 that staying home because you're out of gas is not always the best option. What I believe is, out of sight, out of mind. You will not know if something is wrong unless you drink it right. My last diabetes life hack is, diabetes hacks. Today I'm talking about five diabetes hacks you should know about. These hacks will help you conquer your diabetes and keep it under control. I am Dr. Ahmed Ergen. I'm an endocrinologist, a diabetologist and a diabetes educator. I practice in Florida, but I'm happy to help everyone and anyone who is struggling with diabetes in any part of the world who may not have access to a specialist or a diabetes coach. And we do this via this YouTube channel. I'll tell you how to implement these hacks in your life. So please watch it carefully. These are like recipes. If you miss one thing, the outcome may not be as expected. Here is a summary. Number one, accept and embrace it. Number two, we'll go over know your carbs. Number three, conquer and control your environment. Number four, monitor blood sugars. Number five, stay connected with other diabetics in the community. So I'll talk about the hacks within these headlines and it will make these things easy for you to follow. How do you really accept and embrace diabetes? Well, there are two ways most people choose to go about diabetes. So either they will deny and totally disregard the diagnosis and let the blood sugar run high for years and years, which causes a rapid progression of the diabetes and fast progression to insulin use. And yet the other personality type, for example, we'll take that as a serious threat or warning and we'll change the entire lifestyle and totally eliminate the carbs and claim that they have cured diabetes. In my experience, this type of reactionary approach does not last too long. What they do not understand is that staying home because you're out of gas is not always the best option. Eventually the itch comes and they want to go and discover places. You will have to venture out and do something fun eventually, right? So same applies to diabetes. Diabetes means your body cannot handle carbs as well as before anymore without help. Now, you can't put your head under the sand and think that you will never touch carbs again. That's fine. I just simply don't see that happening in real life in my practice. I have an extremely busy practice where I preach diet and lifestyle all day long pretty much and yet never seen someone on pure keto diet, for example, 10 years in a row. Most people try to do better. Our social life though, the family life, our obligations force us to blend in and learn to live with diabetes. So acceptance that you have diabetes does not mean that you have to separate or isolate yourself from everyone else and just eat totally different food than everyone else. However, you will learn to accept that your body does not handle the carbs and the glucose as well and you will need to monitor your carbohydrates and your food a little more carefully than the others, which may eventually be good for your overall health anyway. This also includes that you may have to take maybe a medication like a metformin or a supplement like sugar MD, whatever can help manage your blood sugar and overall health. So when you accept that, you have diabetes but you will be willing to do a few things differently than everyone else, which will make things a lot easier to accept such as monitoring blood sugars or monitoring your portion size or even maybe saying no to desserts or unhealthy food presented to you and so on. Also accepting the fact that you have diabetes will encourage you to take steps to learn to make healthy choices. The fact that you are watching this video right now proves that you already have achieved that. So let's move on to the next hack. Know your carbs and know your carb hacks. Being aware of carbs does not mean totally eliminating carbs from your life. Like we said, as we discussed in our previous videos though, healthy balanced diet should have carbs and of course it should have low glycemic index carbs. In most cases, we are presented with healthy and unhealthy options. Let's accept that. It could be for example, a candy bar versus an apple. Being aware of the carbs means that understanding the difference between candy and apple but also understanding how carby sauces on for example meats or the fish or the salad dressing maybe can make a difference. Understanding what type of carbs are there, how much carbs are in each specific food and how likely for that food to spike your blood sugar will help you make the right decisions every time. For most people, this is a chore but hey, it's one time knowledge. Once you know it, you know it. You will not have to study carb content of apples every time you eat an apple, right? I think it is worth the effort. And yes, the knowledge is power and if you think that the candy bar has the same carbohydrates as apples, which may be true by the way, however, not understanding the fact that the glycemic index can make a huge difference for example, may make you choose the wrong thing if you don't understand that. For example, knowing all the filavonoids and antioxidants in the apple and how they can help your overall health in other ways will also help you choose the apple over the candy bar even if the carbohydrate amounts can be precisely the same in the label for both. And of course, understanding that not everyone is the same as a virtue. So if certain foods even within smaller portions create a huge spike in your blood sugar or maybe you should keep trying different foods you may like that won't spike your blood sugar as much, right? Or consider using a safe medication or a supplement that will help you tolerate the healthy carbs that you enjoy. Now, next one is conquer and control your environment. Let's talk about the hacks in that. I do not believe in real power. What I believe is other side, other mind. If you want to quit snacking or stop eating unhealthy starches, you will need to stop buying them. This starts with going to the grocery store, number one, not hungry, and staying in the peripheral aisles without stopping by the junk food section which is typically in the mid aisles and going in with a plan. Make sure to make a list of what you need and stick to the list. And yes, that is correct. If you do not have them available you are not going to be able to eat them at home. Also, advise the same thing to your family members and instruct them not to buy any food item that you do not want to have access to. Instead, fill your pantry and then your fridge with healthy foods or alternatives you will be happy to eat that will not spike your blood sugar as much. For example, carrots instead of chips, localisamic index fruits instead of candy bars, nuts instead of M&Ms, dark chocolate instead of milk chocolate. If you have to have a chocolate or satisfy your sweet tooth, et cetera. Also, plan ahead like I said. For example, pre-prep meals like pre-cooked roasted veggies, healthy localisamic grains such as a farro or bulgur so that when you're cooking dinner, it's easy when the time comes which will prevent you grab something from a fast food restaurant or something quick that may not be to your best interest. Now let's talk about monitoring the blood sugar hacks. When it comes to monitoring blood sugars, some people check frantically like 100 times a day and some other people never check their blood sugars at all. So in all honesty, you will not know if something is wrong unless you check it, right? Well, I know it's difficult. So how you check your blood sugar is totally up to you. However, here are some tips. Some people are perfectly okay with finger sticks like up to seven to eight times a day, although that may not be necessary. Some people want to get a CGM device such as a DEXCOM or Freestyle Libre, and yet some other people may not be able to afford them although they are dying for it. Here are a few solutions and hacks for you to consider. If you're okay checking your blood sugars via finger stick but you're not a big fan of checking too often, and then you may not have access to a continuous glucose monitoring device, I would recommend checking the blood sugar only once a day. Although you should change the time you check your blood sugars every day when you're checking still once a day. For example, one day check it before breakfast, another day check it before lunch, another day check it after lunch, maybe one another day check it before dinner or after dinner, et cetera. Just change the time. They will give you an overall understanding and trends on how your blood sugars overall running at different times of the day. On the other hand, this will not work if you are on multiple daily injections of insulin, in which case you will need to check your blood sugars between four and seven times a day or use a continuous glucose monitoring device. A lot of people complain about not being able to afford a CGM in my practice. And I totally understand that. However, I believe at least half of those complainers could afford a CGM if they sacrifice one thing in their life. It could be like going out once a month instead of twice a month. It could be sacrificing another luxury item that they want to get, and instead they can get a CGM. It's all about priorities. If you think that your health is a priority, you should be able to invest in a device that can help your health in check and your blood sugars in check instead of spending the same money for other things that are not absolutely necessary. Always ask your doctor also to help with the insurance coverage. However, if that's not working, consider really a CGM device, which will, I believe, and I see that every day, dramatically change your outlook in your diabetes management. My last diabetes life hack is stay connected with other diabetics and their community. Now, diabetes is a lifelong and chronic disease. You will need to feel that you belong to a community so you do not feel alone. If you feel alone, you will give up. However, knowing that there are other people sharing the same life and same feelings and same difficulties and the challenges, just like you, will help you to stay motivated and focused. This is the exact purpose of this Sugar MD channel. You can read comments, you can write comments, you can use our Sugar MD Facebook group if you want a more close circle of friends and use it every day and every video as a learning opportunity, not just from me, but also from other fellow diabetic friends. I hope these hacks will make you a step closer in achieving your goals and if you find this video helpful, please like, share and comment. And if you haven't done so already, please subscribe and hit the bell for notifications so we stick together and learn from each other. See you in the next video. Hey guys, I hope you're enjoying this channel so far and I hope you subscribed already. If you didn't do it and if you did, watch this video right there. I think that will help you too.