To improve the rate of glycated hemoglobin, systemic work is needed. To do this, divide the elephant into parts and focus on small targets. How it works? Let’s talk with examples.
A constant glycated hemoglobin can be frustrating. Although this is not the most accurate indicator, it reflects our work over several months. Of course, it is difficult to keep sugar levels normal 24/7. It takes too much energy to manage all the variables throughout the day, constantly trying to fine-tune insulin doses and improve blood sugar levels. Try picking one part of the day to focus entirely on the sugars of that time.
Dealing with Morning Sugars
For example, by selecting morning only, you can closely monitor your glycemic levels from 5:00 am until you have lunch (for example, until 11:59 am).
This means assessing sugars and insulin doses in terms of the following variables:
- fasting sugar
If you can get each of these aspects under control, one at a time, you will inevitably improve your blood sugar during that particular period of the day. And this, in turn, will lead to better sugars in the afternoon!
Work with sugars in the afternoon
By focusing only on your daily blood sugar, you can work out the gap between lunch (let’s say 12:00) until 17:00.
This means estimating glycemia and insulin requirements in terms of the following variables:
- The ratio of insulin and carbohydrates in lunch
So you can identify the causes of unstable sugars. For example, if your blood sugar is high every day at 2:30 pm, then most likely you are not injecting enough insulin for lunch. Another possible scenario is if after dinner sugar is fine, but by 5 p.m. it is overpriced. In this case, most likely insulin is not enough. It is also worth looking at the doses of basal insulin.
Working with evening sugars
This is sugar between 6 pm and before bed.
This means estimating glycemia and insulin requirements in terms of the following variables:
- insulin for dinner
It is especially important to work out a self-control program during this period of time for those people who can eat little during the day, and then eat the daily calorie intake in one sitting at home in the evening. Late night binge eating is unfortunately a common habit. This approach to nutrition destroys the good intentions of equalizing sugars . In addition, eating a lot of carbohydrates and protein-fat units can be dangerous for glycemic levels during sleep.
If you have a habit of eating something before bed, this will be incl. affect your morning sugars. Therefore, it is so important when working with evening sugars to analyze your eating behavior. Try to set the time of the last snack and do not violate this border. And it does not have to be the notorious “after 6”.
Working with fasting blood sugar
Here the circle closes. Evening snacks and physical activity lead us to morning sugar on an empty stomach.
Fasting blood sugar is the level of glycemia that we measure as soon as we wake up, when at least 6-8 hours have passed since the last meal.
This blood sugar level sets the tone for your day! If you wake up with glucose around 10 mmol/L, you start your day already feeling defeated in your daily fight against diabetes.
To improve fasting blood sugar, you need to focus on:
- what you eat in the hours before bed;
When you closely study the variables of each time period in a day, you can identify your individual characteristics and adapt the compensation to suit them. What does it mean to know your characteristics? An example is given by Ginger Vieira , author of 4 books on diabetes.
“Personally, I need an extra 1 unit of insulin immediately when I wake up in the morning. I check my blood sugar and even if I’m at 4.9 mmol/L, I know I need 1 unit to cover those morning dawn hormones that hit me when I get out of bed.”