- The most important point Diabetes is just a part of you. Yes, it requires attention, but don't let it completely control your life. My tip: take care of it, do what needs to be done, calculate your food and give yourself insulin, but then let it go and don't focus on your appendage 24 hours a day. Of course there are always moments when attention MUST be paid, for example when you have hypos, but after that let your life go on and focus your attention on the things you would most like to do even without diabetes.
- Technology such as sensors and pumps can make your life much easier At the beginning, it is often difficult to get used to all the technical devices. Who wants to have plastic parts stuck to their body or needles poking them? Personally, I resisted an insulin pump for a long time and simply didn't want the thing. Now I can say: it makes everyday life so much easier, especially since the hybrid closed loop systems such as Mylife CamAPS FX with Ypsopump and Dexcom. So my tip: even if you don't feel like using this technology at first, find out what it can do and maybe give it a try. CGM sensors such as Freestyle Libre, Dexcom or Medtronic Enlite Guardian can make everyday life SO much easier by not having to constantly think about your blood sugar level, but instead being automatically warned when something is wrong. A blessing for quiet nights too.
- Establish routines Try out how a certain situation works best (e.g. sport, party) and then repeat this pattern. It sounds boring, but it gives you a lot of freedom and makes your life easier if you are not disturbed by annoying hypos. Example: if I know that I want to do sport, I either eat an hour beforehand and then give half the bolus so that I can get through the sport afterwards without being disturbed by hypos, or I try not to give a bolus for 2-3 hours so that I start with a low basal rate. Then I only need a few additional carbohydrates for the sport and don't rush into hypos so quickly.
- Make your diabetes beautiful Sounds superficial, but experience shows that our human psyche can be tricked by some superficialities. It's not just children who find changing sensors a bit "fun" (okay, or at least not as annoying) when they can choose a new sticker at the same time. It works surprisingly similarly for adults: if I'm wearing a certain outfit and the sensor is visible, I like to match the tape and sticker to the outfit. And suddenly I can proudly show off my sensor, which I'd previously preferred to hide. With this idea in mind, I founded the first diabetes sticker shop in Germany to help myself and others. At zuckerschmuck.com you'll find everything I would have liked to have had as a child to help me cope better with my diabetes ?
- Make your diabetes delicious What I mean by that is: have tasty and quick hypo-helpers with you that you like. As a child, I only had glucose, the same thing over and over again with no taste. I hated it! That's why you can find all kinds of tasty variations at Zuckerschmuck: liquid glucose , ideal for on the go and when doing sports. The advantage is that you can easily dose it, neither too little nor too much (dangerous with gummy bears because of hypo cravings...). Brand new and my personal favorite: Dextro Energy Gums . You can order a sample bag here , each sample bag has exactly 10g of carbohydrates, again a perfect single dose with no risk of not being able to stop snacking because of the delicious taste. In addition to hypos, I can also recommend low-carb sweets . Here you can snack a little more without having to take a second bolus. The low-carb gummy bears, chocolates and biscuits have so few carbohydrates that they hardly make a difference in terms of blood sugar. By the way, if you spend €35 or more, we will give you a free bar of milk chocolate with your order as a low-carb chocolate fan. If you don't like sweets, you can indulge in our low-carb spaghetti without needing a lot of insulin. Ideal for type 2 diabetics, but also for type 1 diabetics who find low-carb easier in everyday life. Click here to read the review of Shileo Lower Carb Spaghetti .
- Find like-minded people and motivation In recent years, the diabetes community has grown enormously and is so easy to reach through social media that you can become part of it more easily than ever before, even away from the big cities where there are no support groups. Look out for #diabetes on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok and you will find great people and motivation. The realization: I am not alone and there are so many fantastic people with diabetes who have even found something good in diabetes. Yes, it is hard to believe, but many people are starting to blog, go public, become brave, do more sport and live healthier "thanks" to diabetes. What does your diabetes inspire you to do, what do you perhaps even have to thank it for? I admit that this step took me almost 20 years personally, but there was no social media diabetes community in the 80s and 90s, so I am passing on this tip to you: don't miss out on the motivation from the diabetes community!
- Avoid people and medical staff who bring you down with inappropriate advice and comments (!) I recently came into contact with the topic on Instagram and was pleased that there were so many comments that shared my opinion: there are so many people, preferably from the medical sector, who think they can interfere in your diabetes treatment, give good advice even though they are not experts and become so unpleasantly intrusive that you end up in a bad mood. Example: I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at the age of 7, my dentist asked me about my HbA1c at EVERY check-up in the following years and reprimanded me during puberty if the target range was not met with the "well-intentioned" comment that good diabetes control is so important for your teeth and that you would get periodontal disease and who knows what else. I was annoyed every time, but as a teenager I didn't say anything. By the way, after 37 years with type 1 diabetes, my teeth are still perfect and I have NO periodontitis. Maybe I was just lucky, but in any case the comments were VERY disturbing for me and I have come to the conclusion that if I go to see a doctor for a COMPLETELY different issue than diabetes and they attribute every physical symptom to diabetes or keep referring to the topic of diabetes , I will immediately change doctors or, if that is not possible, ignore them. There are actually sometimes aches and pains that have nothing, absolutely nothing to do with diabetes.
- Be proud of yourself Diabetes is a permanent condition, and holidays and time off are not possible. So just be proud of yourself for managing to tackle this task. Even if there are phases that are not easy, where the target ranges are far from reality and the HbA1c is NOT what you would like it to be.
- Make life with diabetes as comfortable as possible Do you find it annoying to lug your CGM readers and insulin pump around with you? Find out the most comfortable way to carry them. At Zuckerschmuck we have used our life experience to develop various options for this: comfortable, elastic belly band with 3 integrated pockets - this fits everything you need on the go, from pump to reader to glucose tablets. Don't like the belly band? Maybe you find it more comfortable to put the pump in your trouser pocket or in one of our small, very discreet pump bags with a clip or band . And you can put the reader or blood glucose meters in a pretty belly bag , accessory or shoulder bag or, if you need to take more with you when traveling with diabetes, a travel bag specially designed for diabetics . We have extra great bags in our range for children with diabetes, so that it is fun to always have diabetes accessories with you: bags for diabetes kids .
Mental health and motivation in diabetes
I'm Sonja, the founder of Zuckerschmuck and based on my 37 years with type 1 diabetes, I've been thinking about the topic of mental health and motivation with diabetes. According to my motto "if someone gives you a lemon, ask for salt and tequila", alternatively you can of course make lemonade from the lemon:
