August Goal: Move our body after one meal per day!

My guest writer this week is Maria Dellanina.

With the busy summer months in full swing, we know how tough it can be to prioritize your health goals, as you enjoy more parties, outings, family, and friends.
 
Our challenge for you (and ourselves!) as we go into the month of August is to take a 10-20 minute walk OR move your body for 10-20 minutes (yoga, vacuuming, stretching, laundry) within 30 minutes to 2 hours of eating one meal per day. This can: 
 
️ ❤️ Significantly lower your blood sugar. 
When you move your muscles, they are better at absorbing the sugar (glucose) from your blood, since they need fuel (food) to work. 
 
️ ️🍽 Regulate your hunger & digestion hormones. 
Since exercise allows your body to absorb that blood sugar, your body won't have to release extra insulin, a hormone, to do the work. While insulin is beneficial, we don't want chronically elevated levels, so movement is one way to “help” our body bring down those sugar levels without over-dependence on insulin. If you've heard of insulin-resistance, that can come from having chronically elevated insulin (as a result of chronically elevated blood sugar). 
 
There are numerous other benefits to gentle movement after a meal including better digestion (decreased gas and bloating), improved mood & energy, and improved sleep quality at night, to name a few.
 
Maybe you'll choose to do this after breakfast on the weekends, after lunch on MWF, and after dinner on Tuesday, Thursday. If you weren't able to follow through on your goal one day, can you move your body once after breakfast AND lunch the next day? There is, of course, more benefit to doing this after each meal, but starting with once is an excellent place for us to begin! To better help you with this goal, ask a friend, partner, or co-worker to participate with you on some days. 
 
As a gentle reminder, we don't have to have pre-diabetes or diabetes to care about our blood sugar management. There are things all of us can do to better support our body's short and long-term health, we just need to know about them! Please reach out any time with questions or with progress updates on how you're doing!

If you are interested in working with Maria, a registered dietitian, please reach out to her at maria@thefoundationaldietitian.com. Maria is in-network with Blue Cross Blue Shield of IL.