I was talking to my mom the other day and she said when she goes to yoga class they always come up with a word for the day. Her word that day was "thankful". I said to her my word for the day was "empowered". This week I stepped on the scale and was at my lowest weight since pregnancy 22 years ago, my blood sugar average for the week is 114 with 80% in my target range, yes sure there are ups and downs but only 3 hypos and only 2 readings out of 66 that were above 200. This week I canned my endocrinologist of 20+ years and suggested to the program manager at the Joslin diabetes center clinic that it might be more productive to get lab work done before a clinic visit rather than after. She agreed with me, but said most of the clinic patients "don't want to do that". I said I would come in the week before. So I am thinking of celebrating my empowerment with some butter pecan ice cream, but I'll probably have some fresh watermelon instead, I just love summer fruits and they are a whole lot easier on the waistline.
Keep up the good work. You should be so proud of your “empowerment”. Diabetes is not easy, but IMO the only way to succeed is to take control. And it looks as though you certainly have.
Thanks, it's still a work in progress, but I can see the progress every day and that is definitely empowering
Empowerment is one of my favorite words (states of being) as well,Clare. It's one of the biggest things I get out of being on TuD.
You most definitely sound empowered - weight loss, excellent blood sugars and advocating for yourself at the clinic. Btw you motivated me to check my 7 day average and it is 119, down from an average of 125 I've been stuck at for 90 days. But my in-range percent is nothing like yours.
Enjoy your watermelon!
But my in range percent is set for me 70-130 before, 70-180 after, so yours may just be set differently. 119 is not horrible, a few months ago I would have killed for 119 average. It's as I said a work in progress, but a little progress every day is all I am aiming for. I am enjoying my watermelon thanks.
Congratulations on your success and showing those doctors who the boss is!
One of my favorite Tae Kwon Do instructors (who, FWIW, had Type G...) had the classes do "celebration pushups" at the end of class. Some of the instructors would get all sort of gonzo, if the class was sluggish "that wasn't fast enough, 30 pushups...NOW" but she'd sort of wait until the end of class and go "wow, what a great class! Let's do celebration pushups!" I'm sure a lot of people were like "yuck" but they always made me feel great!
Yes, that is true. My before is similar: 75-121, after though is 100-130. I actually think 119 is better than "not horrible" - I'm very pleased with it. But yes, the ranges are more revealing. Ironically, I had the same A1C in December and this month: 5.7. But the first one is from being the most stable I've ever been and I'm proud of it. The second one is from having too many highs and lows that averaged out to the same number - that one I'm not as happy with and have already made several changes to avoid that.
But bottom line is the old saying, "progress not perfection" as well as remembering that what is good for one person may be not good at all for another. Some people struggle to stay under 200 and are happy when they can do that. Others flatline between 80-95. (Of course they are another species as far as I'm concerned!). I think of that individual variation as "the luck of the draw" and think I'm somewhere in the middle. Numbers, numbers, numbers.
Definitely another species, and from reading TLAP I guess the really telling number is standard deviation. I never realized what on earth that was until I read the book and calculated my number (again with the numbers), I am attempting to keep it close to 30%, right now it's a bit higher than that, but I tend to get obsessive so I am trying just to focus on staying away from the lows. Like I said I'm still very new to this so small steps. My 90 day average is 123 but the SD is 43% which just reflects the too many highs being averaged with too many lows as well. You should be proud of 5.7 and proud of 119, I agree it is definitely better than "not horrible". I have enjoyed both the watermelon and a tiny scoop of butter pecan.
I'm heading to the Poconos for the weekend to celebrate 25 years of wedded bliss to the man who has saved my life more than a few times. We're meeting our son in Pennsylvania after picking up his girlfriend in New York. And staying at the Shawnee Inn and Golf Resort. I am so looking forward to a vacation.
celebration push-ups ?? really ? well whatever floats your boat I guess, I'll do celebration scoops of butter pecan instead, albeit small ones.