Diabetes Tips

30 April 2021

I remember when I first joined the diabetes Instagram world, it felt like a Catch 22. I was so thankful to have a community I felt welcomed by and connected to. But at the same time I also felt so overwhelmed by having the experiences of hundreds of others right in front of me.

Don't get me wrong, I learned a lot from other accounts. I was able to see what others were doing and apply it to my own management. I tried it all - the different pre-bolusing techniques and the different diets, but nothing really felt like it was sticking or working.

After a year of reading the books and applying every tool I could find, I was still stuck in the rollercoaster and my A1C wouldn't budge.

1. I shifted to viewing my diabetes management from a holistic lens.

2. I broke my overall goal into THREE main priorities and simply focused on those for three whole months.

Once I broke it down, it all came down to these three main priorities - Which is now what we teach inside of our signature program, Keeping it 100.

1. Assessing my baselines:

Over the next three months, I took the time to track + assess the three main baselines that played a role in my daily life and management routine.

• My Management Baselines: Basal rates, insulin to carb ratios and correction factors. Once I could lean on these, I was able to trust my body and insulin so much more.
• My Behavioral Baselines: It took me a long time to realize that my daily habits didn't have to be consumed by diabetes - but they could support my blood sugars.
• My Emotional Baselines: I never realized how much my emotions of frustration and overwhelm were playing a role in my bolusing decisions until I took the time to acknowledge them.

2. I put intention and strategy into my testing behaviors and data utilization:

Random actions lead to random results. I was able to feel more intentional in my actions once I asked myself..

• Realistically, how often am I checking my blood sugar?
• How often am I using the data? Regularly - or just with my endo?
• Which data am I using? What is it telling me about my management?
• How am I identifying my trends? (Understanding trend vs occurence was huge for me here.

3. I perfected my carb counting skills and reversed auto-pilot behaviors

Over the years with diabetes, I learned that I was guesstimating on my carb counts way too often. I started viewing carb counting like a muscle. The more I exercised it, the more it grew. Some ways I did that (and still do) were..

• Using different apps like MyFitnessPal for one week to see how accurate my guesses were.
• Utilizing a food scale to get more realistic portion sizes.
• Looking up meals ahead of time on restaurant menus so I didn't have to rush my bolusing decision in the moment.

Since going through this cycle, I've been able to keep my A1C between a 5.7-6.2 over the past two years. 

Learn more about how I continue the cycle and add strategy to increasing my time in range and conquering high variability areas by watching our free webinar, here.