EXERCISE FOR PEOPLE WITH TYPE II DIABETES
Exercise is not just for teenagers and Yuppies. There’s an exercise for any person at any age – from birth to age ninety – and in any physical condition – from hard-body athlete to chair-bound senior.
But don’t rush out and buy a neon green leotard and a pair of 100 dollars – plus athletic shoes. Not just yet anyway, since you may not need them. What you do need is an exercise programme.
You probably know this already. And your doctor, no doubt, has told you exercise is one of the things you need to do as part of your self-treatment for your “touch of diabetes”.
• You re not too old to start an exercise programme.
• You re not too fat to start an exercise programme. You re not too sick to start an exercise programme.
Your problem is not that you’re mature, overweight and have Type II diabetes. It’s that you have not exercised very much in the past two decades. (You’re not alone, since most middle-agers are in the same boat.) Your problem is choosing the sort of exercise you will do and deciding when and how you will do it.
First of all, don’t think of exercise as something that will be all pain, suffering, aches, bruises and a wasted investment in clothing, exercise machines and your time and effort. Rather, think of exercise as extra physical activity that can make you feel better emotionally and physically and something that can help you fight the battle of the waistline bulge and the high blood glucose plateau.
Better yet, try to get it to the point where you don’t think of exercise at all. You do it, regularly, just the same way you brush your teeth, wash your face and put on your clothes every day. When it becomes a routine habit, you don’t have to make decisions, seek motivation and overcome your natural tendencies to resist getting out of your easy chair.
Before we get into the specifics of choices and options, consider making some minor changes in your lifestyle routine-switching to things that will require more physical effort on your part.
Although these changes don’t seem like major exercise commitments, they will add up in your exercise totals at the end of a week.
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