In my continuing tips to help you “develop your emotional strength” to manage diabetes, here’s another excerpt from my inspirational D-book,      “The ABCs Of Loving Yourself With Diabetes.”

Excerpt:

Many people think taking care of their diabetes is up to their doctor or diabetes educator. But it’s not. They’re not with you during the day to remind you to perform your diabetes tasks – to test your blood sugar or choose broccoli over French fries. Diabetes needs to be managed every day by the person who has it – you.

Learning all you can about diabetes is one secret to living a full and healthy life. And you can do this. Think back to a time when you learned about something new, perhaps for a project at work or while in school. At first you didn’t know much and might have felt frightened, but in time you relaxed and then gained new insights, understanding and skills.

Here are a few things to chose from you can do right away: Subscribe to a diabetes magazine, join a social media site online like TuDiabetes, Diabetes Connect or Glu, read a diabetes book (any one of mine), see if your hospital offers a diabetes class, and bring your doctor questions that concern you at your next visit. Knowing all you can about diabetes is not just smart, it’s powerful medicine.

Reflection: Write down something you knew little about and then learned about. Write down how you did that. Then write down two things you will do to learn more about diabetes – and how you will do it. Be specific: what you will do, when you will do it, where you will do it?