A diabetes lifestyle is a demanding one, in which the majority of management is self-care. The key to managing your diabetes involves testing your blood sugar; taking diabetes medications, insulin or both; eating a healthy, balanced diet; exercising; caring for your feet; stopping smoking; and keeping your diabetes appointments with your provider. If you don't do these things, you're at great risk of developing diabetes complications.

Research has proven that complications are less likely to occur if you keep your blood glucose as near to normal as possible, yet, as diabetes educators, we hear many reasons why our clients don't make simple changes to better their own health. Here are a few.

"I'm too young to have diabetes." This is a form of denial. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), more than 13,000 young people are diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in the United States each year. The number of children and adolescents diagnosed with type 2 diabetes is growing at an alarming rate. New diagnoses for type 2 diabetes in children accounts for up to half of all diabetes diagnoses in children and adolescents."I don't have enough time." Whether you work full-time or stay at home, it's important to take time to improve your way of life. Managing your blood sugar doesn't require you to make drastic changes. Break tasks down into smaller, doable actions. For example, take a 10-minute walk twice a day instead of walking for 20 minutes at one time. There are, however, things you must make time for. To stay healthy, you must test your blood sugar and take your diabetes medications."I feel fine. Maybe high blood sugar is normal for me." High blood sugar is never normal. Normal blood sugar for people who don't have diabetes is 70 to 100 mg/dL (3.9 to 5.6 mmol/L). Diabetes is an insidious disease, often called a silent killer. You may feel fine, but damage is being done to your entire body, from your hearing and vision, to sexual function, to mental health and sleep.

Other comments we hear include everything from "I don't like vegetables" to "Lifestyle changes won't work, so just give me diabetes pills."

But no change is too small to ward off type 2 diabetes or to delay further progression of diabetes! A large, national study conducted at 27 sites around the U.S. found that small lifestyle changes are far more successful at warding off diabetes or delaying further progression of the disease than are medications. The Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP) found that participants who lost a modest amount of weight through dietary changes and increased physical activity greatly reduced their chances of developing diabetes or developing further complications of diabetes.

Get started today and set a specific goal. Choose a lifestyle change that you're willing to work on. Don't change behaviors that will make your health care team happy — change for you. Ask yourself what you'd like to change and how you're going to do it, for how long, and how many days of the week. Start with one specific, attainable goal, for example, "I will walk 10 to 15 minutes three days a week for one month."

Lifestyle changes take patience, but, with persistence, you can make them happen.

Peggy

blog index

Life is complicated and confusing and very choppy. At times laugh-out-loud moments are not always accessible, but there are some tips that can be used to bring the laughter in your life.
-One must determine the profile of mood. Discover what makes you laugh and do it more often. As different people have different musical tastes, the same way we also laugh at different things.
-Spend more time with people who make you laugh.
-Invite your friends for funny watching movies together, you'll find yourself laughing harder and longer than if you had seen everything by yourself.
-Suppose your car breaks down in the middle of traffic and you don't have a cell phone or spare tire instead of kicking yourself, laugh at his own incompetence. Laugh at the absurdity of the situation. It requires a certain amount of detachment-a can laugh in a situation where you're above it, not inside it and with that kind of detachment, you can see things as funny and not frustrating.
-Laughter and tears are two responses to frustration and exhaustion. I'd laugh in such situations, as there is less cleaning up to do after.
-Hang around with kids more. Children are constantly discovering the world around them, and much of what passes seems ridiculous and amazing, who attacks them as funny. Some things that doesn't seem funny to you, but when a child is laughing about something, you will find your spontaneous rise in contagious.
-Laugh at yourself. Recognises that funny some of its behavior is really, especially its shortcomings and errors. Sense of humor is the ability to laugh at yourself. Laughing at others can be painful and average but laughing at yourself so hearted lit can be a great way to cheer up.
-Inject humor where it is desirable that people like to laugh.
-Do not run scared of dark humor as the laughter that arises from that humor is not a callous reaction, rather that he makes the Declaration that life is not something to be affirmed ecstatically as recognized comically.
-A smile is not the same as the laughter, but they are part of the same family. If you're feeling so low that you can't remember when you smiled, I know that this could be a warning sign of depression.