Customer Reviews

The ABCs Of Loving Yourself With Diabetes

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(2)
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I hope this book finds its way into your hands if you are struggling with your diabetes or just need a boost now and then. This book introduces a new approach to diabetes management - it coaches you to improve your management through using your own positive emotions. I know the power of this approach from my own personal experience and coaching others. I wrote this book because I wish you to have the life that you deserve, fun, full and rich, even with diabetes, and I know that you can. From each book sold a significant contribution will be donated to Diabetes Research Institute, a world-leading cure-focused institute seeking a cure for diabetes. That is why this book costs what it does.

I have learned a lot through the years about how to manage my diabetes: what to eat, the importance of exercise, carb-counting, checking my blood sugars, but that all felt like work. Lots of work. Today I still do these things of course, but I do them with a profoundly different attitude; rather than seeing them as work I focus on what they give me - energy, strength, good health, the rewards of how brave and powerful I am and pride in meeting the demands of diabetes, face-to-face day after day, joyfully.

I have learned to be patient, kind and forgiving with myself and manage my diabetes from a place of love, courage, kindness and appreciation for all my blessings. By focusing on these emotions, they grow in your life and you end up infusing your day with greater happiness. When the quality of your day changes, your life changes.

I wrote this book for my fellow diabetics and for health care providers, so that they will better understand, coach and counsel patients. Here are some comments from diabetes educators who have read the book, "It was magical to read "The ABCs," it brought tears to my eyes so many times! I will be recommending this book to so many of my patients with diabetes - young, old, parents and fellow professionals." Another, "What a delightful book. I enjoyed all of it and found gems of insight, observation and wisdom for people to consider, savor, and act on. Reading this book is a bit like taking small, regular doses of healing and inspiration." And finally, "At my work I see mostly type 2 patients. When they hear their diagnose I give them education about lifestyle, medication, teach them to control their blood sugar and to inject insulin. We also talk about the emotional side of diabetes, but now that I am reading your book I know it is not as much as it should be. Diabetes is much more than the blood sugars, blood pressures and weight control. My colleagues also want to read your book. I hope we will all use your vision and tools to help our patients."

These words are my gift. I hope you give yourself the gift of better management through your own positive emotions as this book will coach you to do. I wrote this book so that you can live happier and healthier - and create the life you want - not despite diabetes, but because of diabetes. That's my wish for you.

What a wonderful little ode to self-acceptance and motivation! Like a skilled quilter, Riva Greenberg has somehow managed to patch together poetry, self-help, and diabetes advice into an irresistible pattern. Some may find it sappy and old-fashioned, but isn't that exactly the charm of a well-made quilt? This book will refresh your diabetic spirit.

-- AmyT of [...]

Know Your Numbers, Outlive Your Diabetes: 5 Essential Health Factors You Can Master to Enjoy a Long and Healthy Life (Marlowe Diabetes Library)

With this small, adorably illustrated paperback, Riva Greenberg has created a joyful field guide for living with diabetes. You can't read it without feeling uplifted. For anyone struggling to cope with all the hassles of this disease, here's a prescription: Read this book, and repeat as often as necessary.

Often times those of us with diabetes follow the rules of good diabetes care all the while gritting our teeth. We often put managing the disease before "loving" ourselves and become angry, stressed, and a real pain to others and to ourselves. Riva's book reminds us that we came first and that managing this disease should not crowd out the joy of living. Her warm and inviting illustrations bring a smile to the face and joy to the heart. Thank you, Riva

This book was great and really opened my eyes to Diabetes and the different view of Diabetes.

This book has been of great value to me in my work, where I keep it out for patients to see. I work at Mount Sinai's Hall Family Center for Pediatric Endocrinology and Diabetes, treating children with type 1 and type 2 diabetes. Families love looking through this book and I feel confident that they are getting the right message when they do. It is the only upbeat book I know of on this subject. It goes a long way towards quelling fears and instilling a postive attitude on self care.

Riva Greenberg knows all about living with diabetes after nearly 40 years and tens of thousands of blood sugar tests. Her "angle" on Loving ourselves with diabetes is refreshing and authentic precisely because Riva GETS IT. She is smart, witty, light-hearted without being "light," and utterly completely encouraging of each one of us who does this day in, day out, year in, year out. Without being unrealistic, she weaves goodness into each potential challenge or heartache. We can't change having diabetes, but we sure can change our attitudes. If "attitude determines our altitude," Riva is soaring above the mountaintops, looking down on us with a grin, her arms outstretched, inviting us all to join her in her perspective. Way to go, Riva!

I read a page or two each night that I'm needing a little boost, and -voila! - I feel better not just about my diabetes, but about myself.

What a gift!

Can hardly wait for the next book she's writing....

I don't have diabetes, but I found this book to be humorous, informative and most of all, inspirational. The illustrations are quite charming.
If you want to feel good about yourself, buy this book!

Living with diabetes can be a grind. With very little positive reinforcement, and all sorts of negative reminders that you're not doing enough, living a long life with diabetes takes a very special kind of mental fortitude.

Riva's book is a great tool for helping you see more of the positives around the work you are doing for yourself, which helps keep me working on everything (even though I can't always see the results).

For each letter of the alphabet there is a little phrase, then a few paragraphs expanding on the idea. For example, "K is for Knowing You Are Capable of Change", and then Riva goes on to talk a bit about changing your mindset around some of the challenging aspects of your self-care situation.

What I really enjoy about Riva's work is that she doesn't skimp on the mental aspects of living with diabetes. We can all learn to do the "tasks" of diabetes; checking blood sugar, taking our medications, etc. But to keep your resolve to keep doing all of that when the results don't always match up with your expectations is a really hard thing. Riva knows this, as she has lived with type 1 diabetes for over 30 years.

I often grab my copy of this book, and just flip it open to a random page, where I get a quick dose of mental motivation to keep pushing on. Riva's mission is to help as many people as she can to grow and be strong, and this book is a perfect example of that. Thank you Riva!