If you’ve been told that you have prediabetes, you’re probably worried about what your future is going to look like. Are you going to have to give yourself insulin injections every day? Limit your foods so much that you don’t even enjoy your life anymore?
While diabetes is a serious disease that can lead to complications such as limb loss and blindness, it doesn’t have to be that way. If you have prediabetes, you can make lifestyle changes that give you the ammunition you need to stop Type 2 diabetes in its tracks.
Kimberly Bolling, MD, an experienced and caring physician in Bowie, Maryland, is all about helping you stay healthy. If you have prediabetes, she and her dedicated staff make sure you have the information and the support you need to turn it around. Here are some tips to get you started.
You’re so tired of being told what you can’t eat that sometimes you just want to go to the grocery store and grab a pack of Twinkies. Don’t do that! But also don’t believe that changing the way you eat so that you can lose weight and control your blood sugar has to be boring and tasteless.
When you start to think of food as nourishing your body instead of just titillating your tastebuds, you open yourself to a whole new world — literally — of satisfying dishes and cuisines. Dr. Bolling helps you focus on what you can eat, and on finding fun ways to prepare your meals so that both your taste buds and your other cells thank you.
You can explore recipes from other cultures that let you play with new spices and other exotic ingredients. You learn to make meals that practically burst with colors from fresh berries, avocados, sweet potatoes, and other delicious treats.
Dr. Bolling can also custom-design a meal plan that works within your budget and your lifestyle. She even has advanced weight loss programs that help you manage your blood sugar while losing up to 30 pounds in a single month.
If you have a sweet tooth that you don’t want to lose, she helps you transition to no-sugar treats that still taste delicious. Stevia, for instance, is a sweetener derived from the stevia plant that has 0 calories but is 200 times sweeter than sugar. Stevia also helps control your blood sugar and cholesterol.
Don’t think about exercising. Think about having fun again, like you did when you were a child. Find activities that you used to love and get them back into your life again. Being active helps you lose weight and also boosts your mood.
If you haven’t exercised in a while, Dr. Bolling helps you find the kinds of activities you can do to lose weight, improve your overall health, and minimize the risk for injury. If she gives you the OK, you might join a local sports team, take a dance class, or learn a martial art. You can also go bike riding again like you did when you were a kid, or just take long walks with friends.
Getting a good night’s rest lets your body repair itself and also helps stabilize your blood sugar. If you’re having problems falling asleep or staying asleep, or if you snore, you may have a sleep disorder, such as insomnia or sleep apnea. Dr. Bolling works with you to find out what’s causing your restless nights and then tailors a treatment plan to help you catch more Z’s.
When you eat healthier food and get more active, your sleep improves, too. Diet, exercise, and sleep all feed into the same cycle of health. The better you get at each of them, the more the others improve, too.
When you’re trying to change your lifestyle and manage your blood sugar, you shouldn’t have to guess what’s working and what’s not. Dr. Bolling suggests you come in every three months for an evaluation to be sure your blood sugar is controlled with your lifestyle changes. If not, Dr. Bolling may recommend medications that help you get where you need to be.
Contact our office today for a pre-diabetes evaluation and counseling, or to find out about medically supervised weight loss. Give us a call, or request an appointment online. You can also send Dr. Bolling and the team a message here on our website.
