CHEAT DIABETES

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...

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...

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!...

I've been a nutritionist and health coach for over 20 years.

Whenever I hear, "I'm too busy" or "I'm too tired" or "I'm too stressed"  to make a start with eating better or losing weight or starting exercise - 

I KNOW I'm talking to a person who really really really NEEDS TO. 

If you've caught yourself saying (or thinking) one or more of the above, realize that the upside, for you, is HUGE if you find a way to give yourself permission to make a start to improve your health and wellness and energy.

Our busy modern lives often create the perfect storm, where we are so rushed and exhausted and frazzled we don't have time to consider what it's all for and whose life this is, anyway.

Here's a small gift for you... a bright, cheery encouragement to take care of YOU. Do a couple of these things every day for a week, and watch yourself begin to FEEL BETTER - and the resistance to making that healthy change fade away. If you'd like to download it for extra reminders...

New Year's resolutions tend to trod the same old paths: eat better, lose weight, exercise.

These goals, though incredibly important, carry a lot of old baggage for most. There's nothing new or exciting here to grab our brain's attention. There may be plenty of memories of failure, shame and desperation around similar attempts in the past to sour our new efforts. Our self-talk (if we were aware of it) might be peppered with criticisms and attacks on our self, our abilities, and our commitment. Yeesh, at this point, you may have arrived 30 days early at your ultimate New Year's resolution destination: nowhere different.

This year, why not try something new?  Set yourself up for success in the new year by turning your attention NOW to the root of the problem: how overwhelmed, crummy, and uninspired you feel. 

Do something about these 3 areas, and within 1-2 months the eating, weight, and exercise changes you initially wanted will be on the menu as real possibilities.

Here are...