What’s your New Year’s Resolution? Let’s Ask our Friends at DYS!

Many people use the New Year as an opportunity to reflect on your past and start setting goals for your future. Among many common resolutions is a goal relating to health
and wellness, which is especially true when managing Type 1 Diabetes.

Jessica Lowe, MSW, LSW, lives with T1D herself and offers her professional advice on making your resolution stick by enabling ‘SMART’ goals and how you can best reach not only diabetes-related goals but all the additional goals you want to achieve in 2024. 

“I think the biggest pitfall I see T1D kiddos (and myself…) fall into when making goals is going for a “go big or go home” method where they have a goal of decreasing their A1c by like 5 percent, always calculating their carbs to the exact gram to pre-meal bolus before EVERY meal, having their Dexcom report always be in the range 100% of the time, etc., etc. These are all good goals to have in theory, but not feasible in hindsight, especially if they’re struggling with diabetes management, experiencing diabetes burnout, or a multitude of other reasons. When I talk with my patients, I always try to have them work on something very specific like creating habits that they can then start building on once they’ve become more consistent with the baby step. Or, I have that big goal be their long-term goal with a bunch of smaller, more specific goals that will help them reach that larger goal. For example, their long-term goal is to decrease their A1c from 10% to 7%. Short-term goals to achieve the long-term goal could be:

1. Wearing your Dexcom every day for the full 10-day period,

2. Pre-meal bolus for the meal you struggle to remember to cover consistently for the next month,

3. Set an alarm and timer to charge your pump for 15 minutes every day, and/or

4. Packing your lunch for school and calculating the amount of carbs with a parent; add a sticky note/note card in the lunchbox with the total breakdown of the carbs and your insulin doses for easier bolusing

SMART goals are my go-to for creating more feasible goals that my patients seem to be more motivated to accomplish. Please see a worksheet on how to create SMART goals here!

The other important thing to consider when making goals is what kind of support, they’ll need to accomplish them. Having them identify who is on their team and how they can help them achieve their resolution is helpful, especially if things get tough and they start feeling discouraged. I’ve found that when we identify the support early, they seem more motivated because they realize they’re not going through all this alone. There are also loads of support groups/resources online that give tips and tricks as well as more information about multiple T1D topics. Here are two websites that have been helpful for me in the past: https://childrenwithdiabetes.com/ and https://beyondtype1.org/.”

Erica Brinkman, long-time DYS camper and counselor, is excited to start working on her goals for 2024!

“Going into the new year I’m making resolutions to improve my diabetes care. The first resolution I’ve set is to try to have an a1c under 6
each time I meet with my endocrinologist. This has been a goal of mine for a long time, and I’m hoping this year is the one. Another resolution is to
remember to bolus for my meals more ahead of time to avoid a spike in blood sugar instead of taking insulin right as I’m sitting down to eat. Lastly, I want to remember to be kind to myself when it comes to my diabetes and my blood sugar. Managing diabetes 24/7 is a tough job, and I often get upset with myself when my sugars aren’t perfect. This year I want to give myself grace and remember that I’m doing the best I can.”