Importance of Lifestyle modification
Diabetes is a condition with multifactorial aetiology. While your genetics can confer a certain risk it is eventually the decisions you take regarding your lifestyle which tip the scales in favour of you getting diabetes. However keep in mind that what got you into this mess can very well get you out of it. Following a healthy lifestyle reverses a lot of cases of diabetes, especially when carried out in the initial phases.
9 keys to tame your disease:
1.Eat smart .. Not less: You are what you eat. And If you spent your life eating a lot of simple and refined carbs you are most likely a diabetic. It’s not the quantity which matters but the quality. Eat frequent meals comprising complex carbs, healthy fats and protein so that you can go longer without feeling hungry. Your pancreas are not paid enough to work overtime for your unhealthy binging.
2.Keep it practical: Weight loss follows Newton’s 3rd law. There are over a hundred fancy diets which can help you in weight loss but in all these diets you regain your weight with the same intensity the moment you let go of your diet. What matters is that you keep your diet plan simple and something you can follow for life. Remember that lifestyle modification is intended to be a lifetime modification.
3.Carbs – Neither your friend, nor your foe: The key to everything in nature is balance. Similarly both a high carb diet as well as a low carb diet are detrimental for your health. While a low carb diet does decrease your sugars it can worsen your other metabolic parameters which may have long term effects on your health. Remember that controlling your sugars is meaningless if the eventual destination is not a healthy long life.
4.Home is where the heart is.. and also where health is: Your mother was not wrong when she forced you to eat at home. Apart from the fact that there are limited healthy options when you eat outside, eating precooked heated food increases the amount of harmful substances called AGEs in your food which promote the metabolic stress.
5.Recognise your opportunities to be active: You might not have the time to hit the gym or run in your local park but there are always ways to complete your daily quota of activity. Avoid elevators and escalators, park your vehicle far from your destination, go run errands for your people and actively take part in household chores.
6.Eat – walk – sleep – repeat: Don’t hit the bed as soon as you eat. Be active, take a leisurely stroll and let the calories you just ate be utilised. Studies have shown that regular activity throughout the day, especially after meals, is better for your blood sugars than doing all your exercise at a single point of the day.
7.Destress, detox, deflate: We humans with all our stressors related to work and family forget to realise that there is so much beauty around us. Be mindful and channel your inner peace. Send your stress hormones for a vacation so that they stop spiking up your sugars.
8.Make time for your bed: A good quality sleep of eight hours goes a long way in ensuring your endocrine system works properly. Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, wise and helps control his sugars.
9.Don’t feel victimised: So you have diabetes. There are two options you have now. Stress yourself out that you are restricted by diabetes or think of diabetes as an opportunity to remind you to follow a healthy lifestyle pattern. Which option sounds better?