Three Mistakes You Might Be Making

And what you can do instead!

There are a lot of things that people will tell you about managing diabetes successfully. Some of these things will be helpful, and some of them… less so. Of course, there’s always a huge disclaimer on these kinds of lists that there are naturally people out there that find these things helpful. But the majority, especially in the people I’ve worked with over the years, do not find them helpful.

I’m going to talk about 3 big ones (although this is certainly not an exhaustive list) and I’m going to talk about 3 things that I recommend doing instead.

1. Keeping a strict routine.

It seems like the ideal environment for diabetes is one with strict routine. While that might be true on the surface, think about how successful and sustainable that is in the long run. If diabetes requires strict routine in order to feel successful, where does leave us when things are out of the ordinary, like a vacation, a holiday, a late night, a party, a sick day, a traffic jam… you get the idea. There are a lot of variables in our environment that can make super strict consistency and routine - the way we often imagine it - very difficult to achieve.

Instead: Develop flexible decision making strategies.

Instead of relying on your environment or your motivation to keep you in a routine, we need to develop our decision making strategies to keep us flexible in the face of the unpredictable shifts in our day. Instead of relying routine in our external world, we rely on routine in our internal world. And by that I mean we break down the internal thought process that goes into decisions so that we evaluate and assess our current situation, our possible options, and then select the best decision, and follow-up.

2. Maintaining rigid, restrictive food rules.

So much about diabetes involves food so many people come to rely on really rigid or restrictive food rules to achieve their A1C goals. Similar to relying on routine, food rules can run aground when it starts to eliminate foods that are part of your heritage or culture, foods that are part of how you celebrate holidays or festivities, and foods that you crave or part of how you enjoy yourself. While some might argue that you don’t need these foods (which might be true on a biological sense of the word need), from a psychological perspective these kinds of restrictions can leave people feeling isolated from their community, it can create disordered beliefs around food, and it can create shame, guilt and anxiety if we ever partake in those foods (contributing to what is known as food distress on the diabetes distress scale).

Instead: learn from mistakes.

Having out of range blood sugars the first time you eat something is normal. The first time we do anything will have a learning curve. Some things may have a steeper curve than others, but that doesn’t make it less worthy of pursuit. I tell a lot of my clients, you can’t learn something that you avoid, and if it’s something that you value and that will enhance your quality of life, there is zero reason to avoid it. There are processes and many professionals (myself included) who dedicate a lot of time in helping people release themselves from restrictive rules to embrace a more flexible way of eating.

3. Hyperfocusing on the A1C.

The A1C has developed a bit of a reputation for being the gold standard, the ultimate diabetic report card. And while it certainly is a report (in the strictest sense), there is a lot to be desired about the role the A1C plays in our diabetes management. One of the main reasons is that it is very limited in scope as to what it actually shows. It is the highest bird’s eye picture of how management has gone for the last 3 months. It doesn’t take into biological factors that may increase or decrease the lab result. It also doesn’t specifically describe the person’s day to day quality of life. We can have two people with the same A1C and have one person on a veritable roller coaster, and the other one smooth and steady. It also doesn’t describe quality of life. I have had coaching clients tell me in their intakes that even though their endocrinologist congratulates them on their A1C, they find themselves feeling stressed out, anxious, restricted and trapped (see aforementioned points).

Instead: focus on mindset.

We need to focus on how we think about diabetes management. Are strict rules a requirement? Do you feel stuck with your diabetes management? Do you imagine that this is how it will always be, and nothing can change. Do you check your latest BG average hoping something has changed but have no idea how to actual implement change yourself? These are different ways that our mindset impacts our A1C. Instead of focusing on the outcome, we prioritize things that contribute to the outcome.

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Are you ready to shift out of unhelpful diabetes management behaviors? Are you ready to develop diabetes decision-making strategies that are personalized and values-based? Are you ready to live life not in fear but with flexibility and confidence?

I have a few openings for coaching clients this October and I would love to hear from you. If you would like to learn more about coaching, fill out the application and I’ll get in touch to discuss more of the details or you can just send an email to allison@greaterthancc.com.

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