Planning For Challenges
While you can’t eliminate all challenges, you can plan for many of them.
Here are some suggestions.
Create a Supportive Home Food Environment
To make it easier to eat the right food to reverse your prediabetes, prepare your home with these actions to set yourself up for success:
Remove any processed, sugary, or high-carb foods from your kitchen and replace them with nourishing foods that fit your new way of eating.
Keep your pantry, fridge, and freezer stocked with healthy foods that are easy to grab and eat; remove less-healthy products that you find difficult to resist.
Store bread, hamburger buns, and dinner rolls in the freezer to keep them available to others but make them less tempting for you. Frozen bread products stay fresh for months and can be warmed up when needed.
Ask family or roommates not to eat cookies, candy, doughnuts, and similar foods in front of you. Explain that you want to fuel your body with the right foods to reverse your prediabetes and improve your health. Ask them to place them in spots you won't see.
Learn How to Prepare Healthy Meals at Home
Depending on how you’ve chosen to eat to reverse prediabetes (see the EAT section for details about each approach), meals can be as simple as a protein source, a few colorful, above-ground vegetables, and some healthy fat. If your approach allows more carbs, you could also include below-ground vegetables (sweet potatoes, carrots,) legumes, and/or fruit.
If you prepare meals for people who want potatoes, rice, pasta, or similar foods that you don’t want to eat, you can cook side portions of those foods for them. Serve the items in a buffet style where people create their own plates.
Here are some examples of easy, light cooking or no cooking meals.
Breakfast
Plain Greek yogurt or cottage cheese with chopped nuts and fresh fruit or berries (or frozen berries warmed up in the microwave)
Egg salad on lettuce, tomato slices, or whole-grain toast (always have some hard-boiled eggs on hand!)
Cheese or tempeh and fresh fruit or berries
If you have more time and feel like cooking, prepare bacon or sausage and eggs, an omelet or frittata, or chaffles (cheesy, lower carb waffles). Serve with fruit or berries.
Lunch & Dinner
Canned fish or seafood mixed with half an avocado and/or mayo, on leafy greens
Cold cuts and crudités
Mozzarella cheese, tempeh, or edamame with tomatoes and olives
Rotisserie chicken with coleslaw
Deli turkey slices, lettuce, and creamy salad dressing
Precooked pulled pork with baby carrots
Helpful Recipes & Home Cooking Resources
KetoDiet: Martina Slajerova has created an extensive collection of over 2,000 delicious keto and low carb recipes based on nourishing whole foods. If you choose to track what you eat, the KetoDiet app contains all of these recipes and also allows you to enter other foods into the app.
Here’s a sampling of the types of recipes you’ll find on the KetoDiet website:
Dinner Ideas Online meal planner: This fun, interactive website from Jenni Calihan encourages you to create healthy meals based on your food preferences and the approach you follow. If you prefer a printed version, the Dinner Plans book, written by Jenni and Adele Hite, RD, is equally interactive, easy to use, and beautifully written. A few options that you can create by “flipping” through the webpage or book include:
Roast beef, asparagus stalks with hollandaise sauce, and roasted carrots
Broiled salmon, green beans with olive oil and almonds, and boiled potatoes
Cheese plate, iceberg lettuce with blue cheese dressing, and jicama sticks (vegetarian)
The Good Kitchen Table: Katie and Giancarlo Caldesi provide Mediterranean-inspired low carb recipes that are tasty and nourishing. As a well-known UK-based TV chef, cooking instructor, and restaurateur, Giancarlo reversed his own type 2 diabetes by following a low carb lifestyle. Now the couple creates books, courses, restaurants, and recipe collections based on plant and animal proteins, healthy fats, and slow-release carbohydrates. Here are a few of the popular recipes you’ll find on this site:
Kalyn’s Kitchen: Kalyn Denny is a Utah-based food blogger who in 2005 started sharing recipes with friends and family after she lost 40 pounds on the low-glycemic South Beach Diet. Now thousands of followers come for her healthy “down-home” recipes that are packed with flavor but have fewer carbs than classic comfort food. Heavy on vegetables and moderate in protein, Kalyn’s recipes range from low to moderate carb.Che ck out some of the tasty recipes on Kalyn’s site:
Plan Ahead to Avoid Temptations Outside of the Home
When you’re away from home, you’ll encounter tempting foods. Some days, it may seem that these foods are everywhere.
So try to think about where you're most likely to run into them and come up with plans to avoid the temptation.
If you find it difficult to resist the muffins or pastries at the coffee shop on your way to work, bring your coffee or tea from home or change your route to the office.
Are you tempted by the basket of bread or rolls when dining out? Ask your server not to bring bread to your table.
When others at your table want bread, make sure it isn't placed near you. Avoid having temptation within arm's reach, especially when you're hungry!
Work presents unique challenges, since you’re there for several hours every day and your co-workers influence the food environment, which can make it harder to stay on track with healthy eating. Plan ahead and bring healthy choices from home so you have food options available at work.
Make Healthy Choices When Dining Out
Eating at home has several advantages, including giving you complete control over the ingredients in your meal and keeping costs down. But sometimes you’ll want or need to eat out, whether you’re meeting friends at a full-service restaurant, having lunch with colleagues, or grabbing a quick meal from a fast-serve restaurant.
The good news is that you can order a healthy meal at any type of restaurant by following these three basic guidelines:
1
Pass on the bread and butter (or ask that they be placed away from you)
2
Order plain protein (meat, chicken, fish, or tofu) rather than mixed dishes that contain processed carbs
3
Request extra vegetables on the side in place of potatoes, pasta, or rice
Healthy Dishes That Are Often on Restaurant Menus:
Salad topped with meat, poultry, salmon, or cheese; add olive oil and vinegar or a creamy dressing
Burger or cheeseburger wrapped in lettuce with tomatoes, and onions
Steak, chicken, or fish with asparagus, broccoli, green beans, or other above-ground vegetables
Cuisine-Specific Options:
Asian: Stir-fry with meat, seafood, or tofu. Skip the rice and ask for extra vegetables, or ask for half an order of brown rice, if it fits your eating approach.
Mexican: Fajitas with meat, shrimp, or tofu, and extra vegetables. Include a side of black or pinto beans if they fit your way of eating.
Italian: Chicken piccata, beef carpaccio, osso buco,or grilled or broiled fish. Ask for grilled or roasted vegetables in place of pasta.
Greek: Chicken, beef, or lamb kebabs; kafta (ground meat); or gyros (shaved meat) with extra veggies. Enjoy hummus or white bean soup if your eating approach includes legumes.
Take Time to Prepare Before Traveling
Are you excited about an upcoming trip but concerned about sticking with your healthy way of eating while you’re away?
Relax. There's no need to stress about food when taking a vacation, visiting family, or traveling for work if you have plans in place.
Here are some tips to help you enjoy your trip without worrying about what you’ll eat:
Decide ahead of time what you want to commit to: Do you want to stay on plan 100% of the time you’re away? Or, do you want to have a couple of off-plan meals, or even more? Deciding what you’re willing to commit to ahead of time can help you feel less anxious and more empowered while you’re away.
Take snacks for the trip: Whether you're traveling by car, train, or plane, have healthy snacks on hand that don’t require refrigeration. Here are a few foods you can take from home or find in a convenience store:
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no-sugar jerky or meat sticks
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pepperoni or salami
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nuts & seeds
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cheese crisps
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eggs or cheese (if you have a way to insulate them).
Keep low carb “backups” in your room: Sometimes, finding healthy options at a restaurant, conference, or family gathering can be challenging. So make sure to pack or purchase some "shelf-stable" items you can dig into if needed:
Shelf-stable Foods:
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no-sugar jerky or meat sticks
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pepperoni or salami
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nuts & seeds
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canned tuna
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olives
If your room has a refrigerator, you can pick up these items at the local grocery store:
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rotisserie chicken
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plain Greek yogurt
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hard-boiled eggs
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cottage cheese
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cold cuts
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cheese
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smoked salmon
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avocado
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vegetable platter
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berries or other fruits, depending on your carb target
Treat Yourself with Care During Periods of Stress
During times of stress, it can be very hard to maintain a healthy eating pattern. For example, the death of a loved one is one of life’s most painful and stressful times. But grief can also arise with other losses — such as the death of a pet, the loss of a job, or the end of a significant relationship. These events can be profoundly stressful.
Here are four common things that happen during times of grief, loss, or extreme stress, with tips to help address them.
1
Numbing: Alcohol, high-fat, high-sugar combinations, and other comfort foods release dopamine in the brain, providing temporary relief from the pain.
Tip: Get your dopamine release in different ways: listen to music, exercise, or spend time in nature or with friends.
2
Futility: In grief, you may think “nothing matters” or “what’s the point?” Your prediabetes and other health issues may suddenly seem meaningless or unimportant.
Tip: Tell yourself that protecting your health is always a priority.
3
Opportunity: Friends and neighbors often bring gifts of food that may be hard to resist, such as casseroles, sandwiches, cookies, and other baked goods.
Tip: Graciously accept these foods and put them in the freezer to remove them from your view. You can deal with them later. If friends ask in advance how they can help, ask for foods that fit your eating plan.
4
Fatigue: Poor sleep increases stress hormones, cravings, and hunger. Willpower drops when you’re stressed, tired, or have slept badly, and it may be hard to grocery shop or cook a healthy meal.
Tip: Establish a sleep routine, with a regular sleep time, cool dark room, and no screens before bed. If people offer to help, give them a shopping list of foods or a recipe to make for you.
Above all, be kind to yourself. It’s normal to struggle at this time. Do what you can to stay healthy and know that eventually you will get back on track.