Five Steps to Help You Conquer Type 2 Diabetes!
A few basic tools are what you need to achieve good self-management of your type 2 diabetes. These tools will need to include changes in how you manage you lifestyle, maybe medications and regular self-monitoring of your blood sugar levels.
Being diagnosed with type 2 diabetes can definitely be classed as stressful… maybe you had no idea you had a diabetic predisposition; you were not aware anyone in your family also had this condition. One of the first aspects of self-management that you may chose to integrate into you life will be stress management… almost everyone feels stressed when they are first diagnosed. No-one wants to think about changing their lifestyle!
How far you take the concept of self-management is entirely up to you but to start with, the aim of self-management is to:
help you feel physically and emotionally better
improve the overall quality of your life
keep you as healthy as possible in the years ahead
What does self-management consist of? Well primarily it means:
educating yourself
monitoring your medical condition
working with your health care team in order for you to adapt to your various lifestyle changes
The first few weeks following diagnosis may be more than you can bear… it may feel kind of impossible. But it doesn’t need to be that way. At first it will be time consuming learning “a whole new language” and it may frustrate you. But really, self-management means overcoming some of your indulgences, those impulses you have allowed to almost rule your life and to some degree, spoil your health.
After a while, many of the things you do will become as routine as cleaning your teeth. Self-management really only means learning what to do and when to do it… when to apply that knowledge to control your type 2 diabetes, your weight and your blood sugar levels.
Five Steps of Self-Management includes:
1. Blood sugar testing or self monitoring: this is linked to all aspects of type 2 diabetes… your health care provider will instruct you re techniques and set an ideal blood sugar level target for you
2. A healthy eating plan: this means a new style of eating that concentrates on healthy foods in reasonable amounts
3. Physical activity: increasing physical activity is something that will help you immediately and in the long term. Physical activity or exercise has the same effect as insulin, it helps move blood sugar into your muscle cells
4. Medication may be prescribed by your health care provider if immediate benefits are needed
5. Stress management: stress raises your blood sugar levels which harms your body over time. Stress relief is useful to everyone.
By educating yourself, practicing what you learn and asking for appropriate advice when necessary, you can manage your type 2 diabetes.