Prediabetes is the medical term for people who have higher-than-normal blood sugar but not yet high enough to be considered type 2 diabetes. Receiving a diagnosis of prediabetes can be overwhelming. Many people are terrified they will become diabetic, but aren’t sure how to prevent it. Although not everyone with prediabetes will develop type 2 diabetes, it’s the best time to start making some changes to your diet and lifestyle to help decrease your risk for diabetes. By making healthy changes, your blood sugar levels may even return to normal.
If you have been diagnosed with prediabetes, the following steps will help you change your lifestyle and reduce your risk for diabetes:
1. Maintain a healthy weight.
Research suggests that if you are overweight, even losing 10 to 15 pounds can greatly reduce your risk of developing diabetes. The American Diabetes Association recommends losing 7% of your body weight to reduce your risk of type 2 diabetes by 58%.
2. Get your body moving.
It’s true what they say: a body in motion stays in motion. If you currently are not doing any exercise, even starting to walk can help you become more active. As the weeks go on, try increasing the intensity and distance of your walks. If you are limited in the amount of exercise you can do, try low-impact activities such as swimming or a stationary bike. Recommendations for healthy exercise are 30 to 60 minutes a day on most days of the week. Increasing your activity level will help both with blood sugar control and weight loss.
3. Cut the sweets.
As with diabetes, it’s best to decrease the amount of simple sugars in your diet. This means cakes, cookies, pastries, candies, sodas, juices, and other baked goods or sugary beverages. This is not to say that you can’t EVER have them. I encourage my patients to limit their sweets to one treat a day. That means no more than one dessert or sweet item a day. This will help you keep the foods you love in your diet, but in moderation.
4. Portion control.
The secret to dieting and healthy eating is often no more than making better food choices and watching our portion sizes. With prediabetes, we especially want to control our portions for starches. For example, pasta, rice, potatoes, peas, corn, rolls, biscuits, grits, quinoa and other grains or starchy vegetables should be about 1/4 of your lunch and dinner plate. That equals about one scoop on the plate. Also, choosing whole grains (like whole wheat pasta or brown rice) will add fiber to your meal, which will leave you feeling much more satisfied.
5. Chuck the junk food.
Almost every patient I have will admit that there is at least one junk-food drawer or cabinet in their home. The best advice I can give is to clean it out! If there are no tempting chips, pastries, desserts or other junkie items in your home, you’ll be much less likely to eat them. Make sure you talk to the rest of your family so they can be supportive of your no-junk policy. Honesty is the best policy!
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