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Category: Product Review

The Book of Better Review

Chris Stocker 1 Comment

I read the The Book of Better: Life with Diabetes Can’t Be Perfect. Make It Better* almost a whole year ago now. Maybe not that long ago, but it was definitely  a long time ago. I was sent a copy when it first came out and I read it right away, but never posted my review of the book. Well, I’ve been thinking a lot about some of the ideas and concepts in this book lately, and not just in regards to diabetes, but in life in general, so I decided to finally write this damn thing.

In a very short summary, this book is about one concept. You may not ever be able to be perfect, but you can always do something just a little bit better. Let’s use an example from my life. I am trying to cut out fast food from my life. Well, I may give in to the urge every so often, but instead of getting 3 burgers, fries and a soda, I can do better by getting just 1 burger a side salad and a drink. It’s not the perfect choice, but it’s still better than the original option.

In the book, Chuck uses a common theme of learn from the idiot and the mistakes from the idiot. A lot of times, I find myself to be the idiot, and I don’t always learn my lesson from these mistakes that I make. Some times it takes me about 4-5 different times of commiting the same mistake before it finally hits me.

Chuck also talks about the fact that diabetes is not easy, but nothing worth doing is easy. So if you want to do diabetes right, and I’ll let you decide what “right” means, but, it’s not going to be easy. If it is easy, than there’s probably some improvements you can make. I take this same concept in my life in general too. Living off a budget and having financial peace is not easy, but it’s worth it.

Being a sports fan and an athlete my whole life from little league football to playing in college, I have always idolized coach Valvano. I always use the phrase, don’t give up, don’t ever give up. Chuck speaks about this in the book as well. You may have 5 consecutive blood sugars of over 300 after exercising, but don’t give up. Make a better improvement. Maybe next time, you’re at 260, then at 240, then next thing you know, you’re blood sugar is around 120 after exercising.

The way this book is written is great. There are a lot of great images that break up the reading and with the way my attention is when I read, it’s perfect. With different size fonts and colors, it grabs and keeps your attention. Great idea for a book. The book also includes a lot of real-life definitions of words. Not like the doctor speak or what you find in a medical diabetes book.

There is so much more to this book than what I have put in this review, so I strongly encourage you all to read it if you haven’t yet. Christmas will be here soon, so you may not be able to get it delivered before than, but it’s a great book with the New Year coming up. Don’t just think about the stuff in this book about your diabetes management, I use a lot of concepts from this book in my business management as well.

Enjoy.

*This link is an Amazon Affiliate link, meaning that I get paid a commission if you click on this link and purchase this book. I use these links because each person from Amazon that uses my affiliate link, I donate 3% to diabetes research or a diabetes charity of your choice.

**Disclosure – I was not paid to write this review. The review above is my own. These are my thoughts and opinions of the book.

USB Contour – Need More Strips

Chris Stocker

I have documented my testing strip sagas throughout the years here on this blog. (Sidenote: still can’t believe that I am saying years about the blog).  I was using One Touch Ultra when I first started blogging, but then switched over to Freestyle Lite for a couple of years because I just liked the meter better.  Just earlier this year, my insurance company decided that my Freestyle Lite strips would be $150 for a 90 day supply and One Touch strips would still be only $50.  So I did what was in my best interest and switched back to the One Touch strips.  The only One Touch meter that I kept (since I’m an idiot and threw all the others way when I moved last year), was the Ultra Mini.

I like the size of the Ultra Mini and the convenience of it fitting in Amanda’s purse or bag when we go out, or even just in my back pocket.  But, I don’t have any way currently to download the data from the meter.  So I started to think, I still have the Contour USB meter that I was sent as a demo some time last year.  However, I don’t have anymore strips for that meter.  This meter was easy for me to upload the data and see it in nice, pretty charts and graphs.

So, what would be my best option?  To completely switch over to the Contour USB again or try and get 50% One Touch strips and 50% Contour strips?  That then means that I am going to need two new prescriptions from my doctor, and then take twice as long for Medco to process this order, and blah blah blah.

I am re-ordering one more time in December, remember my whole method of getting one last insurance order before the end of the year?  I think that maybe in February or March when I have to re-order I will make that switch to the 50-50.  I am also not sure if I even want to go back to the Contour because I don’t remember the accuracy of it.  I know that I wrote a review of it, but I did not have enough strips of my other meter to compare the accuracy of them.

Maybe another switch is occuring?

Why Do We Still Need to Code These Days?

Chris Stocker 6 Comments

I have tweeted and posted a few times lately that I am switching back to the One Touch Ultra strips from my Freestyle Lite strips because the insurance company is charging 6 times the amount, $25 as opposed to $150.  I had an older One Touch Ultra Link meter from about 3 years ago that I had used a few times, but of course the battery was dead in it when I went to use it.  I was looking all over my house because I knew I had to have had another One Touch meter somewhere around the house.  And then I found it.

One Touch Ultra MiniThis nice, small, convenient blue One Touch Ultra Mini meter.  I was all excited and ripped open a vial of strips and stuck it in and pricked my finger and put my blood on the strip and….. nothing happened.  Hmm, what is going on here, does this meter not work also?  Oh, I know, I have never set it up, so maybe I just have to put the date in it.  So I start going through the numbers and I stop at 6 because it is June ya know.  Then it shows me flashing lines which means insert blood onto strip. WTF is going on here?

OOOOHhhhhhhhhh yeaaahhhh. The One Touch Ultra strips still require coding!  I had been using Freestyle Lite for so damn long, that I totally forgot that there was even such a thing as coding.  I hate coding, why do I have to code my machine?  Why can’t I just stick a strip in, insert blood, and bam, it reads my blood sugar?

 

Diabetes Book Review: 50 Things You Need to Know about your Diabetes

Chris Stocker

I find that I don’t do as much reading offline about diabetes as I would like. When I was first diagnosed with diabetes, I read close to 5-6 books in less than a week, yes a book a day! There was so much that I wanted to know and so many things that I NEEDED to know about diabetes to live a healthy, long life. I’ve decided to dedicate myself to reading more diabetes books. Most books out there now are for people that are newly diagnosed and are educating them on diabetes. I would like to see more books about living with diabetes, real life stories, not just books from CDE’s and doctors. Enough of all that. I am going to start reviewing these books as well, so here is the first one.

The book that I am reviewing today is, 50 Things You Need to Know about Your Diabetes–Right Now!: Expert Tips for Taking Control (Amazon link). My initial thoughts of the book, just from looking at the cover was that it was approved by the ADA and that it mentioned expert tips. Right from the start the book was good. To summarize quickly, this is an excellent book for anybody who is newly diagnosed and doesn’t know what to do next. First part of the book takes you through the doctor selection process and finding the right team to put together for your diabetes. Don’t be afraid to ask around about your doctor and get medical opinions from other professionals. Stanley speaks about the other members of the team other than your end. CDE, RD, RN, eye doctor, dentist, etc. These are all medical professionals that are going to aid in the success of your health.

There is an excellent breakdown of the difference between your A1C and your eAG. Whether or not you care to know your eAG is up to you, but there is a formula in the book to figure it out. The other chart / breakdown that Stanley included that I loved was how to choose a glucose meter. Don’t just choose the one that was giving to you for free. Choosing the right meter is one of the most important parts of testing your blood sugar. If you ever needed encouragement on testing, this book will give you several reasons to make sure you remember to test all the time. One reason that I think is a big problem for people is testing at night is helpful in getting over your fear of going low in the middle of the night.

My favorite section of the book is #14, which is, 25 ways to get exercise away from the gym. I never have enough time to go to the gym, so these were some great tips on how to get the exercise you need, no excuses. Another section that caught my eye was her explanation of there not being any “perfect” foods for diabetes. Be a detective and do the research yourself. Create a food journal, eat something, track your blood sugar and then you know whether or not you can eat it again, and also how much of it you can eat. Also, eat something at breakfast. Even if it’s just a banana, at least eat something, don’t skip it. This is a big problem that I have a lot.

My final thoughts on the book were that it had a lot of additional resources, books, magazines, blogs, website, throughout the book at the end of each chapter. There is also a fantastic tip sheet on foot care. I don’t give my feet the attention they need, so that part is well worth the price of the book. Like I said before, this book is perfect for somebody who is newly diagnosed. I think it is also a great book for people that want a refresher on how they should be doing things, such as eating habits, exercising tips, foot care tips, and testing tips. If you have read this book, or read it in the future, let me know what you think about it as well.