At times, though, managing diabetes can seem overwhelming, which is why it can be helpful to set smaller, targeted goals to help yourself lose weight, eat a healthy diet, or exercise more. Remember: Type 2 diabetes is progressive, so you may need to make changes to your management and treatment plan over time to maintain control of the condition. Having defined goals can make necessary adjustments easier.

SMART Goals for Diabetes Management

If you’ve been struggling to meet your blood sugar or A1C goals (a measurement of your average blood sugar over the past three months) or have been told to make changes to your type 2 diabetes management plan, it may be time to set new goals. A great way to remember what goals you’ll want to establish is to use the acronym SMART as your guide. As you work with your diabetes healthcare team to plan your goals, keep in mind these criteria:

SpecificMeasurableAttainableRealisticTime related

This means your goals should be specific, achievable, and realistic within your time frame. Trying to lose three pounds in three months, for example, may be realistic; trying to lose 100 pounds in the next three months isn’t, says Marlisa Brown, RDN, CDCES, a spokesperson for the Association of Diabetes Care & Education Specialists (ADCES). Try not to fixate on numbers. Instead, try to make small behavioral changes. If you want to lose one or two pounds a week, you can work with your diabetes care team to make diet and exercise changes, such as walking or biking for 30 minutes each day, eating a certain number of calories daily, or boosting your fresh fruit, vegetable, and whole-grain intake to work toward weight loss. You don’t always have full control of exactly how much weight you lose, but you can control your habits from week to week, says Martha M. Funnell, RN, CDCES, an emeritus research scientist of learning health sciences at the University of Michigan Medical School and past president of health care and education of the American Diabetes Association. Making unrealistic goals can even backfire by sabotaging your ability to stay the course. “I have people who have set unrealistic goals for themselves, and when they come in, they’re always disappointed, no matter how well they did,” says Brown. “And when you’re disappointed, you’re not able to stay on track, because you’re feeling like a failure.”

How to Stick to Your Type 2 Diabetes Goals

Whatever your goals, these guidelines from diabetes education pros can increase your odds of staying on track.

  1. Take stock of your relationship with your healthcare provider.Do you feel you can be honest with your dietitian or certified diabetes care and education specialist (CDCES) about your dietary slipups? Are you comfortable sharing personal issues related to your diabetes, such as sexual problems, with your endocrinologist? Your healthcare provider should be someone you’re comfortable being honest with, and you should feel your concerns are being heard and perceived as valid without judgment, says Brown.
  2. Consider consulting other members of your team. Some personal issues may manifest as part of your diabetes, such as erectile dysfunction. If you’re not comfortable talking to your endocrinologist about it, you may be able to turn to your CDCES or a registered dietitian, who may be able to help you or suggest another healthcare provider, says Brown.
  3. Identify what’s important to you and bring a list to each medical appointment.Before your next appointment with your care team, write down a list of the things that are most important to you at that time and make sure it’s part of the conversation, suggests Brown. Funnell suggests thinking about “I-SMART goals,” adding “important” to the acronym. Rather than thinking about what you should do, “Figure out what’s really important to you, not your doctor, not your diabetes educator, not your spouse,” says Funnell. Consider what you’re struggling with, what you’re good at, and what’s going well for you. Once you do that, says Funnell, you’ll be able to easily make a list of goals. “Consider where you want to be with your diabetes, what goals you want to reach, and how you can use the skills you learned when things were going well to reach the other goals you may be struggling with,” suggests Funnell.
  4. Make your goals achievable.“You need to know yourself well enough to know what you’re able to do and what you’re not able to do,” says Brown. If you make a promise to your doctor or family member to work on something, whether it’s losing weight or getting your A1Cdown to a certain level, it can’t be something unrealistic. If you do that, you’re already sabotaging yourself, she says.
  5. Recruit some help from your family members and friends. Talk to them about ways they can support you without your feeling criticized, says Brown. If a workout buddy will help you stick to your exercise schedule, ask a friend to meet up for a daily walk or weekly yoga class. Or, if cooking healthy meals seems overwhelming at times, ask your partner to help you prepare dinners or weekly lunches. Keep in mind that it can be a fine line between supportive and critical — and your loved ones may not know if they’ve overstepped your boundaries. If, for example, a family member or friend points out that you shouldn’t be eating something, you may feel hurt or defensive. They also may not know the specifics of your dietary plan. If you’re having, say, grilled chicken with salad for dinner and you’re on medication to lower your blood sugar, you may be able to add a little bread or pasta to your meal according to the plan you worked out with your healthcare provider, says Brown. If your loved one expresses concern, you can tell them you appreciate their love, but reassure them that you’re working with your diabetes management team to stay healthy.
  6. Make space in your schedule. When setting a goal, make sure you can fit the steps needed to meet that goal into your schedule, whether the aim is to get more exercise or sleep or to check your blood sugar before every meal, says Brown. “If there’s no place for you to insert that in your life, you’re never going to be able to do it, even if it seems like a reasonable goal. Go through your daily routine for a few days in a row and make sure that there’s a half hour in your routine to do it,” she suggests. Look at things you can trim to make more time to work on your goals. Just as you book time on your calendar for appointments, it’s important that you block out time for self-care, says Vandana Sheth,RDN, CDCES, a Los Angeles–based spokesperson for the ADCES. “This may seem simple, but it can be very effective,” Sheth says. “Most of my clients are very busy, and the act of blocking the time for a walk or for something fun makes it doable.”
  7. Don’t discount the small changes.Remember that you may not always be able to do things at your best level. But anything you do to stay healthy can help you achieve better blood sugar and have better end results, even if it’s just reminding yourself to drink water or go for a short walk. “It might not be everything you need, but anything is better than nothing,” says Brown. “If you keep making changes and keep going in a positive direction, even if it’s very small steps, you ultimately will get to where you want to go.”.
  8. Know that life, goals, and priorities will change, and find ways to adapt.A typical 20-year-old guy may want to make money and hang out with his friends, says Brown, and family and health might be a tiny sliver of his overall pie chart of priorities. But that same man a few years later may be married and expecting a child, and his family and health become the priority while his friends become the small sliver. “You can have the same goals in life, but they can move on the priority list based on what is happening to you at the time,” says Brown. So if you’re a busy parent of young children or have to care for an elderly parent who becomes ill, you’ll have to shift your priorities while trying to maintain your diabetes management goals. If you were cooking fresh meals and going to the gym before your responsibilities changed, you can talk to your dietitian about different snacks you can take on the go, ways to sneak in exercise (for example, taking the stairs instead of the elevator), or stretches you can do to loosen up your body to get rid of some of the stress, says Brown. Understand that your way of living may have to change for you to achieve the same goals. “You need your healthcare team to help you come up with solutions based on the life you now have,” says Brown.
  9. Don’t give up on your goals completely. Feeling overwhelmed? Try to do the things that are most important to you. This way, says Brown, you won’t derail your goals altogether. “How hard is it to get back on the horse after you’ve been off it for a long period of time?” she says.
  10. Celebrate wins to keep the momentum going. Sheth encourages clients to focus on what they’ve accomplished and aim for progress rather than perfection. One piece of advice she shares with her clients is that if the goal is to get at least 30 minutes of activity a day and you don’t typically do any physical activity, start with 10 minutes of walking after one meal per day. Then increase to 10 minutes after two meals per day, and finally, increase to 10 minutes three times per day. Once you’ve gotten this down, gradually increase the duration.
  11. When it comes to goals, focus on your “why.” When you understand why you have a goal, it becomes easier to stick to it. Reasons could include avoiding health complications, having more energy, or being able to play with your kids or grandkids. “Knowing why you test your blood sugars and what those numbers mean can help you become a key part of the team,” Sheth says. “You’ll be better able to make tweaks to your food choices and activity to better support your needs.”
  12. Rethink your blood glucose data.Try to reframe the way you think about — and use — information from monitoring your blood sugar. “The point of keeping track of your blood sugar is to use that information,” says Funnell. “Think about the bigger picture: You’re not doing this to show your doctor but to get information to make better decisions.” For instance, if you eat a similar breakfast or lunch each day and see a pattern, such as your blood sugar levels rising too high, your food choices may not be as healthy for you as you thought, says Funnell.
  13. Recognize what you can control. “You have the data and experiences and can reflect,” says Funnell. Shift your thinking from “My doctor manages my diabetes” to “It’s my responsibility.”. “At the end of the day, you make those decisions.”
  14. Find a support group. “Research shows that the more support you have, the better your outcome,” says Funnell. One reviewfound that peer support had a significant positive effect on controlling blood sugar. Even online peer groups can be helpful for people with diabetes, according to research published in the November-December 2020 issue of the journal Practical Diabetes.
  15. Keep up the good work. Small, consistent action is key to long-term success, according to Sheth. “Many of us know what we need to do but just don’t follow through.” Sheth says. “Creating an action plan that includes accountability and support can significantly improve the likelihood of your success.”