Have you found the best diabetic diet for you? Good. But you’re not done yet. You still need to include physical activities.
Why Should You Take Physical Activities?
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When it comes to battling diabetes, managing diet and nutrition for diabetes is not the only thing you can do. Doing some exercise is a good idea too. We all know that physical activities are good for our body and help diabetic people to manage blood glucose level. Furthermore, physical activities can also:
- – Lower blood pressure
- – Improve blood flow
- – Burn some calories
- – Increase the level of good cholesterol
Unless taking a special diet for diabetes, people tend to have extra calories that can inhibit blood flow and lead to high blood pressure. The good news is, you can maintain a diabetic diet and still burn some calories by moving more and eating less. Even small amounts of daily physical activity in a very short time count.
You can walk for 30 minutes in the morning around your house. If you don’t have enough time to do that, doing some pushups, jumping jack and high knees for a minute will do. These physical activities also include other activities that we will discuss in the following section. However, certain physical activities may be unsafe for some people. You can ask your health care team to decide what activities are safe for you.
Here are 5 physical activities for those who take a diabetic diet:
1. Increase the Dose of Your Daily Activities
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Doing physical activities to battle diabetes does not always mean that you have to add any specific activities that you don’t usually do. You can just add extra time for your daily chores or add another chore if you still have much spare time to spend.
If you have finished your house chores at the weekend and you feel like you want to watch TV, you can walk to the kitchen and grab water during the commercial. Once you have finished drinking, return those glass and/or bottle to the kitchen and go back to enjoy your favorite channel. That’s easy and doesn’t spend much time and energy.
If don’t have any chores to do, go outside to water the flowers, rake leaves or wash the car. When you go for weekly shopping, park your car at the far end of the parking lot and walk the rest. Instead of going picnic or watching movies, it is better to take your family outside and be more active, like cycling, walking in a park or swimming.
Those also apply during the work days. Park your car a little bit far from your office and take the stairs, instead of the lift. Also, do some light activities for at least 3 minutes every half an hour while sitting in your desk.
2. Aerobic Exercises
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Doing aerobic exercises helps to burn extra calories faster, make your heart beat faster that leads to smooth blood flow. Invest 30 minutes for aerobic exercise most days of the week. If you don’t have time or energy to do that, start with 10 minutes and build up to 30 minutes gradually as time goes by. Or, you can break up the exercise into 10 minutes in the morning, 10 minutes in the afternoon and 10 minutes before going to bed.
These exercises include walking, jogging, cycling, swimming, basketball, and tennis. If you don’t think that you can do any of these before bed, walk around your house to check things and fix something that needs fixing. Walk for lunch and ride your bike to the office will also do. The point is to find a way to exercise that you enjoy as continuous exercise requires commitment.
3. Weight Training
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Do you have a barbell at your house? Good. Because it means that you can do weight training at home.
Not everyone is fond of going outside or simply does not have much time to do outdoor activities. Having the barbell, you can gain the muscle mass that can help maintain your blood sugar. You can barbell while watching TV, cooking, reading books or newspapers, and do other chores. Nevertheless, you can always go to the gym.
4. Strength Training
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Basically, weight training is a form of strength training. Once you have been accustomed to weight training, you can start this. Strength training include training the central nervous system so you can lift heavier weight. Besides, this training focuses more on the form, the geometry of force production, long rest periods, and maximal loads. This training, as you know, includes weight lifting. You should ask your instructor to adjust your weight.
5. Flexibility Training
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Flexibility training is a moderate physical activity, but you cannot underestimate it. Still remember your first experience joining the yoga club, right?
Besides yoga, this training includes stretching exercises. It can reduce muscle soreness, relax your muscles, reduce your stress, and increase your flexibility.
Unlike the other exercises, you can do this training as often as you like as long as you have time as it does not require much energy. Besides, as the name suggests, it’s flexible.
A diabetic diet isn’t the only choice you can take to battle diabetes. As you may know, some diets for diabetics can make you weak. Therefore, doing some physical exercises can give you more energy and make you stronger while taking care of your diabetes.