Underweight (continued)

Exercise helps lower blood sugars.
It makes your body use insulin better. Adding exercise to your daily routine in addition to your weight gain plan can really help you control your blood sugars better. The American Diabetes Association advises you exercise for 30 minutes most days. This should include a warm-up and cool-down to prevent sore muscles and injury. Good types of exercise include walking, swimming, cycling, or low impact aerobic classes.

When you gain weight you want it to be the right type of weight - muscle, not fat. Exercise is the key to helping you develop more muscle. Even if you don't like to exercise, find ways to be more active. Take the stairs more often or walk on your break at work. Ride your bike to get your newspaper instead of having it delivered. Even 10 minutes of exercise three times a day helps!

Stress reduction is a must!
Learning to control the things that stress you out can have a huge impact on keeping blood sugars under control. While gaining weight, many situations may bring about stress such as, having to eat more calories than you are used to, having to spend more time on planning food choices, and trying to eat healthier foods which means eliminating some of your favorite foods.

Knowing how you react to stress is the next step to managing it. The following are some tips to help:

• Try spreading your calories out throughout the day, Instead of eating three large meals, include snacks in between meals by taking calories and carbohydrates from your meals to create a snack. Fruit and cheese, peanut butter and crackers, or fat free, sugar free-fruited yogurt are quick and satisfying.
• Spend some time learning about carbohydrate content of foods. This may help to decrease the time it takes to plan meals and snacks. You may soon find that you can decide right before the meal, what foods you are going to have.
• Allow yourself to have your favorite foods and treats often enough to keep you satisfied. You may find that adding these foods every other day or just 2-3 times per week is all you need to be happy. Eating healthier doesn't have to be boring!

Test Blood Sugars More Often. Whenever you make changes in your eating routine, your blood sugars will be affected also. While gaining weight, your body may require more insulin to keep blood sugars under control. If you are taking oral medication or insulin to control your blood sugar, you may need to increase the dose you are taking as weight continues to increase. Keeping good food and blood sugar records and working with your diabetes healthcare team can be the best way to detect these changes.

Now it's time to look at how what you eat affects your blood sugar levels.

 Continue