Diabetes may not be an illness that’s something to be afraid of, but it’s essential to take it quite seriously. Proper management and lifestyle changes helped a lot of people with diabetes to lead full and healthy lives.
While it really requires daily attention and care, fearing it will never help you. It’s like something to live with if you’re found to have one. Specifically, you can adapt to some of these must-dos here to help you out.
Living with Diabetes: Ways to Help Yourself
1. Educate Yourself
You may consider it a newfound enemy when you’re just diagnosed with diabetes. But you don’t have to stress yourself out further by fighting this disease knowing how it affects you and how it can be best managed will make living with it easier.
Learn everything about it, how it affects your body, like why you’re always sleepy or dizzy, and why you need to give up on the foods you used to like. It’s like learning the A to Z of things and making it work for you.
2. Regular Exercise
It’s really the time to get yourself moving. When you’re diagnosed with diabetes, it means your body would rather sleep than burn all the fats and sugars from your delicious meals. Solution? Get moving! It’s best to get regular physical activity to help lower your sugar levels and improve your overall health.
You can always find activities you really enjoy, whether it’s walking, biking, swimming, or dancing–go for it!
But whenever your activity involves running or longer moments on foot, you better wrap it up comfortably and professionally, like Circufiber socks for diabetic feet. These socks are specially designed to match every preference and keep foot pain and swelling away. It’s not entirely about your comfort, but it’s more like having sweat-free, smooth circulation and secured feet in all your activities.
3. Healthy Eating
The time you get the pronouncement, it’s not saying goodbye to good food right away. You have to go through the process of slowly regulating and really taking note of what you eat, like assessing your new challenge.
But you can always improvise with your ingredients and cooking to start your healthy diet journey. The lesser the carbs, fats, and sugars, the more manageable your diabetes will become.
So, it’s better to pay attention to what you eat and aim for a balanced diet that’s rich in fruits, veggies, lean proteins, and whole grains. However, you still need to be careful with fruits, they may not be packed with glucose but still have sucrose that might instantly spike up your sugar.
4. Monitoring Blood Sugar
As you acquaint yourself with the dos and don’ts of diabetes, make no mistake to have your sugar levels monitored regularly. Depending on your glucose levels, your doctor or your diabetologist will tell you the needed frequency of such checking. Some even get three needle pricks a day or every after meals.
Though you’d have skipped those sugar tests if it’s your choice, it’s a must however so you’ll understand how different foods, activities, and medications affect your body. Besides, getting grumpy over sugar testing pricks is quite better than getting into more fatal scenarios in diabetes.
5. Routine Check-ups
When you’re just diagnosed with diabetes, know that your doctor is your greatest ally, aside of course from your supportive friends and loved ones. So it’s best to visit your physician according to the health plan they painstakingly prepared for you.
It’s not only having a lively chit-chat with your health specialist, but it’s a way for them to monitor your condition, adjust your treatment plan if needed, and address any pressing concern you may have as you start your medications and other prescriptions.
Bottom Line
There’s no grand welcome party to the diabetes society, but it doesn’t need to be a dragging defeat either. It’s more helpful, for you and your loved ones, if you think of your diabetes as a challenge that needs to be achieved every day.
You can help yourself and those who care for you manage diabetes and live with it gracefully. Yes, you now have diabetes. So, take a step each day to get used to its must-dos and embrace little lifestyle changes that can help you be on top and not be run down by it.