Setting goals is how people move forward in life… And with diabetes, it’s no different. Setting diabetes goals gives you a metric or end-point to shoot for. For all diabetics, one of our long-term goals should be to live a long time. Without the goals (even the ones we’re not really conscious of) we’d be brittle diabetics. What gets measured, gets managed.
Ask yourself a few questions before setting a goal:
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- What do you want your diabetes to look like in the future?
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- Who are you setting these goals for? Yourself? Spouse/partner? Family, friends, or your doctor?
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- Why is this goal important to you? Make sure you like your reason.
Be careful about the size of your goal, too. Make sure you can break it down into small, challenging but manageable, and easy to repeat.
Our Diabetes Goals for 2020
Colleen’s Diabetes Goals:
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- Keep A1c below 5.5%
- Publish 52 episodes of This is Type 1
- Fill out all my backups and emergency kits and keep expiration tracker up-to-date
- Bonus! Don’t exceed a blood sugar over 200 mg/dL more than 10 times.
Jessie’s Diabetes Goals:
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- Get A1c to 6.9% and be consistent
- Raise more money for diabetes awareness/education
- Proactively spread diabetes awareness
- Get on the new Medtronic pump released in Spring 2020
- Personal/Bonus: get early acceptance into college!
Don’t overwhelm yourself with goals: pick up to three to focus on, or just one! Save the rest for later.
Wins & Fails
Jessie’s Win: Jessie’s last A1c of 2019 was 7.3%! The average for others her age is higher than that, so this is a great win for Jess to end the year with.
Colleen’s Fail: Blood sugar rose to ~200 mg/dL for no particular reason and caused frustration. Another reason why diabetes is not predictable day-to-day.
Tip of the Week
Stay calm and listen to your care team have to say rather than dreading it and focusing on the bad things you may think happened. If you’re new to T1D, stay calm—focus on listening and taking care of yourself, don’t zero in on the negative.
Put simply: Keep calm and carry on.
Diabetes Spotlight
Sometimes it’s hard to find something relevant and newsworthy for type 1 diabetes, so we’re changing up the name of this segment to Diabetes Spotlight. This week’s spotlight is on Eric Tozer, a type 1 diabetic who ran 7 marathons in 7 days on 7 continents in winter of 2019.
His accomplishments also include:
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- Run Across America (3,000+ mile run across the USA in 15 days with ten T1Ds)
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- 140.6-mile Ironman distance triathlons
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- 70.3-mile Half-Ironman distance triathlons
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- Olympic and Sprint distance triathlons
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- 26.2 mile Marathons
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- 13.1-mile Half-Marathons
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- NCAA Men’s Soccer Final Four All-Tournament Team (2004)
Eric was a guest speaker at the JDRF Greater Northwest TypeOneNation Summit in Redmond, Washington at the beginning of November 2019. He talked about what it took to do the World Marathon Challenge and is an example of the truth that type 1 diabetes will only hold you back if you let it.Exercise with type 1 diabetes is difficult to manage and get right, but Eric seems to have figured out what works for him. You can find out more about Eric on his website, erictozer.com.
Now It's Your Turn...
What are your diabetes goals for 2020? Or, if you’re a New Year’s Resolution junkie, what’s your NYR for diabetes?
Mentioned in This Episode
- New Zealand 3 News Report
- How to Set the Best Goals for You (blog post)
- The Six Best Ways to Achieve Your Goals (blog post)
- The Diabetes Solution, by Dr. Richard Bernstein (a book on normalizing blood sugars and taking the best possible care of yourself as a diabetic, whether type 1 or 2)
Want to Read or Listen to More? - 25 Truth Bombs to Make You Re-Think Type 1 Diabetes
- The Stress Associated with Type 1 Diabetes
- What is Type 1 Diabetes and Why You Should Care
- What Burnout Looks Like in a Type 1 Diabetic
- World Diabetes Day is About Visibility
- What I’ve Learned from 20 Years at Panther Camp
- 4 Things Type 1 Diabetics Have to Watch Out For
- How to React When Family Members Joke About Diabetes
- This is What a Day as a Type 1 Diabetic Looks Like
Community & Social
- Join us in the Half-Dead Pancreas Club, our private Discord community for people with T1D.
- Follow us on Instagram @thisistype1pod, @jj_crystalkat, & @type1ravenclaw
- Follow us on Facebook
Choose Where to Listen
Credits
Our music is by Joseph McDade. Check out his website here!
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