Diabetes Self-Management: 5 Tips for Self-Care

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Diabetes Self-Management: 5 Tips for Self-Care

Diabetes self-management refers to the steps you can take daily to stay on top of your glucose levels and maintain your health over time. Your doctor can help you design a self-management plan that works for you, but the key is sticking to it the best you can. Once it becomes part of your daily routine, you’ll be more likely to integrate self-care activities into your plan, helping you manage your diabetes more effectively.¹

Here are just a few ways you can care for yourself while managing diabetes. This is far from an exhaustive list, so experiment with your diabetes self-management practices and be sure to discuss with your healthcare provider any changes you plan to make.

1. Simplify Your Approach to Eating Well

Eating right can be a source of stress for anyone. A major part of looking after yourself is paying attention to what you eat, and how it affects you physically and mentally.

When you’re living with diabetes, learning what foods work for your body, their effects on your glucose levels, and how dietary choices make you feel can help to reduce worries around making eating decisions. You should always talk to your doctor about your diet and communicate what’s working and what isn’t.

Finding nutritious yet delicious recipes to cook at home and navigating eating out with friends are important components of managing your glucose levels. Monitoring how food impacts your body every day is a lot of work, so it’s a good idea to make sure that your diabetes meal plan is easy to stick to—and as fun as possible! You can try these strategies to make eating a little easier:

Keep a food diary. Journaling is one of the ways to see which foods make you feel your best. If weight loss is part of your diabetes management strategy, studies have shown that individuals who track their food have more significant weight loss than those who don’t. It also helps lessen weight fluctuations throughout the year, for example, around the holidays.²
Seek out healthy recipes. Diabetes Canada has a library of diabetes-friendly recipes and meal planning resources that might provide a helpful framework to guide your food choices. When you’re headed out to a restaurant, plan ahead, watch your portion sizes, and opt for menu items that are low in carbs and sugar. For example, choosing a salad with sugar-free dressing instead of fries as a side.³
Make food fun. Diabetes management diets can sometimes feel restrictive, but you can look at healthy eating as a chance to get creative and experiment with new cuisines. Find ways to make cooking a part of your relaxation routine by putting on music or your favourite TV show, or make mealtime an event by cooking with (and for) the people you love.

2. Strike a Balance Between Exercise and Rest

Part of taking care of yourself is finding an exercise plan that works for you, taking time to rest, and getting enough sleep.

Exercise can help you reduce the risk of complications such as heart disease and improve blood sugar, cholesterol, and blood pressure while boosting overall fitness.⁴ Make movement a regular habit by choosing activities that are enjoyable so that you look forward to exercising. Check in with your healthcare provider about what physical activities are good for you.

Getting active through things you can do with others like team sports or group hikes, can help keep you going. Get some movement in whenever you have the chance. Take a lunchtime stroll or do a quick ten-minute stretch during your workday. It can even be as simple as turning on some music and dancing while you prep a delicious meal or getting out into the garden for a few minutes in the evening.

Different health concerns, including diabetes-related complications, can affect one’s ability to exercise, so it’s critical to check in with your healthcare provider about the types of movement that are healthy for you.⁵

Sleep impacts glucose regulation just like food and exercise. Going to bed early and having high-quality, uninterrupted sleep has been found to reduce glucose spikes after breakfast and enhance glycemic control into the day between lunch and dinner.⁶ Too little sleep has been shown to increase insulin resistance in people living with type 2 diabetes.⁷ Practising good sleep hygiene can include:

Keeping a consistent sleep schedule, even on weekends and holidays.
Having a wind-down routine free from screens and stimulating activities.
Limiting caffeine intake throughout the day and avoiding alcohol before you go to bed.

For someone living with diabetes, getting a good night’s sleep can come with additional challenges. Diabetes has been shown to impact the quality of your sleep, due to hyperglycemia and especially hypoglycemia.⁸ Worrying about going low at night is a reality for many people living with diabetes. Waking up to check on your glucose levels interrupts your night of rest and can leave you feeling exhausted during the day.

Let your doctor know about any issues you’re having with your sleep. Similar to keeping a food diary, you might want to track when and where you get your best night’s sleep to determine what routines are the most helpful for you. Using a continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) system that alerts you when your glucose levels are trending low, or about to go low can help you manage nighttime hypoglycemia. For example, Dexcom G6 has a predictive Urgent Low Soon alert that can notify you up to 20 minutes before a serious low (under 3.1 mmol/L), so you can take proactive action to prevent it.* It also notifies you the moment your glucose levels drop below 3.1 mmol/L. Relying on alerts from a CGM system can give you more peace of mind at night, helping you get the rest you need.

3. Keep Your Mental Health in Mind

Mental health is just as important as your physical health when it comes to your quality of life and overall ability to manage diabetes. Treating mental health issues can make it easier to maintain supportive habits and routines, while having solid diabetes self-management practices can boost your mental health.⁹

Like other complications related to diabetes, such as heart disease, diabetes can also impact mental health, often called diabetes distress.⁹ People living with diabetes may be more likely to experience anxiety and depression which can affect their ability to manage their health and get the most out of life.¹⁰ If you’re struggling with mental health, you are not alone. Be aware that stress impacts hormone balance and blood sugar, which can also impact time in range (defined by Diabetes Canada as 3.9–10.0 mmol/L).¹⁰ It’s important to keep in mind that prioritizing your mental health is a vital part of managing diabetes and caring for your overall health as well.

When you’re first diagnosed with diabetes, you may feel intense emotions that can include distress, anger, and even grief. As you move through your diabetes management journey, you may find yourself worrying about controlling your glucose or making the right food choices. You might also feel isolated from others if you don’t yet feel comfortable talking about your diagnosis.

It’s normal to feel overwhelmed, but it’s important to make sure you’re paying attention to how your feelings evolve over time. Give yourself grace when you can and know that there are resources and tools you can leverage to care for your mental health. Cultivate relationships with people who care about you and want to support your diabetes management. Joining local diabetes communities like Connected in Motion or the Dexcom Warrior community can help you learn how others share the same daily ups and downs as you.

It is important to be transparent with your healthcare provider about your mental health and reach out to a therapist or counsellor if you need some extra guidance about dealing with periods of mental health challenges.

4. Take Care of Your Body

Looking after your physical well-being includes striving to keep every part of your body as healthy as you can. It’s a good idea to develop everyday hygiene habits that help you maintain and protect your body, inside and out.

Diabetes reduces the body’s ability to fight infections and, in some cases, can lead to nerve damage.¹¹ Teeth and feet are especially vulnerable, so people living with diabetes need to pay special attention to their daily oral care and foot care routines.^11,12

Diabetes in general increases the risk of developing cavities and gum disease due to high blood sugar, however diabetes treatment is aimed at reducing hyperglycemia and may help reduce this.¹¹ In addition to your regular diabetes management habits, brushing and flossing twice a day and making regular visits to the dentist is a great way to maintain your oral health. Taking care of your teeth also makes it more likely that you’ll notice any changes as soon as they come up.¹¹

Talk to your doctor about your foot care and make sure that they examine your feet every time you visit. On a daily basis, take the time to wash and check your feet. Keep your toenails cut short and straight across, and wear shoes and socks to protect your feet throughout the day. If you need help caring for your feet, you can reach out to a podiatrist to give you a hand dealing with corns, calluses, or warts.¹²

You can incorporate these kinds of habits into self-care rituals like taking a relaxing bath or going for a massage—activities that can help you feel a bit better and remind you that you deserve time to look after your well-being. Part of your self-care habits should include getting regular check-ups from your doctor and being mindful about the way your body feels on a day-to-day basis.

5. Pay Attention to Yourself

The foundation of self-care is listening to yourself. You are the expert on how you feel each day—both physically and mentally. Your healthcare provider is your partner in determining what diabetes self-management strategies will work best for you, based on how your body responds to certain habits and treatments.

Monitoring your glucose levels is one of the ways you can stay on top of what’s going on inside of your body. A CGM system like Dexcom G6 can show you how your glucose levels change in real time so that you can take note of what might be affecting them in the moment.

Journaling is a great way to monitor your emotional health as you move through your diabetes journey. In addition to your food diary, keeping a record of how you feel in your body each day can help you figure out what’s working for you and what isn’t. It can also help you process difficult emotions and build up a positive relationship with yourself. You are your own number one champion. Having a good relationship with yourself means you’ll be more likely to advocate for the care that you need from doctors and ask for support from loved ones.

Effectively managing diabetes requires you to gather data from multiple sources about your glucose levels, carbohydrate intake, activity levels, sleep, and emotional well-being.¹³ The more data, the better decisions you can make with the guidance of your healthcare provider. The Dexcom Clarity app allows you and your doctor to assess your glucose levels over time so that you have a more holistic view of your health and the effectiveness of your diabetes management plan.

Diabetes self-management can support your health so that you can continue to enjoy every part of your life.

Explore more ways to effectively manage diabetes and can help to lower your A1C that go beyond changing your diet.

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1 Shrivastava SR, et. al. Role of self-care in management of diabetes mellitus. Journal of Diabetes & Metabolic Disorders. 2013 Mar 5;12(1):14. Accessed July 8, 2022. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3599009/
2 Ingels JS, et. al. The Effect of Adherence to Dietary Tracking on Weight Loss: Using HLM to Model Weight Loss over Time. Journal of Diabetes Research. 2017;2017:6951495. Accessed July 8, 2022. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5568610/
3 Diabetes nutrition: Eating out when you have diabetes. Mayo Clinic. May 05, 2021. Accessed July 8, 2022. https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/diabetes/in-depth/diabetes-nutrition/art-20047665
4 Exercise & activity. Diabetes Canada. Accessed July 8, 2022. https://www.diabetes.ca/nutrition---fitness/exercise---activity
5 Exercising With Diabetes Complications. American Diabetes Association. Accessed July 8, 2022. https://www.diabetes.org/healthy-living/fitness/getting-started-safely/exercising-diabetes-complications
6 Tsereteli N, et al. Impact of insufficient sleep on dysregulated blood glucose control under standardised meal conditions. Diabetologia. 2022:(65); 356–365. Accessed July 8, 2022. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00125-021-05608-y
7 Sleep for a Good Cause. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Updated December 10, 2020. Accessed July 8, 2022. https://www.cdc.gov/diabetes/library/features/diabetes-sleep.html
8 Pacheco D. Lack of Sleep and Diabetes. Sleep Foundation. Updated April 1, 2022. Accessed July 8, 2022. https://www.sleepfoundation.org/physical-health/lack-of-sleep-and-diabetes
9 Diabetes and Mental Health. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Updated May 7, 2021. Accessed July 8, 2022. https://www.cdc.gov/diabetes/managing/mental-health.html
10 Bădescu SV, et al. The association between Diabetes mellitus and Depression. Journal of Medicine and Life. 2016;9(2):120-125. Accessed July 8, 2022. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4863499/
11 Diabetes and dental care: Guide to a healthy mouth. Mayo Clinic. November 30, 2020. Accessed July 8, 2022. https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/diabetes/in-depth/diabetes/art-20043848
12 Diabetes and Foot Problems. National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. Updated January 2017. Accessed July 8, 2022. https://www.niddk.nih.gov/health-information/diabetes/overview/preventing-problems/foot-problems
13 Prevent Diabetes Complications. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Accessed July 20, 2022. https://www.cdc.gov/diabetes/managing/problems.html
14 ADCES7 Self-Care Behaviors Monitoring. Association of Diabetes Care & Education Specialists. 2020. Accessed July 8, 2022. https://www.diabeteseducator.org/docs/default-source/living-with-diabetes/tip-sheets/aade7/aade7_monitoring.pdf?sfvrsn=888a58_14