Long Time No Post or Where Has Life Lead Me?

Well, life takes us on journeys and we sometimes feel like we are hanging on for dear life, rather than steering the ship.  That’s been my life in the last year and a half since my last post.  I apologize for leaving the blog behind me.  You have my solemn promise to post more often.

So, where have I been in terms of my Diabetes and self-care?

I hate the answer to this question.  Honestly, I haven't taken the best care of myself since stress has been a daily companion for quite some time.  My sweet tooth is the size of the Southwest and I’m an emotional eater.  This means that when I’m emotional, my first desire is to find solace in sweet foods.  NOT a good thing for a Diabetic.  As you can imagine, my sugars and A1C went up a bit as did my weight. 

Solutions:

The first thing I’ve done to get back on track is get my food portions under control.  The second thing is to make sure there are no sweet treats that are bad, processed sugar treats like cake and cookies, in the house.  I’ve also made a point to avoid eating any bad sweet treats outside the house.  Finally, I’ve replaced all bad sweet treats with good and less sweet alternatives like lite yogurt, fresh fruit and healthy granola bars with lots of flavor and fiber, but few carbs.  These snacks are giving me a bit of sweet, without all the bad sugars and calories.

Morning Blood Sugar:

I’m checking my blood sugar once a day in the morning right now and find that it’s looking pretty good.  Type 2 Diabetics are likely to have a problem with high morning fasting blood sugar.  This has to do with hormones that work to control your sugars overnight while you sleep. 

Follow this link to a good article on the Diabetic Living website for more details on this.

http://www.diabeticlivingonline.com/monitoring/blood-sugar/how-to-lower-morning-blood-sugar?page=0

While it will take some time for the weight to come down again, my sugars look better.  This Diabetes thing is persnickety and takes a firm hand. 

Finale:

By the way, I’ve noticed is that my desire for sweets has been drastically reduced.  Also, I’m finding new, better ways to handle stress that don’t involve food, like yogic breathing and meditation.  It’s amazing how one’s health is affected by such seemingly small things. 

On this final note, I will say that I intend to post blogs weekly and will cover ideas for handling stress in several blogs.