Susan Weiner MS RDN CDE CDN - Diabetes: 365 Tips for Living Well

Also by Susan Weiner
The Complete Diabetes Organizer: Your Guide to a
Less Stressful and More Manageable Diabetes Life

Also by Paula Ford-Martin
The Everything Health Guide to Diabetes
The Everything Health Guide to Type 2 Diabetes
The Everything Pregnancy Book
The Everything Pregnancy Organizer
The Only Pregnancy Book Youll Ever Need

Visit our website at www.demoshealth.com

ISBN: 978-1-936303-91-5

e-book ISBN: 978-1-61705-258-3

Acquisitions Editor: Julia Pastore

Compositor: diacriTech

2015 by Susan Weiner and Paula Ford-Martin. All rights reserved. This book is protected by copyright. No part of it may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Medical information provided by Demos Health, in the absence of a visit with a health care professional, must be considered as an educational service only. This book is not designed to replace a physicians independent judgment about the appropriateness or risks of a procedure or therapy for a given patient. Our purpose is to provide you with information that will help you make your own health care decisions.

The information and opinions provided here are believed to be accurate and sound, based on the best judgment available to the authors, editors, and publisher, but readers who fail to consult appropriate health authorities assume the risk of injuries. The publisher is not responsible for errors or omissions. The editors and publisher welcome any reader to report to the publisher any discrepancies or inaccuracies noticed.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Weiner, Susan.

Diabetes : 365 tips for living well / Susan Weiner and Paula Ford-Martin.

pages cm

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-936303-91-5

1. Diabetes Popular works. I. Ford-Martin, Paula. II. Title.

RC660.4.W45 2015

616.462 dc23

2015015134

Printed in the United States of America by McNaughton & Gunn.

15 16 17 18 19 / 5 4 3 2 1

To my best friends and confidants: my mom, Marcia Greenberg, and my sister, Jill Greenberg-Halman.

Susan Weiner

For my husband Tim, the love of my life and the truest man I know.

Paula Ford Martin

I met Paula Ford-Martin and Susan Weiner in 2004 when I started working at dLifeTV, a television show created for and by people with diabetes. Paula and Susan were a couple of the handful of people who worked there who did not have diabetes.

When we began shooting dLifeTV, I had lugged around this persistent and overwhelming disease (type 1 diabetes) for 33 years. In those 33 years Id somehow, mistakenly, come to believe that I knew everything about diabetes. In reality, the everything I knew about diabetes would better be defined as street smarts. But much of my street-smart wisdom wasnt really very smart at all, and some part of that everything werent even things. It was just stuff Id made up over the years to fit my idea of how to manage this complicated disease.

Suddenly, I was surrounded by people who studied and were all learned and what-have-you about diabetes, and even though many of them didnt have to lug the beast around, they knew lots and lots of actual stuff about the disease. Paula and Susan were at the top of that list. They each became my go-to about all things diabetes.

Wayyyy back when I was diagnosed in 1970, there were only a couple of books about diabetes. The Joslin Guide to Diabetes was the one I read and reread and reread looking for any clues at all about how to manage the unwieldy beast living inside me. Back then, actual control seemed out of grasp. I just corralled it and tried hard not to get kicked in the head. We didnt have blood sugar meters, insulin pumps, A1C tests, constant glucose monitors, and so on. So says grandpa.

We were flying blind. Diabetes managementmine anywaywas by feel.

Things are so differentand betternow. We have all those things and much, much more. Finally, today we have tools to fightor rather, live withthis disease. We have so many tools that its actually kind of daunting and sometimes overwhelming.

Working with Susan and Paula over the years, I have picked up countless tips and ideas about control of this perplexing disease. And even though I was the one who had lugged it around for 33 years to that point (right now Im at 44 years, 359 days, 16 hours and 44 minutesbut whos counting?) it was they who would often point the way out of trouble.

When it comes to my life, and especially my diabetes, I dont like things complicated and I dont like to get overwhelmed. Diabetes is complicated and overwhelming enough. I like simple, straightforward suggestions.

Heres a year of them.

One at a time.

The way it should be.

When Susan and Paula told me their idea for this book, a little voice in the back of my head screamed at me. JIM! Why didnt you think of that?

Its just so obviously brilliant. What was I doing while they were coming up with this?

One simple, straightforward tip every single day Genius.

I hope that with this book Susan and Paula give that overwhelmingness a bit of a whooping. In fact, I hope that they will give it a good old-fashioned boot stomping.

And I have to say, I am honored that they asked me to write the Foreword to this wonderful book. But honestly, I cant stop thinking, what if I

Jim Turner

Jim Turner has appeared in countless television, film, and live theater roles. You may know him from his lead role in Arli$$ (HBO), as Randee of the Redwoods (MTV), or from his more recent appearances in The Big Bang Theory and Parenthood. Jim was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes as a teenager in 1970, and shares his experiences in his one-man live show, Diabetes: My Struggles With Jim Turner.