Friday, July 11, 2014

5 Steps I took to Reduce My Sugar

Askum to all my readers,
Alhamdulillah for this life we have. Lots of things happened and I haven’t been able to update my section that often. In my last post, I mentioned about diabetes and me. And today I would like to share what did I do to reduce my diabetes  (sugar in blood).
1. Exercise
I know its not our favourite activity~ same here. But it works. You don’t have yo do the heavy weight lifting or jogging until your knee came off, just a normal walk, everyday, 20-30 minutes would do. Seriously, you will feel the difference. Your body will burn more calories and after some time doing it consistently, your sugar level will drop. Really!
2. Stop all sweet drinks!
Malaysians are well known for our sweet drinks. Yes, coffee for morning, syrup for lunch, cendol for tea and teh tarik after dinner. See how much sugar are we consume daily? Change your drinks to juice without sugar or tea/coffee C with sugar aside. At least you can control how much sugar you are taking. Condensed milk is one of the main factor of high sugar in the blood. Its quite impossible to quit immediately.  So reduce your sweet drinks gradually. 
3. Skip complex carbs
I am sure most of us especially in Malaysia can’t live without eating rice. Don’t be so dramatic. Reduce your rice intake and eventually you can live without eating rice. Rice, bread, potato, coconut milk and deep fried are not ideal for diabetes. Seriously, give it a try for a week or two. You’ll see what I’m talking about.
4. Drink and drink and drink more water
Easiest thing to do. We are encouraged to drink at least 8 glasses of water a day. That is actually only minimum amount of water you must drink daily. For ideal amount of water to consume, try this, your weight (kg) / 25 = × litre of water you need to drink daily. So, mine is almost 4 litres.  A lot? Yes. I tried. Most of the days I only manage to consume 3 litres. Drinking more water will make it easier for your body to process all the stuff that you had taken, increase your metabolism and it also can detox your body.
5. Emotional support
Going through diabetes on your own can be quite challenging.  Sometimes when the craving comes, you need a better control of yourself or your efforts will be wasted when you started to have all those unfriendly-diabetic food again. Exercise self control can take you up so far, having someone to actually be with you every step of the way would be a bonus. So don’t feel sorry for yourself. Join a support group, read more, express more and live life to fullest. Diabetes shouldn’t be a reason for you to stop living.
I am battling with diabetes, hopefully to get pregnant, even though many said its quite dangerous and very unlikely. I won’t give up. InshaaAllah!