Here is a great opportunity for all! Watch this documentary starring Elizabeth Perkins, enjoy the show, and the Diabetes Hands Foundation gets money. And that means people with diabetes get awesome programs.
http://www.diabetescostars.
It’s that simple.
Sleep is so important. And I’m a huge fan of sleep. I was a maniac about teaching my kids how to sleep – and in their own beds – when they were babies. And they are excellent sleepers to this day! Sleep is related to mood, productivity, even blood glucose.
Most adults do best with 7 to 8 hours of sleep per day (night). Poor sleep can cause high blood glucose, and high blood glucose can cause poor sleep. A sleep disturbance called sleep apnea puts people at risk for serious health problems.
It’s time for bed! Let’s get some sleep.
Nuts are a healthy fat, because they are plant-based and they contain unsaturated fat. A new article reports that substituting nuts for other, less healthy snacks can help people not gain weight and maybe even lose a little.
The catch is to not overeat nuts, which can be challenging. I am fortunate, because I like almonds, but I don’t like too many of them at once. I can literally eat 6 almonds and be satisfied. However, I do like them better inside dark chocolate. Or alongside a piece of fruit. I can’t say I’m quite to the point where 6 almonds fill me up for an extended period of time. But it’s certainly better than some things I could choose to eat, right?
How do you incorporate nuts into your eating plan?
I typically avoid buffets. I find it challenging to take a rational amount of food, and often I find that the food offerings are not as healthy as I’d prefer. I found this article about how people handle buffets interesting. The gist of it is that in order to not gorge at a buffet, people tend to circle the buffet and check out what’s available, and choose a smaller plate. I agree that both of these ideas are good ones, and I admit that I don’t necessarily do either. Maybe I’ll start! But ultimately, avoiding buffets works well for me, and it appears that’s what David Katz, MD, suggests doing.
How do you handle buffets?
Do you get excited when you hear about a cure for diabetes? I usually don’t. I don’t live for a cure because I’d rather live for today. Don’t get me wrong, a cure would be wonderful. I just can’t let myself get all excited and then let down every time someone has the cure (and we hear those words pretty often). I read the articles (unless something sounds completely out of the realm of possibility), take in the information, and then go about my life and see if anything comes of it.
I have a lot of respect for the people who participate in studies and conduct research so that one day diabetes will no longer exist. I’m realistic enough to think that a prevention will happen before a cure, but maybe there will be a cure in my lifetime. It’s possible.
Today I read an article about a new hormone that makes beta cells (the cells in the pancreas that produce insulin). This is a big finding! If they can figure out how to get this hormone into a safe and effective injectable form, they might be onto something. Don’t throw away your syringes and insulin (pens, pumps, etc.) quite yet though – I once heard about people who did this on a Friday several years ago when a “cure” was announced; they had no supplies to get through the weekend!
How do you respond when you hear about a cure for diabetes?
Today is the last day of the Health Activist Writer’s Month Challenge, and the prompt is to describe my HAWMC experience in one word. My word is obsessive. While – as I mentioned yesterday – I enjoy writing, and having a daily prompt makes the process a lot easier in some ways, I found myself quite obsessed with getting a blog post written for each day of the month. This can be a bit much on top of everything else that’s going on. I am impressed with people like Seth Godin, who do this all year long!
Anyway, being obsessed about writing blog posts reminds me about how easy it is to obsess about other things in our lives. With diabetes, we can find ourselves obsessing about numbers or food or exercise. By obsessing, I mean hyper-focusing or thinking about one or a combination of these things all the time. It can distract us and cause us to lose productivity in other parts of our lives. And can also lead to diabetes distress.
Sometimes such obsessive patterns can lead to throwing in the towel or giving up on diabetes management for a day, a week, or even a long time. I’m constantly saying and writing that “it’s all about balance.” For me, balance means not being obsessed and not being apathetic, but living somewhere in the middle. Paying attention to diabetes, respecting it, so to speak, but not letting it take over my life. I think this is how I avoid distress.
I’m not sure how, exactly, I came to not obsess about diabetes (and this was not always the case), and trust me, there are certainly other areas that I stress, obsess and distress about! But every morning I get to start over and strive for balance once again.
Today I’m supposed to write three things I’m great at. I’m glad this month-long blog challenge is almost over!!
1.) I’m great at being a diabetes robot: I wake up and check my blood glucose every morning. I eat at relatively consistent times and relatively consistent amounts/types of food. This makes managing my diabetes tremendously easier than when I’m not as consistent/robotic.
2.) I’m great at writing a blog post every day, when I have a prompt: I love to write, and having someone give me a topic makes it so easy for me to just write. And I’m great at keeping it short!
3.) I’m great at listing the things I’m not great at. But that’s not allowed today, so I’ll stop here.
What are you great at??
Today I share with you my “must follow” list, and I’ve decided to choose twitter (we only get one social network). Here they are:
@scottkjohnson (Scott K. Johnson)
@mydiabeticheart (Mike Durbin)
@ninjabetic (George Simmons)
@withfaithgrace (Allison Nimlos)
@betespora (Jeff)
@ArtMindBody (Lee Ann Thill)
@JoyfulDiabetic (Will Ryan)
Today’s prompt is to come up with five working titles for a book about my life, my community, or my condition. Here they are:
5.) What Ever Happened to Carefree Sugarless Gum??
4.) On the Road of Life, Diabetes is Just One Frost Heave
3.) Fighting Fire with Fire
2.) 38 Special: 38 years with diabetes…and counting!
1.) People With Diabetes Can Eat Anything: it’s all about balance
Today would have been a perfect day to be worry free. Today I hiked in the Grand Canyon with my husband and kids. Although I was comfortable with my blood glucose level prior to lunch and hike, it definitely would have been great to not have to worry at all. When engaging in a strenuous activity such as climbing down and then back up a rather large canyon, there is definitely a tendency to worry about the possibility of having a low blood glucose event. Fortunately, I can be prepared with low blood glucose treatment options as well as my blood glucose meter, insulin, and water.
I realize there are many risks I don’t take because I have diabetes. But then again I don’t really know if I would actually be more of a risk taker if I didn’t have diabetes. But not having to worry about blood glucose levels would certainly make life easier and allow more spontaneity.
By the way, another day that would have been augmented by a worry-free pass would have been my wedding day.
