Hello again, alfmaxmollyjack!
It helps to know that the A1c is an average over a three-month period. Think of it like summer weather: if where you live it's usually in the 80s most days but you get a week or so of 100 degree temperatures, that week among the three months of summer isn't going to affect the average much. Similarly, if it gets really cool at night where you live, say, 50 degrees for the low, and the high for the day is 90, then the average temp for the day is 70 but it probably was exactly 70 degrees for only a short part of the day (going up and coming down). So averages help confirm we're on the right track but they're not precise enough to tell us just where to turn left or right to get where we want to go.
If you've been watching what you eat most of the time (it sounds like you have; good job!), occasional encounters with mashed potatoes and Halloween candy aren't going to wreck what was already a fairly good A1c. It sounds like your insulin production and management still is good enough to manage the occasional junk food encounter. Your blood glucose may go higher than 140 at times, but if we're talking not too many hours out of each month, you're doing some damage, but not that much. And, heck, we damage our bodies just by living and being exposed to age, sunlight, germs, chemicals, etc. Not saying no one should care about their blood glucose levels, but we face an impact just by getting up each morning.
It sounds like you've got a decent perspective on managing your blood glucose. Maybe someday that will have to change for some reason. But right now it sounds like you've got this.
It helps to know that the A1c is an average over a three-month period. Think of it like summer weather: if where you live it's usually in the 80s most days but you get a week or so of 100 degree temperatures, that week among the three months of summer isn't going to affect the average much. Similarly, if it gets really cool at night where you live, say, 50 degrees for the low, and the high for the day is 90, then the average temp for the day is 70 but it probably was exactly 70 degrees for only a short part of the day (going up and coming down). So averages help confirm we're on the right track but they're not precise enough to tell us just where to turn left or right to get where we want to go.
If you've been watching what you eat most of the time (it sounds like you have; good job!), occasional encounters with mashed potatoes and Halloween candy aren't going to wreck what was already a fairly good A1c. It sounds like your insulin production and management still is good enough to manage the occasional junk food encounter. Your blood glucose may go higher than 140 at times, but if we're talking not too many hours out of each month, you're doing some damage, but not that much. And, heck, we damage our bodies just by living and being exposed to age, sunlight, germs, chemicals, etc. Not saying no one should care about their blood glucose levels, but we face an impact just by getting up each morning.
It sounds like you've got a decent perspective on managing your blood glucose. Maybe someday that will have to change for some reason. But right now it sounds like you've got this.
