Most of my followers ask me a lot about diet, and they ignore the other things which are almost equally important than diet. many people even don't realise that all other factors influence what we eat, how much we eat, and how often we eat.
Today I will tell you, what are the other factors you should care about ?
Let me First Define My definition of Diabetes, How I breakdown diabetes management ? For me Diabetes means
DIET:Diet comes first, No doubt diet is important If some one asks me to tell in one line what is the best diet for diabetics, I will tell them." Eat home cooked food, ensure lot of variety, eat on time and have control on the quantity you eat "
Information: To make you understand why diabetes education is important, I will tell you a small story.
You went to a forest or a place which is full of nature and you found one tree which has some fruits, you have seen it but you are confused if you can eat this fruit or not, a local guy over there told it is a good fruit you can eat, so now you got the confidence to eat it and you started eating it. But while you are eating you are still unsure if you should eat it, is it safe, is it healthy,,," something will not happen to me ?" etc.. AM I RIGHT?
"EATING THE FRUIT WITH FEAR, WILL LAND YOU INTO TROUBLE"
All because you dont have the right information about the fruit,
Diabetes is also like this fruit, You should have enough information, So I always advise diabetics to educate themselves about diabetes..
ACTIVITY: Don't misunderstand activity for exercise, being physically active throughout the day is much more important than just doing 30 minutes of walking,.
If you sit before the computer contentiously without moving your back and just do exercise cannot help a lot, prolonged sitting has not only been linked to problems with blood glucose control, but also a sharp reduction in the activity of an enzyme called lipoprotein lipase, which breaks down blood fats and makes them available as a fuel to the muscles.
This reduction in enzyme activity leads to raised levels of triglycerides and fats in the blood, increasing the risk of heart disease.
Blood Sugar Monitoring:
Blood sugar monitoring can help you as mentioned below
- Regular blood glucose monitoring can give you a idea about which foods are spiking your blood sugar levels and what are the foods which keeps your blood sugar normal.
- By frequently monitoring you will be assured free of worrying about fluctuation in blood sugar levels.
- You can avoid severe complications to your eyes, kidneys and foot.
Enthusiasm towards life :Enthusiasm and postive outlook towards life are very important, I did not see or know about any negative thinking diabetic reversing his diabetes.
For that matter of fact, Did you come across anyone who could succeed in his career cursing his company? No did you see any women keep her house beautiful while cursing the work she has to do?
Positive thinking should be your first step.
You may be thinking what time management has to do with diabetes, are we talking about our careers or what? No I am talking about the following |
- Giving time for yourself.
- Able to make time for your hobbies.
- Able to amke time for exercise.
- Able to make time for eating peacefully.
- Able to make time for spending with family.
I have understood that most of the diabetics are juggling with life, they are always running, we should learn how to optimise the time we have.
Eating slowly will help a lot for diabetics.
Exercise for Diabetics:
Doing exercise is important, research says that people who exercise every day for 45 minutes to 1 hour are likely to increase their insulin sensitivity by 30%. Exercise is very good friend of diabetics every one knows it,
But people should also know to adopt the exercise which suits them the best. Yoga is a very good exercise for diabetics, apart from walking diabetics should learn to do yoga because it has excellent benefits and it can be done anywhere.
one should not do over exercise and should listen to what their body says.
Stress & Sleep for Diabetes
Emotional stress (fear, anxiety, anger, excitement, tension) and physiological stress (illness, pain, infection, injury) cause the body to secrete stress hormones into the bloodstream. For those without diabetes, the stress-induced blood sugar rise is followed by an increase in insulin secretion, so the blood sugar rise is modest and temporary. For those of us with diabetes, however, stress can cause a significant and prolonged increase in the blood sugar level.
To realise this you watch a horror movie and then check your blood sugar levels, you will understand how stress impacts blood sugar levels badly.
As per God's design stress means a physical threat like any of the following
- A lion attacking you,
- A dog trying to bite you.
- A stranger coming near to you.
- honey bees attacking you.
In all the four cases above tremendous energy is required, instant energy comes form glucose, so when you feel stressed brain signals to release cortisol ( stress hormone) cortisol provokes liver to pump more glucose to fight against the threat or stresser ( dog, lion, honey bee or a stranger)
Brain cannot differentiate if you are stressing due to a thing which you cannot do anything about like,, target at office, changing your maid servant, stressed about neighbors new car..
so it releases high amounts of glucose.
which is not required by your cells and it stays in your blood
Sleep is one more major factor, both quality and quantity of sleep matters, enough sleep helps your body to repair and rejuvenate its cells to ensure all bodily functions are in order, Enough sleep is the basic need of the body which most of the diabetics are deprived off.
Tell me what do you think , What changes did you make to reverse your Diabetes?