I read this on another forum and thought he made some good points:

We all have choices to make. Seems like he has made his... no biggie and I respect his right... (in the back of my mind I keep thinking ...tupid) but many people make decisions not in the best interest of their well-being.

/smile

I read that Diabetes Burnout book and was NOT impressed. It was the usual ADA blather and the scary part is that the "perfection" that book is telling you not to worry about is the ADA 7% A1c.

There are a couple areas of life where striving for perfection makes sense. Driving for example. I have this crazy need not to crash into garbage trucks and pedestrians. It means not going anywhere near as fast as I'd like to and stopping at stupid stop signs. But I do it.

With diabetes, I think it is very important to figure out what is the equivalent of NOT running over a pedestrian. That's what the Blood Sugar 101 research was about, and the numbers I came up with for safety are higher than Bernstein but a lot lower than the ADA's suggestions.

It's possible to hit safe targets with occasional days off and I feel that creating safety valves for diet is extremely important. That's why my A1c is 5.7% instead of 4.7%, but it sure as heck isn't the 7.5% that the ADA would tell me is fine.

I guess for me it boils down to my thinking that passing up the pastry is a lot better than having pain in my feet all the time, or failing kidneys, or having that heart attack before I see my grandkids. Yeah, some people are lucky and run high blood sugars and still do okay. But some people run stop signs and speed and do okay too. For a while . . .

I got the impression he wasn't talking about lax, but the ideal of the 4.5 A1c was too hard. It *is* a lot harder to hit targets for a type 1. Bernstein seems formidable and never talks about screwing up. We all screw up. In some ways, Bernstein tells us that we absolutely cannot screw up. I think the guy in question took that to heart and that is a mistake. He was saying to himself that he couldn't be that perfect, so what is the point?

When I'm doing deep extended range dives, I absolutely cannot screw up and that's a lot of pressure, but it is only for short periods of time. And you're also never alone and you have backup in case something happens. When the penalty for screwing up is instant death, you find ways not to.

Mature adults take in information, weigh risk/benefits, and adopt goals that suit them. It does help if you look and your wins and losses on diet control as an important game, rather than reacting with emotional ups and downs.

"absorb what is useful, Discard what is not, Add what is uniquely your own", Bruce Lee

From what I read, Bernstein has NEVER screwed up.... that is all I have to say on the matter. GD engineers....................

/smile

P.S. actually I find it sad that people are not perfect like me........... well except for the spellig errors - which are really patented new words by me...

The closer I get to 4.5 the more miserable I become as I feel I'm always teetering on the edge of hypoglycemia, popping glucose tabs. My last A1c was 4.9 and I was almost ready to punt Bernstein's methods. I have unexplained blips, some hormonal and some from exercise. I don't do exactly the same amount of exercise each day or necessarily the same kind. Today I probably overcompensated for exercise and I popped up to 191. All those little things get very annoying if you let them. I think Jenny's target is more realistic.

As one of those perfect individuals, it is very hard for me to be objective on this subject......./smile

Eating the same thing every day helps, doesn't it Korban?

Yeah, but it does get kinda boring.... even if you are perfect...

/smile

"GD engineers"
Right,Korban.
Oops.I'm GD'ing myself.That job is reserved for my wife.
About A1C:5.5 or so seems good to me.
I guess we all have to set our own goals in life-hopefully after
we have enough information to make intelligent decisions.
Maybe decisions don't really have to be intelligent.
I am rambling.
Hmm....
Eddie

I set an A1c goal for myself years ago in the mid 5s and have been able to reach that comfortably. 4.5 is very difficult and I found myself becoming frustrated, and I'm a person who usually enjoys challenges.

I think that Bernstein's number is 4.2-4.6 or something similar: don't see how he does it. Therefore, my goal is 3.6...

hard to get hypo enough,
/smile

Just eat a bunch of carbs and take a wild-ass guess about how much Novolog you need to bolus....I think that would be the perfect solution.

Done! trying for 40 mg/dl now...

P.S. I hope any newbie reading this board for the first time realizes I am kidding...