#JOHNSBLOG: Exercise Tips for Type 2 Diabetics

Good evening guys. I’m back again after a short break.

Hope you’ve all had a great weekend and are enjoying the weather. I’m going over some great exercise tips for people with Type 2 Diabetes. Hope they help.

These tips will help you ease back into exercise and find a workout plan that works for you.

Get a move on 

Exercise is safe—and highly recommended—for most people with type 2 diabetes, including those with complications. Along with diet and medication, exercise will help you lower blood sugar and lose weight.

However, the prospect of diving into a workout routine may be scary. If you’re like many newly diagnosed type 2 diabetics, you may not have exercised in years.

If that’s the case, don’t worry: It’s fine to start slow and work up. These tips will help you ease back into exercise and find a workout plan that works for you.

Try quick workouts

As long as you’re totalling 30 minutes of exercise each day, several brief workouts are fine.

We need people with diabetes up and moving. If you can do your exercise in one 30 minute stretch, fine. But if not, break it up into increments you can manage that add up to at least 30 minutes each day.

Focus on overall activity

Increase activity in general—such as walking or climbing stairs—rather than a particular type of exercise.

However, don’t rely on housework or other daily activity as your sole exercise. Too often, people overestimate the amount of exercise they get and underestimate the amount of calories they consume.

Get a pedometer

Having a goal of 10,000 steps a day (about five miles) is important, even if the goal isn’t reached. Pedometer users lost more weight, have a greater drop in blood pressure, and walk about 2,500 steps more per day than those who don’t use a pedometer.

Work out with a friend

Working out with friends can be an important motivator, particularly for people over 60. Having a friend call or setting up an exercise “contract” with a buddy may help. “One of the things is that behavioural strategies work better, that means setting up some sort of reaction in the environment where you exercise.

Set specific, achievable goals

For example, you might set a goal of walking 10 minutes every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. That doesn’t sound like a lot, but setting up very specific goals like that helps people a lot more than telling people.

Reward yourself

Rather than focusing on the bad things that could happen if you don’t exercise, reward yourself for reaching your goals. You could say ” If I exercise 10 minutes, three times a week for the next three weeks, I’ll call someone in the family whom I haven’t spoken to for some time”

Don’t hold out for weight loss as an emotional reward. Focus on other benefits, such as having more energy or enjoying the outdoors when you walk.

Use visual cues

Put a note on the fridge or keep your walking shoes next to the back door as a reminder to go for a walk and it’ll be more likely to happen.

Write it all down

Write down your goals, be specific, and keep a record every time you do exercise.
Record on your calendar every day whether you exercised for 10 or 15 minutes or more.

Join a class

A class is good because there is an exercise leader and someone to call for emergency help, if necessary.
There is a structured experience exercising and you will learn how your body will react and then you will grow more confident to go out and exercise on your own.

Don’t set goals too high

It’s much better to set a lower goal and be successful at it. That increases your sense of confidence. Then you can set a slightly higher goal the next time. You are much more likely to be successful if you start with small, easily achievable goals and gradually increase them.

Look at the big picture

Working up to a moderate amount of exercise quickly isn’t that important in terms of your health. What really matters is next year and you are doing it all the time. Getting there eventually in a way that you are able to stay with it is what is important because it is long-term behaviour change that has health benefits

Change one behaviour at a time
You’re more likely to be successful if you focus on changing one behaviour at a time, rather than everything at once (like taking medication, checking your feet, switching your diet, and exercising). You will find that only on changing one behaviour, namely exercise, you get twice as much of an improvement in your heamoglobin A1C.

Get an exercise “prescription”
In this case, a fitness, or personal trainer, can measure how physically fit you are and prescribe a specific intensity of exercise and how to progress to the next level.
For a person that is very unfit, and has not been exercising, the exercise prescription will be at a low moderate intensity and then move to a slightly higher intensity and longer duration.

Connect with a “mentor” or become one
Ask your doctor or diabetes educator to match you with a person with type 2 diabetes who has been successful at exercising and/or losing weight. They may have exercise or weight loss tips that work.

Test yourself regularly
Keep up with your haemoglobin A1C and blood glucose testing. Good test results can encourage you to keep with an exercise program, even when it feels boring.