. . . no free pass.
I wrote early in January about my higher-than-expected blood sugar levels and my intention to be very strict about sugar intake during the month and then get the further testing the doctor recommended. The second test was done on Feb. 3 and I got the results later in the week. Fasting blood glucose was 99, which is just one point below the 100-125 range that is considered pre-diabetes, so I’ve apparently moved back down out of the danger zone. But not by much. My insulin level was 2.6, which is apparently quite good. If you have high fasting insulin levels, especially above 5.0, you almost certainly have insulin resistance; that is, your cells don’t take up glucose easily and so your pancreas has to pump out more and more insulin to get blood sugar down. But of course you have to have enough insulin. I’ve been finding it difficult to get a good take on how low is too low. There was no indication in the report that anything was amiss with this number, though, so I guess I’ll take it as okay.
The temptation is to think that, since my numbers aren’t bad, I can slack off. This type of attitude is very common and, if you think about it, pretty nonsensical. There’s a problem, so we’re motivated to do something about it. And what we do works. So then it’s all too easy to go back to the behavior that produced the problem in the first place. The medical profession tears its hair out over people who are put on a medication, feel better, and so then stop taking the very thing that’s helping them. It’s much easier to get people to do something when they’re desperate than it is to get them to keep doing it over the long haul.As I wrote this post I was reminded of a book by the prolific young adult and children’s author, Mary Stolz, whose novels I devoured when I was a teenager. It was always exciting to see something of hers I hadn’t yet read on the shelves of the Ross-Barnum library. The 1953 book is called In a Mirror and concerns an overweight college girl whose “willowy” roommate takes her under her wing, coaches her about diet, gets her to wear lipstick, and introduces her to a nice boy. All quite predictable, I guess. Stolz’s characters make the book worthwhile, though, and a scene from it is relevant here. Bessie has lost some weight and is out at a restaurant on a double date with the willowy roommate, Til. (I know. Bessie? As in Bessie the Cow?) Bessie refuses any rolls from the breadbasket, but we’re told that she consoles herself by thinking that when she’s as thin as Til she’ll be able to have “as many of the buttery little things as she wanted.” At which point she’ll be right back where she started, no?
I bought an inexpensive blood sugar meter at the drugstore and am going to test myself periodically. What a pain in the finger! I thought the new ones didn’t require any actual, you know, needles. I’m very, very motivated now to keep this procedure voluntary. It was $20 well spent. How do you keep yourself motivated when you need to make permanent changes that aren’t going to give you dramatic results but simply keep you where you are? I’d be very interested to hear from you!