Tag: diet

Posted on

Healthy Habits

You have decided to become healthier, but big changes make you anxious?

Not sure where to start, do I have to exercise 5 to 7 days right from the start? I’m a big proponent of making small changes, keeping those changes to a small number like 1 to 2 goals at a time. Depending on what areas, you think you need to improve, you can choose from the following list to get started:

Self-Care:

• Practicing stress reduction or deep breathing
• laughing or socializing
• using mindfulness or meditation
• attending a financial wellness seminar

Rest & Recover:

• Stretching
• taking a yoga class
• getting 7-9 hours of sleep
• taking time for yourself
• getting a chair massage (self-massage counts, too!).

Movement:

• Taking the stairs instead of the elevator
• going for a walk
• biking or walking to work
• taking an onsite yoga class
• running a race
• going to the gym

Nutrition:

• Eating a fruit or vegetable

• drinking water

• bringing lunch from home

• sharing a healthy snack with coworkers

Small changes will add up and make a big difference to your health. Changing your habits is a process that involves several stages. Sometimes it takes a while before changes become new habits. Healthier habits may protect you from serious health problems like high blood pressure or diabetes. If you continue these habits for a while, they may become part of your daily routine.

The four stages of changing a health behavior are:

• contemplation
• preparation
• action
• maintenance

If you started to make some changes, it is a good idea to set health goals. Review what worked, what didn’t work, and can you make changes to make sure you can accomplish that goal. Measuring progress is important to make sure your changes are yielding the results you wanted.
Changes are hard but small changes or steps can help overcome the anxiety that comes with big changes. Keeping motivated can also be a barrier, change your routine and reward yourself whenever you reach a goal. Healthy Habits become even more important for patients with chronic disease like hypertension and diabetes.

Patients with chronic disease states like hypertension or diabetes, should consult with your Primary Care Doctor before starting any kind of exercise program. More information can be found online at the American Diabetes Association for patients with diabetes or Pre-diabetes. Certified Diabetes Educators can help patients with diabetes get blood sugars under control, set health goals and develop a diabetes plan. For patients with chronic disease Ambulatory Care Pharmacist and Community Pharmacist are a great resource to help you get your health to goal.

Posted on

Low Carb Bread

For most of us, eating bread is part of our daily routine, for diabetes patients a healthy low carb diet seems to work best to control blood sugars. A lot of my patients’ report having a hard time finding low carbohydrate breads, a search was launched on the web to see if I could find products that are low carb but also taste good.
My first find was Diabetes Daily site, to my surprise they listed Joseph’s High Fiber Plus Pita Bread which I have tried and is not bad. Next The diet doctor site offers recipes for low carb breads that you can try. Linda’s diet delights site also mentions low carb bread alternatives, some are the same as Diabetes Daily, but she also has some that are different. Unfortunately, I have not been able to find many of the products mention but would love to hear from those of you have tried the low carb breads listed in the sites above or any of the low carb bread recipes.