Harnessing the Power of Habit Stacking for Better Diabetes Management
As someone living with diabetes, you know that managing this chronic condition involves developing and maintaining a range of healthy habits. From monitoring your blood sugar levels to staying physically active and making nutritious food choices, there's much to keep track of. While forming new habits can be challenging, habit stacking offers a simple and effective strategy to enhance your diabetes care routine. Integrating small, positive changes into your daily habits can create a more manageable and sustainable approach to your health.
The Life-Changing Magic of Habit Stacking
Habit stacking is a powerful technique that can transform how you manage your diabetes. The concept is simple: attaching a new, healthy habit to an existing one makes it easier to remember and stick to. This approach reduces the mental effort required to form new habits, as you're piggybacking off the automatic nature of your current routines.
Imagine the difference it could make if, every time you checked your blood sugar, you also took a moment to record the reading in a logbook or app. Over time, this small addition would become as natural as the blood sugar check itself, and you'd have a valuable record to share with your healthcare team and help you spot patterns in your levels.
Getting started with habit stacking is a breeze. Just follow these three steps:
Identify a Current Habit: Choose a diabetes-related habit you already do consistently, such as taking your medication, checking your blood sugar, or sitting down for a meal.
Add a New Habit: Add a new, beneficial diabetes management habit to the existing one. In the next section, we'll discuss some examples.
Repeat and Reinforce: Practice the combined habits consistently until they become automatic. Celebrate each successful pairing as a step towards better diabetes control.
Stacking Your Way to Diabetes Success
Now, let's explore some practical ways to apply habit stacking to your daily diabetes management:
Mealtime Makeover
Mealtimes are crucial to diabetes management, and habit stacking can help you consistently make healthier choices. Before preparing a meal, consider the "plate method"—always filling half your plate (at minimum) with non-starchy vegetables. Making this mental check a habit before each meal will make you more likely to create balanced, diabetes-friendly plates.
Once you get into your diet routine, which is a low-carb diet for me, you can add other habits. Going to the grocery store almost immediately starts my brain calculating the carbs of the food that I want to buy. I write them on my notes on my phone, making it easier to find them in the store later. If you order online, it’s even easier to find the low-carb. The existing habit was grocery shopping; the added habit was creating a list of low-carb foods. Search items like “low-carb,” “keto,” or “Atkins” help find the right food.
Move More, Sit Less
Physical activity is a key component of diabetes management, but finding time to exercise can be tough. Habit stacking to the rescue! Every time you finish a meal, take a 15-minute walk. This short burst of activity can help regulate your blood sugar levels and reduce the risk of post-meal spikes. Plus, by attaching this new habit to a consistent event like a meal, you'll be more likely to make it a regular part of your routine.
Ready to take your exercise goals to the next level? How about creating a habit of going for a walk or exercising after you have your coffee in the morning? I developed this routine when I bought a NordicTrack bike for my home. My existing habit was coffee in the morning, and I added 30 minutes on the bike to it. It’s now anchored in my head: Coffee in the morning => exercise for 30 minutes. It also helps me to keep my blood sugar under control in the morning, which is a time when many people with diabetes have a spike.
Master Your Meds
Remembering to take your diabetes medication at the right times can be a challenge. Stacking your medication habit with another daily task can make that easier. If you use insulin, always consider the amount of carbs whenever you drink or eat something. Drinking and eating are the current habits; considering the carbs and injecting insulin becomes the added routine.
You already do this? How about adding another habit: Check your blood sugar after 30 - 45 minutes (and not only two to three hours later) to see whether you estimated the carbs correctly. This habit will allow you to improve the time within your target blood sugar range (which is one of the key metrics for diabetics: time in range). This simple pairing can help you stay on top of your medication schedule and better manage your diabetes.
Stress Less, Improve your Blood Sugar, And Sleep Better
Stress and poor sleep can negatively impact blood sugar levels because adrenalin and cortisol release sugar reserves in the body when you are stressed, which causes blood sugar spikes. That’s why mindfulness techniques like meditation or yoga help to improve blood sugar levels.
Habit stacking can help you prioritize relaxation and rest. For example, before bed each night, take a few minutes to practice a relaxation technique, such as deep breathing. If you start with meditation and breathing exercises, you can use a phone app to help you. Also, think about the good things that happened in your life today. There are always things we can be grateful for.
Making this a regular part of your bedtime routine will signal to your body that it's time to wind down, promoting better sleep and helping you manage stress better. Once you get used to this new habit, add it in the morning and after lunch. Mindful living techniques will relax you and enjoy life more.
Hydration Habit
Staying hydrated is important for overall health. Make hydration a habit by stacking it with other daily activities. For example, every time you use the restroom, drink a glass of water afterward. A glass of wine in the evening? Add a glass of water to it. The same with coffee. This simple pairing can help you meet your daily fluid needs without having to think too much about it. This is true for people with or without diabetes.
Small Steps, Big Impact
The beauty of habit stacking is that it allows you to make significant changes in your diabetes management through small, achievable steps. Focusing on one new habit at a time and anchoring it to an existing routine makes the process of change feel less overwhelming and more rewarding.
Remember to be patient with yourself as you embark on your habit-stacking journey. Forming new habits takes time and practice, and there may be setbacks along the way. That's okay – progress, not perfection, is the goal. Celebrate each successful habit stack as a victory, and trust that every small change you make is bringing you closer to your diabetes management goals.
Stacking Your Way to a Healthier Future
There's no better time than now to start harnessing the power of habit stacking for your diabetes management. Begin by identifying one existing diabetes-related habit and one new habit you'd like to adopt. Write down your plan, commit to it, and start stacking!
As you experience the benefits of these small changes – more consistent blood sugar levels, increased energy, and improved overall health – you'll be motivated to keep building on your success. And as your diabetes management routine becomes more automatic and ingrained, you'll find that you have more mental and emotional energy to devote to the things that matter most to you.
Remember, every habit stack is a building block in the foundation of your healthier future. With each small change, you're taking control of your diabetes and creating a life of greater vitality and well-being. So, get stacking – your healthiest self is waiting!
