Healthy Foods
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Eating healthy food is one of the most simple and best changes we can make when tackling diabetes. A change in diet is crucial for helping to manage insulin levels and for keeping weight down, and will just leave you feeling happier and healthier in general.
A Healthy Weight
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Keeping your weight down will do wonders for your physical and mental health. By keeping a healthy weight and ensuring that your body mass index is in the healthy zone, your body will need to do less work to keep you going. This will leave you feeling a load better.
Managing Insulin
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Managing your insulin levels manually is something you will need to figure out if you have type 1 diabetes. Your doctor will be able to guide you through the process of how and when to administer insulin, but over time you begin to know what your internal levels are doing.
Exercise
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Getting yourself moving is another improvement you can make to your life even if you do not have diabetes. By doing a little bit of exercise every day, you will become fitter and stronger. This helps to limit unhealthy fat and will improve your strength in general.
Talk To Your Doctor
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Your Doctor is an expert when it comes to these kind of conditions, so they will be able to help you to stay on track and keep your diabetes under control. Your Doctor will also be there for support if you have any queries or if you condition begins to change.
Meal Plan
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Making a meal plan for the week ahead is a great way to keep yourself on track and be accountable for your decision. A meal plan forces you to eat what you have in the fridge or face throwing it away. This means you are a lot less likely to order unhealthy take out food.
Workout Schedule
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Similar to a meal plan, a work out plan is the best way to keep your mindset positive and stay in good shape. By making a work out plan alone or with a personal trainer, you are more likely to want to hit the gym, which only has positive impacts on your life.
What The Numbers Mean
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If like many other, you have type one diabetes, your body will not be able to create its own insulin and wont be able to manage blood sugar. You will need to take regular blood sugar readings, so it is important to learn what the numbers mean and how they relate to you.
Hydration
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Keeping yourself well hydrated with water is something that many of us simply forget to do. You are made of over 90% water, so keep yourself topped up! Being well hydrated will improve your brain function, as well as your kidney and allow your body to filter out toxins.
Being Prepared
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Dealing with diabetes can be tricky, so make sure that you are prepared. This means you should prepare meals, exercise plans and also mentally prepare. It can be quite draining, so it is best to approach diabetes with a positive mindset and do your best to manage it.
Learning To Adjust
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A diabetes diagnosis means that you are going to need to adjust your lifestyle. If you do not adjust the way you eat and the way you exercise, then your diabetes will get worse. Although it can be hard to accept at first, dealing with the problem head on is best.
Education
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Learning as much as you can about diabetes is a great way to help you wrap your head around dealing with it, and will provide you with lots of knowledge and helpful tips. This may also make it easier to deal with mentally, as you will know what kind of battle you are fighting.
Sugary Drinks
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Sugary drinks are actually some of the most calorific things that we consume, and because they don’t leave us feeling full like a big meal or snacks, they are often overlooked. Cutting down on sugary drinks will not only improve your diabetes, but also your teeth!
Portion Size
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Are you eating too much? We have all seen the crazy suggested serving sizes that wouldn’t feed a mouse, but you don’t need to go to the most extreme lengths to improve your health. Maybe just don’t add the extra spoonful to your plate, or skip the cheese on your burger?
Blood Sugar Levels
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Checking your blood sugar is going to be a new part of your daily routine, so make sure you do this frequently and properly. Checking your sugar levels is as crucial as wearing a seat belt, and should be treated with respect. Try and do it at set times throughout the day.
Veggies
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Vegetables are the perfect source of vitamins, fiber and minerals, making them the best addition to any meal or as a replacement for an unhealthy snack. By ensuring you eat plenty of vegetables, you will be able to control your weight and blood sugars more closely.
Grains
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Grains like lentils and pulses are yet another perfect addition to your diet which will help you to manage and closely control diabetes. These types of grains are cheap to buy, meaning they can be added to most meals. Try and steer clear of sugary grains like cereals though.
Proper Sleep
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A good night's sleep improves your ability to concentrate and allows your body to restore itself in a healthy and natural manner. Sleep has been described by experts as the best natural performance enhancing drug, so do your best to get a full 7 or 8 hours every night.
Avoiding Booze
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Alcohol is extremely high in calories, meaning that this unlikely source is one of the prime contributing factors into weight gain. Some alcoholic beverages like cider and sweet mixers are also super high in sugar, which can greatly impact the amount of insulin needed.
Drugs
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Everyone knows that drugs aren’t good for us, so they certainly won’t help if you are tackling diabetes. Drugs can cause you to have a lower than normal appetite, but when the effect wear off we often get a great surge of hunger which causes havoc with sugar levels.
Multi Vitamins
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Taking some multivitamins in the morning is a great way to help to boost your immune system and will make you feel better throughout the day. This is a super easy thing to incorporate into a morning routine, maybe with a cup of coffee or some breakfast?
Sunshine
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Twenty minutes of sunlight every day gives you enough vitamin D to last 24 hours. Getting out in the shun shine is a great mental health booster, and will help if you have diabetes. You will feel better in general and be more easily able to tell what your blood sugar is doing.
Getting A Dog
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Getting an active pet like a dog is a great way to help manage a diabetes diagnosis. They force you to get out in the fresh air and go for walks, which is great exercise and the perfect way to clear your head. Plus, who doesn’t love a cuddly pet at home?
Managing Emotions
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It can be tricky, but managing your emotions is something that you will need to work on if a diabetes diagnosis has effected your mental state. Trying to keep calm and relaxed in highly stressful times is difficult but in the end, it is the right thing to do for your health.
Unhealthy Groceries
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You can’t eat unhealthy food if you do not have it in the cupboards, so next time you go grocery shopping, make a list. Having a strict list will stop you buying as much unhealthy food, and is one of the best ways tot stay on a healthy (and cheaper) path to managing diabetes.
Standing At Work
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Getting up and out of your seat at work is a great way to get the blood pumping. By standing up every so often, your heart gets a chance to work a little harder, which is actually very good for it. Although it may sound counter intuitive, it is bad for your heart not to do anything strenuous all day.
Screen Time
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Reducing screen time is another great way to improve your mental health, which in turn will improve your physical health. This improvement in your physical health does wonders in tackling diabetes and could see the condition effectively disappear altogether.
Mindfulness
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Practicing mindfulness is a great way to improve your mental state and deal with an unwanted diagnosis on diabetes. Although you can only manage the condition, mindfulness is a great way to feel like you are beating the diabetes and may aid speedy recovery.
A Mile A Day
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Walking a mile a day is the perfect start for someone with an unhealthy lifestyle who may have recently been diagnosed with diabetes. A walk of a mile per day is good to get the blood pumping and help clear your mind, and it only takes ten or fifteen minutes.
Not Smoking
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Smoking is bad for your arteries, and your diabetes diagnosis. Smoking drastically reduces your life expectancy and paired with a diabetes diagnosis, it is just a recipe for disaster. Quitting smoking improves your overall health and saves you money!