With over 16 million workout videos sold since 1980, Kathy Smith has become a household name in fitness. A mother of two, Kathy also serves on the board of the USC School of Gerontology, the Women's Sports Foundation and is a recipient of the IDEA Lifetime Achievement Award from IDEA Health & Fitness, the world's largest professional fitness organization.

Defy Diabetes
By Kathy Smith

Do you know someone with diabetes? If you’re like most people, your life will be touched at some point by this deadly epidemic.

But what exactly is diabetes and how can you defy it?

Your body breaks down carbohydrates into sugar (glucose), which then enters your blood stream. The more carbohydrates we consume, the higher our blood sugar goes. In response, our body produces insulin. Insulin's job is to push the blood sugar into the cells.

On the surface of each cell in our body are insulin receptors, which act like little doors that open and close to regulate the inflow of blood sugar.

After many years of consuming a high-carbohydrate diet, our cells have been bombarded with so much insulin that these doors begin to malfunction and shut down.

With less doors open, our body needs to produce even more insulin to push the glucose into the cells. More insulin causes even more doors to close and as this vicious cycle continues, a condition called "insulin resistance" sets in.

When your body can no longer produce enough insulin to push the blood sugar into the cells, type 2 diabetes results. It is simply an extreme case of insulin resistance.

The key point is that our energy, wellness and longevity are primarily dependent on improving the sensitivity of our cells to insulin - how well our cells open and close the doors and clear sugar from the blood.

So here are my five favorite tips for defying diabetes. These tips are great if you have Type 2 Diabetes or you want to prevent yourself from getting it.

1. Eat every 2 to 3 hours – When you eat is as important as what you eat to keep your glucose balanced throughout the day.
   
   
2. It’s not no carbs, it’s slow carbs – make sure you are eating the whole grains and unprocessed carbs that take longer to be digested and you won’t get blood glucose spikes.
   
   
3. “Treat” yourself right – there are many delicious desserts you can enjoy and still be losing weight and balancing your glucose levels.  1 chocolate pudding pop, 2 graham crackers, 5 animal crackers, ricotta fruit parfait, etc.
   
   
4. Exercise for 150 minutes per week – you can build up to that.  It’s just 30 minutes 5 times a week, and if you want to break the 30 minutes down into 5 or 10 minute exercise breaks throughout the day, go for it.  Exercise will lower glucose levels for 48 hours at a time.
   
   
5. The “write” stuff – Keeping a journal is invaluable for losing weight.  It’s the best way to see for yourself what and how much you are eating. When you have diabetes, it becomes even more valuable.  Keep track of your glucose readings, what you ate and when and weigh yourself once a week.  You’ll be able to see your patterns. You’ll see the days when your glucose levels were good, what you were eating that day and if you exercised.  You’ll be able to give yourself the feedback you need to be a healthy eater for life.

If you want a comprehensive program that takes you step by step through what you need to do to create a healthy lifestyle, check out my latest program that I developed with the American Diabetes Association, Kathy Smith’s Project: You! Type 2.  It is chocked full of ideas for quick meal solutions has a comprehensive exercise program and provides you with a personal journal to track everything.