabetes Blog Week? Click here for an explanation and to sign up. You can also check out a list of participants over here.
I LOVE your mantra...so true :) Although I admit I am definitely guilty of rage bolusing! (among other things) :-P
ReplyDeleteWhile it's worthwhile to strive for perfection, we have to remember that we are not perfect. I don't think we are meant to be perfect. Thanks for reminding everyone that we need to cut ourselves some slack, and to take things one step at a time.
ReplyDeleteI'm putting this mantra into my bag of tricks, love it! (....and also need to remember it when I've fallen off the wagon with exercise, and need the gumption to hop back on again!)
ReplyDeleteI love love love when the advice is to be kinder, more patient with ourselves. Instead of advice like "make sure you always vacuum your house before you go to bed" which I just read on Apartment Therapy and which made me feel like a useless tramp.
ReplyDeleteLove the mantra, Karen! (((Hugs)))
ReplyDeleteTHANK YOU! Love your mantra!
ReplyDeleteI totally need to remind myself of this. I have rage bolus issues....lol
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