The Holy Trinity

The holy trinity for the diabetic is eating right, exercising, and testing the blood sugar level at least six times a day.  It takes a gargantuan amount of motivation to keep up this rigorous regime.  After 34 years of doing this you would think I would have it down, but it never gets easier, at least not for me. I have big problems with my motivation level.  And I have been in a slump for two years and it is creating havoc on my physical, mental, and emotional health.  I am sure I am not alone in this struggle and therefore am I making my effort to get back into control public.

I got a bad cold two weeks ago and my blood sugars were hard to control.  I also did not feel like going swimming, and was very tired most of the time.  Now I am back in the saddle and ready to get crackin'.  Here is my plan of action:

What can I use for motivation?  What should be my mantra when I want to reach for the chocolate or cookies, skip exercising and testing my blood sugar?
1.  Better health over the long haul.
2.  Keeping my kidneys healthy
3.  Keeping what vision I have left
4.  keeping the feelings in my toes and fingers
5.  Being able to keep up with my almost 4 year old and as she gets older she will get faster and stronger.  I have to be able to keep up, and watching her grown up


1.  Get at least three days of exercise for at least 30 minutes each time.
     I just paid for a year's membership to the local swimming pool and training room.  Now I have to make good on my 4700 kroner ($810) investment in myself.

2.  Eating better.
   This means cutting down on fats, sugar treats, portions, and not eating after 7pm unless my low blood sugar requires it.  I generally cook my own food because of my dairy intolerance, but I love chocolate, sweets, lots of oil and fats in my cooking and just eating way more than I really need.

3.  Testing my blood sugars more often.
    I hate doing this, always have, but when I do it more often, the better control I have.  Simple.  I get lazy and that is reflected in higher AC1 scores.  So my goal is to test before eating and an hour later.  Before exercising and one hour after, and before bedtime.  Damn.  I hate this.  And I have to record my average blood sugars here on my blog. I want to say every day, but I think more realistically it will be once a week. So here is my daily average for the last 31 days:  12.5mmol.  YIKES!  I told you it was bad.  It should be 7.0.  Hells bells.  I have lots of work ahead of me.

I have watched enough weight losing shows on tv to give me at least a little inspiration.  I need a reward system too, but I haven't figured that out yet.  Maybe on the next post.

Here's to mud in my eyes and pounds off my body.
Mary