Living With Type 2 Diabetes!

I'm sure you have heard it all before: diet and exercise, lifestyle changes; they are the cornerstone of good type 2 diabetes management.  Actually, the best attitude to have is to decide to become your own expert, learn to handle whatever life throws at you.  You need to rely on your own knowledge so you can live the life you want without too many problems.
You have to live with type 2 diabetes twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, so you have two choices to make.  Early in your diagnosis you can decide to:
1.  Run your life around your diabetes, or
2.  Decide on your lifestyle and adjust your treatment to help you live that way!
The more motivated you are the more control you will have over your type 2 diabetes.
The principles of treatment include:

• changing what you eat to include smaller portions with less carbohydrates and fat
• taking up a form of regular exercise

Excess calories of any kind, cakes, potatoes, sugary drinks, or alcohol, combined with the lack of physical activity leads to obesity.  So the place to start is eating less and moving more.
The Diabetic Diet is really important for you to understand.  Often you are not educated on how powerful dietary changes can be in altering your insulin resistance and controlling your diabetes.  Maybe you were handed a diabetic diet plan and told if your blood sugar levels did not come down in a few weeks, you would be started on medication!
Is there an ideal diet for type 2 diabetics?  Well, no one perfect diet that affects everyone the same.  But there are some basic principles that apply to food and health generally:
1.  The food we eat affects our sugar and insulin levels.
2.  The right kind of carbohydrates (low-GI), and food combinations, are an excellent tool to improve insulin resistance and blood sugar levels.
There is no need to stop eating carbohydrates ... it is important though to make significant reductions in the amount of refined carbohydrates you eat.  A lot of research has been done on low carbohydrate diets and results have shown:

• a reduction in insulin resistance
• an improvement in blood sugar levels
• weight loss
• lower blood pressure

If possible, consult a dietitian to help you plan meals around your food choices.
Regular exercise stimulates various events in your body:

• it reduces the amount of body fat
• increases the amount of lean tissue: muscle, fibers and bone
• your metabolic rate is increased and your fitness improved
• blood pressure, LDL (bad) cholesterol are reduced
• HDL (good) cholesterol levels are increased
• your body's sensitivity to insulin increases and blood sugars reduced

Don't forget exercise should be fun not a chore.  Exercise does not have to involve sports and usually you can find something to work in with your lifestyle.  A good place to start is your local fitness center ... trained staff will be able to help you work out a suitable exercise program.
Before undertaking a new exercise program, check first with your health care provider as you may have underlying medical conditions that may limit your capacity.

When you find out you have type 2 diabetes, don't feel you have to deal with it all at once. Managing your diabetes is a journey which begins with changes to your eating plan and taking responsibility for your own treatment. You can control your diabetes instead of it controlling you.
What happens next? Learn all you can about your type 2 diabetes ... by clicking here now you can download my free E-Book: Answers to Your Questions
Beverleigh Piepers is a registered nurse who would like to help you understand how to live easily and happily with your Type 2 Diabetes. http://drugfreetype2diabetes.com