10 Diet And Exercise Tricks To Control Diabetes
Small goals make a big difference When it comes to type 2 diabetes, you need diet and exercise goals that encourage you to succeed—not ones that set you up to fail, says Ann Goebel-Fabbri, PhD, a psychologist and investigator at the Joslin Diabetes Center, in Boston. "I think goals have to be small and well spelled out for people. Everyone has the experience of going to a health practitioner and being told something vague: 'You know, you really ought to lose weight.' What does that mean? Goals need to be broken down into small nuts and bolts," she says. First step: See where you stand now Margaret Savoca, PhD, an assistant professor in the department of nutrition at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, suggests that you stop and look at your eating and exercise habits, and figure out what will be the easiest changes to make, rather than making huge changes that are tough to sustain. "Diabetes is a marathon, not a sprint," says Elizabeth Hardy, 47, a Dallas resident who was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes in 2005. For Hardy it was easiest to make changes in her life one step at a time. Here are 10 ways to start. Bring your own lunch Avoid eating lunch at restaurants or fast-food joints. Restaurant meals "can go out of control easily," Savoca says. They tend to have large portions, lots of calories, and high amounts of fat. Research has found an association between eating out more and having a higher body weight. When you make your own lunch, you control the ingredients and your portion sizes. If making your own lunch every day is too much, you might want to try twice a week to start. Use a pedometer These handy devices—available for less than $20 at sporting goods stores—clip on to your waistband and record the number of steps you take. Use one to estimat Continue reading >>
Diabetes Management: How Lifestyle, Daily Routine Affect Blood Sugar
Diabetes management requires awareness. Know what makes your blood sugar level rise and fall — And how to control these day-to-day factors. Keeping your blood sugar levels within the range recommended by your doctor can be challenging. That's because many things make your blood sugar levels change, sometimes unexpectedly. Following are some factors that can affect your blood sugar levels. Food Healthy eating is a cornerstone of healthy living — with or without diabetes. But if you have diabetes, you need to know how foods affect your blood sugar levels. It's not only the type of food you eat but also how much you eat and the combinations of food types you eat. What to do: Learn about carbohydrate counting and portion sizes. A key to many diabetes management plans is learning how to count carbohydrates. Carbohydrates are the foods that often have the biggest impact on your blood sugar levels. And for people taking mealtime insulin, it's crucial to know the amount of carbohydrates in your food, so you get the proper insulin dose. Learn what portion size is appropriate for each type of food. Simplify your meal planning by writing down portions for the foods you eat often. Use measuring cups or a scale to ensure proper portion size and an accurate carbohydrate count. Make every meal well-balanced. As much as possible, plan for every meal to have a good mix of starches, fruits and vegetables, proteins and fats. It's especially important to pay attention to the types of carbohydrates you choose. Some carbohydrates, such as fruits, vegetables and whole grains, are better for you than are others. These foods are low in carbohydrates and contain fiber that helps keep your blood sugar levels more stable. Talk to your doctor, nurse or dietitian about the best food choices and Continue reading >>
Self-managing Your Diabetes
by Anne Fanberg, Fit4D CDE As a Diabetes Educator, I strive to help each and every one of my patients obtain the best possible control of their blood sugars and live the healthiest lives possible. I mean, that’s my job after all, right? But actually, I happen to know that the most important person to help you manage your diabetes is you. The American Association of Diabetes Educators (AADE) has outlined the seven most important components of diabetes self-care management. Diabetes Educators use these as the foundation to help guide their patients through the journey of self-management. How well are you doing with your self-care? Healthy Eating What and how much you eat plays a huge role in the control of your blood sugars. Proper timing, modest portions and well-balanced meals are the cornerstones of healthy eating. A well-balanced intake consists of lean proteins, lots of non-starchy vegetables, some low-fat dairy, fruit, whole grains, and a little heart-healthy fat. It’s also important to limit your intake of carbohydrate foods, which have the largest effect on your blood sugars. Carbohydrates include fruit & fruit juice, milk & yogurt, grains, beans, and starchy vegetables. Reading food labels for total carbohydrate is one of the best ways to help you limit your intake. Most adults only need about 45-60 grams of carb at each meal. A diabetes educator can help you put together a healthy meal plan. Being Active Moving your body every day is so important for our overall health and well-being. It helps to lower your blood sugars, it’s good for your heart, it can help maintain strong bones, it can reduce stress, and it can help you control your weight. You don’t need a fancy gym membership or exercise equipment to be active. Walking is a fantastic, free and easily Continue reading >>
Managing Your Blood Sugar
Hyperglycemia - control; Hypoglycemia - control; Diabetes - blood sugar control; Blood glucose - managing When you have diabetes, you should have good control of your blood sugar. If your blood sugar is not controlled, serious problems called complications can happen to your body after many years. Learn how to manage your blood sugar so that you can stay as healthy as possible. Take Control of Your Diabetes Know the basic steps for managing your diabetes. Poorly managed diabetes can lead to many health problems. Know how to: Monitor your blood sugar (glucose) Find, buy, and store diabetes supplies If you take insulin, you should also know how to: Give yourself insulin Adjust your insulin doses and the foods you eat to manage your blood sugar during exercise and on sick days You should also live a healthy lifestyle. Exercise at least 30 minutes a day, 5 days a week. Do muscle strengthening exercises 2 or more days a week. Avoid sitting for more than 30 minutes at a time. Try speed walking, swimming, or dancing. Pick an activity you enjoy. Always check with your doctor before starting any new exercise plans. Follow your meal plan. Take your medicines the way your health care provider recommends. Check Your Blood Sugar Often Checking your blood sugar levels often and writing down the results will tell you how well you are managing your diabetes. Talk to your doctor and diabetes educator about how often you should check your blood sugar. Not everyone with diabetes needs to check their blood sugar every day. But some people may need to check it many times a day. If you have type 1 diabetes, check your blood sugar at least 4 times a day. Usually, you will test your blood sugar before meals and at bedtime. You may also check your blood sugar: After you eat out, especially if y Continue reading >>
5 Tips To Get Your Diabetes Under Control
Controlling your diabetes is a daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly challenge, but the effort is worth it. Right away you'll feel better and have more energy.The payoff? You'll live better longer with less risk of problems from diabetes like heart attacks, strokes, kidney failure, even blindness. The key to managing your diabetes is to keep your blood sugar levels as close to normal as possible. It sounds tough, but there are simple steps you can follow. Spot Check Your Sugar You and your doctor will have set a schedule to test your blood sugar. Add an extra check on top. Maybe at breakfast one day, lunch the next, and so on. It's like popping in unannounced. "If you're a supervisor and your workers know that you're only going to come once a day to check on them, chances are they're going to be well-behaved during that particular time and the rest of the day you're going to be doing other things," says Sethu Reddy, MD, chief of the adult diabetes section at the Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston. "If you spot check, you have a much better sense of how things are going." Use that information to adjust your eating and exercise to gain even better control if you need to. Count Carbs They can quickly send your blood sugar on a roller-coaster ride. That's why it's so important to keep track. Most women need 35-45 grams of carbs per meal while guys need 45-60 grams, says Jessica Crandall, a dietitian and spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. A cup of rice or pasta is about 45 grams. To make the most of them, pair your carbs with a protein, like nuts. Opt for high-fiber carbs. Both will slow digestion so you feel full without raising blood sugar. "Fiber is really important for blood-sugar control, but it's also a Roto-Rooter to clear out cholesterol building in Continue reading >>
The Diabetes Diet
What's the best diet for diabetes? Whether you’re trying to prevent or control diabetes, your nutritional needs are virtually the same as everyone else, so no special foods are necessary. But you do need to pay attention to some of your food choices—most notably the carbohydrates you eat. While following a Mediterranean or other heart-healthy diet can help with this, the most important thing you can do is to lose a little weight. Losing just 5% to 10% of your total weight can help you lower your blood sugar, blood pressure, and cholesterol levels. Losing weight and eating healthier can also have a profound effect on your mood, energy, and sense of wellbeing. Even if you’ve already developed diabetes, it’s not too late to make a positive change. By eating healthier, being more physically active, and losing weight, you can reduce your symptoms or even reverse diabetes. The bottom line is that you have more control over your health than you may think. The biggest risk for diabetes: belly fat Being overweight or obese is the biggest risk factor for type 2 diabetes. However, your risk is higher if you tend to carry your weight around your abdomen as opposed to your hips and thighs. A lot of belly fat surrounds the abdominal organs and liver and is closely linked to insulin resistance. You are at an increased risk of developing diabetes if you are: A woman with a waist circumference of 35 inches or more A man with a waist circumference of 40 inches or more Calories obtained from fructose (found in sugary beverages such as soda, energy and sports drinks, coffee drinks, and processed foods like doughnuts, muffins, cereal, candy and granola bars) are more likely to add weight around your abdomen. Cutting back on sugary foods can mean a slimmer waistline as well as a lowe Continue reading >>
Type 2 Diabetes And Diet: What You Should Know
Why does my diet matter? It’s no secret that diet is essential to managing type 2 diabetes. Although there isn’t a one-size-fits-all diet for diabetes management, certain dietary choices should act as the foundation for your individual diet plan. Your diet plan should work with your body — not against it — so it’s important that the food you eat won’t spike your blood sugar levels to high. According to the American Diabetes Association, the normal blood sugar range for people with diabetes is between 80 to 130 mg/dL before meals. It should be less than 180 mg/dL about two hours after you begin eating. Your doctor will provide you with personalized target blood sugar values. Keep reading to learn more about how what you eat can affect your blood sugar, as well as which foods you may want to pick up at the grocery store or toss out of your pantry. Check out: Type 1 diabetes diet » When someone with diabetes has low blood sugar (hypoglycemia), a spoonful of sugar or honey can help raise glucose levels. However, sugar is often considered the nemesis of diabetes because of how quickly it can spike blood glucose levels when eaten alone. If you have diabetes, you should closely monitor your consumption of foods with a high glycemic index (GI). The GI measures how quickly a particular food raises blood sugar. Those foods with a high GI can cause unwanted spikes. This is especially true of refined sugar and other forms of simple carbohydrates like white rice, bread, and pasta. Make sure that most of your carb choices are whole-grain, high-fiber options. For example, if you’d like to have a piece of chocolate cake with frosting, eat it immediately after eating a balanced meal with lean protein, healthy fats, vegetables, and high-fiber carb options such as beans. Ea Continue reading >>
How To Stabilize Your Blood Sugar
Life with type 2 diabetes can sometimes seem like an hourly or even minute-by-minute effort to stabilize your blood sugar. All of the recommendations and drugs you’ve been given as part of your type 2 diabetes treatment plan are intended to help you reach — and keep — healthy blood sugar levels most of the time. But doctors are learning that to control type 2 diabetes well, better information about why blood sugar matters and how to manage it is essential. The Facts About Diabetes and Blood Sugar As the American Diabetes Association (ADA) explains, your body needs sugar (glucose) for fuel, and there’s a fairly complicated process that makes it possible for your body to use that sugar. Insulin, which is made by the pancreas, is the hormone that enables the cells in your body to take advantage of sugar. Type 2 diabetes occurs when your body isn’t able to remove sugar from your blood. This can happen if your body stops being sensitive to insulin or if it starts to respond in a delayed or exaggerated way to changes in your blood sugar. Diabetes is signaled by an elevated blood sugar level of more than 126 milligrams per deciliter (mg/dL) for a fasting blood test, or more than 200 mg/dL at any time during the day. It can also be indicated by a hemoglobin A1C level of 6.5 percent or higher, a measure of the percentage of blood sugar attached to hemoglobin in the blood during the past two to three months. (Hemoglobin is a protein in red blood cells that transports oxygen throughout the body. So an A1C of 6.5 means that 6.5 percent of your red blood cells have sugar attached to them.) Unchecked high blood sugar gradually damages the blood vessels in your body. Over the long term, this slow, progressive harm can lead to a dangerous loss of sensation in your legs and fe Continue reading >>
Diabetes: 7 Principles For Good Diabetes Care
7 Principles for Good Diabetes Care These principles, or steps, will help you manage your diabetes and live a long and active life. Every person who has diabetes has different needs. Talk to your health care team about a treatment plan that is best for you. Diabetes affects almost every part of the body and good diabetes care requires a team of health care providers. They include doctors, diabetes educators, nurses, dietitians, pharmacists, mental health workers, eye specialists, foot specialists, dentists, and social workers. Print out and take this information with you when you visit your doctor or other members of your team to talk about your treatment plan. It Is Important to Control Diabetes Taking good care of diabetes can lower the chances of getting: eye disease that can lead to a loss of vision or even blindness nerve damage that may cause a loss of feeling or pain in the hands, feet, legs, or other parts of the body and lead to problems such as lower limb amputation or erectile dysfunction kidney failure As you read through this information, look for things with a to help you take action to control your diabetes. Principle 1: Learn as Much as You Can About Diabetes The more you know about diabetes, the better you can work with your health care team to manage your disease and reduce your risk for problems. You should know what type of diabetes you have. If you do not know, ask your doctor whether you have type 1 or type 2 diabetes. Type 1 diabetes. People who have this type of diabetes need to take insulin every day. This type of diabetes used to be called juvenile diabetes. Type 2 diabetes. Diet and daily physical activity help to control type 2 diabetes. Most people also need to take diabetes pills or insulin. Type 2 diabetes is very common and used to be cal Continue reading >>
> Diabetes Control: Why It's Important
People who have diabetes may hear or read a lot about controlling, or managing, the condition. But what is diabetes control and why is it so important? When you hear your doctors or health care providers talk about "diabetes control," they're usually referring to how close your blood sugar, or glucose, is kept to the desired range. Having too much or too little sugar in your blood can lead you to feel sick now and can cause health problems later. Managing diabetes is like a three-way balancing act: The medications you take (insulin or pills), the food you eat, and the amount of exercise you get all need to be in sync. Diabetes can get out of control if someone: doesn't take diabetes medicines as directed doesn't follow the meal plan (like eating too much or not enough food without adjusting diabetes medicines) doesn't get regular exercise or exercises more or less than usual without making changes to his or her diabetes plan has an illness or too much stress doesn't check blood sugar levels enough Out-of-control blood sugar levels can lead to short-term problems like hypoglycemia, hyperglycemia, or diabetic ketoacidosis. In the long run, not controlling diabetes can also damage the vessels that supply blood to important organs, like the heart, kidneys, eyes, and nerves. This means that heart disease and stroke, kidney disease, vision problems, and nerve problems can happen to people with diabetes. These problems don't usually show up in kids or teens who have had the disease for only a few years, but they can happen to adults with diabetes. Kids and teens with diabetes who don't control their blood sugar levels can be late going into puberty and might not end up as tall as they would have otherwise. The good news is that keeping blood sugar levels under control can help Continue reading >>
4 Steps To Manage Your Diabetes For Life
This publication has been reviewed by NDEP for plain language principles. Learn more about our review process. Actions you can take The marks in this booklet show actions you can take to manage your diabetes. Help your health care team make a diabetes care plan that will work for you. Learn to make wise choices for your diabetes care each day. Step 1: Learn about diabetes. What is diabetes? There are three main types of diabetes: Type 1 diabetes – Your body does not make insulin. This is a problem because you need insulin to take the sugar (glucose) from the foods you eat and turn it into energy for your body. You need to take insulin every day to live. Type 2 diabetes – Your body does not make or use insulin well. You may need to take pills or insulin to help control your diabetes. Type 2 is the most common type of diabetes. Gestational (jest-TAY-shun-al) diabetes – Some women get this kind of diabetes when they are pregnant. Most of the time, it goes away after the baby is born. But even if it goes away, these women and their children have a greater chance of getting diabetes later in life. You are the most important member of your health care team. You are the one who manages your diabetes day by day. Talk to your doctor about how you can best care for your diabetes to stay healthy. Some others who can help are: dentist diabetes doctor diabetes educator dietitian eye doctor foot doctor friends and family mental health counselor nurse nurse practitioner pharmacist social worker How to learn more about diabetes. Take classes to learn more about living with diabetes. To find a class, check with your health care team, hospital, or area health clinic. You can also search online. Join a support group — in-person or online — to get peer support with managing your Continue reading >>
Managing Gestational Diabetes
I have gestational diabetes. Will I see my doctor more often? Once you know you have gestational diabetes, you'll probably see your healthcare provider at least every two weeks. If you take insulin or another medication, you may need to see your provider once a week. In your third trimester, you may have one or more ultrasound exams to check how your baby is growing. If you take medications to control your diabetes, you may also have a fetal nonstress test once or twice a week. This is a safe test which measures your baby's movements and heartbeat. It's important to go to all your prenatal appointments, even if you're feeling well. Your provider will need to monitor you and your baby regularly and may adjust your treatment plan based on the results of your tests. What will I need to do if I have gestational diabetes? The key to managing your condition is tracking your blood sugar levels. This helps you take control of your condition and be sure that your treatment plan is working. Your healthcare provider will show you how to test your own blood sugar using a special device. This involves pricking your finger with a small surgical blade called a lancet. Although some women find it unpleasant at first, it isn't usually painful. Your provider will tell you how often to test your blood sugar. Usually, you need to test yourself first thing in the morning before you eat or drink anything, and then one or two hours after each meal. If you have trouble controlling your blood sugar, you may need to test more often. If your blood sugar is normal most of the time, you may be able to test less often. Your provider will also recommend lifestyle changes to help you to manage your gestational diabetes. Your blood sugar levels will show if these changes are working. What lifestyle cha Continue reading >>
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Help Managing Your Diabetes
Help Managing Your Diabetes Online education sessions are led by Certified Diabetes Educators (CDEs) Get your questions answered during a LIVE question-and-answer portion with a CDE PLUS, get a FREE diabetes management tool after the session! Managing Diabetes With Your Healthcare Team Sanofi US respects your interest in keeping your personal information private. We will not sell or rent your information to any outside mailing lists. For more information, click here to view our Privacy Policy. By clicking the "Sign Up Now" button, I agree that the information provided below may be used by Sanofi US, its affiliates and the business service companies working with Sanofi US to provide me with this additional information and to develop products and services concerning diabetes which may include market research. Continue reading >>
Step 3: Manage Your Diabetes
Many people avoid the long-term problems of diabetes by taking good care of themselves. Work with your health care team to reach your ABC goals (A1C, Blood Pressure, Cholesterol): Use this self-care plan. Use your diabetes meal plan. If you do not have one, ask your health care team about one. Make healthy food choices such as fruits and vegetables, fish, lean meats, chicken or turkey without the skin, dry peas or beans, whole grains, and low-fat or skim milk and cheese. Keep fish and lean meat and poultry portion to about 3 ounces (or the size of a deck of cards). Bake, broil, or grill it. Eat foods that have less fat and salt. Eat foods with more fiber such as whole-grain cereals, breads, crackers, rice, or pasta. Get 30 to 60 minutes of physical activity on most days of the week. Brisk walking is a great way to move more. Stay at a healthy weight by using your meal plan and moving more. Ask for help if you feel down. A mental health counselor, support group, member of the clergy, friend, or family member who will listen to your concerns may help you feel better. Learn to cope with stress. Stress can raise your blood glucose (blood sugar). While it is hard to remove stress from your life, you can learn to handle it. Stop smoking. Ask for help to quit. Take medicines even when you feel good. Ask your doctor if you need aspirin to prevent a heart attack or stroke. Tell your doctor if you cannot afford your medicines or if you have any side effects. Check your feet every day for cuts, blisters, red spots, and swelling. Call your health care team right away about any sores that do not go away. Brush your teeth and floss every day to avoid problems with your mouth, teeth, or gums. Check your blood glucose (blood sugar). You may want to test it one or more times a day. Chec Continue reading >>
