Even if you have to deal with diabetes every day, with the extensive treatments available today, it is not a disease to worry about anymore.
It can be treated just like any other imperfection we have and can be managed with simple lifestyle changes, diet, exercise, medication and a stress-free life.1 Here are some ways to lead a happy and healthy life with diabetes and even improve your quality of life!
Tips To Live Life Peacefully With Diabetes
1. Look After Yourself
You may feel like it is the end of the world the day you get diagnosed with diabetes. However, you can control and manage it to live your life to the fullest. You can boost your self-confidence and morale by feeding, nourishing, and pampering yourself. Take earnest efforts to look and feel good. Your skin gets prone to dryness with this condition and even eczema can manifest in more severe cases. Take care of it with a good skin care routine.2
Steps To Take Care Of Yourself
- Keep yourself hydrated by drinking plain water or lemon infused water throughout the day.
- Opt for a good moisturizer to keep your skin moisturized.
- Massages have a positive effect on blood glucose levels and for diabetic neuropathy (a condition that damages the nerves in your legs and the feet).
- So get therapies like massages like a pedicure-manicure for well maintained feet and the hands.3
2. Make Healthy Alternative Diet Choices
Sugar cravings are a commonly occurring phenomenon as your blood sugar levels go through ups and downs in an irregular pattern with diabetes. When you have low blood sugar levels, you crave more sugar. Cravings exist mostly for processed items, pastries, desserts, chocolates, sweets, and foods high in sugar & fat. Craving for sugar also leads to obesity as you tend to eat foods high in sugar.4
Alternative food options that have low sugar content include sweet potatoes, which can be used to make pancakes.
If you are sugar sensitive, fruit can change the mineral relationships. Substitute a cup of fruits with any snack that is low in sugar. Ensure you don’t go overboard with any food item. You can beat the brain fog usually associated with withdrawal of sugar using a cup of unsweetened cocoa with a sweetener of your choice.
You can also opt for many small portions in regular intervals rather than one big portion in a meal. Add a dash of lemon to your favorite tea as lemon can reduce the oxidative stress caused by diabetes.5
3. Do Gentle Walks And Mild Exercise
When you get diagnosed with diabetes, you will feel a strong urge to heavily exercise and reverse the condition. However, working out more can lead to hypoglycemia which is a condition that is characterized by low blood sugar levels. Hence, set yourself realistic goals for looking fit and good. Mild exercise can help you to stay fit not only because it burns calories but because it decreases one’s appetite by reducing the sugar cravings.
Exercise and meditation can lessen the addictive sugar spiking. It can help in your weight loss and in decreasing insulin resistance. A mild walk in the early morning outdoors, breathing in the fresh air can make you feel better. Exercise with medication and adequate nutrition can help to reverse diabetes symptoms.6
4. Talk To Your Friends Or Start A Hobby
Try getting a buddy with whom you can share your story and who can encourage you to go on a sugar-free diet for weight loss and diabetes reversal. You can involve a friend in going for walks or in physical exercises which will keep you encouraged. Support from a friend always feels good. It would also help to curb binge eating if you are feeling lonely and depressed due to this condition.7
A friend can listen to your problems and help you say no to junk.
A pet can offer you the same form of support. Go for morning walks with your pet dog. It is quite interesting to note that pets like dogs can indicate by vocalizing before your hypoglycemic episodes.8 You can also beat the stress out of the day by starting a hobby that you let drift away. It keeps you occupied and can help you from getting lonely or troubled.
A quick parlor session of pedicure or manicure or a massage, limited portions of sugar-free tasty healthy food, mild exercises and morning walks and having your friends and lovable pets around to share your pain and troubles are all that it takes to lead a life healthy and be happy when you are diagnosed with diabetes.
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