Fall Back into Managing Diabetes

By Lu Ann Beavers-Willis, MSN, RN, CDE

Fall has officially arrived marking the end of the relaxed lifestyle of summer. It is easy to become too relaxed in the management of diabetes during the summer months. With the beginning of this new season, it is a great time to fall back into taking steps to self-managing your diabetes. Some of these steps include:

• Check your blood sugar at least one time per day either before breakfast or 2 hours after the first bite of your largest meal of the day.
• Follow healthy eating with 3 regular meals per day and cut out junk food for snacks.
• Keep a food diary by logging number of carbohydrate choices or grams of carbohydrate per meal.
• Exercise for a total of 30 minutes daily with activities such as walking, pushing the lawn mower, raking the first leaves falling from the trees, or washing and waxing your vehicle.
• Schedule a dilated eye exam with the ophthalmologist or optometrist to screen for eye complications of diabetes. Remind the eye doctor to fax a summary of your exam to your health care provider.
• Attend the next diabetes support group at Trinity Hospital Twin City on the third Monday of every month from 6:30pm-7:30pm in the St. Francis classroom.
• Enroll in free diabetes education to learn more about diabetes self-management by calling me at 740-922-7450, ext 2177.

Lu Ann Beavers-Willis MSN,RN, Certified Diabetes Educator, leads individual and group diabetes education sessions. She is also available to speak at community groups or arrange diabetes risk screening in the community.