Get Active, Stay Active
The health effects of regular exercise are well known and include:
- Reduced risk of heart attack, heart disease, and stroke
- Weight loss
- Reduced stress
- Better quality of life
- Lower blood pressure
- More normal cholesterol levels
- Improved carbohydrate metabolism and insulin sensitivity
Most importantly for patients with diabetes, exercise lowers blood glucose levels.
The American Diabetes Association recommends that adults who are physically able should get at least:
- 150 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise each week (walking, biking, swimming, etc.)
- 3 weekly sessions of resistance training (weight machines, exercise bands, etc.)
Exercise Lowers Blood Glucose Levels
Your liver and muscles store glucose in the form of glycogen. Your body breaks down glycogen to make glucose for energy when you first start exercising. After that stored energy is used up, your muscles have to get glucose from your blood (with the help of insulin).
Increased physical activity increases blood flow to your muscles and increases their uptake of glucose. As a result, your blood glucose level goes down.
The beneficial effects of exercise on blood sugar even continue for several hours after exercising. Your body’s response to exercise is to replace the glycogen you used for energy, so the liver and muscles continue to take up glucose from the bloodstream and turn it into glycogen.
In addition to helping you lose weight, regular exercise can help reduce the amount of diabetes medicine you need to take to control your blood sugar.
Start Slowly
If you’re new to physical activity, don’t try to do too much at first, and be sure to get your doctor’s okay before you start. When you do start, take it slow and make small, attainable goals. For example, you could start by taking a 10-minute walk during your lunch-break at work every day. When you meet those smaller goals, you can gradually increase the length of time you walk, or add an after-dinner walk to your routine.
Ask for an "Exercise Prescription"
If your diabetes treatment team does not include an exercise specialist, ask your doctor or diabetes educator to develop an exercise prescription for you. It’s a plan for daily exercise, based on your specific needs. It should include short- and long-term goals so you can measure your progress.
Why not Walk?
Increased physical activity doesn’t have to mean participation in sports or a formal exercise program. Depending on your age, general state of health, and physical condition, it may be best for you to start with a moderate program of daily walking.
A reasonable goal for most people is to walk at a moderate pace for 30 minutes each day. You can do it all in one-half hour, or you can break it up into shorter sessions. Just make sure you exercise for at least 10 minutes at a time. For example: Walk 10 minutes each day before work, 10 minutes at lunch, and 10 minutes after dinner, or you might try two 15-minute “walk-breaks” every day.
One of the best things you can do to encourage yourself to exercise and monitor your energy output is to wear a pedometer every day. A pedometer is a small, lightweight device that counts the number of steps you take and calculates the distance you travel based on stride length.
The US government recommends a target of 10,000 steps a day. This may seem like a lot, but there are easy ways to increase your daily step count that you may have never thought about, like:
- Taking the stairs instead of the elevator whenever possible
- Walking to your colleagues’ desk or office when you have something to communicate, rather than phoning or e-mailing
- Parking your car in a space farther away from the entrance
- While watching television, walking in place during every commercial break
- Walking the golf course instead of riding in a cart
All Activity Counts
It can also help to stop thinking about “exercise” and, instead, start thinking about activity. All sorts of things can count toward your activity goals, including:
- Dancing
- Housecleaning
- Laundry
- Gardening and yard work
- Washing your car
- Hiking
- Playing with your dogs or your children
Finding your own creative ways of being active is an opportunity to practice the self-care behavior of problem-solving. The problem is figuring out how to get more movement and physical activity into your day, and the solution is just about anything you can come up with…think about it.
Next Article: Eat Well
Download These PDF Tools: Daily Exercise Tracker
