HOW TO CONTROL DIABETES - 3 COMMON MISTAKES THAT MAKE YOU FAIL - 5 minutes read
How to control diabetes: there's the right way and a lot of wrong ways.Diabetes is like a cruel jack-in-the-box. You always have to keep it under control. If you don't, the jack-in-the-box will spring out and do bad things to you.Keeping diabetes in the box isn't easy. Especially day in and day out, watching what you eat, testing your glucose levels,taking your meds, and all the other things you have to do to keep everything under control. Most diabetics use an approach to diabetes control that either doesn't work very well or is very difficult to live with day in and day out. Maybe you are one of them.
Check it out: Does one of these describe you?
The "snapshot" approach.
You deal with the immediate situation and generalize the rest. You test your blood sugar from time to time, especially if you "feel funny". If the reading is too high, you might take a shot of insulin (if you use insulin) or you might drink several glasses of water or try something else to bring it down. If the reading is too low, maybe you eat a piece of candy or even "pig out" until you feel better.This is a very dangerous and all too common way to deal with diabetes.
The jack-in-the-box is always jumping out. Instead of really controlling your diabetes and keeping it down, you're more often just trying to get it back in the box. It doesn't work.
The "shotgun" approach.
This too is very common. You know you have to watch what you eat, keep your blood sugars down, take your meds and see your doctor regularly.You hit at all of them, but your energies and focus are scattered and diffused. Without a system that fits with your daily lifestyle, one area may be well-managed, but another area of treatment may suffer. You may even do well, generally speaking. But all too often you are just putting complications (affecting the heart, kidneys, eyes, hands and feet) a little further down the road. And you don't feel as good as you might if you had better-managed diabetes control. You still feel tired, still spend too much time and money on extra doctor visits and medicines that might not be necessary.
The "Band-Aid" approach.
This is yet another approach by many type 2 diabetics who use insulin. It's probably the worst of them all. You just eat what you want and "cover it" with a little extra insulin. Very bad. You are probably tightening the grip that insulin resistance already has on you. You increase the likelihood of complications every day, as well as increase your risk of heart attack or stroke. Don't do it. So what is the right way to control diabetes? I'm the first to admit there is no single right way. But the right ways are far fewer than the wrong ways used by too many diabetics. Any way that works, and works every day, and works with your lifestyle, is the right way for you.
Let me suggest three elements how to control diabetes the right way:
There's no substitute for knowing what to do, when and how to do it. That means you should read books and journals, Internet articles (but do be discerning with what you read on the Internet. Make sure it comports with
other more solid sources of information). And as always, before incorporating any major changes into your treatment for diabetes, check with your doctor.
Diabetes is a self-managed disease. It is up to you to control it, and no-one else. So no matter how good your information, no matter what treatment for diabetes you have available, you have to have the attitude and the
motivation to put it into action every day. Some days you don't feel like testing your blood sugar or exercising. You
feel like tossing your diet out the window and gorging on cake and ice cream. Or you just get depressed with the whole thing. And your diabetes goes out of control.How do you press through it? You have to develop and nurture the right attitude, based not on feelings but on conviction and determination. The right attitude includes the determination that no matter how you feel --good, bad or indifferent -- you're still going to do what you have to do to
keep your diabetes under control.
#3 -- A system that puts it all together and makes it work.
You need to put both information and attitude together into a system. Organization, prioritizing, goal-setting, and so on. It's the framework or structure for your whole diabetes treatment plan. When everything is structured and organized to make it fit into your life the way you live it, this works better than unorganized, hit or miss approaches. Now determine for yourself: no more once-in-a-while or when-you-feel-like it "snapshot" approach, or scattered or dissipated time and energy of the "shotgun" approach, or patchwork "Band-Aid" approach that doesn't work.Put together a plan of information, the right attitude, and a system to make it work -- today!
