9 Strategies for Blood Sugar Control

Maintaining blood sugar control is a big commitment and takes up a large portion of your time but making it a priority can help prevent major complications associated with Type 2 Diabetes. Having a too high or too low blood sugar level can cause serious conditions and symptoms. For example: With high blood sugar, you may experience symptoms such as thirst, frequent urination/urinary urgency, weight loss, fatigue/low energy, and drowsiness. You may drop into low blood sugar if you go too long without eating, if you drink alcohol, or exercise. When this happens, you may experience symptoms such as sweating, shakes, headaches, racing heart, weakness/confusion, pale skin, and in the worst case, you could slip into a diabetic coma.

Struggling to find tips to keep blood sugars under control? Use these suggestions to keep your blood sugar levels from dropping too low or rising too high.

1. Don’t skip doses – Sticking to your medication plan is vital, whether it’s oral medication or injecting insulin, it’s important to stay on top of it, and to never skip doses.
2. Scheduled eating – Eating healthy meals at the same time every day helps keep your blood sugar levels steady. Try meal prepping your food if you are on the go to making eating simple and accessible.
3. Carbohydrate distribution – Carbohydrates tend to raise your blood sugar levels, so try to spread them out throughout the day. Eating around 30-60 grams of carbohydrates each meal should be effective in keeping your blood sugar levels in a healthy range.
4. Testing your blood sugar – This might be an obvious one, but it is extremely important. Testing your blood sugar levels with a meter is the only way to know how your body responds to the meals you’re eating throughout the day. Your doctor will help determine how many times you should be checking your BG levels daily.
5. Keeping record of your BG levels– Keeping a record or a log of your blood sugar readings will help you and your doctor analyze your progress. You can keep a record in a logbook, websites, and apps such as Health2sync and Mysugr.
6. Move your body – People with Type 2 who exercise tend to have better control of their blood sugar levels, blood pressure, and cholesterol levels. But if you are exercising, eating a small serving of carbohydrates 30 minutes before can help avoid low blood sugar.
7. Plan before eating out – Extra carbs can be hidden in a number of ways when eating out, such as breading on chicken and breadcrumbs in meatballs. A good way to avoid eating too many carbohydrates is looking at the restaurant’s menu online before arrival, to make sure there is something on the menu for you.
8. Recruiting friends and family – If you’re struggling to eat healthier and exercise, try recruiting friends and family to do it with you, to make it seem less of a chore and more like a fun activity.
9. Be kind to yourself – If you struggle with controlling your blood sugar, don’t beat yourself up about it. Diabetes has a natural progression, and blood sugar levels tend uprise over time, and more medication may be needed, but it is best to keep positive.