It’s not necessarily true that diabetes is a complicated disease to control; it’s more that the work is very tedious and thus people have trouble keeping up with it. However, it’s important to remember that diabetes is a lifelong disease that requires lifelong change. Do whatever is necessary to control your disease so that it doesn’t control you instead.
Before you can begin to really get a handle on your disease, you first have to understand exactly what’s going on. Obviously this article isn’t going to be anywhere near as thorough as a medical journal, much less a true doctor, but you should understand that your body has stopped producing sufficient amounts of insulin and thus can no longer perform certain duties. Among these duties is regulating your blood sugar and metabolizing fats. So your entire lifestyle needs to change in order to help fill up the gaps the hormone deficiency has caused.
Playing off of the previous tip when speaking about an entire lifestyle change, you will need to understand that there are no quick fixes when you’re dealing with diabetes. It’s not like a month’s worth of eating right and exercise is going to correct the problem. Now that you have the problem, the sad truth is that it’s probably not going to correct itself. You will need to supplement your insulin for life. You will need to stay active and eat better for life.
What are diabetes-friendly eating choices? Well, it all has to do with choosing healthier foods over junk food, good fats over bad fats, and complex carbohydrates and plenty of fiber over simple sugars. There are main issues to contend with when you have diabetes. The first, and most obvious, is that you will need to focus on your blood sugar and thus cannot eat that junk anymore. The second big issue is probable weight gain. With your body less adept at burning fat, you will gain weight unless you monitor your diet.
One of the biggest problems you’re going to experience with exercise is that it can seem too much like work. If you already have a job and a family and a busy life, adding in a hectic workout schedule is probably going to cause you to implode or burn out. This is why you should find something you enjoy doing. Perhaps swimming, basketball, baseball, or another sport would work well. You could try cycling or hiking. Find something you actually enjoy.
Diabetes hinders your body’s ability to regulate sugar. You’re still going to ingest plenty of sugar into your bloodstream. Any carbohydrate acts as a sugar in your blood. The real question here is how to handle blood sugar spikes or crashes. You need to learn what to do in case of too much blood sugar, like working quickly to burn it off, or not enough sugar, like grabbing a quick snack.
Of course, you will find that there are more than five tips out there when it comes to handling your diabetes, but these serve as a great starting platform. If you can understand the tips above, you can begin to change your lifestyle.