A Brief Status Update (2)

When last we left Betsy, she was contemplating her three goals for 2012. They are:

1) stop eating sugar and get the diabetes under control
2) write every day
3) pay down that debt!

So, how am I doing?

I think I’m doing pretty well, although there’s definitely room for improvement.

1) stop eating sugar and get the diabetes under control

As noted in this blog post, I’ve been refined sugar free for a while now (107 days at the time of this writing). Being an addictive personality, I turned my affections to lightly salted mixed nuts and Amy’s organic pizza. I’ve been pizza-free for 13 days now. I haven’t been as successful with the nuts, so that’s going to be an area of concentration for the next couple of weeks.

But the good news is that my diabetes numbers have improved dramatically. In January, my fasting blood sugar was around 250 – WAAAAYYY too high. Now I’m usually around 130. Still high, but much better. And my A1c (the average blood sugar over the last three months) dropped from a 10 (indicating an average of around 260) to 6.6 (indicating an average of about 150). For you non-diabetics out there, the “normal” numbers are 90-100 fasting blood sugar and under 6.0 for the A1c.

I’m especially glad that I was able to impact the numbers with diet and exercise, not medication. In fact, I had to reduce the prescribed medications I was taking because they were making my sugar go too low.

All in all, I have to say so far so good. The challenge will be maintaining now that I’ve had a more pleasant doctor’s visit.

2. Write every day

April and the beginning of May have been pretty stressful and really pulled me out of my routine. I managed to write almost every day, but my productivity decreased due to demands on my time, worry, and the need to escape from the reality of my life. Hello, SIMS!

That being said, the first draft of my next book is finished. I had trouble nailing the ending, but I’ve resolved those issues and am well under way with the second draft. I had hoped to have a submittable manuscript by the beginning of June, but I’m not going to make that date. Still, all is going well.

I’m a little afraid of my second draft. I’m afraid that I won’t be able to make it good. But the more I work with it, the more comfortable I’m becoming, and now that the family issues seem to have calmed down (for the moment), I hope to pick up the pace again.  The focus is just writing a good, enjoyable book.

3) Pay down the debt

This is the goal that suffered the most during the stress of April. I was very distracted and wasn’t paying as much attention as I should have when I shopped. Plus there were the days of pizza and nuts, and those things blew my food budget!

On the other hand, my step 1 “mini” emergency fund is fully funded. I have made some progress at paying down my debt, although not as much as I had hoped. It could be my hopes were a trifle unrealistic, but I shall persevere!

I’ll need to regroup on this goal and get back to a written budget.

 

So, there you are! A brief status update for those who care. We now return you to your regularly scheduled program… 😀