The benefits of exercise and healthy eating constantly reinforce each other.

First of all, good blood flow to the penis is essential for erections. High levels of cholesterol and fat in your bloodstream leave deposits in the walls of your blood vessels. This leads to atherosclerosis and contributes to high blood pressure, both of which can damage blood vessels and reduce blood flow. Exercise helps lower cholesterol and blood pressure. A diet low in fat and cholesterol also helps to prevent and reverse the buildup of fatty deposits in blood vessels.

Second, a high blood sugar level damages nerves as well as the blood vessels that are involved in getting an erection. A good diet and the right amount of exercise help keep your blood sugar level under control. Studies show that people who exercise are less likely to get diabetes, and people with diabetes who exercise have better control of their blood sugar levels. Exercise helps you use sugar more easily. That leaves less sugar in the blood.

Eating a diet low in calories — and burning calories through exercise helps you tone your body and lose weight. Studies have linked erectile dysfunction and being overweight. Many other studies have shown that exercise fights depression, which also has a major impact on sexual function. With a leaner, toned body and a better sense of well-being and self-esteem, you’re more likely to feel sexy and have normal erections.

But there’s a lot of confusing information out there. Maybe you’re wondering exactly what you should eat and what kind of exercise to choose.

Designing a Sexy Plate

For someone with diabetes, it’s important to have a meal plan approved by your doctor and a registered dietitian who is trained in diabetes nutrition.

In general, though, there are simple ways to make sure you’re eating the right things at each meal.

One good guideline to use is the food pyramid. It tells you how much of various foods should be in your diet. The things you should eat most are at the bottom and those that should be the least part of your diet are at the top. According to the food pyramid, every day you should eat:

* 2 cups of a variety of fruit
* 2.5 cups of richly colored vegetables
* 3 ounces of whole grains like whole-wheat bread, oatmeal, or brown rice
* Up to 3 ounces of refined grains like pasta, white rice, or white bread
* 3 servings of dairy foods (A serving = 1 cup of low-fat milk or yogurt, 1.5 ounces of cheese)
* 5 ounces of meat, fish, eggs, or legumes for protein
* 5 teaspoons of oils (including the oil found in nuts and fish)
* 130 to 295 discretionary calories such as sweets (about 1 cookie or cup of ice cream)

(*Note: These amounts are recommended for the average adult woman. Men can consume about one ounce more in each category.)

The diabetes “exchange” system is another way of figuring out how much of what foods to eat. An exchange list shows what portion size of a given food gives you the same amount of calories and nutrients. For example, one medium-sized peach is equivalent to 12 large cherries.

The American Diabetes Association’s “Rate Your Plate” guide is a different way to look at what you’re eating. Following this guide, you divide your plate into imaginary quarters. One-quarter should contain starches, like potatoes or rice. One-quarter should contain meat. One half should contain vegetables.

Work Out Your Workout

When it comes to exercise, you don’t have to follow any “fad” workouts. Just find a way to get your body moving and your heart rate up. Here is the recommendation of the CDC:

* 30 minutes of moderate exercise five days a week; or
* 20 minutes of vigorous exercise three days a week.

But what do “moderate” and “vigorous” actually mean? You can tell how intense the activity you’re doing is by measuring your heart rate while you’re doing it.

First, figure out what your maximum heart rate is. That’s the number 220 minus your age. If you’re 40, your max heart rate is 180.

To measure your heart rate while exercising, pause briefly to take your pulse. Place your middle and index fingers on the artery of your neck or wrist where you can feel your pulse. Using a watch with a second hand, count the number of pulses, or beats, in 60 seconds. That’s your heart rate. (If you’d rather take less time to do it, you can count the number of beats in 30 seconds and multiply by two.)

When you’re doing moderate exercise, your heart rate will be 50% to 70% of your maximum heart rate — which is based on a person’s age. If your max heart rate is 180, your goal for moderate exercise is to get your heart rate up to 90 to 126 beats per minute (bpm).

Here’s that equation:

220 – age = max heart rate

180 x .50 (50%) = 90 bpm
180 x .70 (70%) = 126 bpm

For vigorous exercise, figure it the same way, but instead of 50% to 70% of your max heart rate, the range is 70% to 85%.

180 x .70 (70%) = 126 bpm
180 x .85 (85%) = 153 bpm

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I didn’t know squat about the benefits and overall happiness a healthy lifestyle would lead to. I was perfectly content eating frozen pizza, smoking cigarettes, and binge drinking on a regular basis. After I was diagnosed with diabetes, I had a lengthy discussion with my doctor that resulted in an epiphany, “Everything I love is killing me!”

First, we’ll define what I mean by healthy lifestyle. When I asked the question, “What is a healthy lifestyle?” the common answer seemed to be, “Don’t smoke, don’t drink, eat only vegetables and protein, and make sure to exercise every day.”

My first thought was, “You can give that crap right back to the birds.” I was 21, loved to party, and absolutely chock full of testosterone.

The ideas, practices, and benefits a healthy lifestyle provided sounded great for managing my diabetes, but I sure didn’t like the idea of my social life falling off the face of the planet. Believing in the power of moderation, I made some compromises with my disease:

1. Smoking

I quit smoking cigarettes and only smoked cigars on special occasions such as bachelor parties, Super Bowls, or the birth of my first child. That last part was a joke. After many years of searching, special occasions are the only reason I can find to put nicotine or smoke of any kind in your body.

2. Drinking

For me, this was a big one. I’m not really the type of guy that likes to meet girls at church, and school was not really an option for me, but drinking was all my friends and I did. As a result, drinking alcohol (sadly enough) was a major component of my social life. From that day forward, I laid down some basic rules.

No liquor. Liquor causes severe instability in blood sugar levels, and will cause serious problems. I stick only to beer and wine with a maximum of three drinks. If you monitor your sugar regularly and eat beforehand, you should be able to enjoy a nice night out.

3. Eating

Of the areas available for improvement in my lifestyle, eating was the easiest for me to adapt and overcome. When I learned that protein had a minor effect on my sugar that was good news, any hamburger and steak-loving American would be happy to hear that, but the bad news was that French fries, baked potatoes, and (my favorite) sweet potatoes were off limits. That meant I had to learn to love vegetables.

From that point forward, I began cooking veggies with light butter and cayenne pepper. I know that sounds odd, but I like spicy food. As far as your diet is concerned, for the sake of your happiness, find your favorite spices and seasonings and begin experimenting with healthy foods.

4. Exercise

When it comes to exercising many people (including myself) do not follow through for long enough to see substantial results. Personally, I believe in living an active lifestyle instead of becoming a fitness and free-weight junkie. What worked for me? Basic exercises (lunges, squats, and crunches) in front of the television every morning followed by a 15 minute walk.

Complying with the guidelines I listed above, I’m still able to have a fun, active lifestyle while controlling my diabetes. Finally, I need to say that I’m not a doctor, just a guy with Type 1 Diabetes. The practices I listed worked for me to maintain the young-adult lifestyle that I wanted. You may be different, and understanding your own personality traits is critical to successful moderation and control of your diabetes.

Brandon C. Hall is an online business owner and Type 1 Diabetic who runs many websites. For the latest articles and news related to diabetes and the diabetic lifestyle visit: http://www.diabetic-resources.com

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Inner City Diabetes Program

The Vine Hill Community Clinic serves an inner-city population in Nashville, Tennessee. Approximately 90% of the clinic’s patients are on a state form of Medicaid. Like many primary care clinics in the U.S., Vine Hill provides outpatient care to many patients with type 2 diabetes. Diabetes is the leading cause of adult blindness, kidney disease, and amputation. Although almost 18 million people in the U.S. have diabetes, less than optimal care is often provided, particularly in at-risk communities. Improving care for these patients is vital because many complications may be helped or avoided with good care and behavioral changes.

Recognizing the urgent need for improved diabetes care, the Vine Hill clinic contracted with LifeWings in 2004 to provide what is considered to be a very promising form of training for the healthcare industry: Crew Resource Management (CRM) based training. CRM is a team based approach to service delivery not usually found in the medical arena. CRM was developed in the 1990s to reduce the human error component of aviation accidents. CRM produces an inclusive, organized, collaborative environment in which potentially high-risk decisions can be made with the most possible information and high degrees of accountability and flexibility. CRM enables teams to make better decisions and have the best chance of avoiding negative outcomes. The methodology has worked remarkably in aviation, arguably the safest high consequence industry, resulting in no U.S. passenger deaths in three years.

The Vine Hill Community Clinic initiative included a formal study conducted on visits from 619 type 2 diabetes patients over a thirteen-month period. The conclusions of the study state that the CRM training was instrumental in improving the diabetes care process and the patient outcomes. The number of patients who met the recommended levels for blood pressure, amputation risk, body weight, and other factors improved after receiving care from the CRM trained staff. Further benefits to the clinic include improved organization of diabetes care team, decreased patient visit time, and shorter orientation periods for new staff: all very important cost-saving measures for the severely under-funded public health sector. Although follow-up training is important to the continued success, the improvements from this training are viewed as significant to this clinic.

The success of this effort, and others like it, are not going unnoticed by the medical community. With persistent press about the alarming number of preventable, error-induced deaths in the U.S., medical providers are desperately looking for innovative ways to improve patient care. Many medical care providers never receive formal training on teamwork, situational awareness, or conflict management. Critical communication skills that could save lives are often not taught, monitored, or measured. Protocols and checklists are often not a part of typical medical care delivery, in the clinic or in the operating room. Contrast this with the systematic, documented, and mandatory recurring training received by those in the aviation community and it is not hard to see why the numbers are materially better. CRM ensures all members of a crew flying an aircraft know their responsibilities, protocols, and obligation to speak up if they feel something is not safe. The medical community is learning that applying these principles to healthcare delivery can provide measurable improvements for their patients.

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For anyone who doesn’t know what Tai Chi is, it’s a traditional Chinese mind-body relaxation exercise consisting of intricate exercise sequences performed in a slow and relaxed manner over a 30 minute period. So you may be asking yourself…what does Tai Chi and Diabetes have to do with one another?

Anyone who knows anything about Diabetes knows that in order to properly control diabetes you have to exercise. Diabetes and Fitness must go hand in hand if you want to lead a long happy life.

Reduce Your Risk For Depression With Tai Chi

Stress induced depression is a major risk factor for diabetic patients. More than just providing exercise, Tai Chi for Diabetes places a strong emphasis on mental relaxation. Although most if not all forms of exercise could be considered a stress reducer…Tai Chi directly focuses on relaxing the mind and body.

Improve Diabetic Neuropathy with Tai Chi

Diabetic Neuropathy is caused by small fiber nerve damage causing the patient to be less mobile and off balance. Tai Chi for Diabetics works on improving mobility and balance in the areas that are prone to Diabetic Neuropathy.

How Do I Learn Tai Chi?

If you are like me, you don’t really know anyone that practices Tai Chi to be able to ask them for some pointers. I found the name of a doctor who specializes in Tai Chi For Diabetes by the name of Dr. Paul Lam.

Dr. Paul Lam has put together an instructional DVD which will teach you the finer points of Tai Chi for Diabetes. I checked out his website and along with the video he suggests that you find an instructor who understands the disease diabetes. This could be done by either contacting your local diabetes foundation or by contacting Dr. Paul Lam’s office directly for assistance.

What Will You Learn From The Tai Chi for Diabetes DVD?

• What is Tai Chi?
• What is Diabetes?
• How Does Tai Chi Work for Diabetes?
• Precautions
• Warm-up Exercises
• Revised Warm-up Exercises
• Qigong for Diabetes
• The Basic Set
• The Advanced Set
• Wind-down Exercises
• How to Improve Your Tai Chi

I’m always looking for ways to increase my physical activity as well as finding a healthy way of relieving stress, both of which are a huge benefit for my diabetes. I feel that Tai Chi for Diabetes will do just that.

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With all the fitness and diet programs out there, you would think people in our country would be getting in better shape. We’re not. Why? All of us are confused, frustrated and burdened down at the contradictory of medicine and fitness for one reason, and the other reasons involve issues we have already discussed.

The key in motivating yourself to exercise is to keep your eye on the big picture. If you don’t, the details will become a quicksand pit. The big picture is: JUST MOVE IT!

So much money and time is spent on gimmicks and diet fads that only get used for a short time, with little or no results.

The big picture is about being realistic, not to have high expectations, but to focus on internal health issues, such as blood pressure, body fat, cholesterol levels, and a quiet mind. The challenge is that you have grown accustomed to being motivated by instant gratification. It is more of a priority to look good rather than to have lower stress levels.

You get frustrated because you are trying to fight a battle you can’t win with something fast and easy. It’s called aging. You blame aging on other things in hopes there is something out there that you can do or take that will get you the results you want in the shortest amount of time. The truth is while good looks are a good measurement; they are only perks in the big picture.

THERE ARE NO MAGIC FORMULAS

The “Wellness Industry” is the fastest growing industry today. Why? Because millions of people are searching for some hidden treasure box with a magic formula. The truth of the matter is you will never replace HARD WORK! There are parts to any exercise program that work. Yet, anything promising fast results is usually too good to be true and will set you up for disappointment.

MORE IS NOT BETTER

Logic will say if I walk for twenty minutes, I will burn this amount of calories. If I walk forty minutes, I will burn twice as many calories and be in better shape. Not so!

When it comes to exercise, the term “Over Training” is used when muscles have reached their limits, run out of nutrients and need replenishing, but do not get it. Sometimes you will see this in poor sleeping patterns, added soreness, plateaus and boredom in workouts that make us aware of needing rest. For the athlete, one of the hardest things, yet best things for us to do, is consciously listen to our bodies. Sometimes the body’s requirements go against logic. There may be situations where your body needs more rest time to rebuild itself. Sooner or later you will hit a wall and then what are you going to do?

EXERCISE SMARTER, NOT HARDER

When it comes to maintaining an exercise program let’s face it, it is hard work. It can be hard at times and it never seems to get any easier. Harder exercise is not the answer to better results, but doing it effectively and efficiently is. No matter how old you or what your goals are it’s important to incorporate all areas of fitness into a program:

” Joints- through flexibility exercises

” Heart-through cardiovascular workout,

” Skeletal muscle -with strength training.

” Balanced eating habits

When all areas are implemented in a regular routine, they build on each other. Something is better than nothing, but if your program is lopsided, meaning lacking in one area or another, your results will be affected.

Twenty years of dedicated exercise has taught me three principles that have kept me motivated over the years.

Greg Ryan is a high profile fitness expert and former employee of Kathy Smiths. Body building champion, public speaker and personal trainer to the stars. He is a best selling author of the Changing from the INSIDE OUT through real behavior change, smart eating and effective exercising. Start getting in better shape today! For FREE MINI COURES click here http://www.resolutions.bz

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I remember being a teenager with no thoughts of diabetes or monitoring my carb intake. Hell I remember going out to football games and drinking a mouthful of maple syrup or sugar right before leaving. It was like when Rocky drank the raw eggs for breakfast before working out. I thought I was giving myself energy. All I really was doing was upping my blood sugar and making my pancreas work hard to inject insulin in my blood to deal with all those simple sugars. Now I have to give myself a byetta injection before I eat. And to carry that thing around with me is a pain in the ass! Just in case I happen to go out to eat before going home or if I eat breakfast at work instead of at home.

I have to plan my supplements and medication around eating cause I’m fat, diabetic and lazy!

This is a picture taken by my 5 year old son cause he thought it was funny that Daddy goes right to sleep sometimes after eating dinner at night. Even my son knows when I’m hyperglycemic yet occasionally I eat too much of the wrong thing and this happens.

This post is a bit more personal than most I write. I know there are a lot of people out there worse off than me.

I need to get involved more like Bernard Farrell and are active in the diabetes fund raising community and also has been Type 1 for 35 years.

Or Amy Tenderich who is enjoying reading, cooking, aerobics, hiking, swimming, wine, weekend getaways, her kids and she’s (nearly) fitter than ever.

Gloria taught me how getting a yearly flu shot can benefit me from a possible weaker immune system.

Also check out Gina Capone’s diabetes chat where you can meet other people just like me and realize I’m not alone in this struggle.

So let me hear from you. Comment below. Are you over weight and diabetic? Are you doing something with your diabetes or sitting on your ass like I have been?

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Exercise causes the body to process glucose faster, which lowers blood sugar. The more intense the exercise, the faster the body will utilize glucose. Therefore it is important to understand the differences in training with type I and type II diabetes. It is important for an individual who has diabetes to check with a physician before beginning an exercise program. When training with a diabetic, it is important to understand the dangers of injecting insulin immediately prior to exercise. An individual with type I diabetes injecting their normal amount of insulin for a sedentary situation can pose the risk of hypoglycemia or insulin shock during exercise. General exercise guidelines for type I are as follows: allow adequate rest during exercise sessions to prevent high blood pressure, use low impact exercises and avoid heavy weight lifting, and always have a supply of carbohydrates nearby. If blood sugar levels get too low, the individual may feel shaky, disoriented, hungry, anxious, become irritable or experience trembling. Consuming a carbohydrate snack or beverage will alleviate these symptoms in a matter of minutes.

Before engaging in exercise, it is important for blood sugar levels to be tested to make sure that they are not below 80 to 100 mg/dl range and not above 250 mg/dl. Glucose levels should also be tested before, during, after and three to five hours after exercise. During this recovery period (3-5 hours after exercise), it is important for diabetics to consume ample carbohydrates in order to prevent hypoglycemia.

Exercise will greatly benefit an individual with type II diabetes because of its positive effects on insulin sensitivity. Proper exercise and nutrition are the best forms of prevention for type II diabetics. It is important for training protocols to be repeated almost daily to help with sustaining insulin sensitivity. To prevent hypoglycemia, progressively work up to strenuous activity.

As with individuals with type I diabetes, carbohydrates should also be present during training to assist in raising blood sugar levels if the individual becomes low.

William is a personal trainer and runs http://www.myfightclub.com

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