Here are my tops 3 tips as a Type 1 Diabetic – Strength & conditioning coach to help you stay lean all year long.
1. Pay attention to your calories:
Personally, I’m so tired of seeing personal trainers give advice to people telling them to cut carbs, sugars and anything enjoyable out of their lives and diets. Provided you keep a close eye on your caloric intake you can lose fat without giving up the foods you enjoy most. Most of the time, people don’t realise that those small packets of cashew nuts you get at Woolworths (the tiny packets), are 450 calories. Yes, I can already hear you say “but it’s healthy”. Those cashew nuts are as much as a bottle of wine or even a pie.
Granted, the nuts or in fact a healthier choice, however, as far as fat loss is concerned, 450 calories is 450 calories no matter how you try and spin the story. Being overweight is unhealthy, just like pie.
What you choose to fill your daily calorie allowance up with is up to you.
If they come from carbs, healthy fats, tofu or Protein, they will only ever make you fat if the total daily intake is more than your daily calorie budget/total calories burned through activity.
BOTTOM LINE: Make sure your diet comes from high-quality foods. Keep processed foods to a minimum and ensure your diet is 10-20% INDULGENCE. This way you get to reach your goals while maintaining the healthiest relationship with food.
2. Stop with the “all or nothing” approach
Scientific studies prove that all or nothing diets will lead to binge eating and failure. Try using some common sense here – How long do you think quitting all carbs or sugar is going to last? Granted we as diabetics have to limit glucose/carb intake, but there it is… “limit”, as in manage and measure.
Ever tried fasting? What happens after a fast? … that’s right, overindulgence and binging – almost every single time.
You need to have a little bit of give and take. Eating “healthily” generally doesn’t do the trick. Its blind faith and it won’t work.
Find a balance between enjoying your food while making sure not to abuse it and you will do better than the person next to you who is busy demonising carbs and everything else under the sun.
3. If you don’t enjoy it you WILL cheat and overeat.
Your chosen diet ( yes, you choose what diet you’re on ), needs to taste great, and include the things you enjoy. It needs to suit your lifestyle and schedule. If it doesn’t, you will quit.
You’ll ruin your relationship with food, become bored and increase the chance of ending up at square one all over again.
As long as you are tracking your intake & you can stick to what you are doing, the exact types of food you consume are irrelevant for fat loss!
Make sure the sum of all your choices has a positive average and all will be well in the kingdom.
You don’t get bad foods, you only get bad diets overall. Having carb-filled meals is perfect for fat loss, as long as your other priorities are met – such as your diabetic control, your required daily protein target and your activity levels.
Overeating all day long and drinking calories with friends all weekend long .. that’s a problem! Eating well in the week and overeating on the weekend, yep -that’s the problem.
Not understanding that it is the calories we need to reduce and not the food is the main problem most of us face whether we realise it or not.
If you want to start a 3-week training program that delivers your workouts 3x per week, provides you with nutritional guides and plans all tied together with support and a direct line to me: Click HERE and sign up for my free 3-week training and nutrition plan.
If you’d like to know more about my Carb Counting Masterclass for Diabetics you can do so by clicking here. The Diabetic Athletic Carb Counting Masterclass will explain what carb counting is, why we carb count as diabetics and how you can figure out your own insulin to carb ratios.
To see more about the Diabetic Athletic 10-week program for diabetics you can visit http://www.diabeticathletic.com. This is the ultimate program for diabetics and is backed by a 100% money-back guarantee. You have nothing to lose other than your unwanted body fat, your high glucose ranges and your diabetic overwhelm.
diabeticathletic.wordpress.com 
Leave a comment