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Setting Long-Term Diabetes Self-Management Goals
Setting Long-Term Diabetes Self-Management GoalsMany of us want to make changes that improve our overall health.Work with your diabetes care team to figure out what changes you want to make and how you can besuccessful at keeping them.To begin making changes that will last a lifetime, start by setting a long-term goal.To do this, consider what you want for yourself and your health. What matters to you? Now, picture yourself 6months or a year from now. How will you have changed your health for the better?“Let's just take a minute and touch base on what your vision for yourself is, where do you want to go?”“I would like to lose some of my weight. But I don't want to have a number on it because then I think Iwill set myself up to something. And so my goal is more I want to see a steady decrease in my weightand still feel good about myself and healthy as much as I can feel.”“So steady decrease, feel good about myself, and kind of if I’m hearing you right, not shoot yourself inthe foot with a number.”“Yes.”You can set long-range goals for any of the different areas of behavior, which include healthy eating, beingactive, monitoring your blood glucose, taking medications, problem solving, healthy coping and reducing risks.Perhaps you want to work on problem solving and decide your long-range goal is to eliminate low bloodglucose levels.Maybe monitoring is something you know you should be doing but find reasons not to. Making monitoring yourblood glucose everyday maybe a great long-term goal for you.Or you may be worried about some of the complications of diabetes and would like to spend time reducingyour risks. Setting up regular appointments with your diabetes care team to monitor your overall health, likehaving your feet and eyes checked is a good step.Whatever long-term goal you decide to work toward, it is important to keep your goals realistic andmeasurable.“For right now I'm pretty much about 7,000, 7,500 steps a day, and I'm trying to increase it again, andso what I'm usually trying to do is maybe just adding between 100 and 500 steps a day. That would begreat. And it's very doable because I have done it before, before I had my injury, and so I know that Ican do it, and it's just keep on going and get to the goal.”Whatever long-term goal you set is up to you. Only you can decide on a goal.But you don’t have to do it alone. Ask your diabetes care team for help setting short-term and long-term goalsthat will help you to reach your main goal, managing your diabetes for a lifetime.This program is for informational purposes only. Publisher disclaims all guarantees regarding the accuracy, completeness,or suitability of this video for medical decision making. For all health related issues please contact your healthcare provider.© The Wellness Network
Working toward a long-term goal can be made easier when you break it up into smaller goals that are more easily attainable short-term goals.
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