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Managing Diabetes Magazine - diabetes

Fill your Day with Energy!
Start right and stay SMART

In today’s fast-paced world, eating well is often a low priority. We constantly try to balance work, family, school, friends and daily commitments. It can be hard to prepare nutritious meals on a tight schedule. Still, we need to eat regularly and choose a variety of nutritious foods. A healthy diet boosts energy, and fights off infections, colds and other illnesses. It helps your body function effectively. Whether you have diabetes or not, eating well is necessary to remain healthy. Setting SMART goals for eating can help you develop a good diet – the foundation for diabetes control.

The dietary recommendations suggested for people with diabetes are very similar to those for people without it.

Start with breakfast

Do you skip breakfast? You are not alone! Skipping breakfast is common for many people. However, adding food into the start of your daily schedule benefits you in many ways.

• Your body is able to burn calories at a faster rate.
• You give your body the fuel it needs to get it running properly.
• Smaller, more frequent meals allow your pancreas to control blood glucose better throughout the day.
• You will likely have better control of your weight. Eating regularly throughout the day and controlling portion size helps your body to make enough insulin to manage blood glucose.
• Having a good breakfast helps you to make healthier choices during the day.

Eating breakfast does not have to mean eating typical foods like cereal and toast. Would you prefer to eat a piece of pizza, leftovers from supper, or a sandwich? Anything goes, as long as your choices are healthy and you have a reasonable portion size. Whatever you choose, include foods from three of the four food groups from Canada’s Food Guide.

If you find fitting in a sit-down breakfast tough, try some of these quick ‘on-the-go’ meals.

• Take an individual serving of yogurt in its container and add granola.
• Try a pressed fruit bar and a slice of cheese.
• Make a sandwich with peanut butter, banana and whole-wheat toast.
• Blend cottage cheese, fruit, milk and yogurt to make a fruit smoothie.
• Shake together nuts, seeds, dry cereal and dried fruit in a bag.
• Mix cottage cheese, fruit and dry cereal in a disposable container.
• Pack lower fat cheese and crackers.
• Take a hard-boiled egg, a plain granola bar and a piece of fruit.

Most of these quick meals only provide two out of the four food groups. They are not fully balanced in providing the variety of vitamins and minerals that a meal containing three or four food groups might. However, eating something as you start your day and making healthy choices is most important. You can make up the missing food group by adding a beverage to the meal, or having a mid-morning snack.

Daily habits

Once breakfast is taken care of, look at your other eating habits through the day. Decide which habits are positive ones that you should continue. Think about what changes might improve your blood glucose control. These questions can help you assess your current eating habits.

• Do you eat at least three times during the day?
• Do you allow a minimum of three hours and a maximum of six hours between eating larger quantities?
• Do you include each of the four food groups daily? The groups laid out in Canada’s Food Guide include:
  • a variety of vegetables and fruits
  • whole grain breads, cereals, pastas and rice
  • lower fat versions of milk, yogurt, cheese and cottage cheese
  • and lean cuts of meat, fish, poultry, peanut butter, dried beans and peas.
• Are your portion sizes in the day keeping you at a healthy body weight?
• Do you eat based on hunger cues versus emotional cues?
• Do you eat in an appropriate setting (such as sitting at the kitchen table) and at a reasonable pace?

If you answered yes to all of these questions, you are on the right track to control your diabetes with healthy eating. If you answered no to two or more of the questions, you know where to start making changes to your daily routine.

Set two or three small, realistic, and achievable goals that you can work on for one month. After that month, evaluate how you have done with the goals you set for yourself. Decide whether they are now newly established habits. If you feel you need to focus on the same goals for a longer time, do so. If you are ready to tackle one to three small new goals, then decide what they will be and get to work on them.

Everyone has some good dietary habits and some that are not so healthy. Try to build on your foundation of good habits, rather than focusing on what you are not doing right. Remember, we all have good and bad days. Stay positive! Keep moving forward with your lifestyle and dietary improvements.

What and how much you eat affects your blood glucose, so make good dietary choices and educate yourself on healthy eating. Find out if there are diabetes educators in your area, and make an appointment. An educator can talk with you about the importance of healthy eating, regular exercise and blood glucose goals. This will give you a better understanding of what affects your diabetes. Remember, you are the one in charge of the daily habits that affect your health! Make it a habit to see your health care team, and discuss your SMART goals for better diabetes control.

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While effort is made to reflect accepted medical knowledge and practice, articles in Family Health Online should not be relied upon for the treatment or management of any specified medical problem or concern and Family Health accepts no liability for reliance on the articles. For proper diagnosis and care, you should always consult your family physician promptly. © Copyright 2019, Family Health Magazine, a special publication of the Edmonton Journal, a division of Postmedia Network Inc., 10006 - 101 Street, Edmonton, AB T5J 0S1    [DI_MDab15]