2017 just came to a close and it’s time to start planning your self and health improvements for 2018. We all know we can improve our diabetes management in some way so let’s break down exactly what to do to be more proactive about our health and diabetes.

Remember, New Year’s Resolutions only work if you do. You have to commit to yourself and put in the constant effort to see the benefits of your goals.

1. Get Your Insulin Working Harder Instead of Hardly Working

Everyone has different levels of insulin sensitivity, or insulin “effectiveness.” Whether you have type 1 diabetes, type 2 diabetes, LADA, MODY or any other classification of diabetes, you are able to improve your own individual insulin sensitivity to the best of your ability using exercise and nutritional strategies.

Here is a list of things you can do to improve your insulin sensitivity:

Lift weights 2-5 times a week

Walk 20-30 minutes a day

Go for a run/jog 2-3 times a week

Lose extra body fat

Stay hydrated

Don’t eat more calories than you need

2. Eat Real Food

Life today is all about convenience. Convenience stores, snacks, and fast food to conveniently fit into our busy lives. But what seems convenient now is actually really inconvenient for your health, diabetes management, and long-term quality of life.

If you want to make positive improvements in your diabetes management in 2018, then you need to cut out the ultra processed foods.

Ultra-processed products refer to processing of substances derived from foods by, for example, baking, frying, extruding, moulding, re-shaping, hydrogenation, and hydrolysis. Dr. Carlos Monteiro of Brazil’s University of Sao Paolo coined the term “ultra-processed food” to refer to “attractive, hyper-palatable, cheap, ready-to-consume food products that are characteristically energy-dense, fatty, sugary or salty and generally obesogenic.”

Diets rich in ultra-processed foods are grossly nutritionally unbalanced and decrease the feeling of fullness, increasing the desire to continue eating. This can lead to overconsumption of calories, excessive weight gain, and insulin resistance.

One of the easiest-to-implement diabetes management strategies is to eat whole foods as much as possible. This means natural, minimally processed foods like fruits, vegetables, meats, fish, and other whole foods.

3. Check Your Blood Sugar Like You Check Your Phone

Let’s face it — one of the biggest problems in diabetes is not checking blood sugar levels frequently enough. There are general recommendations on how many times you should check a day, but in reality, most people do not check enough.

Ask yourself if you check your blood sugar before and after you eat, drive, exercise, sleep, work, and go out. I know I could probably check more often than I do.

Imagine if we checked our blood sugar as much as we checked our cell phones or social media or email. We’d have a lot more data to help us better control our sugars (probably too much data).

How much should you check? I think the right answer to this question is “however many times it takes to manage your blood sugar appropriately.”

Pricking your finger that much can suck but it is a necessary evil. Luckily, we are getting better equipment and technology to manage our sugars. With new painless lancing devices like Genteal and continuous glucose monitors like Dexcom and the new Freestyle Libre, we have access to a lot more data. More blood sugar data means increased ability to manage blood sugars more effectively and follow trends for future reference.

Whether you use newer technology or just check more often, checking your blood sugar enough is a bare minimum requirement to improved diabetes management.

4. Get Some Friends

I knew one person with diabetes in 2009 when I was diagnosed. Fast forward to the end of 2017 and I have a network of over 20,000 type 1 and type 2 diabetics I can talk to at any time.

What changed? I became digitally resourceful.

There are hundreds of Facebook groups and online communities for people with diabetes to talk, vent, and support each other. A simple search in the Facebook search bar will give you a variety of groups you can join and most are extremely welcoming and supportive.

On top of social media, there are plenty of events hosted around the world for people with diabetes. From organizations like JDRF and ADA in the United States to each country’s individual diabetes-focused programs, there are various events and meetups you can partake in.

There are also nonprofit diabetes organizations that host events allowing families to come together and feel supported in this chronic medical condition. Friends for Life is one of my personal favorites and it is held every year in Orlando, Florida, bringing thousands of people and families who have or are affected by diabetes together for the most epic week of community support and fun ever (plus I speak there and volunteer with them so it’s even more awesome).

The community support is out there so just start searching and you’ll quickly find you are not alone.

5. Think Like a Pancreas

Having diabetes does not mean you just take a pill or a shot and you are good. The day you were “gifted” with diabetes is the day you were required to acquire a little more education on what your pancreas isn’t doing so you can pick up the slack.

Gary Scheiner, CDE and author of “Think Like a Pancreas” explains exactly why and how we quite literally need to think like a pancreas.

Sometimes we get very “eh” or indifferent about our management strategies: “I’ll take my meds later,” “My activity level is changing but I’ll keep everything else the same,” “I’ll correct my sugar if it goes high,” etc.

This condition is a lot easier to manage when we become proactive instead of reactive. By learning about strategies that minimize blood sugar variability like prebolusing, temporary basals, hydration, activity levels, and situations that cause our blood sugars to fluctuate, we are better prepared to minimize highs and lows before they happen rather than chase sugars after they happen.

Educate yourself on how to “think like a pancreas” so you can spend more time enjoying life while living with diabetes rather than spending your time living for diabetes.

Photo Credit: Photo by NordWood Themes (Unsplash)

Read more about blood glucose/sugar, Dexcom, diabetes management, exercise, freestyle, goals, insulin, JDRF, libre, New Year's resolutions, support.