Practically Perfect in Every Way

You all remember Mary Poppins, the British nanny who was practically perfect in every way. It's one of my favorite Disney movies of all time. There is so much to love about that movie- everything about it from the chalk pavement pictures to the tea parties on the ceiling to the music ("Feed the Birds" was rumored to be one of Walt Disney's favorite compositions). But the thing I love the most about it is that not even Mary Poppins was perfect.

I have issues just like anyone does, but one of my biggest is that I have a perfection complex. I try to be perfect in every way. Occasionally I succeed.

I said occasionally.

 



In light of the recent good news about my blood sugars being in awesome sauce control, I got to thinking about my drive to be perfect and how when my blood sugar goes even a little off I get really mad. I've been told by my husband that I am no longer allowed to get upset at myself when my blood sugar goes out of the strict range I have set for myself, but we both know that's not going to happen.

The real secret to my success with the blood sugars is two things: the insulin pump and a continuous blood glucose testing monitor. I don't think I'd be even remotely close to 5.9 if I was doing this on my own with three or four shots of insulin a day and four or five finger pricks a day. I know this, because I've only had the pump for about eight years and the continuous glucose testing monitor for about a year and a half, and my HbA1c was nowhere close to 5.9 until recently.

I probably shouldn't credit my medical devices 100%. There is this thing called diet and exercise that I've been doing. Calorie and carb counting, making sure that I am eating healthier...it's been doing wonders for my blood sugar and my weight.

Well...I've been gaining muscle.

 

The hardest part for me has actually been NOT counting the calories I consume to take care of low blood sugars. It seemed counter-intuitive to me, but my husband swore that I should not include those calories when I added up my daily caloric intake. After a little bit of research I discovered he was right, and I had to eat humble pie on that one. (No, I didn't count the calories on that, either.) Diet and exercise as a diabetic is a whole different ballgame than it is for a non-diabetic. Or at least that's what I imagine since I've only ever done it as a diabetic. There are lots of things you have to take into consideration that normal people don't- like whether or not to count the orange juice you drank to keep yourself conscious. One things that is the same for both diabetics and non-diabetics though, is that taking care of yourself, making healthy choices when eating, and doing some kind of exercise instead of sitting on the couch all night watching Top Gear and Doctor Who on BBCAmerica, is not easy.

 

I think I've been doing fairly well at keeping myself on the right track. As my friends are fond of saying, tomorrow is another day, and if I screw up today I can always start fresh tomorrow. And I really can't expect myself to be perfect if even Mary Poppins wasn't ...but like her and all her supercalifragalisticespialidociousness,  I'll settle for practically perfect.