Every Diabetic wants to know, how well am I doing? There are a few basic tests a Type 2 Diabetic can perform to determine their blood glucose stability. The first and easiest test to perform is fasting in the morning. Record your blood glucose levels immediately upon waking. Then without eating or drinking anything but water keep recording your blood glucose levels on 30-60 minute intervals. You want to witness when your glucose levels rises, how high it rises and at what level of blood glucose does your pancreas release insulin and you start to see your levels fall. This simple test will yield lots of information that can be used over and over again. The first piece of information is your peak glucose level. The peak glucose level while fasting will provide you a number to base future food items on that you eat for breakfast. Sometimes a morning peak is about what you didn't eat as opposed to what you did eat. Example, you go through all of the above testing for a couple of mornings and you note that your glucose levels go to 140 or 7.8, you now have a number to base your levels on when you do eat something. The next morning if you consume (x) grams of protein, (y) grams of natural fats and your glucose level still goes to 130-140, you now know it would have gone that high even if you didn't consume anything. Mornings are all about waking up your system, stomach, liver, pancreas, brain, all have to work in harmony to stop your morning rise. If you repeat this test over time you may notice that your rise becomes smaller and smaller, this I feel is due to your body healing itself. We can help you interpret these numbers here at t2dcoaching. Next week we will talk about building confidence with your stability.