Tricks & Hacks

Your first steps:

• Throw away all your junk food, all the processed food, packaged food, sugary drinks, sodas, etc.
• Make a new shopping list : vegetables (fresh or frozen), season fruits, nuts, seeds, legumes, stevia or xylitol and organic soy milk for your coffee, whole rice (it can be red, brown, black, basmati or wild), cooking oil only cold pressed or virgin, eggs, cheese ( the older the cheese the less lactose it will have), Greek yogurt, meat of your choice, if you are a fan of bacon or ham, chose the one that has less ingredients in it, tuna, sardines, other fish, seafood, olives, herbs and spices
• Start cooking: reversing diabetes starts with your next meal
• Keep a diary for the first two-three months until you get comfortable with numbers and food
• Check your BS on a daily basis but don’t stress about it! If you wish to know if a certain food gave you a spike (a sudden rise of your BS to very high levels), check your BS before eating and 2 hours after your last bite. It should be more or less the same. You had a spike if your after meal BS is 30 points or more higher than the before meal BS. You can check the maximum point of your BS curb level 30 to 45 minutes after your last bite.
• Get acquainted with low glycemic index (GI) and low glycemic load (GL) foods
• Avoid any contact with sweet, junk food, pastries etc even if it is diet or sugar free… don’t look up for recipes, don’t buy, avoid those isles when shopping – visual is very powerful for the brain
• Personally, I never counted carbs but I was extremely strict! In case you do count, you should not go over 130 carbs a day. That is the highest limit to keep diabetes in control. For a remission you should stay under 100 carbs a day.
• In case you forgot to do your long lasting insulin in the evening, do half of your dose in the morning
• Take your medication and eat at regular times
• Get a good night sleep
• Get yourself a pass at a swimming pool or get a dog! Exercise whenever you can! Moderate exercise will bring your BS down, HIIT and weight lifting will rise it up.
• Whenever your stress level goes up, try to do things that you love: meditate, pray, exercise, go to a movie, do some shopping, read, go for a walk, practice your hobby
• Keep on learning about diabetes, find social media groups that give you support

How to keep your BS down:

• Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a queen and dinner like a pauper! Another way of saying it is: eat your breakfast alone, share your lunch with your friends and give your dinner to your enemies!
• Try to keep as much as possible this eating order: fiber first, protein and fats second, carbs third.
• On your plate fiber should be the most predominant, fat, protein and carbs should be the side dish.
• Eat a good salad before your main course; always use a homemade dressing make sure that there is apple cider vinegar or lemon juice in it.
• If you love to have your salad with the main course, even better! however, eat some of it before anything else.
• If you don’t like salad, eat veggies instead! They can be steamed, boiled, baked, or roasted, add some fat to enhance flavor and some spices. Frying is good only if you use olive or coconut oil.
• If you really want to eat something sweet, always eat it as a dessert not as a snack. But only as an exception!! In this case, it would be great to have a glass of water mixed with a spoon of apple cider vinegar.
• A glass of water with a spoon of apple cider vinegar as an appetizer will always do the trick.
• Add cinnamon or vanilla to your coffee, replace your milk with coconut or organic soy milk.
• Have your fruits in the morning before anything else or as a snack but make sure it is 3 hours after your last meal.
• Always have whole fat dairies! Fat is tasteful and satiating. Low-fat dairy will always be higher in sugar.
• Spare your pancreas and eat less meat and fats. Being a flexitarian is a good approach….
• Within half an hour after your last bite, you should do some effort for about 15 minutes: walk the dog, take the garbage out, do some house work, anything but staying put!