So I did really well during my first week of 5 for 5. I earned 22 points, though I haven't given myself my reward yet. Nevertheless, I'm pretty happy with my progress. So this week I'm changed things up a little. Here are my 5:

1. Get out of bed before 8:30. This is almost the same as last week, except I pushed up the time 1/2 an hour. I'm try to get it to 7:00. Again, I know it makes me sound incredibly lazy, but, remember, the majority of my activity occurs at night time.

2. Drink 1.5L of water. My dietician made me add this, and she was right to do so. I have to admit that this was the thing I have been struggling with the most this week. And it's what I've always struggled with. As it nears my bedtime, I'm trying to figure out how to fit in another 1/2 L of water. *sigh*

3. Wear pedometer and walk at least 3000 steps. I increased my steps a little and will definitely increase them next week. I want to make it to 10,000 eventually.

4. Take medicine on time. OK, well, I replaced the snack item with this one. I still need to keep track of the snack thing, but I decided that the medicine thing is more important right now. And I'm doing pretty well with it. EXCEPT for the day that I didn't pick up my prescription from Target until mid-afternoon and then didn't get home until almost dinner. I guess I really need to order those refills a little earlier, don't I?

5. Walk the dog. No change here.

I'm struggling a little more this week, but I'm doing OK. I think I'll make my 20 points. I'm already smelling that cute little MP3 player . . .

I've heard it before that diabetics are more prone to depression than the general public. However, I don't think that I've read an article that explained depression quite as well as this one.

Serious, clinical depression is extremely tough to explain to people who have never experienced it, but the bell jar metaphor posed by poet Sylvia Plath back in the 60’s strikes me as good as any: the sensation is as though there is a thin film between you and anything good in the world. My therapist calls it wearing ‘shit-colored glasses’, where nothing looks good and nothing appears worth working for.

Wow. This really hit home for me. I would never have explained it that way, but I completely understood it. Since I've been in and out of my own personal black hole lately, the timing couldn't have been any closer to perfect. And I was glad that the author was optimistic but still realistic in her article.

You can’t choose to get out of a bad depression, but you can decide to give attention to people who love you and who assure you that better days will come. You can’t cure your diabetes, but you can decide to follow your exercise, eating and drug treatment plans as best you can.

And that's what I'm choosing to do. Even though I don't feel like it and really, really, really don't want to. Thanks for writing, Ilene Raymond Rush.

I'm always looking for ideas of how to keep myself on track with my health and how to keep myself motivated. So I thought this idea from a blogger on dLife was a really cool idea. The basic concept is that you choose just five things every week to focus on for five days of that week. Every day that you reach a goal, you give yourself a point, for a possible total of 25 points per week. The author rewards herself every time she reaches 20 points per week. She also had the idea to give herself a treat when she reaches 100 points.

I love this idea so much that I decided to try it myself. Today was my first day, and I think I did pretty well. My 5 for this week are:

1) Get up by 9am. I know, I know. It sounds funny. But between the working at night, the late night phone calls, and the insomnia, this is really hard for me to accomplish.

2) Test my blood sugar twice daily. I can usually manage once a day, but twice is hard for me, for some reason.

3) Wear my pedometer and walk at least 2500 steps per day. This is a two-in-one goal. I don't really mind wearing the pedometer; I just tend to forget to put it on in the morning. As for the second part, I guess I underestimated my activity level. I thought that reaching 2500 was hard for me (though the ultimate goal should be 10,000 steps), which is why I set it so low. Now that it's the end of the day, I see that I managed to reach almost twice that today. I'll reconsider my numbers next week.

4) No unauthorized snacks! This has been my nemesis these past few weeks. I have no idea why, but all of a sudden I became ravenous and craved salt. And it lasted for nearly a month. I snacked like crazy. Today that ended, right? :)

5) Walk the dog. I need it; he needs it. 'Nuff said.

I also made a list of reward for myself when I reach 20 points per week (scrapbook supplies that have nothing to do with birthday guild), 100 points (electronics of some sort--I have a list), and 1000 points (vacation of some sort--I have a list of destinations). We'll see how long it lasts.

So far I'm doing well, but as the day went on, I thought of 4 more future goals that I could very well have had for this week. It's just a reminder of how many things I need to keep track of with this diabetes thing. *sigh* Yeah, it's not a piece of cake--or even just avoiding cake.

I'll keep you updated. If this inspires you to join me, let me know. :)

It's National Diabetes Month. I find it interesting because not only is November my birth month, it's also the month in which I was diagnosed. I think I was actually diagnosed on the day before my birthday.

Anyway, it's a time to raise awareness about what diabetes really is and what it's not. And it's also a great time to donate what you can--time, money, energy, etc.--to diabetes research and education. But, hey, as far as I'm concerned, anytime is a perfect time for that!

So if you want to know about diabetes, just ask me. I don't promise to know all of the answers. I'm not a diabetes expert; I'm just me--someone who happens to be diabetic.

By the way, here is a good article on National Diabetes Month from dLife.