Alice is living with prediabetes, but she’s taking an important step to reverse her risk for developing Type 2 diabetes. Follow her health journey as she completes the Diabetes Prevention Program and travels the road to better health.
Part 3: Climbing Uphill
The E-Word
As my new and improved eating habits started leading to weight loss, I was riding high. It wasn’t easy every single day, but more and more, I felt like I was getting the hang of eating well.
Then, to add on to what we’d learned about nutrition, our instructor Melissa introduced a new topic into the course: exercise. As someone who’s never had much athletic ability or interest – remember when I called exercise a four-letter word? – I got a bit nervous. For me, a self-proclaimed klutz, exercise had always been something I thought of as being embarrassing – not fun.
I quickly learned, though, that exercise didn’t have to mean running marathons, playing a sport, or even going to the gym. Exercise could be anything that increased my amount of movement – and even better, it could be things I was already doing as part of my day. Going up and down the stairs, vacuuming the house, walking the dogs – they all counted!
Get Moving!
Looking at it this way, I realized there were a lot of simple ways that I could incorporate more movement into my daily routine. I could take the stairs at work, I thought. I could move more vigorously as I cleaned the house. And I could take our dogs on longer and more frequent walks, making myself healthier and my dogs happier at the same time.
For me, exercise still didn’t come as easily as some of the nutritional changes had. But by focusing less on “exercising” and more on simply “moving,” I was starting to see that it didn’t have to be so hard.
Was my skeptical view of exercise turning to love? I’m not sure. But I did know that I was moving more – and feeling great.
