8 Tips From People Diagnosed With Type 2 Diabetes: ‘I Really Have to Read Labels’
Key takeaways:
People living with Type 2 diabetes have tips to help those who are newly diagnosed.
For starters, it helps to know that simple lifestyle changes can improve your health. And even small changes have a big long-term impact.
Sticking to routines, reading food labels, and staying active are all techniques they use to cope with diabetes.
You can hear it from your doctor, from diabetes educators, or from the CDC.
But sometimes, tips for living with Type 2 diabetes are more meaningful when they come from people who have experienced it.
For New Yorker Eartha Watts-Hicks, it’s a new condition to get used to. She was diagnosed during the COVID-19 pandemic, around May 2022.
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“It was a shock and an overwhelming diagnosis,” she says. “I had been aware that I was prediabetic. But during the pandemic, especially the very beginning of the pandemic, I was stocking up on food, eating mostly snacks. I was indoors, not outdoors, not getting my regular exercise. And I didn’t realize how the snacks were impacting me.”
Since then, she’s taken stock, learned from others, and developed her own strategies for managing her blood sugar. Here’s what she and three other women say have been game-changers for them when it comes to dealing with a Type 2 diagnosis.
1. Don’t let fear stop you from taking action
Many people avoid their healthcare provider out of fear for a diagnosis or treatment. If you feel this way, you are not alone. But fear can also be a powerful motivator, says Eartha, an author and lifestyle blogger.
When she began experiencing tell-tale signs of diabetes — such as extreme thirst and frequent urination — she started to fear what confirming this diagnosis might mean. And because it was during the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic, she had reservations about going to seek treatment, even after an at-home test said her blood sugar was high.
“I said I didn’t want to go because I was afraid of being exposed to COVID,” she says. “They said, ‘If you don’t go to the ER right now, diabetes will kill you before COVID ever could.’”
That was the wake-up call she needed to take action. She got treatment and prescriptions for medication to help her manage her blood sugar.
2. Find your wake-up call
Miriam Linville, a paralegal from Nashville, can relate to the ways that fear can both help and hurt when it comes to your health.
After learning of her own diagnosis, she made drastic lifestyle changes to lower her sugar levels and lose weight. She won a Middle Tennessee Heart Association award for lifestyle change. Shortly after winning the award, she started to revert to old habits that contributed to gaining back the weight.
“I ended up developing severe depression,” she says. “I didn’t want to go anywhere because I felt ashamed and afraid of what people would think.”
For a while, fear stopped her from taking action, but then she decided enough was enough.
“I got back on track,” she says. She remembered her own mother being diagnosed with diabetes when Miriam was in fourth grade. Miriam’s mom ultimately died as a result of complications from the condition.
“My diagnosis was a wake-up call,” Miriam says. “I don’t want my children to have to see me suffer in the way I watched my own mother suffer.”
3. Educate yourself about proper nutrition
For Carol Gee, a writer and business owner from the suburbs of Atlanta, education was key to coping with Type 2 diabetes.
Diabetes runs in Carol’s family. After her diagnosis, she made it a point to better understand how her dietary choices affect her diabetes.
“I try to reject foods that raise my blood sugar,” she says. “I cut out juices, sweets, and carbs.”
Miriam can relate to that, too. So many people never really understand how to read food labels or watch their own nutrition, she says.
Even until the day her mother died, Miriam says her mother never understood the way certain foods could affect blood sugar. “She always thought, ‘Well, if I don’t eat a Little Debbie snack cake, then I don’t have to worry about it.’ It is so important to have a deep understanding of nutrition.”
4. Be careful of the snacks you choose
Amy Menrad, a realtor from Pasadena, Maryland, started paying closer attention to her food choices after she was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes.
“I have drastically reduced complex carbs, [cut out added] sugars, and reduced alcohol,” she says. Understanding nutrition has helped her make better nutritional choices.
Many foods contain hidden sugar. For example, Eartha used to snack on ginger chews, but she never noticed the sugar content until after her diabetes diagnosis. Now, she swaps them for healthier options, like a tablespoon of peanut butter or nuts. She eats fruit instead of tortilla chips, and plantain chips rather than potato chips. She also switched to gluten-free bread and pasta.
“I really have to read labels,” Miriam says. “Label reading is so important. You would be surprised at how many sugars and carbs are hidden.”
5. Live an active lifestyle
Diet and exercise together can make a big difference in your health if you have diabetes, Eartha says.
“I learned to exercise where I am,” she says. “If I can’t get out and get to the gym, I learned to do simple exercises at home.”
Miriam also makes a point to stay active, even though she doesn’t like exercise.
“I get up and move while at work,” she says. “I stay active taking care of my three dogs. I do like to make sure that throughout the day I am moving my body.”
6. Stick to a routine
For Eartha, sticking to a routine also makes a big difference in keeping up with her medication and managing her blood sugar.
“To help make sure I don’t forget my medication, I check my sugar,” she says. “I take my pill. I drink my coffee. Then, I eat my apple.”
Miriam finds that intermittent fasting is a good way for her to stick to a healthy eating routine. Care providers point out, though, that skipping meals can be risky for some people with diabetes because it can lead to things like low blood sugar or dehydration. Eartha does it in moderation.
“I do not eat after 7 o’clock at night,” she says. “If I am out and busy and I miss dinner, this is a big commitment for me. I hold myself accountable.”
7. Don’t believe everything you hear
Eartha says that she grew up thinking that only people who ate a bunch of sugar and sweets developed Type 2 diabetes. Carol grew up thinking the same thing. After her own diagnosis, Carol learned that different types of carbohydrates can be a real issue. As they break down, they turn into sugar.
Because of her mother’s diagnosis, Miriam and her siblings knew they should keep an eye out for symptoms of diabetes. Even so, they grew up believing the myth they had always been told. “I grew up thinking it skipped generations,” Miriam says.
8. Listen to your body
For Carol, it’s important to listen to her body.
“I had not been feeling great for a few months,” she says. “The doctor said I had hypertension, and I was prescribed medication. As an afterthought, she had mentioned my sugar was a little high. But it was such an offhand comment that I didn’t really think to follow up about it.”
Carol was eventually hospitalized when her blood sugar was so high that she was at risk for a life-threatening condition called diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA). Looking back, she says she wishes she had asked more questions and taken those comments more seriously.
But, those who have been diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes say the experience is different for everyone.
For Miriam, the first sign of diabetes was gaining weight.
“I thought maybe my body was just settling with age,” Miriam says. “I brought these concerns up to my doctor and learned of my diagnosis.”
While their experiences differ, these four women reached the same conclusion about what works for living with Type 2 diabetes. Diet, exercise, routine, and education helped them understand their condition and stay healthy.
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