Michelle Kowalski

I'm a creature of habit. Partly because I don't like change. But partly, at least when it comes to diabetes management, because I know what works and I don't want to futz with it.

We all have go-to comforts when it comes to just about everything in our lives. And when it comes to blood sugar management, I think many of us tend to err on the side of caution and stick to what we know works.

For example, I used to religiously eat half a peanut butter sandwich for breakfast with just a dab of jelly. The bread was 100% whole wheat and had extra fiber, the peanut butter was "natural" and had nothing but peanuts and natural oils. I knew how much insulin to take for this meal and could pretty much guess what my post-prandial would be.

But then I got bored with it. I couldn't imagine eating another peanut butter sandwich again in my life. It's like when you say a word too much and it starts to sound funny. Go ahead, try it--say "lemonade" about 20 times in a row and tell me it doesn't sound like it's a foreign language.

I started rebelling against peanut butter by having (gasp!) cereal for breakfast. That officially ruined my numbers. Then came Lite 85 yogurt (which is not called Lite 85 anymore), cheese toast, non-natural peanut butter sandwiches, eggs and toast on weekends, and finally my new favorite breakfast--lower sugar oatmeal.

It's highly possible that if I had allowed myself more variety during those only-cheese-toast-for-breakfast spurts, I may not have wasted time rebelling.

My son helped me realize this on Friday night while we were making pancakes. We often have breakfast for dinner, especially on Friday nights during Lent. I compensate (yeah, right!) for eating pancakes by having sugar-free maple syrup. Anyway, although he's a regular-pancake lover, he wanted to mix things up a bit.

"Mom, can we add something to the pancakes?" he wanted to know.

"Sure. What do you have in mind?"

"Apples?"

"Good idea, but we're out of apples," I said as I dipped the plastic measuring cup into the batter and poured it onto the skillet.

"Blueberries?"

"Another good idea, but we don't have any."

He got on the kitchen step stool and looked in the spice cabinet.

"Cinnamon?" he suggested.

"Already in there," I said with a smile.

"How about food coloring," he said.

All I could think was what a waste of food coloring, but then I saw what he saw: a cool new food.

Even though this sort of goes against who we may think we are, we have to indulge in variety (at least every now and then) or we'll go mad. I think I'll have a peanut butter sandwich for breakfast in the morning.