DIABETES PREVENTION: Weight Loss Obstacles and Remedies

Some people don’t succeed at weight loss due to:

      1)   Feeling as if you don’t have the time to exercise;

      2)   Thinking that you can’t eat healthily because eating out is convenient and quick;

      3)   Seeing people you live with as setting bad examples, for your weight loss, with food; and,

      4)   You needing support from at least one other person.

Several ways in which obstacles can be overcome (corresponding to the aforementioned list) are:

      1)   Taking 5 – 10 minutes, several times during the day, to complete 30 minutes per day of exercise;

      2)   Making a sandwich, along with packing single-serving milk or soy-/almond milk when going out so that you don’t eat fast food;

      3)   You cook healthier meals for people you live with regularly or eat before they do so that you’re not tempted to eat their weight-loss-busting, unhealthy foods; and

      4)   You can ask people you know who are either trying to lose weight or doing weight-maintenance eating/exercising to give you weight-loss support, until you find at least one person to hold you accountable with your weight-loss goal.

November is Diabetes Month

Since loss of abdominal body fat eliminates 1 risk factor for diabetes, my quest for weight-loss gems is mainly meant to reverse my pre-diabetes (and abdominal body fat) or to prevent diabetes in African-Americans—one of the population subsets for whom diabetes is present, in addition to in my family, more than among European-Americans.  November is Diabetes Month, so, for some good weight loss tips, that also DO NOT increase blood sugar, I picked 10 from the “100 Best Diet Tricks of All Time” by Melissa Daly, in the November 2012 issue of Health magazine, namely:

#16:  Get 6 to 8 hours of sleep a night.  Without it, the appetite hormone ghrelin increases, which could result in weight gain…--Manuel Villacorta, RD, author of Eating free

FILLING FOOD PAIRS:  Snacks that combine fiber and protein produce a greater sense of fullness, nix carb cravings, and banish hunger, …Try these super-satisfying pairs (or mix and match).

#46:  bell peppers and hummus {pureed chickpea dip—SD}

#47:  broccoli and low-fat cheese

#54:  Hang a sweat calendar on your fridge and mark the days you exercise so you’ll stay clear about your goal.

#61:  “Weigh yourself every day to stay on track.”—Cindy Santa Ana,  43, health coach who lost 50 lbs.

#65:  “Eat in the right order.  Eat vegetables first to naturally have more of them and ultimately eat fewer calories.”—Dawn Jackson Blatner

#70:  “During your workout, rest no more than 30 seconds between exercises.  This will dramatically bump your calorie burn.”—Jillian Michaels, fitness expert, via Twitter

Cravings usually pass within 10 minutes.  Distract yourself by:

#86:  Facebooking {an online community at www.facebook.com that asks for status updates after you signup—SD}

#89:  Have a bowl of vegetable soup before lunch {or dinner!—SD}; you’ll eat 20 percent fewer calories at the meal.—Research by Barbara Rolls, PhD, at Pennsylvania State University

EAT FIBER AND PROTEIN AT MEALS:  They help keep sugar levels balanced so you won’t give in to cravings, says Tanya Zuckerbrof, RD {registered dietician—SD}, author of The miracle carb diet.  Follow her plan below and lose up to 10 pounds in a month (if you do 3.5 hours of cardio per week).  Eat 3 meals and a snack a day (after week 1, add a second snack).—{The magazine lists 3 choices under each subheading:  Breakfast; Lunch/Dinner; and, Snacks.—SD}

Lunch/Dinner (about 400 calories)--#97:  Prepare a Kashi Steam Meal like Sesame Chicken; serve with 1 cup frozen spinach, prepared according to package. {Frozen Kashi meals can be found at any major grocery chain, and they are FILLING!—SD}

You might only be able to add a few of these immediately…but, even if you only end up doing those FEW, you’ll probably help your diet along (or help to keep excess weight from being gained!) AND lower your risk for getting diabetes.

Which of the listed diet tricks interest you?  Did this blog post inspire you to go out and get this month’s Health magazine (for the other 90 tips)?  How hard (or easy) of a time do you find in getting yourself to start, and continue, these 10 tips?

I welcome your comments below…Or email me on:  shelleydryden@gmail.com

{DISCLAIMER:  I am not a licensed healthcare provider.  If you have a health concern, consult with a nurse practitioner, M.D., naturopathic doctor (ND), pharmacist, or other healthcare practitioner.}

Reference:

Daly, M.  (2012, November).  Best shape:  100 Best diet tricks of all time.  Health, 37 – 44.

Get Tested for Diabetes!

Being African-American alone is a risk factor for developing diabetes (in addition to whether it runs in your family).  My father had it and my sister has it…You also do not need to be overweight or obese to get diabetes.  It is a worldwide epidemic!

George Edmond Smith, MD in Taking Care of Our Own:  A Black American’s Guide to Family Medicine sums up the importance of knowing whether you have diabetes:  “It [diabetes] affects African Americans at a disproportionately high rate.  African Americans are fifty-five percent more likely than White Americans to have the disease.  Diabetes is the leading cause of blindness, amputation, and heart and kidney failure for African Americans.” (p. 71, 2004)  People are being diagnosed at earlier ages, especially children(!), with Type 2 Diabetes; with many going through life UNDIAGNOSED and, by not knowing, not treating their disease!!  This post is about the various blood tests available to diagnose diabetes, so that you don’t go through life not knowing whether or not you have it.

The test that doctors tend to give you to diagnose diabetes means that you have to fast the night before—the typical person is inconvenienced by this, so it’s usually not even administered.  Now that the a1c test (the test that I had done 1.5 years ago that showed me as pre-diabetic) has become standardized, world health experts are hoping that many more—the majority of people—will ask for and get tested for diabetes.  There is a problem with using the a1c on people of African descent, and that is “[they] may have a less common type of hemoglobin, known as a hemoglobin variant, that can interfere with some A1C tests” (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2012).  Thus, African-Americans might want to fast the night before and get the more commonly used test!  I invite you to read the text from “The a1c test and diabetes” for yourself, if interested in pursuing this topic with your doctor.

In the course of writing this blog, as I am in the process of trying to lose abdominal belly fat—a risk factor for various chronic diseases—I will tell you about weight loss tips, and my experiences with them.  All of this with the goal in mind being the prevention of my (and maybe your) pre-diabetes from developing into full-blown diabetes!

Reference:

Smith, G.E.  (2004).  Taking care of out own:  A Black American’s guide to family medicine.  Roscoe, IL:  Hilton Publishing Company.

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases.  (2012, June 19). The a1c test and diabetes.  Retrieved July 18, 2012 from http://www.diabetes.niddk.nih.gov/dm/pubs/A1CTest/#11