I’m Pre-Diabetic, Now What?

Think of your cells as a car, blood sugar as the gasoline, and insulin as the hose that gets the gasoline to your car.  In the same way that you need a hose to move the gas from the pump to the car, you need insulin to help move the blood sugar from the bloodstream to the cells. Without insulin, your body doesn’t have access to the blood sugar, and without blood sugar, your body doesn’t go. As your cells run out of gas, they get slower and slower, much like a car running on fumes. Eventually, everything stops. BUT – have no fear. There are some things you can do if you have been recently diagnosed as being pre-diabetic and are eager to prevent yourself from having diabetes.  

Three Easy Steps to Follow If You Are Pre-Diabetic

Step 1 Broaden Your Food Horizons

Diet and exercise. Diet and exercise. Everyone touts that as the end-all-be-all to health concerns. Does anyone give any practical advice? Well, we do. Add a serving of fruits and vegetables to each meal. The vitamins and minerals in these foods promote healthy blood sugar and insulin production. Extra Tip: If you don’t like the flavor of fruits and veggies try organic. These items are typically grow in soils that have higher vitamin and mineral content, which is where all the flavor comes from in the earth-grown food.

Step 2 to Reversing Pre-Diabetes: Salsa Dancing

OK – here is the exercise pitch. But don’t think of running in the hot sun if that’s not your forte. There are so many ways to move. If none of the typical exercises like running, biking, and swimming tickle your fancy, try something new like salsa dancing. Not your thing? Join a walking club, a hiking club, learn to square dancing, jump rope, hula hoop. If you’re more of a home body, look for some YouTube workouts like FitnessBlender. Extra tip: invite a buddy to join you. Studies show that people who workout together are more likely to stick with it and reach their fitness goals as compared to people who go it alone.

Step 3 to Reversing Pre-Diabetes: Buddy Up

Getting a pre-diabetic diagnosis can be a confusing and sometimes scary thing to handle. Partner with a good health care provider that is interested in 1) getting you healthy and 2) teaching you as opposed to just telling you. To truly change your life and help you move from pre-diabetic to Captain Feel Great, you need a health professional that wants you to get healthy quickly so that you don’t have to continue to see the doctor over and over again. Additionally, you want them to educate you on the information that you don’t know rather than using medical jargon and expecting you to understand what they are talking about. At Arrowhead Health Centers, that is what we do. We put you first. However, as much as we like you, we don’t want to see you every week for the next 4 years. We want to help you heal so that you spend more time playing golf instead of sitting in our waiting room. Even if you’re not ready to put all of these into practice, do something. Pick one thing to combat your pre-diabetes so you don’t have the really difficult challenge of defeating diabetic symptoms. Let us help you so you can go on with your life. Visit us today.