Blood Work Blues

At just over 13-months now since I was diagnosed with Type-2 Diabetes, tomorrow I’ll be going in for my now-regular A1C test, and other blood work; the A1C results I’ll get tomorrow but will have to wait a few days for the others to come back. I must admit that I’m somewhat anxious to get my numbers; I know that my A1C will be higher this time than last, I just don’t know how much higher it’s going to be. 

I thought that summer would be easier to control my blood glucose (BG) than the winter had been. After all, the warmer weather would, I reasoned, provide more opportunities for me to exercise since I generally feel better in the warmer weather than the cold. But as it turns out summer is hard, really hard, in other ways. Between the extra busyness of the season, trips/vacations, and the seemingly endless barrage of stress I’ve endured, my diet, and surely my BG, have suffered quite a bit. 

The busy schedule I’ve kept and traveling conspired to make it much more work to attempt to eat what I should, when I should. It really surprises me, looking back, at how much more difficult that was than making good choices during the holidays. Despite being more active during the summer, the unstable atmosphere of the season were much more challenging than holiday dinners and get-togethers last winter. 

Being stressed has always brought out the worst in my dietary habits: all good habits go right out the window to be frank. Sometimes, with some things, you have a degree of control over the stressors; I haven’t had much-to-any control over these in the last several months. I have, at least, recognized this and have tried to make choices that weren’t as bad for me. Learning, for instance, that fat helps to slow the conversion of carbohydrates to glucose has been a help; why are all the really good comfort foods so carb-rich anyway? I’ve also been trying to find extra ways to get more protein into my anxious-eating times. How well did I do at this? I reckon we’ll see tomorrow. 

Hopefully I’ve also learned from trial and error, including the above mentioned items, ways to loosen my dietary-stranglehold-grip at least some so I can lean toward a little less rigorous “plan” that I can live with day-in, day-out, no matter the situation I’m in or going through. After all, this disease isn’t going anywhere and, despite my trip-ups, I don’t have any plans to let it cause any more damage to my body or further decrease my quality of life than it already has: I will be the master not the slave to diabetes.