Introduction

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?

About This Book

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.

Foolish Assumptions

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:

  • You’re a complete fitness novice who needs all the help you can get, and you’re actually willing to read this book to find out how.
  • You know you should be more physically active, but maybe you’re lacking the motivation to get active and stay active.
  • You’re up off the couch already, but you want to know more about which activities are best for you.
  • Being active is hard for you given the health issues you’re dealing with, and you want some help getting as fit as you can just to be healthier or to lose a few pounds in the process.
  • You’re an athletic person already, but you hope to pick up some new trick that will make you a better athlete or allow you to easily try a new activity.

Icons Used in This Book

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:

tip This icon highlights info that helps you better understand a concept or put it into action to save time or frustration. These paragraphs are worth flagging or writing down to help you get fit and stay active. If you do nothing else with this book, read all the time-saving and stress-reducing tips found in each chapter to get moving more.

remember This icon points out any information that is worth remembering about getting fit with diabetes — even if you remember nothing else (and you may not!).

warning When you see the Warning icon, take it seriously. These items can truly cause you harm on your fitness journey if you ignore them.

technicalstuff The Technical Stuff icon lets you know that these paragraphs include nonessential details about certain concepts or the research behind what is known about them. You can skip them if you want to (along with the shaded sidebars), but try reading a few of them as you go through the book, especially if you like to know the why and how about stuff.

Beyond the Book

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.

Where to Go from Here

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.

..................Content has been hidden....................

You can't read the all page of ebook, please click here login for view all page.
Reset
34.238.138.162