Today in my video I talk about shaming ourselves. Why do we do that? We make ourselves feel guilty ab
out faults, missteps, and lack of judgment. We hold ourselves to such “high” standards that there is no way we can meet them. Well, at least I do.
I think of all the negative things and how I “should” be stronger, better, and healthier. I dwell on how imperfect I am instead of focusing on the many things I am good at.
Instead of all the negative things that I focus upon, my focus needs to shift to those things that I do well.
In the fight against type 2 diabetes, we have to be “nicer” to ourselves. Yes, many of us are overweight. Yes, many of us have unhealthy lifestyles. Yes, many of us do not eat “right.”
But these are all things we CAN change. We CAN lose weight. We CAN change our unhealthy lifestyles. We CAN eat right.
Use a Free App to Help You
Many apps are free to use (if you want the advanced features, you have to pay more). At the right, you can see an image of my walk at Walmart (as referenced in the video below). This app is called Steps. It is an IOS (Apple) app. I do not know if it is available for other operating systems.
Another free app that is for both Android and IOS is My Fitness Pal. I used that one for several years and got a lot out of it. The free version has a lot of really cool features. The pay version has more bells and whistles. I would say for most of us the free version is sufficient. I used it to track what I ate and my exercise.
The app I use now is called Lose It and again, it is for both Android and IOS. I went ahead and upgraded to the premium version of the app because I wanted to be able to track a lot of other things besides what I ate and my exercise. With the upgrade, I can easily chart my fat grams, calories, measurements, daily blood glucose, water intake, exercise, and a lot more. I have not yet explored all the benefits of the upgraded version.
Both My Fitness Pal and Lose It have a huge base of foods so you can usually type in the food and it will come up with the calories and more so you don’t have to spend a lot of time in the app if you don’t want to.
Both also have a social feature that allows you to connect with friends and others to encourage one another.
Each also has a big database of exercises you can simply type in to track.
One of the best features is the ability to scan a UPC symbol and if the food is recognized, it puts all the information in for you automatically so you don’t have to type it in and find the right one, etc. It is an awesome feature that is available in both apps, as well.
At the left is an example of part of my food from yesterday.
Today’s Video
I hope you enjoy today’s video. Remember, these videos are completely unscripted and I genuinely speak from my heart when I do them. I hope that the information I share is helpful!
Thank you for visiting my site. I would love to hear your thoughts on this post. Please leave questions or comments below and I will get back to you very soon!
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Disclaimer: I am not a medical expert. The posts that I write are not to offer medical advice, but merely what I am doing on my journey and things that I personally have found helpful. I do a lot of reading and researching from an academic standpoint and will use some content that comes from people in the medical profession. If you have questions or concerns about anything that I write, please contact me at karin@diabeteshealthnuts.com. Thank you! 🙂
About the author
Karin Nauber is a professional journalist who has worked in the newspaper business for the past 25 years. She is also a grandmother who, along with her spouse, is raising one of their granddaughters. Karin has nine grandchildren with whom she enjoys spending as much time as possible. Karin also was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes about 13 years ago and has faced many challenges with the disease. If you would like to contact her, please do so at karin@diabeteshealthnuts.com.
Good stuff! A lotta us constantly dogging ourselves everyday for mishaps, not knowing that is what keeps us in the cages, stuck forever in a negative as heck spiral. Considering there are lots of resources to fix Type 2 Diabetes, it is nice to see a post to remind people not to give in to the shame and focus on the solution.
One of my mentors mentioned a lot of things regarding diabetes, mainly sumthin about it being partially due to inflammation and fatty livers or something. Any ideas what to do to fix those? I am guessing aspirin helps.
Thank you for visiting our site, Nicholas.
We, humans, are good at beating ourselves up for our mistakes!
You are correct, diabetes is a condition that can result from inflammation, among other contributing factors.
I have been reading a helpful book called, How Not to Die by Michael Greger, MD. Awesome material. He writes about a lot of problem foods that cause inflammation which contributes to problems in our bodies.
The book is about foods that are scientifically proven to prevent and reverse disease.
I highly recommend it.
To our health,
Karin 🙂
I couldn’t agree more with the first message described here in that too many people are too hard on themselves. With a more positive attitude, we can accomplish a lot more. While I do not personally use any apps to keep track of my steps or what I eat, I certainly see the benefits in them. I also appreciate that these apps you offer are free, so there is not any sort of commitment with just trying them out.
Thank you for visiting our site, Andrew. I am glad you were able to get positive motivation from the post. You are correct, with a positive attitude, we can accomplish more.
Using apps to follow your food consumption is not only good for type 2 diabetics or people who are overweight. They are good for all of us, I think because it helps us to see changes in our health that could be a result of the food we ate.
I love free apps because they really can do a lot for us.
Thanks again. I hope you will stop by again, soon!
To our health,
Karin 🙂