Having diabetes has changed the routines of your life. You now have an extra burden of daily tasks necessary to keep it under control. But if you have type 2 diabetes, it probably resulted partly from not keeping diet and exercise under control. Because the daily necessity of checking blood sugar and taking insulin or other medication is onerous, you may feel like minimizing your efforts. But consider the opposite approach. Concentrate on maximizing your efforts to control diabetes--and you may succeed!
Pay attention to how you are doing in controlling your diabetes. Keeping daily notes of your blood sugar ups and downs, increase or decrease in medication, your physical exercise, level of tiredness or energy, and the effects of the foods you eat can help you get a grip on controlling the disease. By standing back and taking an overall look, you will see patterns and get ideas for improving your management of diabetes. If a particular food made your glycemic reading shoot up, eliminate it from your diet. Better yet, become an expert on the glycemic ratings of foods. Keep a chart readily at hand when fixing a meal.
Becoming aware of this can help head off blood sugar problems. With a more stable blood sugar, you will feel better.
Try to eat 4 or 5 small meals during the day at regular intervals. This will help manage your blood sugar. If you are away from home for a long period of time, be sure to take a healthy snack with you. Going without food for too long can cause an increase in blood sugar.
Pick the low glycemic foods that you really like and maximize them in your diet. Use stevia instead of sugar. Get a book that has adapted dessert recipes so they are okay for diabetics. You can still enjoy desserts and good-tasting food, as long as you are aware of their glycemic effect.
Listen to your doctor's instructions and ask for even more suggestions. Sometimes doctors get tired of giving the same advice over and over and not being heeded. Don't be one of those patients. Let your doctor know you follow his instructions and want to learn even more about controlling diabetes. He will be on your side and may give you even more valuable information.
Carefully balance your diet so you are getting all the nutrients and micro-nutrients you need. There are a lot of great books on nutrition written in recent years, with many new discoveries from scientific research. Learn about anti-oxidants, cruciferous vegetables, and many other bits of information that can help you create a diet for yourself that controls your diabetes--even perhaps overcoming it.
Snack foods such as chips are made so you want to eat more and more of them. You should probably just eliminate them from your diet. But if you must eat them, dole out a measured amount. Don't start eating from the bag, or you may soon find you have eaten the whole bag, and your blood sugar is soaring. Try to accept the fact that being a diabetic requires some self-discipline. You cannot just eat anything.
Find an enjoyable form of moderate exercise. Fit it into your regular schedule. If you don't, it will just become something you wish you had time for, or hope you get around to doing next week. Here is another place to be strict with yourself. Keeping up an exercise regime can make all the difference in whether your diabetes gets worse or better.
These are just a few tips to help you get started in living successfully with diabetes. The better you manage your diabetes, the more enjoyable your life will be.
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