How to Effectively Manage Your Diabetes

Many people feel unsettled when initially diagnosed with diabetes. That’s completely natural – patients tend to believe that it won’t happen to them and are quite unpleasantly surprised when it does. It’s okay to feel down and depressed but don’t let it get out of hand. 

Fortunately, patients can take back control with the NHS Diabetes Prevention Programme. In other words, you can manage your condition so that it doesn’t interfere with your life anymore. Of course, you’ll still have diabetes but it will be more of an inconvenience than anything else. With that in mind, here’s how to effectively manage your diabetes. 

Maintain a healthy diet plan

People with diabetes need to be careful about what they eat. Focusing on weight loss is just a step towards managing your condition. Even when eating healthilyy, you have to watch out for calorie intake, as well as both glycemic index and load of ingredients. 

In case you don’t know, glycemic index (GI) indicates how much a specific food increases blood sugar levels while glycemic load (GL) indicates how fast eating a specific food will increase your blood sugar level. 

For example, meat, eggs and dairy products have no GI whatsoever but they increase fat levels in your body which can negatively affect your condition. Therefore, you can use a healthcare app to help you maintain a well-balanced diet.  

Get plenty of exercise

Exercise is also important in managing diabetes. Balance is key, because extensive exercise may increase or decrease blood sugar levels depending on the type and intensity of exercise. 

Walking is especially good for people with diabetes. It’s considered exercise, especially if you walk a great distance every day and it won’t usually put you under enough strain to cause fluctuations in blood sugar levels. 

If you want to undertake a more stringent exercise regime, as well as healthcare professionals, try to work with a personal trainer who understands diabetes so that you can develop the right exercise plan.  It’s especially important to be careful with exercise if diabetes has damaged your optic nerves, for instance, lifting heavy objects like weights at a gym may cause temporary or permanent blindness.

When you have diabetes, it is always worth discussing your condition with an experienced professional such as a diabetic clinic nurse or your GP before embarking on a new fitness regime. 

Learn to come to terms with it 

As mentioned before, it’s common for patients to feel low when initially diagnosed with diabetes. However, some diabetes medicine can also cause depression as a temporary side effect. It’s a lot to take in.

After all, patients find themselves faced with an incurable disease that they will have to carry for the rest of their life. Coming to terms with this is part of the healing process. Yes, you have diabetes, so what? That type of attitude is the key to managing your condition effectively. By taking care of yourself you’re actually beating diabetes. 

And just because you have this annoying condition doesn’t mean you’ll never enjoy a beer or a piece of your favourite cake. You can enjoy everything you did before, just in moderation. But first, you have to get your condition under control, otherwise it will do you more harm than you can imagine. 

 

Closing Words

Fighting diabetes alone is difficult enough so don’t hesitate to ask for help. If you need some health coaching then so be it. If this will help you manage your condition more effectively then by all means go for it. As long as you’re willing to make an effort, diabetes can be placed under control.