Although ending up with a chronic disease that you’re likely to have to deal with for the rest of your life is never pleasant, the thing about diabetes (or prediabetes, for that matter) is that it’s at least a manageable condition. You can keep on top of your blood glucose (sugar in blood) and keep it as near normal as possible, regardless of which type you have. In doing so, you greatly lower your chances of having to deal with any additional health complications arising from having diabetes. You can’t say that about many chronic health issues.
Diabetes & Keeping Fit For Dummies doesn’t necessarily contain any ground-breaking techniques to conquer diabetes once and for all. In fact, it may not contain anything that seems that new to you. What is does offer, though, is everything you need to know to not only lengthen your life with diabetes or prediabetes but also live well in a healthy body with a sharp mind until the end of your life, all from the world’s leading expert on the topic of diabetes and exercise.
Living a long life is one thing; living it well is something else completely. Really, what’s the point of living long if you can’t live well and feel your best every day of your life?
Diabetes & Keeping Fit For Dummies tries to give you all the tools you need in your lifestyle toolbox to live long and well with any type of diabetes or prediabetes. It provides an overview of the types of diabetes, what makes you more likely to get one type or another, and why your health can benefit so much from managing it and your diabetes simultaneously. Sometimes that involves using the right medications for your diabetes.
You really need to know the basics about how being active affects your body and your blood glucose, why you want to avoid glucose extremes (and how to do it), and how to set up a fitness program that works for you. And, of course, you need to understand how your food choices impact your health and your ability to be active.
Really, there are no wrong activities for someone who wants to get keep fit with diabetes. The right activities for you basically mean anything you can get yourself to do regularly. But some specific options are recommended more than others when you have diabetes, and this book tells you what you need to know about doing those. You should aim to boost your endurance, pump up your strength, find your balance, flex all your joints, and mix it all up to keep it fun and impactful — not too much to ask.
You keep fit at any age (young, old, or in between) or with any health complication typical with diabetes. If you’re overweight, no problem. If you’re female and/or an athlete, it’s more complicated, but I’ve got you covered.
You now have no reason to consider exercise a four-letter word anymore.
If you bought this book — or even if you got it as a gift and actually opened it to start reading — I can only assume that you’re at least a little bit interested in seeing whether you can get more fit. In writing it, I assume that at least one of the following situations applies to you as a unique individual:
Throughout this book, I use a number of icons in the margins that are intended to grab your attention and help you get more out of your keeping-fit-with-diabetes journey:
To access the free online Cheat Sheet that accompanies this book, go to dummies.com
and search for this book title. This Cheat Sheet contains articles on various issues related to diabetes nutrition and fitness.
Check out more information about being active with diabetes on my website called Diabetes Motion, which you can access online at www.diabetesmotion.com
. It’s a free resource, and its blogs and other posts can keep you updated on any new stuff coming out in diabetes fitness.
Another of my websites, Diabetes Motion Academy (www.dmacademy.com
), is mostly targeted to fitness professionals and health coaches, but it has some free PDFs you can download that show you additional resistance and flexibility exercises that you can try as part of its fitness resources.
Finally, I’ve shared a wealth of knowledge over the years on my own website and blogs that you can access for some free advice on just about any topic. Find me online at www.shericolberg.com
, and feel free to drop me a line with any questions you have.
You don’t have to start at the beginning of this book and read through the chapters in order. If you know enough about the type of diabetes or prediabetes you have and just want to dive deeper into the good stuff, skip the first chapter. If you know a lot about diabetes medications already or just don’t want to find out anything else, move on to another topic without looking back.
If you’re interested in doing a certain type of activity like balance training or cross-training, just jump straight into the chapter that deals with it. The same goes if you have a certain health issue or need help with taking your training up a notch. Even if you’re already a pro on a particular topic, though, you may want to skim through it to see whether anything new has popped up.
If you aren’t quite sure where you want to go with your fitness and are willing to invest a little time in your long-term health, just start at the beginning of the book and make your way through it in the usual way — one chapter at a time. You may be surprised at how things have changed in the diabetes world in the past few years.
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