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Eat Well for Less: Doable and so Worth It

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Quality food and produce – organics, artisanal, delicious –  is more widely available than ever before. Yet when I check out from my whole foods grocery – especially when I’m preparing for a special holiday or family dinner, I imagine my father (a rural farmer cash-on-the-barrel sort of guy) fainting dead away at the grand total.  Yipes! The price of high quality (like organic grass-fed) meat or dairy, and fresh produce can take your breath away. You can eat well for less.

It takes some time and effort, but once you get into the swing of the practice, it’s just how you do it. The nutrition and taste benefits are very worth the effort.

If you feel the desire to eat high-quality food, but you aren’t independently wealthy, here are 7 ideas to help you eat well on a budget:

1. Try mindful eating.

Many Americans simply eat too much – be it healthy food or not. But just how much is enough? We’re designed to know. Mindful eating can help you find out how much food fills you up and gives you energy through the day. In fact, mindful eating is a practice that can help you turn down the external messages about what and how much to eat, and to tune in more deeply to your internal guidance system.

You can experiment by becoming a little more aware of the portion sizes you eat, and use mindful eating to help you experiment with just how much is enough. It’s a real sweet spot – adequate without over nor under-doing eating. It’s a practice for sure, and we humans by nature seem to over- or under-do it. So, if you struggle with this, you are not alone! Be patient and keep practicing.

How about an experiment –  quality over quantity?

Begin by experimenting with mindfully eating various foods – from treats like designer chips, whole foods take-out, gourmet pizzas and stevia sweetened sodas to more healthful choices like  fresh vegetables and fruit, beans, nuts and whole grains. See how different foods make you feel, and how much seems to be enough to satisfy and give you energy through the day (I know, easier said than done). Eating lightly (and for some, passing on snacking) can be both healthful and cost-effective. The practice of mindful eating is a great place to begin to explore just what eating lightly means for you.

2. Enjoy plants. 

If you have more than one serving of animal protein each day, you may be healthier and more frugal to look to plant-based protein to replace some of the meat and dairy you’re eating. Need some ideas on delicious way to focus on plant fare? Check out my recipe page, and my friend The Veggie Queen, who dedicates her working life to helping you enjoy more plants easily.

3. Consider a CSA or community food CO-OP.

Cut out the middleman and ensure the freshest local produce makes it into your kitchen all season long through a direct relationship with a local farm. To get stared check out Local Harvest. They will tell you how to get into the mindset, prepare to join, and help find your nearest community supported agriculture (CSA) farms and CO-OPs.

4. The bulk food aisle (or discount website) is your friend.

Get a break on nuts, spices, whole grains and just about everything beyond fresh produce. If you don’t live near a grocery store that offers bulk staples, of course the internet marketplace is there wherever you are. The Spruce has a good article on their favorite online grocery sites.

5. Browse your market’s circular

If you are so inclined to browse your supermarket’s circular, you really can shave a lot off your weekly food costs. My husband (astonishingly) does this as a practice – he plans our shopping around the meat and seafood that is on sale –  and he is truly amazing at it. The deals he gets are phenomenal! You do have to be aware that items on sale might not be the most healthful, so you need to practice discretion here.

6. Organic online coupons? Yep.

Check out All Natural Savings – a gal dedicated to online couponing –  to get you started. Whole Foods also has an online coupon book. So many ways to use them to eat well for less.

7. Keep it all in perspective.

There’s a certain new math – a longer-term economics we need to consider when we think about the higher cost of clean whole food. That new equation is hidden beneath cheap subsidized corn, sugar, meat and dairy.  As a nutritionist for the past 25 years I know that this cheaper refined food is responsible for a world of disease and pain.  In my practice I see people improve their health everyday through committing to higher quality nutrient dense, low chemical load food. Most people feel better right away when they move away from the standard American diet and learn to make small choices toward health while enjoying what they eat and feeling great regardless of the number of the scale. The benefits continue to build over time with longer, healthier lives.

When it comes to quality food, no one can eat perfectly all the time unless they have limitless income, their own farm and a small team of vegetable choppers at the ready.

So, do what you can to eat well for less, and let the rest go. Small changes can add up, over time, to transformation.

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Pre-Holiday Tune-Up Coaching Session

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Something about the time between Halloween and New Years – it’s both the most challenging nutritional time of the year, and the time of year when, well, dietitians might just go on vacation. We know you’ll be looking for us come New Year’s!
That’s why I am offering a quick tune-up coaching special for October and November. During these months, you can have a session with me either by phone or zoom. It’s 22% off the usual cost for a 60-minute session with me.

Here’s a step-by-step of your Coaching Tune-up

Before the session, you’ll fill out some quick intake information to help us both think about how the holidays unfold for you and how you’d like them to unfold from a health perspective. You’ll book your appointment and off we go.
During our coaching session, we’ll review your intention, co-create a high-impact doable strategy,  brainstorm how to overcome barriers, and talk about how to think about this in a way that will help you build on your practice, strengths and success in the new year.
You can also continue the conversation with follow-up sessions – but the idea is one session, buff you up. Boom.
Sound good? Sign up now.
coaching

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Women Finding Fulfillment, Passion, and Purpose After 50

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Hey friends,
I’m thrilled to be involved in an online summer for women in the wisdom years. For me, moving into the second half of life is a serious blend of satisfaction, and well, a little confusion – what’s next?
Here’s the information on it.
The Shift Network’s Thriving in Your Third Act: Women Finding Fire & Fulfillment After 50
You’ve lived a rich life, filled with knowledge, experiences, and accomplishments… and you may now be asking yourself, “What’s next?”
Maybe you find yourself thinking, “I’ve loved my career, my family, but I want to spend the rest of my life doing _____________ (fill in the blank)…”
If so, don’t miss this opportunity to join bold leaders who are on fire with possibility and purpose — including Jean Shinoda Bolen, Dr. Judith Orloff, Dr. Joan Borysenko, me, Anodea Judith, Yeye Luisah Teish, Grandmother Flordemayo, Cynthia James, Katie Hendricks, Rev. Deborah Johnson, Camille Maurine, Sarah Marshank, and others. Women who will guide you with their hard-earned wisdom and support your personal journey of transformation.

During this unparalleled 5-day gathering, you’ll discover:

  • How to be a “juicy crone” & discover the Goddesses and Archetypes that are active in the postmenopausal phase of your live
  • Practices for worry-proofing yourself & avoiding the midlife “happiness dip” by retraining your brain
  • The role of stress as the most critical (yet unrecognized) nutrition issue of our time
  • Explore how to harvest the charge in your energy body and bring more life force into your tissues
  • Exciting possibilities for reinventing your life, your focus, & your passions
  • Key practices to help you renew your life and reinvent yourself — free of cultural myths — and bask in the great joy of presence, connection, & new forms of play
  • How to create a supportive, thriving community of your choice
  • How to maintain optimal health during your wisdom years
  • How to express yourself spiritually as you become an Elder
  • Practices for igniting the power of your empathy and intuition to revitalize every area of your life
  • Step into the fullest expression of yourself as you journey to a new adventure in your 50s and beyond
  • Embody your inner boldness, expand your capacities in standing for Love

Join us for Thriving in Your Third Act, August 20-24.
RSVP at no charge here. 
If you download the summit to listen to later, I will receive a modest referral fee. Last year I listened to it for months! So much wisdom!
Yours truly,
Annie

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Subtle Body Nourishment: Benefits of Learning the Art & Science of Energy

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Getting the balance of eating and yoga practice down is a challenge for anyone. We overdo it, we under-do it, we practice when we’re full. We under-eat and don’t have the energy to perform. Sigh. Our energy, as well as our hunger peaks and valleys – getting it right is a dynamic dance.
Understanding and experiencing your own subtle body (in yoga, that includes your thoughts, intuition and energy bodies) takes practice. When you practice skillful navigation of your subtle body, particularly balanced with the knowledge of your nutritional needs, it can help prevent you from falling off a nutritional cliff of over- or under- doing it. This is especially handy once you begin the esoteric energy practices and learn that you have greater control over hunger and satiety that you’d realized. Then, having the wisdom of science to anchor you in adequacy is even more important to maintaining physical health.
That’s subtle body nourishment.

 Why Bother? Benefits of Energy Practice

When you learn eating meditation techniques you are learning how to turn inward and participate in your body’s guidance systems – you have the option of taking more control –  be it breath or eating or even thinking. That’s what all the hoopla is about. If we don’t understand that we are taking the steering wheel of hunger and satiety, it’s easy to under-eat once prana (life force, or energy as in your breath) starts expanding and getting excited. Then, it’s easy to overeat through your inevitable energy contraction.
Many a yogini seems to get into eating trouble when learning these more esoteric practices. It doesn’t have to be that way.
Life is an energy experience. Meditative practices are energy practices, and require that you spend time within your inner landscape – the more time you spend there exploring and curious, the better you will know and be able to navigate that landscape.
By learning how to operate your own subtle body, you can ultimately better navigate the chaos without getting overwhelmed by static. You can operate in a more intentional way.
This sort of practice brings consciousness to your personal energy ecology; the conditions under which you shine, for example.
Energy practice, meditation, mindfulness can help you learn how to improve your digestion – how to basically give your bodies what it needs (time and calm, primarily) to digest properly.

What is the Subtle Body?

In yoga philosophy, the subtle body is the aspect of you that is unseen by the human eye. It includes your thoughts and emotions, the wisdom aspect of you – your intuition, and your energy body.
The subtle body profoundly determines how you feel, react and respond to the world around us. When you learn how to guide your own thoughts, for example, you can literally change your perception of your own life. When you learn to ground your energy body, you can handle the spiral of chaos that the world at times seems to be, rooting in the real rather than swirling away in yet another frenzied tweet.

Food & Yoga Practice

The truth of the matter is that everyone is different – physically but also nutritionally. How well you can perform right after you eat, and the ideal makeup of a meal to fuel your practice is individual. There are, however, guidelines – rules of the road. Ayurveda practitioners say that certain foods create certain energies. Western science has their own version of the same idea – in a very different language. The language of macro and micro nutrition, and meal timing.
Ultimately, the way to figure out what works for you is to do the experiment. Notice how it works for you.
I’ve been thinking about subtle body nourishment and how food and practice interact in preparation for a gathering of souls at Kripalu July 8-11, Sunday through Wednesday morning. If these topics get interest you, consider joining me to practice, explore and learn about what the yogis and Western nutrition has to say about it.
Be well, practice on.

 

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Do Goals Make You Anxious? What to Aim for Instead

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I’ve always be a goal-oriented gal. Every year-end I love to reflect on the year that was, integrate the lessons and vision what may be.
I’ve noticed, however, when working with people who are trying to change, that setting goals can trigger anxiety. Goals don’t always seem to support happy change, and we can get a little reductive and crazy around them – push push push. Goals also suggest an endpoint.
When it comes to lifestyle change, there isn’t an endpoint – there are ongoing choices and adjustments. There is practice. Rather than goals, how about milestones – points along the way that can let you know you are on the road you intend. Rather than push, how about flow.
Words are important – they do nothing less than create our world. So, let’s re-think the language surrounding goals – particularly if goals make you anxious.
Rather than goals, think about shift (I call them milestones). Rather than relapse, it’s life (I bow down to my teacher-friend Aruni for that one!). This language feels more real and relevant. When I use allowing and flow language in a workshop, I can see people relax and focus on what really matters – bringing their lives a bit more in alignment with who they are.
The yogis say that change is a dance of being and becoming. Of embodiment and right action. Here in the West, we focus so much on the action phase, but really not at all on the quieter embodiment side of practice. Of walking your talk, and acting as if you understood how sacred the process can be.
Today, life is moving so fast, and is so open to limitless possibilities and is so unpredictable that setting goals seems…not so relevant. I like the idea of getting clear what you are interested in bringing into your life, and the practice doing that – experimenting with the many ways you can walk your talk, and take the right next step.

Did you make goals for 2018? Have they made you a little anxious? How about giving yourself a break, and softening your goal language into shifts, milestones, and practice?

Here are a some other articles on supporting shift and intentions for this new year.
Intention in Action – New Year’s Intentions
Intentions Can Last – Here’s How 
Gather Ye Guides
 

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Holiday Health Roundup

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Holiday Health Roundup by Annie B Kay - anniebkay.com
Ah, the holidays. I grew up in a large Catholic family, so Christmas was a celebration of food and board games – it was magical and fun. This time of year can be magical, filled with light and sweetness, but there’s also a bit of stress. The stress of expectation, of awkward gatherings, of being surrounded by less than healthful food. There is stress, too, in the ways life has changed since we were children.
Through the years that I’ve kept this blog, I’ve written quite a bit about the holidays – and how the heck we stay healthy during this time of year. Here is a roundup of posts that speak to moving through this season in a healthful joyful way. Enjoy!

In need of a truly extraordinary holiday gift? How about finding yourself & someone you love in paradise? There’s still room in our Costa Rica 5-day retreat – Feb 17-22.
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Genetics and Diet – What it Means for You

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Genetics and Diet - What it Means for You by Annie B Kay - anniebkay.com
The mapping of the human genome brought tremendous opportunities for optimizing human health, but this flood of information has also led to more questions. Can genetic variations lead to long-term health consequences? How can these be bypassed? And, how can clinicians use genetic information to help people achieve their best health?
I just came from the national meeting of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (AND) where I attended a seminar about how nutritionists can use common genetics tests (23& me) to help people customize their diet and supplements in accord to the own genetics. Imagine knowing which nutrition approaches and supplements would help address your unique mental health and metabolic genetics. What makes us each unique is the collection of single nucleotide polymorphisms – SNPs, in our genetics. 23&me testing will give you the raw data, and now there’s a group – a supplement manufacturer – who will help analyze those SNPs to guide nutrition based on your genetics.
The expanding field of nutritional genomics holds tremendous potential for healthcare providers to connect the dots between the human genome and nutrition to optimize health. The challenge lies in sorting through pages of genetic data, which requires a skilled eye and may take hours to interpret effectively. This means it is incredibly difficult for practitioners to take full advantage of this powerful information and provide every single patient with a personalized treatment plan for optimal health.
If you are interested in learning more about how your unique genetics interfaces with nutrition, and if you are interested in having your 23&me genetic report analyzed for its nutritional implications, let me know. annie(at)anniebkay.com.
A note on fees and financials: I do not have a financial arrangement with 23&me nor with the supplement group I would use to translate the genetic reports into nutrition recommendations through. The supplement groups assumes that the process will turn into supplement recommendations. My fees to you will be analyzing your 23&me data, interpreting the tests for you and your coaching session around it. 
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This Simple Tool Crushes Resistance

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This Simple Tool Crushes Resistance by Annie B Kay - anniebkay.com
Despite being at this game of health for decades, I continue to fascinate myself with my own resistance to…well, just about anything. I need help sustaining healthy change, and you probably do too.
I’ve been reading lately about the power of implementation intentions. There’s good research behind it as a strategy to help us move through our day and respond to the inevitable hitches that come up. When we get challenged, we remember what we are trying to do – “I intend to enjoy healthful eating,” and have a few if-then contingency decisions we pre-make every day.
If my husband isn’t home I’ll go to an extra yoga class. If my mom wants to come to Thanksgiving, then she’ll do the turkey.
Turns out that when set intention and we pre-make these decisions, we are more likely to carry them out.
Here are a few that may be helpful:

  • If I’m hungry after work and it’s not dinner time yet, I will have an apple.
  • If I don’t have time for lunch, I’ll grab a couple handfuls of nuts.
  • If I’m tired, I will move anyway – but it will be gentle and enjoyable.
  • If I work late and can’t get to yoga, I’ll take 10 minutes to unwind and meditate before leaving work, then another before going to bed.
  • If I haven’t eaten vegetables yet today, I will double up at dinner.

I find that having three if…thens on a given day do the trick for me. If you can take a moment in the morning and visualize your day, and create three if-thens for your day that help you set an intention to be balanced. If…then.
If I see you today, then I hope you say hi.
Be well,
Annie
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Navigate the Fall Transition

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Navigate the Fall Transition by Annie B Kay - anniebkay.com
Be Still.
After Labor Day, things swirl a little faster, everyone’s at their desk type type typing away, and off we go. Fall. It’s back to school, back to work.
I love Fall – the color in nature here in New England, and every year I do have a few back-to-school flashbacks, thinking of my Disney-bus lunchbox that smelled of old bread and peanut butter. Jelly!
This month I’m in the swirl of fall energy. New business, different business, I’m reaching into new places. As a small business owner (rather than my full-time job as Lead Nutritionist at Kripalu, which I left in January [they won’t be replacing me anytime soon, sorry integrative nutritionists]- though I still teach there a bit) I am learning my own way of marketing – how I inform those I serve of what I offer, finding my way toward having income and expenses balance out (they can balance out, right?).
Fall has some challenge to it. The cold winds begin to blow, aggravating our Vata (an Ayurvedic constitution embodying movement, cold, and dryness. Our whole culture, some say, is Vata deranged, meaning we are over-stimulated in a certain way). We are prone to colds and flu now – and here comes the first round!
I need to remind myself, in these busy days of September, to take time to be still.
To practice – perhaps bowing down to Ganesha, the tantric mascot of new beginnings, good friends, and family bonds. This month I follow his lead, being in the dance of joy and work-life. I’ll remember to enjoy the sweetness of this life no matter how absurd or challenging or ironic the universe seems.
So I practice. Practice wonder and work. And I care for myself in that fall flu preventing way. Here are few ideas:

  • Eat Nutrient Dense. Especially antioxidants. Citrus, dark greens, brightly colored vegetables. Squash and tomatoes are your energy-rich yet calorically light friends.
  • Tend Your Inner Garden. Remember that the vast majority of our immune system is found in the gut, and more specifically, in the collection of bacteria we tend in our large intestines. This is an excellent time to pick up a jar of fermented sauerkraut or kimchee, or, if you are not one for fermenteds, try a good quality probiotic. Look for one with a nice high CFU (colony forming units) number – more than 1 billion per dose is what you are looking for.
  • Take Time to Be Still. As time passes, I am more and more convinced that it is what’s inside our minds that makes us well or not-so. Find a mindfulness group (yes this is the plug! – Check out my weekly online Mindful Presence Group). Or find a local one.
  • Consider the Fine Art of Abhyanga. Through the winter, I rub myself with warm oil each morning, and actually, it’s fantastic oil at that. I either make my own – Ashawaghanda in sesame oil, or I get a nice fragrant (and expensive!) oil from the Kripalu shop for a treat. Each morning I warm a bit, and take a few of the waking moments to take fantastic care of myself. It has literally transformed my life! My Ayurvedic brothers and sisters do it in a particular way – and it depends upon your constitution, which way is just right for you. But, just the warm oil on my cold fall and winter skin. Heaven.

May you navigate the transitional season of fall with nary a sniffle. Be well, love your life and stay in touch.
Annie
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How Mindful Presence Transforms

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How Mindful Presence Transforms by Annie B Kay - anniebkay.com
This month, I’m launching a telehealth private practice. Very exciting. You can now work with me individually online. I’m beginning with Tuesday and Thursday afternoon/evenings for privates and going from there. Wednesday at 6:30 PM EST is an online Mindful Presence Group.
One of the reasons I am partnering with the platform that I am is the capacity to do online groups – we can cyber-gather to meditate, brainstorm, collaborate. The first one that I’m launching is a weekly Mindful Presence Group. I’m launching that one first because I think that it is a powerful basic structure that supports our becoming more of who we intend to be – it supports change. It helps manage stress, forms community, and nudges us along the practice of mindfulness meditation. To paraphrase from my meditation teacher:

Meditation practice helps us quiet down, lets us catch up with ourselves. It leads us to and allows us to gently rearrange, the center of our being. No one else can do this work for you. Only meditation can unlock these doors.

While it does not replace face-to-face connection, it is easy and cost-effective (about $20/session) to practice.

Here is more about the practice:

Mindful presence eases you into meditation! The practice of presence – when we get clear about what is going on, and speak it, particularly in a supportive group, helps us understand that we are not alone and that life is…beautifully imperfect. For everyone. We witness another’s experience silently, with open hearts. Being heard by others in this way can make it easier to move with confidence into a deeper appreciation of life.
Each group is limited to 12 participants.

Outline for the 60-minute call:

  • Annie: Welcome and meditation (10 min)
  • Each participant speaks for 2-3 minutes (Annie will facilitate – it’s easy AND speaking is optional…you can just listen if you prefer)
  • Annie integrates and offers a follow-up question or deepener
  • Group members share as desired, time allowing (Annie will facilitate)
  • Annie closes with a brief meditation

Basic ground rules of conscious communication:

  • Statements come from your experience: “I am experiencing…”, “I am feeling…”
  • Resist the temptation to cross-talk. While something someone else says may resonate with you, resist saying “I agree…” or “That reminds me of…”
  • When someone has the floor, we are silent witnesses to their report. We simply hold space for one another.
  • You don’t have to speak – you can pass. Too, when you are complete, let us know by saying “thanks,” or “that’s it.”

Give it a try!
It is a group meditation and conscious communication practice rolled into one.

Here’s the link to join in. 

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Do You Integrate? Integration is…Everything

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Do You Integrate? Integration is...Everything by Annie B Kay - anniebkay.com
There is much talk of integrative health these days. We’re all happy when we have an integrative physician. So just what is integrative health? What is integration?

Integrative Health

The National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH) – part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) – thinks a lot about this, and has helped with some definitions that feel like a good (conservative, to be sure) place to begin. They say integrative health care is bringing complementary (treatments not part of Western medicine) and conventional Western medicine together in a coordinated way. So, using both the Western allopathic medical system, but also things like yoga, nutrition (yep, still pretty much considered, for the most part, complementary), acupuncture, and meditation in a skillful and informed way. These complementary modalities are ones that might not have a deep collection of Western scientific studies that verify their clinical use, but each of these modalities has been shown to be helpful. If we consider practice-based observational evidence, many of these practices have thousands of years of evidence. I like that way of thinking about integrative health. The skillful use of a wide array of modalities to support an individual’s care.
That’s health – but what does integration mean in life? We live in such a spinning world, where we often don’t have time to reflect on nor absorb what happens to us or around us. Experiences come fast and furious. It is, without question, an excellent time to practice.
I honestly think that it’s impossible to avoid stress and that we need to think about how we manage stress differently today. The world is different than it was even twenty years ago. The planet is a lot less stable and it’s impacting everything. In order to be healthy today, we need to be adaptive. Adaptive to chaos. Relax while tumbling. Release into the flow.

Integration

Integration, in an experiential or spiritual context, happens after an experience, when you take time to be quiet, restful and take in what happened. Integration is the energetic digestion of an experience. It requires time, quiet, rest, reflection. Relaxation. Usually more than is convenient in your busy day. Thus the rub.
When we hop from event to event in our lives – and no judgment here, I do it myself when I lose hold of that pesky schedule and over-schedule myself  – we just don’t integrate. The pieces of us don’t come together in a new way (which is often the point, particularly if we seek positive or expansive ecstatic experience).

Try Less

So, we practice. We smuggle five minutes of reflective practice into our morning routine. We turn off the news during dinner. We eat breakfast in silence. One the wisest pieces of advice I got from an Astanga yoga teacher (the incomparable Bhavani Maki in Kauai) was “Try Less.” When I feel overwhelmed, I think about what in my schedule I can let go of. What is not really serving me? What perhaps used to work but no longer does? It’s not an easy practice.
We resist the temptation to reprimand ourselves for not being perfect. We breathe and relax instead.
We fall in love – on purpose – with our contemplative practice. We fall in love with our breath and the amazing places it can take us if we only just settled down to feel it. We fall in love with our meditation or our deep relaxation practices for the expansive velvet depth of our interior landscape they open to us. Maybe for 5 minutes. Maybe for a day.
So, if you are one to have experiences – expansive experiences – then please take a day or two afterward – if possible, to give yourself the gift of integration. Of reflection and relaxation and allowing the pieces of you to come together in a new way. Of silence – be it listening to the birds, meditation or walking in nature.
Here’s wishing you integrative health within a wonderful collection of loving and talented health providers, and deep integration of the expansive experiences in your life.
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Feeling Diabetic? Let's Fix It.

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Feeling Diabetic? Let's Fix It. by Annie B Kay - anniebkay.com
Diabetes is the scary sister of the obesity epidemic.
The physical fallout from insulin resistance (IR) and the resulting roller coaster of blood sugar leads to life-altering circulation problems which in turn can lead to vision issues, neuropathy (nerve issues), kidney issues and more. It’s scary stuff.
What does it feel like to live in a body that has pre-diabetes?
It feels tired – unusually tired. It feels hungry – really hungry for comfort foods and fat – things like bread, cookies and sweets, potatoes with gravy or butter. It feels a little shaky and often nervous. It can feel overall crummy, unmotivated and a little hopeless.
It’s not you! It’s your blood sugar.
When you feel like you have diabetes, comfort foods – the very foods that make the condition worse – are most appealing. Yes, the universe is ironic.
Most diabetes begins as pre-diabetes and worsens over time. UNLESS!
Unless you change.
The good news is that for this type of diabetes, you can, to a HUGE extent, prevent progression of the disease. I have seen it reversed time and time again when someone has the support to eat to manage blood sugars, gets adequate movement and manages stress. Maintaining it is the tricky part…hard (but possible) to do.
Many mainstream medical docs are not talking about the extent to which you can reverse diabetes. It drives me (and my proactive doc friends) crazy to hear that someone’s blood sugar is a bit up and their doc tells them to watch and wait. What you’ll end up watching is your blood sugars rise, and diabetes take hold. When I see someone with a borderline high fasting blood sugar, it’s ACTION TIME! It’s the time you can completely change your future.
You are so very worth it. 
It’s all about finding your version of a healthier life; enjoy a delicious healthful diet, manage stress and move adequately. There are so many paths to managing blood sugars. You don’t have to be perfect, and each person can find the balance of eating, moving and having fun (another way of thinking about managing stress) that works for them.
A few easy ways to get started are:

  1. Add one more serving of your favorite vegetable, either raw or lightly cooked, than you eat right now. Begin today, and repeat tomorrow.
  2. Try the psyllium shot before meals. I swear it works!
  3. Consider the disco minute. Put on your favorite dance song and dance like no one’s watching.

The earlier you address the issue, the better (though it’s never too late – even if you are on insulin, improving your self-care will improve your overall health). The earlier you begin, the more likely you’ll be able to fix the issue. From years of providing evidence-based nutrition to people with creeping weight gain afraid of diabetes, I can tell you that the number of people with metabolic syndrome (a little diabetes and a little cardiovascular disease that add up to bad news for health), who don’t know they have it is very large and growing. Even many people with good medical care don’t seem to know (or are too afraid to know).
I hear you – diabetes is a scary condition. It might seem that in order to address it you have to give up your favorite foods – all the comfort and fun in your life. While you do have to change to address the condition, many people are doing it and actually enjoying life more. Step by step, little (or a lot) at a time. When I work with someone with diabetes, we work on making sure food is not the only source of comfort in life – we have to do that first, then addressing food is easier.
Once you’re ready to make a change (and have practiced one of the easy kick-starts I mentioned above) is to take stock of where you are. Again, it can be un-nerving to take that clear look at the numbers that describe what’s going on, but just know that whatever they are, you can change them.
This summer I’ll be blogging more about diabetes – what it is, and how to manage it with lifestyle.
In the meantime, here are a couple posts that you might find helpful:

Feeling Diabetic? Let's Fix It. by Annie B Kay - anniebkay.com

Pinterest

Feeling Diabetic? Let's Fix It.Read More