CHEAT DIABETES

The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force released new recommendations on March 16, 2021 for prediabetes and type 2 diabetes screenings. 

The USPS Task Force is recommending that all adults ages 35-70 who are overweight be screened for prediabetes and type 2 diabetes. They also recommend that care providers recommend a lifestyle change intervention if prediabetes is found. (Examples could include participation in a diabetes prevention program and/or counseling and follow-up on healthy lifestyle change with a credentialed health professional.)

I've included Center for Disease Control (CDC) stats on overweight and obesity in US adults age 20 and over: almost 75% are classified as overweight using 2017-2018 data ...  so the Task Force recommendation to screen overweight adults age 35-70 will apply to a large percentage of adults. 

You'll have seen a number of articles about prediabetes here in the blog. Below I've summarized a few key take-aways:

There...

We all need to know how to protect ourselves and our families from prediabetes and avoid diabetes.

Key information about added sugars can make all the difference.

Did you know?

• Added sugar is hiding out in 74% of packaged foods
• One 12 ounce soda per day can increase your risk of dying from heart disease by almost 1/3 AND increase your risk of developing diabetes by over 20%.
• Added sugars in foods and drinks can damage your liver as much as alcohol. 1 in 3 American adults have non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.

* these and many other sugar facts can be found at the University of California San Francisco website:  sugarscience.ucsf.edu.

What is added sugar?

Added sugars are sugars added during processing. Until recently, the US food label (the Nutrition Facts label) just showed total sugars - so consumers had no idea how much was naturally occurring sugar, and how much was added sugar. Now, for the first time ever, the this label is required to include added...

 If your first response is, "NO IDEA" - you're not alone. So many of us have no idea WHAT our bodies are inviting us to do! We haven't created a habit of listening to our bodies. Why is that? 

Perhaps because we don't see them as invitations at all. Somewhere along the line - in our culture, our family, our busy lives - we've learned to think of communications from our body as pesky, inconvenient , even coercive .

What if we shifted our perspective for just one day? What if we allowed ourselves to see our bodies as wise - with our best interest at heart? What if we viewed the messages our bodies were sending us as beautiful invitations? 

What was the best invitation you've ever received?

A good friend's original artwork - perhaps a banner or homemade card?

A song composed just for you?

A special meal that showed...

For most of my clients, A LOT has to happen BEFORE they consider spending money to help themselves.

It might be that they’ve run out of energy, like an energizer bunny (remember the commercial?) that finally runs out of juice.

Or they’re feeling the sadness and lack of hope that comes from putting themselves on hold and others first ALL the time.

It could even be a health condition or diagnosis like prediabetes or high blood pressure that surprises their conscious mind, but is completely unsurprising to that unconscious self that’s been feeling neglected and ignored for many years…

Why is it that women who routinely step up for others, solving everyone else's problems and lending a hand without hesitation, are willing to spend years, even decades, in personal limbo? They want energy and vibrant health but settle for not having either... they are dying a little inside about their weight or their uncontrollable snacking or eating habits but do nothing to...

I bet you haven't really thought much lately about what lies beneath many of your decisions and daily routines.  What if you (and almost everyone else on the planet) have been unconsciously going for what is comfortable INSTEAD OF what enlivens you and matters to you? 

I'm thinking about this now because I just finished a workshop about confidence. We were challenged to accept that getting out of our comfort zone was key. The challenge we were given (over the lunch break) was to step into the shower and take a freezing cold shower for 30 seconds.

Getting your body acclimated to the cold has proven health benefits (and a few risks for those not in great shape, so read up first.) I know this. 

This was also a showpiece activity for the first part of the workshop. 

Did I do it?

No way. There are lots of excuses I could make, such as we only had 20 minutes in which to do this AND grab lunch, I've done this practice before etc... but the cold (no...

In 2020, Covid-19 has placed a spotlight on the immune system. 

In conversations about health and wellness, the immune system doesn't come up much. Until now, we've tended to talk about obesity and heart disease, cancer and diabetes. Those of us with a passion for prevention and maximizing our human 'health-span' generally talk about lifestyle and taking action to avoid these chronic conditions, while the rest of the medical community talks about managing poor health (after it arrives) with medications. The functionality of the hugely complicated miracle that is the immune system has been assumed to be fine until we get sick and either undergo a treatment which is known to derail the immune system (such as chemo for cancer), or are diagnosed with an immune disorder. Most of us don't have any real idea of the state of our own immune system and how it might handle a new, major threat like Covid-19.

The Covid-19 response is still evolving. What is unknown...

I knew setting a 30 day walking challenge in the midst of an unusually blustery winter in Denver would be a challenge. Day 1 was exhilarating, walking in the park, seeing the geese and the cross-country skiers, enjoying the sun and the blinding whiteness of the snow.

Day 6 - not so much. I'd struggled a bit in the subsequent gray, bone-chilling days. I'd shortened my walks, and I'd even considered substituting time on the treadmill at the gym for the time outdoors my heart really wanted.

I'm not sure what happened on Day 6. I didn't walk. I could write a paragraph of explanations and excuses - but as a health coach I know that arguing FOR your limitations just reinforces them, so I won't.

The critical piece for me (as I know it is for you too when you don't follow through on a planned healthier action) is what I do THE NEXT day. What I say to myself. How I manage and generate my energy.

It is snowing a little bit right now. But I really don't care. I can already see that...

It's February. It's cold. The news is dire. Even the cat has been sleeping more than usual. And I'd been off-task and out of sorts for over a week.

So I decided to go for a walk.

NOT the obvious choice. We'd had 3 days of snow in the past week in Denver - over 14 inches. I'd talked myself out of going to the gym all week. "The roads are icy!" "The flu is everywhere!" my disaster-mongering brain whispered to me.

The day before was the icing on the cake as far as losing all self-respect went.

I'd eaten roughly my own weight that day (ok, really a lot less than that), culminating in a pizza delivery (thank goodness somebody was driving in the snow. Relax! I tipped prodigiously, ok?) I'd watched A LOT of Amazon Prime. And I'd had a vague uneasy feeling all day, that feeling of not being very happy with myself and my choices.

So I woke this morning wanting to avoid that feeling of anxiousness about not doing better - but not sure I'd pull it off. And then I went for a walk. I started out...

There's a lot of confusion out there about prediabetes. What is it? Why do I have it? Is it really that big a deal?

Prediabetes is a BIG deal.

Often, prediabetes is described as "slightly high blood sugar". It is easy to feel a false sense of security. "Slightly" anything doesn't sound so bad, does it?

Here's what that "slightly high" blood sugar really means: INTERNAL METABOLIC ARMAGEDDON.

"Slightly high blood sugar" is the tip of the iceberg - the bit we can see.  It is the warning that 'here be dragons'. It hints at the giant, invisible monster hiding beneath so perilous it can sink a Titanic. 

When blood sugar starts to go up, it is a signal that our body's internal systems are unraveling. 

Our HERO BODIES take whatever we throw at them - dozens of years of pizza and donuts and binge-watching TV and sugary drinks as big as our heads - and cope. And cope. And try to cope. And start to fail to cope...

Until we have "slightly high blood sugar". 

"Slightly...

I recently came across another one of those "Ultimate 3 day city travel guides" - this one for Paris. My husband and I recently spent a month in Paris, and I realized as I read their tips that MINE would be TOTALLY different. 

Travel is my delight and my love (in addition to my excellent hubby and my Siamese). I've been excessively and unrepentantly in love with travel for over 30 years, and I know that I need to pay more attention now to what I'm eating and how much I'm walking and exercising before a trip than I used to. Especially when I'm going to a place with amazing patisserie, bread, cheese, wine... you know what I'm talking about!

But I digress. My other love - health and wellness coaching - stole the show there for a moment!

Here are (in no particular order) 6 experiences and planning tips we've discovered during several long trips to Paris. Enjoy!

1. Please please please spend some time listening to jazz and drinking rose at one of the barges along the Seine!...