After the festive season, you may be looking to do a bit of a ‘clean up,’ get yourself back on track with a good eating routine, or perhaps lose a few pounds you might have gained from all the festive foods.
Here we’re put together a few weight loss tips for type 2 diabetes, plus we’ve got a free cheat sheet you can download for reference as well (scroll to the button at the bottom and enter your details to receive it).
Eat real foods that are lower in carbs
Our body was designed to live on natural foods that come directly from nature so it makes sense that these foods help promote healthy metabolism and boost weight loss.
Eliminate as much processed and packaged food as possible and choose foods from the fresh food section of the grocery store. Foods like fresh vegetables, lots of leafy green vegetables, eggs, meats, poultry and seafood, nuts, seeds, olive oil and avocado.
Focus on using clean condiments for flavor. By this we mean fresh or dried herbs and spices, lemon, lime and vinegar.
Minimise some common show stoppers
There are some foods and beverages that may be irritants to the digestive system and metabolism.
Limit tea and coffee, along with dairy products, except cottage cheese and yogurt in small amounts.
Beans and legumes should be kept to a maximum 1/4 cup per serve.
Avoid the high carb offenders
Higher carb foods don’t just add numbers to your blood glucose but they can also promote fat storage when carbs are being eaten in excess and not used for fuel to go about your day.
For you that means you will not only help boost metabolism and weight loss by cutting down the high carb offenders, you get the nice offset of lower blood sugar levels too.
Avoid all types of sugar, sweetened beverages, processed foods, starchy veggies like potato, sweet potato and corn, breads, pasta, rice, noodles and cereals. Also be wary of store-bought condiments, these often contain lots of sugar and other ingredients your body doesn’t need when trying to flip the weight loss switch.
Drink water
At least 8 glasses a day. For added flavor use a squeeze of lime or lemon and some fresh mint.
Exercise
Aim for 30 minutes of exercise most days, or more if you can. Of course, if you can’t exercise for some reason, then do what you can or none at all. If you focus on cleaning up your diet, you can still get results but it may take a bit longer.
Keep a food diary
There’s nothing quite like a bit of self-accountability. Sometimes we don’t realize what’s going in the mouth until we write it down – it can be a real eye opener and a real helper in evaluating where you might need to make a few tweaks.
Monitor blood sugar
If you have a home monitor, it’s always a great way to get immediate feedback on how you’re progressing, in terms of blood sugar control. You want to try and keep your blood sugar within range after a meal, ideally no higher than 140 mg/dL or 7.8 mmol/L.
Don’t obsess about the scales
Weighing yourself everyday is not a good way to monitor progress. It can take time to see a shift, then suddenly things can start moving. Daily weighing can be a soul destroyer and motivation killer when you don’t see the number you expect or wish to see.
Instead, stick to a once-monthly weigh in and focus on committing to your new lifestyle routine and the small changes in energy, clarity, mood, sleep, or other feelings you experience as you go along.
You can do this!
Set your goal and go get it!
2021 is the year for you to see the changes that you want to see.
Best of luck.
Remember, to click the button below to get a copy of the weight loss/ kickstart cheat sheet sent to your email inbox.
Am prediabete I need to gain weight not lose weight. I am already skin and bones. So how do i gain weight?
Hey Paula, you might find this info useful.