If you have recently been diagnosed with diabetes then you have no doubt thought about or even tried everything for relieving diabetes from seeing a chiropractor to a neurologist for diabetic nerve pain relief and everything else that is suggested. But living with diabetes doesn’t have to be a big deal. As long as you manage it and take care of yourself, you can continue living your life. There are many people that live completely normal lives and you would never know that they had diabetes if you didn’t tell them.
Get Educated
The first thing you need to do is learn about your condition. Your doctor will likely tell you which type of diabetes you have. It could be type one, two or gestational diabetes which is the kind you get when you are pregnant. After the baby is born, it usually goes away.
Type 1 diabetes is when your body not not make its own insulin. You’ll need to take insulin every day.
Type 2 diabetes is when your body does not properly use the insulin. Pills or insulin can be used to control the diabetes. This is the most common kind.
With any kind of diabetes, the most important things to do are to manage your A1C, blood pressure and cholesterol. These are known as the diabetes ABCs. Talk to your doctor about how to properly manage these in order to lower your chance of having a stroke or a heart attack or the various other diabetes related problems.
Learn How to Live
This is the part that is an ongoing process for most people. In the beginning, many people feel overwhelmed, upset or depressed after they find out that they have diabetes. However, you need to keep in mind that getting stressed out can raise your blood sugar so you’ll need to find ways to keep your stress level down. Picking up a hobby or working on a methodical project like gardening or mediating can help you calm down when you feel yourself getting worked up. Here are some other ways that you can cope with your diabetes.
- Eat Properly
With the help from your doctors, you can set up a meal plan that includes foods that are lower in calories, fats, sugars and salt. You should be eating more fiber as well as whole grain cereals and other grains like crackers and rice. Fruit and vegetables are good for you of course as well as low fat milk and cheese. Water should replace juice and soda. A good rule of thumb is to make the fruits and vegetables fill half of your plate, a lean protein fill a quarter and the last quarter with a whole grain. - Get Active
If you’ve never been very active before, it might be a little difficult to try and get into it now. Start slow and take a ten minute walk a few times a day. Doing yoga or pilates or low impact sports can help to increase your muscle strength. You should be able to get to a healthier weight by following your meal plan and staying active. If you are already at a good weight, then this will help you to maintain it. - Know Your Daily Schedule
There are certain things that you are going to have to do every day. Taking your medicine, checking your feet for cuts, red spots and blisters, brushing and flossing, tracking your blood sugar and blood pressure may be some of the things that you’ll need to do. It will take you much quicker as you get used to it. Make it part of your morning routine and it shouldn’t take you more than half an hour a day to do.
It will take some getting used to. If you feel like you are not able to figure out how to live and cope with diabetes then you might look into some support groups and find some people that are going through the same thing. It will be a lot easier if you know you are not alone. Ask your doctor about some groups that are available for you to attend and see what you think. You may be pleasantly surprised by how much they help.