Calorie Counting

Just thought I would say a little about calorie counting. A lot of diabetics try to eat a low carb, high protein diet low in fat. This is great. But it is also important to keep track of how many calories you eat on a daily basis.
I recently saw on the Olymics that Mark Phelps eats 10-12 thousand calories a day. And look at how skinny he is. No fat at all. I cannot even imagine how that is possible. Although they did also say that he spends like 5 hours a day in the pool and being in a pool and swimming is supposed to be the best exercise because you have resistance on all your muscles equally. I imagine this has a lot to do with it.
But, me anyway, I can't do that. Or at least I won't even try. So I have to do many things in my lifestyle to maintain my sugar level. Counting calories is part of my dieting plan. I eat 2000 calories at a maximum per day. I try to eat less, but it doesn't always work out. I probably average about 2000. Everybody should discuss with their doctor what their specific daily caloric intake should be and try to adhere to that as closely as possible. It is very easy to do once you get used to it. You just have to make sure when you are looking at the Nutritional Facts information that you are paying attention to the SERVINGS PER CONTAINER amount. If there is 5 servings per container then you have to multiply this times each serving size to have the actual amount of calories are in the whole container. And as far as fast food goes, all fast food websites all contain the nutritional facts for their respective menus. The actual restaurants might not display this information, but their website will.

What is the A1C test?

Once you find out that you have diabetes, you and your doctor will work to keep your sugar readings at proper levels. Main advantages of keeping your blood sugar under control are that you will feel better overall and you may prevent or at least delay as long as possible the start of diabetic complications.

The best way to personally keep track of your blood sugar is to check your sugar level yourself with blood glucose testing meters. This test will tell you what your blood glucose level is at the time you are checking it. The only thing bad about this is that everybody has a sugar level which goes up and down all the time. Especially after you eat. This is where the A1C test comes in.
The A1C test takes a daily average over the past 3 months. This way you and your doctor get a better overall picture of how your diabetic plan is going.

A perfect example of how important this test is just happened to me recently. I have been a diabetic for about 11 years now, I am off insulin now, however I take Actos to smooth out the amount of insulin that my pancreas does still produce. I do cardio exercise for a minimum of 90 minutes per day and I eat a low fat and high protein diet of 2000 calories per day or less. I was checking my sugar 3 times a day right before I ate (to make sure my sugar was not to high to eat something). My sugar level every time I checked it for 11 years was always in an acceptable range. (75-135). My A1C test always came back with flying colors. I had this test 4 times per year. All of a sudden my A1C test came back the last time I went to the doctor very high. My doctor said "how are your finger sticks going?" I said fine. She said well your blood sugar level is averaging about 300 per day. I said "not when I am checking it". She said "well, maybe your sugar is starting to spike after you eat more than usual." So I checked it after I ate and sure enough it was 279.

So, for now anyway I am taking Byetta, which softens the sugar spike after you eat. It also has a tendency to suppress your appetite. Which means with some people, they lose weight. In my case it does suppress my apetite. I have been on it 2 months and my sugar after I eat goes no higher than 127 which I am sure will bring down my A1C test average. I don't know this yet, because I don't go to the doctor until next month. But I check my sugar before and after I eat now and I am sure it will be back to normal. And so far I have lost 8 lbs. Not exactly an astounding amount of weight loss, but the important thing is I did not do anything different to lose this weight. I just found myself eating a little less.

But that just goes to show the importance of the A1C test.

Cardio Exercise Benefits

The benefits of cardio to a diabetic in controlling blood glucose levels are enormous. People think that all they have to do is take their medicine and that's all they have to do. But cardio exercise can help not only control your blood sugar but your blood pressure and weight as well. Actually I think exercise can probably help a lot of medical conditions that people have today. Of course, this doesn't mean you can stop on the way home from the gym and get a large pizza. A proper low fat, low carb, high protein diet is also needed to control blood sugar, blood pressure and your weight. Not to mention, smoking. Smoking is one of the major contributors to high cholestorol
levels in people today. I could go on and on. Visit my website for more info on diabetic daily life.

Who can get diabetes?

Diabetes is not contagious. You cannot "catch" it. However, certain stereotypes can increase the chance of developing diabetes. Americans are increasingly overweight. According to recent reports, the number of diabetics in the United States is predicted to be about 8.9 percent of the population by the year 2025. That's almost 9 out of every 100 people will be a diabetic. Think maybe America is headed in the wrong direction? Think about this. In the old days people used to all eat at home and maybe eat out as a treat once a month or so. Then, after school kids would come home and run around and ride their bikes until dinner, then after dinner, go back out and play until it was time to come in. But now through the competiveness of fast food restaurants and the need for both parents to be in the workforce, the timesaving factor of stopping at McDonalds on the way home and picking up dinner for the family at probably the same price it would cost you to make dinner anyway just makes all the sense. Then through the marvels of today's technology, after dinner the kids go back to their playstation 3 or xbox 360 (where they probably were after school until before dinner) and stay there until bedtime. And I don't even want to go into supersize. That's just foolish to tack all those extra carbs which are not needed onto the diet of your children or yourself. People say "well, my kids like McDonalds fries". That's fine but do you think they will like being diagnosed with diabetes when they are about 30 years old or so later in life? Diabetes can be inherited, but this is not always the case, for the most part it is developed over the course of many years through improper dieting and not enough of an active lifestyle. So what I recommend to turn this problem around is that everyone start eating a low fat (not no fat), low carb (not no carb) diet as high in protein as possible. The reason I say not no fat and not no carb is because people always try these type of fad diets and even if they do work they will eventually find that they cannot continue this type of diet forever. Then once they stop the diet, the old bad habits come back and all the weight and problems come right back too. So, you need to work a sensible balanced diet into your lifestyle, something you can live with in comfort. Then, I reccomend having some type of cardio machine in the house for the family to use. Some examples of these are available here. However, remember the competiveness of business today dictates that you get what you pay for. Don't run out and buy the cheapest exercise bike you can or it will break and so will your plan for your family to exercise in the comfort of your house. Personally, I have a LeMond Fitness gforce rt in my house. It cost about $2500.00 on sale. But I have gone through cheap bikes that cost 3oo to 500 dollars every six months or so for years. My LeMond is like the day I bought it (about 18 months ago) and I ride it 2 hours every day at least 5 days a week, and less on the weekend but I still make sure to work in at least half that even on my days off. Through proper cardio exercise and a proper diet, everyone can be healthy and happy. And don't worry, the kids can can still play their playstation 3 while they are riding the bicycle. Don't make the price and ease of fast food and todays technology put you or your children on the road to diabetes. With just a little old fashioned effort we can turn this problem around and start heading in the right direction.