Hey Everyone.
What tips do people have for when they fall off the wagon. Blood work went in on Monday…
Kinda been living my life like I was not a diabetic....
How do you get back on.........??
I go with the planning/one minute at a time approach. I plan my meals for the next day, not a whole week 'cause I never seem to stick to it, and then take it a minute at a time. If I mess up, I say “ok- I’m going to start again right now”. I find if I wait and say “tomorrow I’ll do better” it’s an excuse to blow the rest of the day.
My mother was diagnosed 25 years ago.
On meds for first 10 years, then control lapsed.
Her endo said to her (to put her on track) : “if you want to see your grandchildren grow up, control your diabetes”.
Since then, she started shots, now 15 years later, she is 75, and no notable complications!
She recently did a refresher diabetes course, and they told her that she had the ‘best’ feet, etc.
Yep, this is a life committment.
Not sure there really tips I have to offer, just experience. For me it was a matter of not letting any more excuses or reasons get in the way and grip the bull by the horns and take charge. I did change doctors as this was one reason or justification would be more appropriate to say. I think that may be part of it, stop justifying the excuses and reasons and just make a decision to back on the horse. Try not to dwell on what was but what needs to be and change what was holding you back from getting back on. The wake up call for me was how much like crap I felt that last month and picked up my meter. Looking at fastings in the 250+ range, 2-3hr pp in the 350+ neighborhood let alone the spikes was enough to scare me straight.
I’ve been dealing with this issue for a life time. I was dx’d at the age of 3 on July 6, 1958. Yipee!!! 52 years next week. :(. My daughter was dx’d at the age of 23 in 2006. What I tell her is let the water roll off her back. Confront, adapt and continue. Don’t let life go bye. I have days when (for some reason) I cannot get things the way I want. I roll with the punches. It has helped me mentally deal with what I have to deal with EVERY day of my life (24/7). BTW I hate that term. hahaha
Live your life
Anything is possible if you try!!!
Ray
I look at it like falling of the wagon on my weight loss plan. Yep, I did fall off that wagon several million times, and I’ve looked at myself in the mirror and decided that I don’t like what I see. With the diabetic wagon, I look at myself, my legs, my feet, my eyes, and I think I am so much more than diabetes and weight. I deserve to live a life that is filled with joy, peace, contentment, fun. And if in order to do that, I have to do somethings that are totally undesireable, pokes, tests, eating a healthy diet with lo carbs, hey, I want to be there. Nope it’s not easy, but then, life itself isn’t easy either. Forgive yourself, and get back on the horse…it’s well worth it.
That is what I am trying to say.
The ADA published a book awhile ago that I still find helpful. It’s called Diabetes Burnout: What to Do When You Can’t Take It Anymore. It is a tad dated (published in 1999), but has good stories and tips that hit home when I need a jumpstart in my care.
My suggestions: Don’t be too hard on yourself. You can’t change the past, so there’s no use feeling guilty over it. Just think of every day as a fresh start, and give yourself small, achievable goals on your way to the bigger overall goal you want to set for yourself.
take it one day at a time, modify small parts of your meals, work out a little bit or start to work out. Dont beat your self up for yesterday and think about what you can do now and tomorrow. Cant take back yesterday but at least you have tomorrow to plan for. Take small steps, my favorite saying was always the longest journey starts with one step.
What about bob. Baby steps.
I love it, I also like hakuna matata
Sometimes you just need to get off the wagon for a bit to give yourself a break, but not go nuts. I do things for me, since no one else is going to take care of me and my diabetes.
But I do remind myself if I don’t take care of this disease, I’ll lose 10-15 years of my life and I don’t plan on doing this. My grandma is now 95, and I’d like to live as long as she does. I want to be around to irritate my children and spoil my grand kids.
I did go through 2 years of therapy shortly after my diagnosis, I was so angry and in denial. I still sometimes experience those feelings and I let myself work through it. No vacation time from diabetes, so I realize this is a full time job.
You have to decide you’re worth it, and taking care of yourself is a good thing. Perfection is unattainable, so do the best you can. If you have an off day, work through it and look towards tomorrow.
Good luck!
I favor the “small steps at a time” approach. Little successes help you create future successes.
Example: If you haven’t been checking bg very often, don’t suddenly say, “I’m going to check more often!” That’s too vague. Instead, say “This week, I am going to take a fasting bg as soon as I wake up. I will put my meter and strips next to the coffeemaker (or wherever I head first in the morning). I will tape a reminder to my medicine cabinet.” And, after checking, take a moment to pat yourself on the back. It’s crucial that we give ourselves positive feedback.
Also, I think you have to look at your wagon. Have barriers sprung up that make it hard to stick to your routine? If so, ya gotta smash some of those barriers. There are lots of barriers: cost, depression, fatigue, relationships, lack of current knowledge, unrealistic therapies, etc.
A lot of people tend to blame themselves for lack of willpower when they slip in self-care. I think willpower is severely overrated and just leads to lots of guilt. Sure, doing what we need to do every day to take care of our diabetes requires discipline and courage and persistence and accountability and support. It also takes setting up a routine you can, most days (and hey, I DON’T expect perfection from me or you), comfortably follow.
So, tell us, what’s your “one thing” going to be today? It’s lots easier to take action when you know at least a dozen people have read your promise to yourself. And we’re here to cheer.
Good post
I personally just don’t think that way, like " falling off the wagon". Too me that is too much like " good girl/bad girl" and just not useful. We’re not naughty children, we are adults who are struggling with a chronic hard to manage condition and sometimes we succeed better than other times. I see it as a continuum not as good or bad. There are so many variables with diabetes. First there is the individual one. I for example, eat moderately low carb; I know I’d have better blood sugars if I ate low carb, but I’ve made a choice based on trade-offs and I’m happy with it at this time. Not every day is the same though. A couple weeks ago my family chose the restaurant for us all to have dinner at, and being a vegetarian the only thing I could eat was pasta, so I ate way more carbs that day.
When you add in blood sugars, which sometimes despite our best effort vary widely, there is even less reason for self-blame. If I see a unusually high number or a low one, I just correct, and look to see if there is something to learn from it. If I see a rash of these out of range numbers I look for the pattern and figure out what to do about it. For me, it’s usually change insulin doses or I:C ratios, for others it might be a diet change or exercise change. But I never think any of it is " bad". Even when I waited too long when my numbers were rising inexplicably because I had been misdiagnosed as a type 2 and I was hitting the 400s I knew it was because I was confused by something unexpected and worried about its implication. When I started insulin and thought I knew what to do (" a little knowledge") I caused myself a scary low where I was unconscious until my liver kicked in. It was stupid, I now know, but I just realized I had way more to learn and developed a healthy respect for insulin!
Let’s assume the worst case scenario when you talk about " falling off the wagon". You eat anything and everything, you stop using your meds/insulin. Yes, that is severe and especially if it’s insulin, pretty scary. So you do exactly what you are doing: Say, “hey, I need to get back into the swing of things and I need help”. But you didn’t do that because you were " bad". Strangely " falling off the wagon implies you had no choice and it just happened to you (why would you blame yourself for that!). But neither thing is true. There was a reason. One of the most common reasons people totally stop managing diabetes is depression.When you are depressed you don’t have the emotional or even physical energy to deal with complicated things like diabetes management. And you feel hopeless to change anything, which just makes you give up. It is way more common for us than for the general population. Depression is real, it is an illness and it can be treated. If someone is suffering from depression, beating themselves up over what they don’t do just perpetuates the cycle. And saying “I’ll be good” doesn’t help either, because you may not be able to. If you are depressed you need treatment, medication perhaps, therapy perhaps or both together.
I know I am going on and on, but the one last thing I want to say about " falling off the wagon" is that many people tend to think of treating themselves as a bad thing, being self-indulgent, so feeling this way, they choose " treats" that are not good for themselves, or swing back and forth from deprivation to total indulgence (I call that the " twinkie/granola syndrome"). I think we all need and deserve treats, especially when we are struggling with something hard like diabetes. But treats come in many forms and definitely don’t have to be bad for us. Treats can be a wonderful fresh and crunchy salad with vegies grown in our own garden. Or it can be something totally not food related. Hot tubs, a day at the beach, cuddling the cat, buying a new outfit, being silly with the kids, all can be treats that are good for us, no wagons involved.
Nicely put, I refer to diabetic wagon when I stop taking my medicine or eat sweets. It’s hard to shake good bad diabetic sometimes.
As an update… A1C of 5.6… and am not type II anymore… go doc mistakes … here comes 1.5 and the shot