Four Lifestyle Habits To Avoid If You Have Diabetes

Whether you’ve just been diagnosed with diabetes or you’ve been living with this condition for quite some time, it’s important that you come to learn what you can and cannot do in order to manage it.

Unfortunately, many get caught up in making grave mistakes in how they go about their lifestyle, which in the end will really impact how they feel and function on a day to day basis.

To help you get your well-being in check, let’s look at four lifestyle habits that you’ll want to avoid at all costs.

1. Going Hours Without Eating

No matter how busy your schedule happens to be, as someone who is dealing with diabetes, you must make sure that you focus on eating every few hours. Bring a snack along with you where you happen to be going so that you can rest assured you’re always prepared.

Generally speaking, diabetics should aim to eat every three or four hours maximum. Many will feel better eating every two hours and should strive for that instead.

2. Neglecting Sleep

Another big no-no that you’ll want to avoid is neglecting your sleep. It is a must. Those who aren’t sleeping as much as they should will suffer from an increased risk of developing insulin sensitivity, and if this happens, they will have a harder time managing their diabetes.

In fact, too little sleep could have contributed to you coming down with this condition in the first place.

Start making sleep a priority. Aim for at least seven, if not eight or nine hours each night.

3. Letting Stress Get The Best Of You

Stress is another nightmare for the diabetic. Simply being stressed can cause your blood sugar levels to increase thanks to the cortisol that surges through your system.

If you find that you easily get emotionally affected by situations around you, start taking steps to do whatever you can to put this behind you. Learn to talk yourself down from stress, practice deep breathing or meditation on a regular basis, and your tolerance for stress will become higher.

And, if you are often putting yourself in stressful situations – stop. The less stress you subject yourself to, the easier it will be to manage it.

4. Succumbing To Social Eating

Finally, the last lifestyle issue that you’ll want to take care of is social eating. For diabetics, keeping a regular meal schedule and relying on familiar foods that you’ve eaten before is really important.

If you let yourself fall victim here – everyone is out to eat and you figure you’ll have just a little – this could send your blood glucose levels soaring. If you often dine out, you’ll have to at least pay close attention to your food choices.

So there you have four lifestyle habits that any diabetic should try to kick to the curb as best as possible.