Many see the New Year as a starting point for creating positive habits or an ending point for breaking negative ones. A new calendar is as good excuse as any to find ways to recommit to your Type 1 diabetes self-care.
Making a resolution is the easy part; sticking to it is hard. As a life coach with Type 1 diabetes, I find a resolution will stick if you can articulate to yourself the positive reasons why you’re making the change. In other words, stop thinking of taking care of yourself as something you have to do, and instead think of it as something you want to do. For example, you can focus on how much better you feel when your blood glucose levels are in a good range, rather than on the scary stuff that happens when you get too low or too high.
Here are 8 more tips for achieving your diabetes goals in 2015. Many of the items on this list are things you’ve probably already thought of, but it doesn’t hurt to have some positive reinforcement:
- Instead of resenting your diabetes, do what you can to embrace it. Realize how much stronger it makes you in other areas of your life. Total up at all the crap you put up with on a daily basis and don your superhero cape with pride.
- Check your blood sugar at a minimum of six times a day.
- See your endocrinologist for a checkup and get an A1C test at least twice.
- Keep moving. Regular, moderate exercise can turn your body into a sugar-burning machine.
- Get an app on your phone that helps you count carbs, and then use it.
- Get your eyes checked yearly. (I’m guilty of slacking on this one.)
- Get a flu shot in the fall. It’s just another needle, and ain’t nobody got time to be sick with blood sugar levels going bonkers.
- Always carry around something sweet to treat your lows. Keep something in your car at all times too. If you happen to eat or drink it, replace it immediately.
Here’s to 2015!
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