Visualization is the Key to Diabetes Treatment

While having my kitchen knife sharpened,
I went shopping at the mall,
and after driving my car toward home,
I realized I hadn't picked up the knife
Hashihere.
I mess up like this sometimes.

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I am a nurse and work as a certified diabetes educator.
I like to visualize both my life and my work.
To see waste in my household budget, I write down all the money I spend, or I visualize the clothes I own to see if there are any I don't wear.

Today, I would like to talk about why visualization is recommended for diabetes treatment as well.

I would like to introduce Wantaro Tanaka/Hide-san, who is actually undergoing treatment, later on. (I have received permission from Wantaro-san.)

Diabetes Treatment

The basics of diabetes treatment are diet therapy, exercise therapy, and pharmacotherapy.

Diabetes treatment requires daily self-management.

No matter how many drugs are developed, your daily life is what matters.

This is quite difficult to continue on your own.

When you walk through the city, there are convenience stores and restaurants everywhere.
The food you want to eat is easily available.

Furthermore, people work from early in the morning until late at night every day.

How many people are actually able to exercise regularly?

In such daily circumstances, when you talk about "diet therapy" or "exercise therapy," some people feel resistant or think from the start that they cannot do it.

Visualization

What I recommend to patients is the visualization of their own actions.

Blood pressure, weight, amount of exercise, dietary content, etc.

In particular, visualizing meals allows you to check the balance and quantity of your meals.
It also has the effect of preventing overeating.

I recommend that patients take photos of their meals or write them down in a notebook they like.

First, it has the effect of knowing the current situation and having the patients find areas for improvement themselves.
Such as the portions being too large, or eating fried foods too often, etc.

I have patients bring in the notebooks they've written in and the images they've taken so we can review them together.
Since they know they have to show them to a nurse, it also seems to have a deterrent effect on overeating.
Everyone writes honestly, and they even include their snacks.

Visualization of Exercise Therapy

Some people have pedometer apps on their smartphones, or watches that can record step counts and distance traveled.
It seems there are also devices that can check heart rate.

It also serves as a trigger to learn how much you walk every day.
Whether it's more or less than you thought.
Once you grasp the current situation, you can set your own daily step goal,
and it leads to thinking about and acting on ways to increase your step count to achieve that goal.

If the goal is too high, it's hard to get a sense of accomplishment, which often leads to giving up, so I sometimes think about goals together with them.
For those who cannot set goals on their own, I listen to them talk about their work and life,
and we think about it together.

There are many people on note who manage their own health.

Tanaka Wantaro/Hide-san

Tanaka Wantaro/Hide-san records their daily meals by taking pictures.

Furthermore, they calculate calories and maintain a target calorie count per meal.

When using the company cafeteria, they give the excess calories from one meal
to their colleagues.

This kind of behavior is hard to achieve.

Many people end up eating it because they were told it's a waste to leave it, even if they know in their heads that it's over the calorie limit.

It is important to keep recording.
It leads to self-reflection and eating appropriate amounts.

Also, taking pictures and posting them like Wantaro-san does means they are seen by others, which has the effect of making you conscious of what you eat and preventing overeating or an unbalanced diet.

Just like continuing to write on note, having someone see it is more encouraging than having no one see it at all.

Exercise Therapy
For exercise therapy, it is ideal to incorporate both resistance exercise, which is like strength training, and aerobic exercise, which is like walking.
(Resistance exercise is related to carbohydrate consumption, while aerobic exercise is related to fat and carbohydrate consumption)

Tanaka Wantaro/Hide-san is also engaged in exercise therapy.
After work, they do aerobic exercise like walking in the park.
On holidays, they use the waiting time for an oil change to do strength training like squats.
They are practicing ideal exercise therapy.

The results of their blood tests have also improved, of course.
While medication has an effect, I believe it is the result of them managing their own lives.
I am rooting for them to keep it up.

Visualization means grasping the current situation.
It is about thinking of improvements and goals from there.

Mini Info

"When people hear "diabetes," there is sometimes prejudice that it is "a disease that people who overeat get" or "because their lifestyle is messy."
"Diabetes" is not a disease caused by a bad lifestyle, but a disease that requires you to be careful about your lifestyle.

There have been discussions in various places about how the image of the word "diabetes" is not good.
Diabetes-related organizations have started moving to eliminate prejudice and discrimination caused by the disease.
It has been decided that in the future, we will call it "diabetes" (using the term "diabetes" in English/katakana) instead of the Japanese term.

I think it will take a little more time for it to permeate among everyone.

This has become long.
Thank you for reading until the end.

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