Pre Diabetic

Have you looked on Diabetes.org? Lots of great dietary suggestions there.

Just losing weight in general may lead to reversing this, so my two cents are:

Log food.

Study your food diary. Make changes where you can. Stay within calories. Focus on adding a vegetable to every meal.

Take a walk. Log exercise.

Keep coming back.

I rarely ate unhealthy foods, but oh how I loved to eat! Here's advice from a 60 year old woman who lost 90 pounds.......

Educate yourself: You don't say how old you are but I enjoyed reading a couple of Chris Crowley's books when I first started (if you're in that 50+ age range). Read the forums on here. Over time you'll learn what works for you and what doesn't. Does your health care provide you with dietary advice, like meeting with a Registered Dietician? I attended a couple of sessions with a dietician when my husband was first diagnosed with type 2 diabetes and found them helpful. Visit your local library (in person or online) and read, read, read. In my humble opinion, ignore the books written by celebrities and read the ones written by people who are doctors, or who are highly regarded in their field. Once again, over time you'll figure out what works best for you.

Portion Control and Logging: Get a good kitchen scale and weigh or measure everything that goes in your mouth. I usually log my food for the day while drinking my morning coffee. I plan what we're having for dinner and then choose my breakfast, lunch, and snack to fit my remaining calories. Are you still working? I recently retired but when I was working, Sunday was my food prep day for the week. In the winter I made a big pot of soup. In the summer a huge salad. I would take a portion of either each day for lunch and then grab some kind of protein i.e. a can of tuna, a chicken breast I'd cooked on the weekend, a couple of hard boiled eggs, etc. Breakfast was always the same: fruit and plain Greek yoghurt, or a smoothie made with yoghurt, almond milk, and fruit. Now that I'm recently retired I actually find it harder because I am a person who likes routine. Consequently, I'm currently battling a 10 pound "creep" as I adjust to this new lifestyle. Its a lifetime battle to be sure!! But so worth it 🙂

Movement: If your doctor says you're good to exercise, but you've never been active before, start out slow and work your way up. Walking is a great start. So are water classes like aquasize and deep water running. Consistency is the key. I now do something six days a week. I love variety so do lots of different things, depending on the weather (to me, any time spent outside is a thousand times better than time spent inside). Doing daily yoga and/or stretching for 30 minutes before bed was essential for me to prevent leg cramps. Exercise isn't something you choose to do, its something you HAVE to do. Our bodies were made to move. Previous generations just called it "work" i.e. scrubbing the floor, tending the vegetable garden, chopping wood, carrying baskets of wet laundry to hang outside, etc. But we must be intentional and create movement in our day. Or pay the price with our health.

What a wonderful position you are in....to be able to avoid a disease by changing your lifestyle! Not everyone has that option, but you do 🙂 This isn't a quick fix, you're in this for the long haul, but its an amazing journey. Congrats on your first step 🎈🎈

P.S. Sorry this was so long!