Diabetes Management

by Margaret Martin, RD, CDE

• Do you seem to gain weight, even when you eat less?
• Have you tried to improve your Diabetes numbers?
• When you dramatically changed your exercise, did it backfire?

Stop failing at Diabetes. Start being successful now. Maybe it's not what you did to improve that backfired. Maybe, you tried to change too much at one time. Successful changes happen with small steps that you keep for at least 21 days at a time.

Here are some Diabetes Steps to change that really work:

• Walk 10 minutes, 3 times per day while at work. Result: lose 7% of your body weight in a year.
• Choose baked or charbroiled instead of fried food at lunch on 5 days per week. Result: avoid 20,000 fat calories a year.
• Add 2-3 Nonstarchy vegetables each day, in place of chips or snack cakes for 2 days per week. Result: lose 6 pounds a year.
• Eat less to have less body size. On 2 days per week, eat 2/3 of your usual meal and snack size. Result: up to 20 pounds less body weight in a year. Caution: If you are on Diabetes Medicines, make sure you are eating enough. Check with your MD first.

Be smarter about your Diabetes Care, lifestyle changes and solutions. You don't always have to make radical changes to get great results. You do have success with realistic steps that you are passionate about. Small steps add up to big results for you!

NDDA Diabetes section submitted by Margaret Martin, RD, Certified Diabetes Educator
Centennial Outpatient Diabetes Center. Telephone 615-342-1818