Diabetes is sadly a super popular Lifestyle disorder in India. The reason it is called a Lifestyle disorder is because it could generate due to a fault in one’s lifestyle. By living a wrong/ unhealthy lifestyle, you are likely to attract Diabetes or any other Lifestyle disorder too (such as high blood pressure or obesity). But also, just correcting your Lifestyle can make you forget that you're even a Diabetic because your blood glucose reports are likely to be always under the normal range.

When entering into the niche of IT/ Software/ Corporate Employees in the World of many Diabetics, it gets even more difficult to manage it. One of the loudest reasons being the IT Employees have to SIT almost the entire day. Theirs is a desk job and they can’t help but sit and we all know that Sitting is the new Smoking.

When a person doesn’t move much, as in, drives to work, sits at work, drives home from work is basically sitting the entire day and is said to be leading a Sedentary Lifestyle.

Identification:

Before moving on to further details or tips or the HOW Part, we need to always get Aware, first! IDENTIFY the WHY and then move to the HOW!

Sedentary Lifestyle has been identified so far but what are the cherry and the icing on the cake?

Let’s identify more reasons!!

IT Employees are also infamous for parties. Which means they do (or maybe have to) attend a lot of corporate lunches, dinners, success parties, etc. – both formal and informal (formal – parties organized through the organization; informal – parties amongst colleagues for small or big wins in the workplace or sometimes even personal life milestones.)

In these parties, they end up eating a lot more than their usual appetite and not-to-forget, the hero of social settings – alcohol. (Alcohol, by the way, has the power to damage a lot more organs and worsen or help you invite more lifestyle disorders – however, that’s another whole topic! And, well, you know that you’re doing something that you shouldn’t be doing in the first place so you’re not really naive. Let’s stick to Diabetes Management for now, though!)

Let’s say you’re not a party animal or you’re a teetotaller.

BUT you have a tendency to skip meals. As a Corporate Wellness Consultant and Lifestyle Counselor who have advised Nutrition and Lifestyle plans to several people, my most common observation amongst employees has been this! (irrespective of the person being a Diabetic or not!) – People tend to skip meals. The common pattern identified is - they’d most probably compromise on Breakfast, meaning miss it as they’d have to rush to the office, go for late lunches and consequently be madly hungry till Dinner time and THIS becomes the most heavy meal of their day due to several reasons. This is dangerous because the body doesn’t get time to digest the food because people head to bed quite quickly after they eat, plus they overeat as a result of starving the whole day! Due to this irregular distribution of the meals, the blood glucose levels in a person’s body keep going mad and are never able to stay stable.

Another reason is under-exposure or over-exposure or messed-up exposure to fatty and sugary foods. This means they would either overly restrict themselves (which keeps building frustration) or they wouldn’t care and go on eating anything and everything and at any given time of the day OR the whole thing gets messed up. Meaning, they have waves of discipline and frustration. Since they restrict, say sweets/ desserts, too much, their brain craves it even more and then there comes a day or event or a mood swing where your willpower that was hanging by a thread, dies! And, Boom! You eat the bar of chocolate or the dabba of sweets like never before! (Mind you, in normal circumstances where you could have been happily satisfied with one laddoo or a cube or two of chocolate turns into a 3-4 pieces or a whole bar of chocolate in a snap!

All of these ways are unhealthy methods that don’t just mess up your blood reports and lifestyle but also hamper your relationship with a certain food group or food as a whole.

Moving on to the next identification – I am going to talk about what you’re currently feeling by nodding your head to all the messy things you’ve been doing to your health – Yes, I am talking about Stress! STRESS is the Master of causing and worsening almost all diseases/ disorders – directly or indirectly!

IT Employees are always under stress due to the pressure of the deadlines, due to the uncertain nature of their work or due to several other reasons. Some other, not-too-talked-about reasons are spending a lot of time in traffic, having to go through annoying, crowded public transport, not having enough time for themselves, for their kids, for their meals, for their hobbies, for their workouts or for even themselves can all contribute to invisible stress.

Apart from this, a lack of planning of their day, lack of expert guidance and a lack of balancing work & life, nutrition & exercising, hustling & resting to rejuvenate can all make it ultra-messed-up! And with so much of hard-work, in fact, so consistently, in brick-by-brick building an unhealthy and upset lifestyle, it feels so difficult to even think of wanting to make it a healthy and happy one! You're just used to it now!!

But probably a part of you still wants to give it another try, wants to still feel healthy, wants to still sculpt your lifestyle and live a splendid life while rocking those blood glucose reports! If you didn’t, you wouldn’t read the article this far, so congratulations on that self-care decision + because you’ve landed the right article!

So, ready?

You are probably not going to find a lot of exciting tips – yes, boring things make a healthy, sustainable lifestyle and you are also probably not going to see a lot of new things, because thanks to your curious Googling, you know it all by now! But I can assure you that they will be all understandable, doable, will bring you joy in the long run, and will be easy to execute in the short run! (Although there are many in-depth tips and guidance that a Diabetic needs and that require an Expert Consultation online or offline, these tips help you make your unstructured lifestyle get some definition and to get started!)

So, Here we go:

1. Stop making breakfast your first meal or invisible meal – have something almost immediately after you wake up (this can be a few nuts or a fruit) and never skip breakfast – you don’t need to eat avocado toast – just eat anything made at your ghar!
2. Walk, climb, move, stand - whenever and wherever you can – if it’s a 5-10 minute route, just walk, if it’s a long meeting, stand up in between for a few seconds, if someone rings the doorbell, stop asking your sibling or kids to open the door - walk! This is not sweating it out in the gym – it is just staying moving/ functional throughout the day!
3. 3. Eat something - anything, in a gap of 2.5 to 3 hours – this will be a game-changer in helping you manage your Blood Glucose levels and there won’t be any crazy spikes and dips. (If you eat regular meals, you are likely to eat moderately in every single meal.)
4. Choose any activity that makes you happy – it can be badminton, cricket, jogging, walking in the park or a Zumba class, it can be anything – just do it for 30 minutes at any time of the day (this is not your time to pick the best time – just get started, first!) and do it for about 5 days in the week – Yes, you can enjoy your weekend completely!!
5. Take 3 minutes, yes, that’s 180 seconds out of 24 hours – not too tough, right? – Just shut your eyes and sit with yourself- anytime, anywhere – don’t complicate this! 

• Never miss your medications and never become your own Doctor or Dietitian! (My Random Blood Glucose reading was low after lunch, let me skip the tablet; I feel okay, I don’t think I need the tablets twice a day; I saw a YouTube video that asked me to go on Intermittent Fasting or Keto Diet; I think I will cut down carbs and fats completely! – NO! Just do what the experts tell you!! Why do you want to do so much work by yourself, anyway?)
• Get a HbA1C test done every 3 months (get this confirmed by your regular Diabetologist, too!) and work on improving that by giving your body at least 3 months to start showing results to the lifestyle changes you make!
• Stop thinking or telling yourself (or others) that you are different or have a disease – Diabetes is not a Big Deal if you correct your lifestyle and once it is fine-tuned, you can leave it to your body’s automatic responses – things will happen naturally since they’d become strong habits (Do you struggle to fit brushing your teeth into the day? You don't. Why? It's a Habit! You get it?) – however, nothing happens overnight! – Give yourself enough time (a minimum of 3 months to start, 6 months to settle, 12 months to begin flourishing!)
• Always stay hydrated - set reminders if you need to but do not miss drinking water!
• Get a personalized consultation from a Dietitian or a Lifestyle Counselor if you wish to get further hand-holding and regularly stay in touch with your Doctor!

With all this navigation and these fantastic actionable items, you’re sure to see a healthier version of yourself in the coming weeks and months!

Wishing you all the very best on your Happy Health Journey!!!

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