Having a cloud of Diabetes or Pre-diabetes hanging over you is so inconvenient right? Just when we are either in a comfortable groove, working professionally or in early retirement life throws us this unexpected or maybe even long ignored outcome that finally has to come to a reality check. And this definitely a hard pill to swallow, either change things around or suffer some dire consequences in the future.
I’m going to share some of my favorite tips on eating and living a healthy, balanced life with your Diabetes condition and knowing what to expect. I’ve been spending a lot of time researching and studying many sites, You tube channels and healthy journals and am sharing some of my learned ideas and thoughts below.
Eating well as a diabetic doesn’t condemn you to a lifetime of boring salads and no desserts and I’ve started to create a more exciting recipe list that I hope you will also check out on the site. Usually this does take a bit of planning in advanced but when you have things in place or your favorites meal plans set on your calendar, then you’ll be eating well and enjoying food preparation and eating again!
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11 Tips on eating and living healthy with Diabetes
1. Ask a lot of questions, this is the start of a new journey so be inquisitive and learn about the pros and cons of eating, preparing, ingredient choices and what’s acceptable of not to include into your meal plan
2. Diet is one of the first things you should consider when you want to reduce any glucose spike. Focus on lean meats, healthy fats, lots of veggies and low sugar fruits into your daily diet
3. Cut out sodas, alcohol or those energy drinks opt for water, tea or healthy smoothies into your diet
4. Add more fiber into your diet can help to reduce glucose levels and those sugar spikes that typically occur with high carbo foods. Examples of great fiber foods include: fruits and vegetables, nuts and a variety of seeds like Chia seeds above, popcorn and legumes like chick peqs, black beans and kidney beans.
5. Exercise regularly and it doesn’t even have to be rigorous. Think about a walk or bike ride thirty minutes after you’ve had a meal and this will definitely keep glucose levels and insulin in check. It’s one of the best things to keep you healthy and your system internally active and optimized.
Find an activity you enjoy so that it is fun and doesn’t seem like a chore, consider tennis, pickleball groups, swimming or yoga activities that you can enroll in and get fit.
6. Monitor your blood sugar levels not only helps you see patterns in your blood sugar but you can also test pre and post meal to see if any of the foods you ate created an increase In your sugar levels and you will have to change or eliminate that food or ingredient that was used. It’s important to keep a data of your findings so you can keep them to see if there is any improvement or share with health care providers to assist with other changes you need to work on.
Not only does this put you on the right path to treatment, it also keeps you honest if you tend to be lax with your monitoring agenda.
7. Find a supportive group of people that can really understand, listen or share information that can be helpful. Join a Facebook or social media group that specializes in Healthy lifestyles, Diabetes, Low Card or any other related topics that you can interact and get new information that can be helpful to your own path.
Its also great to have a group you can vent with or find out relevant information that you can incorporate or even be a part of the dialog.
8. Pay attention to the food your eating, slow down and notice the texture, aroma, temperature, and total appearace. Slowing down and paying attention will make the experience more enjoyable and filling at the same time
9. If you dining out, do ask help to making your dish workable, ask for substitutions, less salt, how the food is prepared if there’s keto, vegan or carnevore options. If you can take out the rice, breads and add more veggies to your plate instead
10, Schedule regular follow ups with your health care provider to get updates, blood sugar testing and share data information that might be helpful to target more healthy directions.
11. Don’t cut out all those sugary ingredients all at once
This will definitely induce you to give up more quickly. Maybe start with taking out sugary desserts, picking diet sodas and limiting your weekly drinks or even a teaspoon instead of two two from your teal or coffee. You can eventually start weaning off the sugars when you have started to adapt to this new eating or drinking routine effectively.
Final thoughts on Diabetes eating and living healthy
It’s up to you to keep yourself up with any changes to your body and keep yourself accountable to your condition.
I hope that all of these tips will help to exponentially keep your glucose levels in check, hopefully lose some weight and even decrease your A1C levels to normal levels, at least we can have this goal to do so.
