What are some of your biggest barriers to healthier eating? Is it eating out, social situations, cooking, grocery shopping, cravings, or something else entirely?
After thinking about your current food choices, what’s one change you can make (even a small change!) that would help to move you towards better blood sugar levels?
If you were to make the change discussed above, how do you think that would benefit your life? What sort of challenges do you anticipate if you do try to start implementing that change?
The first step towards using food for better blood sugar values is to understand where you are now and what some of the problem areas are that you’re currently dealing with. Once you have a good understanding of where you’re starting at, it becomes a lot easier to think about what areas you may want to begin with. Your CGM can be an excellent tool that helps highlight some of your biggest problem areas. If you’re having trouble making sense of the data, ask your NutriSense nutritionist for guidance.
Another essential thing to think about is long-term change. Are the changes that you’re open to making things that you feel you’ll be able to stick to for a long period of time, potentially indefinitely? If not, consider another change that might feel more reasonable to you or start with a smaller tweak and build up to that larger change. For example, if you love pizza, it’s not realistic to say you’ll never have it again! Instead, it’s important to find ways to make that fit into your lifestyle in a more appropriate way. Perhaps you can cut down on how often you have it, try a different recipe, pair it with some veggies, or try a smaller portions size.
It may be easiest to start with some ‘low hanging fruit’. For example, if you drink some kind of sugary drink like regular soda, sugar coffee drinks, or even fruit juice, this could be an easy thing to limit or cut out entirely which could pay large dividends. Starting with something small can help to build confidence as you move through this process and begin to take on more challenging goals.
Being as specific as possible with your nutrition goals can help with accountability and long-term success. Consider going back to those SMART goals from Chapter 1, Section 5 for some more ideas on how to formulate a goal to get started. Your nutritionist will be more than happy to help point you in the right direction as well!