People who start the morning right are much less likely to feel hungry, fatigued, or ill as the day progresses. If you find that your blood sugar levels are chronically high by nighttime and feel tired too early, the problem may originate in how you begin the day. Improve your mood and your health by trying these early starters.
Let’s begin!
Inspect Your Feet
The American Diabetes Association recommends that everyone check their feet daily for sores, cuts, and scrapes. You might as well make it a part of your morning routine, especially as things can happen while sleeping. You may accidentally bang your toe against the wall and never realize it if you have loss of sensation. Be sure to look at the tops, bottoms, and between the toes of each foot. Pull on a pair of comfortable socks and shoes before you even get out of the bedroom to protect your feet.
Eat a Protein-Rich Breakfast
It may be tempting to skip the first meal of the day when you are running late. However, breakfast is much more important than you realize. A nourishing meal helps to raise and stabilize your blood sugar levels throughout the day. This can prevent you from overeating later on or being seduced by the lure of a frosted donut at work.
Protein rich meals, like scrambled eggs, turkey bacon, and peanut butter, digest slowly, so they last all day and don’t spike glucose levels. Combine this with complex carbs, like whole-grain toast and you’ll have an energy-packed breakfast to get you through a long day.
Check Your Blood Glucose
Many diabetics experience ‘dawn phenomenon’ or abnormally high blood glucose levels when they first wake up. This is more prevalent with Type II Diabetics, but anyone can get it. The problem is likely a result of the body’s own efforts to keep blood sugar levels from falling too low while you sleep. Glucose is stored in the liver and also produced in small amounts by some of the cells, but diabetics don’t produce or respond to the insulin their pancreas makes well enough to keep levels from rising too much.
Check your blood sugar levels and take the appropriate medication to get highs under control. You may also want to speak with your doctor about it because the medication you take before bed could be too strong or not lasting long enough.
[expand title=”References“]
A Healthy Diabetes Diet: Start Your Day Off Right. URL Link. Accessed April 18, 2017.
Controlling the Dawn Phenomenon. URL Link. Accessed April 18, 2017.
Foot Care. URL Link. Accessed April 18, 2017.
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