Apparently, blood sugar coats red blood cells (hemoglobin) and makes them sticky. These “sticky cells” blocks the normal blood circulation, causing cholesterol to build up on the inside of your blood vessels. As you can imagine, interrupted blood flow is BAD news…The fragile blood vessels in your eyes, kidneys and feet are most susceptible, so problems are usually noticed first in those areas.
Controlling high blood sugar may help prevent or decrease many long-term complications and fatalities caused by it: Otherwise, you stand the risk of dealing with:
- Heart attack
- Stroke
- Eye problems that can lead to trouble seeing or blindness
- Nerve damage in your hands and feet that can cause pain, tingling and numbness
- Kidney problems, including kidney failure
- Gum disease and tooth loss
Some damage may start occurring during prediabetes — a precursor stage to full blown diabetes in which your blood sugar is higher than normal but not high enough to be considered diabetes. Research proves that at prediabetes stage, you can reduce your risk of developing type 2 diabetes by almost 60 percent through lifestyle changes. These changes include increasing your physical activity and modest weight loss — losing as little as 5 to 7 percent of your current weight. Extreme exercise may actually increase the stress hormones such as cortisol and epinephrine, and may actually counter-active to the results you are seeking. Stress hormones are produced when you are placed in a situation your body sees as being potentially dangerous. And, extreme or irregular exercise schedule is indeed “potentially dangerous” especially if you have not dealt with the original stress level that enticed you to reach out for sugary foods to begin with.
Basically as far as this need to exercise is concerned, anything that you enjoy – dance, yoga, walking – if sustainable are all good. Nothing needs to be extreme to get the benefits… I personally recommend a good hearty belly laugh as a form of exercise. Life is hard as it is and “suffering” and “struggling” are choices you make. I am all for taking on a challenge as long as it’s worth it. Some struggles are definitely not worth it… If you must fight and struggle to get what you want – then do it – but reward yourself with treating yourself to a self-care session where you can balance the nervous system which had to go into overdrive to achieve and win that something that was worth struggling for. And for some, you struggle to gain nothing, to not get what you want. What then? It was still worth it – not the outcome, but the struggle itself represented something – whether it be “love” “courage” whatever – that struggle is worth it. BUT is it on-going? Or do you get to “settle”? As Rolling Stones would sing, “you can’t always get what you want”… then?
ask again…
What do you really want? What is your heart’s desire? What is at the heart of it?
I don’t know what you want but I know what you need.
COMPASSION.
Compassion for self and then, you will naturally have compassion for others. You can’t give what you don’t have yourself.
