Live With Diabetes
…not “for” diabetes. Do you sometimes feel that diabetes are a filter that color and affect your whole life? First of all, don’t blame yourself. It’s almost impossible not to. A chronic illness like diabetes is hard to “forget about”, especially since you have to stay on top of it all the time.
Do you feel exhausted by the constant reminders, the schedules, and overwhelmed by keeping track of everything? Here are some tips that may help you if you’re just starting a transition into a responsible diabetic lifestyle:
Routine
Nailing down a routine is a great way to manage stress. It will make you feel less lost and more in control of what you are doing.
- Write down your healthcare team information and make a calendar for check ups
- Make a list of diabetic supply providers who can send you glucose test strips, tegaderm, glucose delivery supplies and other medical paraphernalia on a set schedule, so you don’t have to worry about it
- Set a routine for other activities that affect blood sugar – like eating and exercise. It will help you in the long run.
- Write down goals and stick to them. Think of your diabetes like a project to manage. A lot of times we can do this at work but fail in our personal lives.
Manage – don’t fight
A breakthrough in a lot of diabetics’ lives comes when they accept the fact that they have a serious condition and won’t shake it off like one would a cold, or even a broken leg.
Like an old proverb says – it’s better to be the tree that bends in the wind and than the tree that fights the wind and stays upright until it breaks.
Give yourself a break. Try to relax. Stress only makes it worse. Too often we get stuck in the already passing idea that more is better, multitasking is good and working long hours makes you more productive.
Get ahead of the game and work smarter, not faster. Transitioning into a diabetic lifestyle can be hard – any lifestyle change is. If you accept that and don’t fight it, acceptance will be a serious stress buster.
Find the pleasure
Needles, constant vigilance, and downright fear sucks a lot of enjoyment out of life. A lot of people try to focus on the positive – and food might be one of those positive things that you can actually focus on and enjoy.
This fits very nicely with the above two very important points – routine and management. Food will help you with both of those, and help to get your stress under control. How?
Learning how to cook well is a great start. There are now a lot of cooking courses aimed at diabetics, as more and more people take this opportunity to become their own personal dietitian and master chef.
Cooking helps with routine because it centers you. You will slow down, adjust your schedule to making lunch, breakfast, dinner. You might find that a regular cooking and eating schedule will help you adjust your sleeping schedule as well.
This is something that is important for anybody – not just for diabetics.
