JOURNEY TO LOWERING BLOOD SUGAR

Eat like a king for breakfast, a prince for lunch, and a bankrupt for dinner. Lowering blood sugar shouldn’t mean starving yourself or buying expensive, luxury products: it’s all about understanding quantities and nutrients in your regular food. All you need to do is lifestyle changes into your daily routine. You will develop positive habits to sustain your health long after the course is complete! The first important step to take is to understand how your body responds to different foods. Do not expect to lower the blood sugar in a week or two but let it be gradual.

STEPS:

1.Eating Healthy:

● Reduce on your carbs intake e.g. White ugali, white chapatti, White rice, fries, and deep-fried. (For your carbs use the brown chapatti, brown rice, brown ugali, brown bread)

● Eat more of sweet potatoes or arrowroots, green bananas (boiled or baked with no oil), boiled eggs instead of mandazi, bread, samosas, sausages, bacons and chapos, in the morning.

● Always pile your plate with veggies. Your food serving should be half plate veges. Start eating the veggies before you eat the accompanying high-carb or protein.

● Please note that fruits, veggies, and legumes also have carbs so if you are eating legumes you don’t need other carbs (ugali, chapos or rice).

● Reduce your meat intake and look at alternative sources of protein like eggs, beans, legumes and lentils because they are lower in calories. Aim to consume chicken or fish even if it is once week. For the red meat do once in a while.

● Observe your portion. Eat what your body will consume. A person working in an office sitting and a mjengo / hard labourer cannot eat the same amount of food.How do I avoid / reduce carbs: Try to avoid the foods that sit longer in your digestive system. If you crave for them just take a piece or a spoonful of the food.

2.Exercise:

● Walking and running are the best entry points.

● Body weight training is also great and squats, push-ups which can be performed at home. You can lift items around the house to help provide resistance; eg. lifting a stool or jerricans with water or even dancing.

● Avoid using lifts and take stairs.

● Play around with kids e.g. by skipping rope and running around. Don’t think about what people will say think about your health.

3.Drink up 8 glasses a day sounds like a joke, but if you really want to do away with the belly fat, water is the way to go. It makes you feel full so you won’t have to eat too much, reduces constipation and belly bloating. This also makes you visit the washroom more often hence exercise (always take the longer route to the washroom).

4.Avoid Sugars

Sugary sodas, fruit juices, energy drinks will make your tummy grow. They contain high contents of fructose a type of sugar that is converted into fats directly by the body.

5.Avoid Alcohol and smoking

If you love beer, you got a problem. Alcohol is loaded with calories that are burnt by the body to generate fats which will settle around your stomach.