Friday, August 17, 2012

Fighting the Dragon

For me, diabetes has become a dragon - a large, cold yet fire breathing dragon.  As I struggle to battle that dragon, I have been researching what tools I could put in my arsenal of weapons to use against said dragon.  I have examined my life and looked at all the pits that I seem to fall into.  And I have looked at so many pages of suggestions that my eyes seem to blur at the thought of reading more.  But like St. George of old,     I am determined to destroy (or at least cage) the dragon.

Here are some of the tools that I have come up with:

1.  Add at least one fruit or vegetable to each daily meal.  I plan to keep a container of bite size veggies in the refrigerator.  Hopefully, this will make it easier to add those fruits or veggies.

2. I am realizing that I need more physical activity.  Basically, I am the Queen of Couch Potatoes (which probably accounts for my Mrs. Potato Head shape).  Since I will have to start slow, I am resolving to find ways to gradually add more activity to my daily life.  This cannot include miles of walking, jogging or stair climbing.  I'm not up to that at this point.  But I like to believe that adding a few more steps to each day will become easier each week.

3.  I love chocolate.  When under the influence of a chocolate craving, I have been known to search the kitchen pantry for a loose chocolate chip if nothing else was available.  Superman had Kryptonite, which weakened him.  I need to think of chocolate as my Kryptonite.

4.  And my last, but perhaps my best tool is to STRESS LESS. I am a natural born stresser.  If there is nothing to stress about, I stress because there is nothing to stress about!  So for the next week or so, I will write down when I stress the most, and how I can calm myself.

If you can offer any suggestions on how to battle and cage my "dragon",  please don't hesitate to offer them.  I can use all the help I can get.