PREVENTION OF DIABETES
Can diabetes be prevented?
Yes!! Type 2 diabetes is a lifestyle related disease. It occurs due to wrong eating habits and sedentary lifestyle (not exercising) in a genetically predisposed person. So if you have any of the risk factors for developing diabetes and you follow these steps, you can even prevent diabetes.
What are the risk factors for type 2 diabetes?
Risk factors for developing diabetes/ pre diabetes are-
- Age > 45years
- Having a parent, brother or sister with diabetes
- Being overweight/obese
- Sedentary lifestyle/ Physical inactivity
- Having high blood pressure or taking treatment for the same
- Having low HDL cholesterol and/or high triglycerides
- Had history of diabetes during pregnancy
- Women suffering from polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS)
How can diabetes be prevented?
If you are normal with regard to blood sugar, but you have certain risk factors mentioned above or if you are a pre-diabetic,you need following measures to prevent or delay the onset of diabetes-
- You need to follow a dietary regimen
- Start moderate exercisefor at least 30minutes a day for 5 days a week.
- Lose weight (at least 7% of the initial weight)
- Periodic follow up with your doctor and repeat testing as per your doctor’s guidance.
Confused? Where to start from?
In today’s scenario of hectic lifestyles and more dependence on unhealthy fast food, It is not an easy task to make many changes in your day to day life. More the number of changes needed, more difficult will it be. So here’s a guide for starting.
Take one step at a time, follow it routinely till it becomes a part and parcel of your lifestyle. Then take a next step and so on. This will help you to maintain that change as a routine in your lifestyle and thus helping you in attaining a healthy weight and preventing type 2 diabetes.
You will be surprised to know that even a small change can make a big impact on your health and weight.
Step 1– Find out if you need lifestyle change that is if you have any of the above mentioned risk factor. So, you need to recognize and accept that you need a change in your lifestyle.
Step 2- Successful change in lifestyle can only be made if you are actually willing for it and confident that you can do it. So, ask yourself whether you are ready and confident for a change and then proceed.
Step 3- Decide what changes are required. This means you need to analyse your present eating and exercise routine and recognize where changes are required. Start from the change that you feel is most required, easy to do and will have a big impact.
Some important points to consider while deciding-
- You may decide to make one change in food habit and one related to exercise at a time. For example if you have a habit of eating sweets/chocolates/icecream, you may decide to stop it/ cut it down. You may decide to start a walk for 15minutes a day (can be done any time of the day)
- For each change, decide about these things-
- How much time you will take to make it. For example a week, fortnight or month. Try to keep it as short as possible.
- How frequently will you do it for example daily, five days a week or so.
- Will you be able to incorporate that change in your lifestyle?
- Your goals should be realistic that you will actually be able to reach.
Examples
- If you are eating fast food daily, you may decide that in next 1 month, you will eat it only 2 days a week
- You may decide to eat 1-2 fruits daily in the evening for a month
- You may decide to order small pizza/ French fries whenever you order them.
- You may decide to start a 15 minute walk daily in the morning for next 1 week.
Simply saying that I will eat healthy or I will exercise will not be sufficient.
Step 4 – Maintain a lifestyle diary. Write down all your goals, how long will you take to achieve them and also try writing how far you have succeeded.
Step 5- Monitoring your progress. This is the last step to findout whether you have succeeded in making a change in your lifestyle or not.
- If you are successful- Congratulate yourself!! Try to maintain it and move to the next goal, again following the same steps. Keep making changes once you have reached a end point that means you have lost at least 5-10% of your body weight. Maintain those changes faithfully throughout your life.
- If you were unsuccessful for one or the other reason, reassess your goal if it was too much or unrealistic for you to follow or something might have happened in your personal or professional life. Try resetting your goal and again follow all these steps.
Remember- Whatever changes you are making, will help only if you follow them life long. So,don’t make drastic changes, otherwise you wont be able to follow them for a long time and you will regain your lost weight very fast after you stop following it.
TIPS FOR MAINTAINING CONTINUITY IN LIFESTYLE CHANGES
Breaking the exercise/ healthy eating routine is the most common cause of weight regain or poor diabetes control. Once a person decides to make some lifestyle changes, its very important to stick to them. Here are some points for staying motivated for the same-
- Record your activity- Its very important to maintain a food diary where you record your diet (whatever you take throughout the day honestly) and your physical activities. This will help you see the pattern so that you can adjust your routine to work better for you, find out what activities you enjoy or are able to carry out for long period.
- You may be bored from your routine workout/food. So try changing it on some days. You can engage yourself in activities which you enjoy more. Try mix and match. You can do different exercises for short period each.
- Try finding a partner who is health conscious ( you two can walk together, share healthy recipes, eat out healthy snacks at restaurents, go shopping together so that you make healthier choices) or try joining some group for work out.
- Engage yourself in activities that you enjoy. You can chose aerobic classes, dance classes, play badminton/tennis, go for swimming.
ALL THE BEST!
