Hello!! We are well into 2016. Welcome to the inaugural blog post of doctoreno.com. The mission of this blog is to provide a platform to help women living with type 2 diabetes achieve optimal health and wellbeing.
Since it is early in the year 2016, I thought that a good starting place is to discuss resolutions in helping you achieve healthy blood sugars.
Let’s start by defining what a resolution is.
A resolution is defined as a firm decision to do or not to do something.
Recent research shows that by February 9 of every year, most people have failed at their resolutions when it comes to exercise. Close to 90% of resolutions fail by the end of the first quarter of the year.
If you are a woman committed to optimal health and wellbeing despite type 2 diabetes, then I invite you to have a more empowered relationship to not only making, but also keeping your New Year resolutions.
In professional coaching, we have an assertion that ‘how you do one thing is how you do everything’. Imagine if you are able to stick with these resolutions how that could flow over into other areas in your life.
So let’s look review five New Year resolutions that I suggest you stick with:
Learn as much as you can about type 2 diabetes
I believe that knowledge is the first step toward personal empowerment. The field of diabetes care is rapidly changing. Become curious about the latest research and information, because it can have a huge impact on your diabetes care. If you find a treatment option that you feel may benefit you, then have a discussion with your healthcare provider about this.
Do what it takes this year to achieve and maintain healthy blood sugars
There may be times when your blood sugars get out of control. This can be very discouraging. High blood sugars are linked to a much higher risk of complications from type 2 diabetes. If you commit to do whatever it takes to achieve and maintain healthy blood sugars, you will reduce the risk of complications.
Make a resolution to do whatever it takes to keep your blood sugars in a healthy range. It may be that you have to increase your physical activity, or watch your portion sizes a lot more closely. Most importantly cut out the excuses. Yes it is easy to rationalize why your blood sugars are high without making the commitment to doing anything about it. Remember how you do one thing, is how you do everything, so if you show up ready to do whatever it takes to achieve healthy blood sugars this year, think of some of the other areas in your life that you could move forward!
See your healthcare provider on a regular basis
Commit to seeing your healthcare provider on a regular basis. This is because it is important in helping not only control your blood sugars but also helping to detect any early complications. Not only should you see your healthcare provider on a regular basis, but you should also know what tests you need to have done. For instance every three months, you should have an A1C performed. This test helps to show allows how well controlled your blood sugars have been over the past 3 months.
Know your ABCs
It is important to know your ‘diabetes ABCs’. A is for- A1C, B for Blood sugars and C for cholesterol. Have a discussion with your healthcare provider about what your target ranges should be.
According to the American Diabetes Association, the target ranges for each of these are:
· A1C <7.0%
· Blood sugars (fasting) 80-120 mg/dl
· Cholesterol- LDL less than 100 mg/dl; HDL more than 60 mg/dl.
Keep up with routine health exams
Be sure to your annual physical exam, as well as routine screening tests. It is so easy when dealing with a chronic illness to often neglect looking at the whole picture which is you. Do not leave these to chance. Living with type 2 diabetes puts you at increased risk of some other diseases such as heart disease as well as strokes as well as certain cancers.
I suggest marking a day for your annual physical examination on your calendar early in the year. Perhaps you may want to pick your birthday month for instance to get all your routine medical exams done.
So there you have it. Five New Year resolutions for the rest of 2016
Let’s get started!
To your Health & Wellbeing,
What do you think? Do you keep your New Year resolutions? Would making a resolution to better control your diabetes be something worth taking on? What kind of support would you need in order to keep your resolution?
