5 Ways to Lower Your A1C: ‘Take It Day by Day’
Key takeaways:
Julian Brittano is an actor and advocate living with Type 2 diabetes.
Before he began actively managing his symptoms, he had high blood sugar levels.
Julian says managing his diabetes is a day-by-day process.
Julian Brittano was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes in 2008. Back then, he owned a nightclub and lived a different lifestyle than he does today.
“I wasn’t taking my medicine, I wasn’t checking in with my doctor, and I wasn’t watching what I ate for years,” says Julian, now a 44-year-old actor from Danville, Virginia.
Growing up, the New Jersey native was an athlete and a standout football player recruited by the University of Maryland. But by the time he was 30 and got his diabetes diagnosis, his exercise regimen had slowed down.
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Even when Julian started acting on popular shows such as “Greenleaf” (opposite Oprah Winfrey), his lifestyle had not changed much. He was traveling for acting roles, not getting enough sleep, and not monitoring what he ate.
Then last year, he had a wake-up call. He injured his foot and had a cut on his toe that became infected. At the time, his A1C level had reached 13.4%. The A1C is a test that measures your blood sugar average over 3 months, and Julian’s was very high. A normal A1C level is typically below 5.7%.
Because of his high blood sugar levels, Julian was unable to fight off the infection. That led to sepsis and eventually gangrene. Julian had to have his toe amputated. Three months after this health scare, Julian says he lowered his A1C levels down to 7.1% by taking ownership of his lifestyle choices. Here are five tips he has for managing your blood sugar.
1. Get more sleep
Julian realized he needed to change his sleep habits to get his symptoms under control. When he worked as the owner of a nightclub, he didn’t put much emphasis on getting the recommended 7 to 8 hours a night.
“My mindset back then was people are wasting hours sleeping, I only need 2 or 3 hours,” he says. “Over time, I realized not getting restorative sleep was harming me.”
Now Julian tries his best to get around 7 to 8 hours of sleep a night. A quarter of people with diabetes report getting less than 6 to 8 hours of sleep. This puts them at higher risk for having elevated blood sugar levels.
2. Stay active
For Julian, slowly increasing his exercise over time was crucial after having his toe amputated. He started with walks around his neighborhood and then started biking. Now he includes exercise classes and mixed martial arts to keep his routine from growing stale.
“I realized creating a consistent pattern was how I would stay active,” he says. “I learned mixing my routine up keeps exercise fun.”
Sticking to a regular workout routine has been shown to lower A1C levels over time.
3. Track what you eat
During Julian’s journey to lowering his A1C levels, his nutritionist recommended tracking what he ate to hold himself accountable. For Julian, tracking the amount of carbohydrates helped him lose weight early on. His nutritionist used a point system where 15 grams of carbohydrates was one point.
“I was allowed five points a day, so having a target kept me mindful of what I was eating,” Julian says. “The points still allowed for me to have room for little cheat meals. The point is to not go crazy with the tracking, but be mindful.”
He also went on a plant-based diet temporarily to help with losing weight.
4. Don’t focus only on the number
Julian finds that his A1C levels can go back up every couple of months. Over the last year, he discovered that getting frustrated by the numbers made it difficult to stick with his routine.
“Some days will be a challenge, and some days your numbers will freak you out,” he says. “You can’t let that defeat you and discourage you from staying consistent with managing your symptoms.”
5. Keep a daily journal
Along with focusing less on the numbers, Julian found daily journaling helpful in celebrating the small wins each week. It helped him combat the mental aspect of living with Type 2 diabetes.
“Journaling helped me from getting discouraged during a bad day when managing my symptoms,” he says. And it allowed him to avoid negative thinking when his levels were higher than expected.
He also leans on his family and friends for support and shares his good and bad days with them.
Your body is going to tell you what it needs
There’s no one way to deal with managing Type 2 diabetes, and everyone's body has different needs. Some people may need to check in with their doctors more frequently, and others may need to monitor their blood sugar levels closely.
“Type 2 diabetes can be scary because everyone reacts differently to it,” Julian says. “What worked for me was staying active and managing my diet. But that may not be the case for others.”
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