I've seen a lot of blog posts lately about restarting a fitness program, or starting again to tighten up blood sugar control, or losing weight. I have posted on these subjects myself. Many. Many. Times.
I got to thinking the other night about what causes my failures. And how I could do it differently, with better results. The past few years I have met Einstein's definition of insanity - doing the same things over and over and expecting different results.
I go into this with the idea that it's for LIFE. Never again will I binge on malted milk balls. I will work out EVERY DAY the rest of my life. I will check my sugar 4 times a day minimum. You get the idea. It gets overwhelming very quickly.
That's when I thought of "one day at a time". That's a staple of 12 step recovery programs. Maybe I could recover from the disease of not taking the best care of myself! I can see it now, meetings of DA (Diabetes Anonymous) will soon be in every city and town across America. Anonymity will protect agains potential discrimination due to the condition.
Just for today, I will check my fasting blood sugar. One day at a time, I will exercise regularly. We could have sugar sponsors to call when we felt like blowing off a work-out or guess-timating carb counts. Having others to vent to once or twice a week in face-to-face meetings would be extraordinarily helpful too.
The results promised by the 12 steps are also appropriate for diabetes. To paraphrase - "What we have is a daily reprieve from most of the symptoms of highs or lows, contingent upon the daily maintenance of our bodies". On that note, I'd best go for my walk now before it rains.





