Friday, October 26, 2012

This National Diabetes Month, Make a Change to Live Well:

Wayne HealthCare Can Help You Take Small Steps for Better Health

Living with diabetes or knowing you are at risk is not easy. It’s common to feel overwhelmed, sad or angry – especially if you are struggling to make positive lifestyle changes that just don’t seem to stick for very long.

Even if you know what to do to improve your health, it is figuring out how to do it and fitting it into your daily routine that can present the biggest challenges.

Making changes step by step – such as losing a small amount of weight and becoming more active – can go a long way toward helping you prevent or delay type 2 diabetes. Losing even 10 to 15 pounds – if you weigh 200 pounds – can make a big difference in helping you prevent type 2 diabetes. If you have diabetes, making similar types of changes can help you reach your blood sugar (glucose) and blood pressure goals to prevent diabetes-related health problems.

Getting Started

So how do you get started making changes in how you care for your health? It’s all a matter of trying and learning. It’s about choosing a goal and working toward it. Making a plan and taking the first step will help you reach your goal.

Ask yourself what is hard about caring for your diabetes and why it is important to make the change. You may find it hard to be active. You may want to increase your exercise since increasing activity will help to lower your blood glucose level, help with weight loss, and lower your cholesterol level.

Ask what barriers have prevented you from making the change. Often we feel that we do not have enough time to exercise. Start out slowly and gradually increase your exercise. You can also breakdown your exercise into 10 minutes time frames that are completed three times throughout the day. Now set a realist goal that you would like to start. For example “I will start walking ten minutes after lunch at least four days a week”.

Determine what you need to make the change and possible barriers you may encounter. You may find adding exercise to your calendar will help you set certain days of the week that you will exercise. Barriers may include the weather- too hot, too cold, rainy, and snowing. Determine activities you can do indoors when these weather situations occur.



Finally determine how you will know if your plan is working and evaluate if your goal needs to be adjusted. You might decide to check your blood glucose level after you exercise to determine the impact on your blood glucose. At the end of the week look back to determine if you were able to reach your goal. If your goal was achieved- great. Now determine if you want to change your goal for the next week. If you were not able to reach your goal, ask yourself what barriers were in your way, and how you can overcome these barriers.

Ask for support from family, friends, and co-workers. We all need support from others to help us in our diabetes management. You may want to ask your support group to exercise with you or provide encouragement to continue to exercise. Do not forget to celebrate your hard work.

National Diabetes Month Program Offered by Wayne HealthCare

Karen Droesch RD,LD,CDE the Diabetic Educator at Wayne HealthCare will provide a presentation on “Diabetes and Eye Disease”. The program will be held on November 8, 2012 at 2:00 pm and 6:00pm. The programs are the same, but will be offered twice for your convenience.

Educational Opportunities

With National Diabetes Month approaching, Wayne HealthCare would like to remind you of educational opportunities that are available year round to help with your diabetes management.

Group Diabetes Classes at Wayne HealthCare will provide you with the knowledge to help make healthy lifestyle decisions regarding your management of diabetes. The classes are for individuals who are newly diagnosed and individuals who have had diabetes for years. Group classes meet once a week for four weeks. The classes will discuss diabetes topics which include: healthy eating, facts associated with diabetes, the value of monitoring and using the blood glucose results, the importance of exercise, how diabetic medications work, goal setting, and ways to reduce risk of complications. The cost of each class is $10 per class or $40 for the series of four classes.

If you prefer to meet individually with the Certified Diabetes Educator, you can receive education regarding Diabetes Self-Management Education (DSME) and Medical Nutrition Therapy (MNT). Pre-diabetes classes are also provided throughout the year.

Free Monthly Educational Programs are provided in the afternoon or evening on alternating months. Past program topics have included: stress management, reducing complications, mindful eating, exercise, kidney disease, diabetes medications, and much more.

For more information regarding the programs offered by the Wayne HealthCare Diabetes Self Management Program please call 937-547-5750.

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