Day 20

11:00

BG had a small spike yesterday, but so far it is back into an acceptable range. The only difference between yesterdays morning and today is that yesterday I slept late so I was an hour late eating breakfast and the BG spike was with the 11:00 reading. Today I woke at my regularly scheduled time and ate at my regularly scheduled time. And, I ate the very same thing today as yesterday. Next step in testing out what happened yesterday is to wake at my regularly scheduled time and eat at my regularly scheduled time, but check my BG an hour early (10 rather than 11) to see if the spike was simply because of the abbreviated morning. At least I know that on a 3 hour span between breakfast & test the BG was good today. And that is good because I like the cereal I ate yesterday & today. Yesterday was the first day trying it, so I had to be suspicious of it. I feel better about it today - yay!

My doctor was having me email him my BG tracking each week, but last night he replied and told me every 2 weeks would be acceptable for reporting to him. I see that as an improvement! :) Heck, at this point I will take anything as an improvement!

So, almost 3 weeks in and I feel I am adapting to the Diabetic Lifestyle more & more. I guess it will always be a lifetime journey but it hasn't been as bad as I was dreading when I was first diagnosed. I didn't have as much issue sticking the needle in myself as I expected I would, but then, my BG was so high the day I was diagnosed that I was afraid not to stick myself!

For me the hardest part so far has been the things I have have to give up - potatoes, rice, gravy and reducing my bread consumption. I am a very picky eater & for me my staples were meat & potatoes with bread & gravy. In fact I have been known to pass on dessert just to have more bread & gravy! And, before I retired I was going out to lunch with friends everyday and my trusted fallback option was always chicken fingers - yep, those nice, crusted batter, deep fried kind. Thank goodness I was forced into retirement 2 years ago by a force reduction because then I started eating most meals at home. And, while my diet was still very bad, it was certainly better than greasy chicken fingers 3 or 4 times a week.

But I am working real hard at learning to eat the better foods and I am truly hopeful that with a better diet & the exercise I am now working on incorporating into my life will both help me lose weight and hopefully one day be off the injections and as an added bonus, maybe be able to come of my Blood Pressure meds too.

My doctor started trying to get me to modify my diet when he put me on BP meds, but I was stubborn and figured if the meds controlled it life was still good. But the diagnosis of Diabetes? That scared me. Really scared me. All I could think was Diabetic coma. That thought is what makes me try harder to change my ways!