Exercise Decreases Insulin Resistance Even Without Weight Loss

In recent articles I have referred to insulin resistance and how it leads to type 2 diabetes about eighty percent of the time. There are two known causes of insulin resistance: being overweight and leading a sedentary lifestyle.  There is no clear evidence that one of these conditions is more harmful than the other or is more responsible for insulin resistance.

What is very clear though is that being overweight, even if only ten pounds or more, and getting little exercise, causes insulin resistance and can ultimately lead to type 2 diabetes.

Now can the insulin resistant overweight person decrease his or her insulin resistance by losing some weight even if not getting any exercise? Most definitely, no doubt about it.

Generally speaking, in cases where the patient is overweight, weight loss is routinely recommended as a first line treatment for type 2 diabetes. Sometimes simply eating better such as more nutritious foods and less junk food is enough to cause weight loss. When patients can do this it is wonderful, however, research shows that maintaining the weight loss for an extended period of time without simultaneously performing exercise is very, very difficult. As you probably well know the lost weight usually comes back within one to two years after losing it.

 What if a person with insulin resistance starts exercising regularly but fails to lose any weight? Is the exercise beneficial? Has it helped? Yes it has, it definitely has, no mistake about it. Exercise will lower insulin resistance even if no weight has been lost. (Are you beginning to see why exercise is such a big deal?) Perhaps the person didn’t lose any weight because they made up for the calories burned during exercise by eating more. Maybe the person did lose some fat but gained muscle mass equal in weight to the amount of fat lost. The scale would show no change in weight even though the percentage of body fat had been reduced. Hence, using traditional bathroom scales is a big drawback when measuring exercise/diet success.

 Anyway, my point is, that exercise can and does reduce insulin resistance even without weight loss. So when I do encourage exercise it is primarily to reduce insulin resistance and secondarily to promote weight loss.

If weight loss does occur as a result of starting to exercise or exercising more, then you can expect even greater improvements in insulin resistance.

I do want to make it clear that when I recommended exercise to a patient, it is first and foremost to help in reducing insulin resistance, secondarily it is to assist a patient in their weight loss efforts. Research has repeatedly shown that exercise by itself is not likely to result in sustained weight loss. Similarly, research has also shown that diet plans that significantly restrict caloric intake are not successful for long-term weight loss when carried out exclusive of exercise. The best chance for long-term success with weight loss is to gradually work up to exercising a minimum of 250 minutes per week and to reduce caloric intake.

Milt Bedingfield is a certified diabetes educator and exercise physiologist. Milt's new website can be found at: http ://www.MasteringType2Diabetes.com

Never Put Off Exercise You Can Do Today Until Tomorrow

Those are my new words to live by. Actually I have a lot of words I try to live by and these are the latest I have added to my list. I am hopeful that by doing more exercise and eating well, and reducing my stress, I will see my 90th birthday and still be sharp enough to know that it is my 90th birthday when it  rolls around.

I want to be able to get up out of a chair, not a wheelchair, by myself, unassisted, and walk over to get my second small piece of cake (after all it is my birthday). I would like for all of my friends, at least my best friends, to "Never put off exercise they can do today until tomorrow" either because I would like to still have some friends of mine around to come to my 90th birthday party. After all, what's the point of having a party if there is no one there but me?

I have been trying to live by these words for about a month now and have discovered that my overall weekly exercise time has increased (It is so rewarding when something you try works). I am sleeping better, have lost a little weight, and am not getting sleepy sitting at my desk mid afternoon nearly as often as I was. In short, it's working.

So what was my motivation for this idea of mine? It seems as though I am always pressed for time and getting to workout is a major priority of mine. At the beginning of each week I look at the week ahead to see when I can get in a quick 30-40 minute workout. There are some weeks when it looks like I have three days in a row that I can exercise, then two days later maybe another two days in a row. So what I have done in the past (which I now do differently) is exercise several different body parts and then save the other parts for the next day. Here's the problem. About half of the time something comes up the next day and I don't get to workout. Then I end up aggravated at myself for not going ahead and exercising more of my body the day before when I was already at the gym and had a few minutes remaining that I could have done it.

So now, whenever I am about finished working out and notice I have a few minutes left I will go ahead and exercise another muscle group or two. I no longer save it for tomorrow because you never what tomorrow will bring. Things come up and emergencies happen so get it done when you can. At least that is what I have been doing and so far I have been able to increase my overall exercise time. Try it.

Milt Bedingfield is a certified diabetes educator and exercise physiologist and has been teaching people with diabetes about the disease and how to care for it for the last 19 years.
Milt's other website can be found at: http ://www.NewlyDiagnosedDiabetes.com.

Which Is Most Important - Eating Less Carbs Or Getting Exercise?

Not long ago I wrote an article about type 2 diabetes stressing the need for exercise. This is not at all uncommon for me as I strongly believe (based on my observations and 18 years of experience teaching people about their diabetes) that performing daily exercise is the most important thing most people can do to best manage their disease. Now, undoubtedly, there are going to be skeptics out there that say it's all about how many carbs you eat.

Well, the number of carbs you eat does have a lot to do with good blood sugar management I wholeheartedly agree, but it is shortsighted to say that it is all about carbs because it is not. If in fact someone has some really excessive habits such as drinking a liter of coke a day, or putting away a bag of Oreos before bed at night, or even drinking a half gallon of chocolate milk, or orange juice daily, then the most important and quickest thing that they can do to improve their diabetes is to eliminate those habits.

But for you folks that are healthy enough, and have your doctor's blessing, I challenge you to try adding exercise into your diabetes treatment mix, at least 5 days a week, gradually building up to thirty minutes a day. As for those of you that are already getting some exercise, but have not observed any benefit,it may just not be enough and you may want to consider doing more.

In all but the rarest of circumstances, adding exercise to the treatment plan for managing type 2 diabetes will have a substantial positive impact on maintaining good blood glucose control.

After all, putting less fuel in the tank (sugar in the blood) is good, but performing regular exercise and using as many muscles as you can, as often as you can, enables you to use the gas in the tank (reduce the amount of sugar in the blood). Eating less carbs is only half the solution to good blood glucose management, the other half is getting more physically active.

Remember, getting exercise should not be unpleasant. It should not hurt, it should not be something that you dread. Believe it or not you will actually start to miss it on the days you don't get to do it. I know that is hard to believe but it is so true.

To get started try this. Simply replace something that you do that is inactive (watching a rerun of a sitcom, doing a crossword puzzle, etc.) with something that is active (watering the plants in the yard, sweeping the porch, taking the dog or cat for a walk, or giving your pet a bath (an extra bath never hurt anyone as far as I know). As time goes on, build from there.

And by all means, forget the no pain, no gain foolishness. For the vast majority of people in the world pushing to the point of feeling pain is totally unnecessary.

Now get started... please.

Milt Bedingfield is a certified diabetes educator and exercise physiologist.
Milt's other website can be found at: http ://www.NewlyDiagnosedDiabetes.com.

Exercise Helps Get The Rust Off Type 2's Rusty Hinges

Years ago, actually many,many years ago, I used to get out in the yard with my dad and we would do yard work together, pretty much ever Saturday. I remember those days well, and I learned a lot from my dad over the years. Back then as I learned how to take care of the lawn, little did I realize one thing he taught me I would later use when teaching my patients about diabetes.

I remember late in the afternoon on Saturdays, after the mowing and edging was done, my dad and I would settle down in the front yard with a trash can between us and start pulling weeds. I always got such satisfaction seeing how I uncovered some healthy St. Augustine grass after removing the weeds that covered it. I remember every so often my dad would look over at me and emind me to make sure I was getting the root of the weed when I pulled it. Otherwise he said the weed would grow back.

It is well known that insulin resistance, what I like to call "rusty hinges," is what leads to type 2 diabetes in most cases. With type 2 diabetes nutritin plays a very important role. Because people with type 2 diabetes have a much harder time getting sugar out of their blood and into their muscle, fat and liver cells, they would be wise to put less sugar in the blood to begin with. This of course means  there would be less sugar to remove from the blood. Although over time, consuming less sugar is likely to contribute to weight loss, which in turn will reduce insulin resistance, eating less sugar is something people with diabetes have to do since they cannot make adequate amounts of insulin. In time with more and more beta cells becoming dysfunctional less sugar can be consumed or more medication will be needed to keep blood sugar levels reasonably well controlled. Unfortunately, eating less sugar doesn't deal with the root of the problem, insulin resistance, exercise does. Exercise directly deals with the root of the problem, insulin resistance, or "rusty hinges". Everytime someone with type 2 diabetes exercises, in a sense, it's as if they are sanding the rust off of the hinges and then spraying them with WD-40. Exercise directly deals with the root of the problem, insulin resistamce, like no other treatment.  For many people with type 2 diabetes exercise is the most important thing they can do to manage their diabetes.

Milt Bedingfield is a certified diabetes educator and exercise physiologist.
Milt's other website can be found at: http ://www.NewlyDiagnosedDiabetes.com.

Exercises To Help Diabetes

I frequently get asked the question,"What is the best exercise for people with type 2 diabetes?"

I then ask the class, "What do you all think is the best exercise for people with diabetes?"

Depending on how much time I have in class that day, I usually let them discuss it for a while.

Then I ask, " Well, what do you think?"

"Walking, oh yeh, it's the best," somebody answers.

"Swimming is better," someone else says, "It doesn't hurt my knees like walking does."

"How about riding a bike?" somebody asks from the back of the room wanting her view to be heard.

"The best exercise is the one you like the most or the one you are able to do," I tell them.

In most cases it doesn't matter what exercise you do, but how often you do the exercise. Far too often a patient will tell me they walked all over the park or the zoo or rode bikes for two hours on Sunday, not to get any more exercise for the next three or four days. That is absolutely no good and of minimal to no value. Exercise, regardless of what exercise, needs to be performed on a regular basis to be of any significant value. I will revisit this in a moment.

As to the exercises that will help diabetes the most, all exercises have their pros and cons. As an example, walking burns more calories in thirty minutes than swimming because walking is weight bearing and swimming is not. Does that make walking a better exercise? No, it simply means that walking burns more calories than swimming. Swimming on the other hand uses muscles in both the upper and lower body. As I said, every exercise has its pros and cons.

People should choose exercises that are the most fun to do or that they enjoy.

For those people that are not too fond of exercise they should do the exercise they dislike the least.

Getting back to the frequency of exercise. The latest guidelines suggest that all adults should exercise a minimum of 150 minutes per week with no more than two days between exercise sessions. The length of time can be divided up a variety of ways with the key being not to overload yourself on any one day. Exercise can be performed twice in one day doing 15 minutes in the morning and 15 minutes in the evening if that makes it any easier to accomplish. The important thing is to get it done, REGULARLY.

Always check with your doctor first and let him/her know what you intend to do. Never exercise when you are sick or right after a meal as this puts an extra strain on your heart.

Have you ever heard the expression "Slow and regular win the race?" It's new, try it.

Milt Bedingfield is a certified diabetes educator and exercise physiologist.
Milt's other website can be found at: http ://www.NewlyDiagnosedDiabetes.com.

How Do You Reduce, Improve Or Eliminate Insulin Resistance?

In recent articles I have referred to insulin resistance and how it leads to type 2 diabetes about 80 percent of the time. There are two known causes of insulin resistance: being overweight and leading a sedentary lifestyle.  There is no clear evidence that one of these conditions is more harmful than the other or is more responsible for insulin resistance.

What is very clear though is that being overweight, even if only 10 pounds or more, and getting little exercise, causes insulin resistance and can ultimately lead to type 2 diabetes.
Now can the insulin-resistant overweight person decrease his or her insulin resistance by losing some weight even if not getting any exercise? Most definitely, no doubt about it.

Generally speaking, in cases where the patient is overweight, weight loss is routinely recommended as a first line treatment for type 2 diabetes. Sometimes simply eating better such as more nutritious foods and less junk food is enough to cause weight loss. When patients can do this it is wonderful, however, research shows that maintaining the weight loss for an extended period of time without simultaneously performing exercise is very, very difficult. As you probably well know the lost weight usually comes back within one to two years after losing it.

What if a person with insulin resistance starts exercising regularly but fails to lose any weight? Is the exercise beneficial? Has it helped? Yes it has, it definitely has, no mistake about it. Exercise will lower insulin resistance even if no weight has been lost. (Are you beginning to see why exercise is such a big deal?) Perhaps the person didn't lose any weight because they made up for the calories burned during exercise by eating more. Maybe the person did lose some fat but gained muscle mass equal in weight to the amount of fat lost. The scale would show no change in weight even though the percentage of body fat had been reduced. Hence, using traditional bathroom scales is a big drawback when measuring exercise/diet success.

Anyway, my point is, that exercise can and does reduce insulin resistance even without weight loss. So when I do encourage exercise it is primarily to reduce insulin resistance and secondarily to promote weight loss.

If weight loss does occur as a result of starting to exercise or exercising more, then you can expect even greater improvements in insulin resistance.

I do want to make it clear that when I recommended exercise to a patient, it is first and foremost to help in reducing insulin resistance, secondarily it is to assist a patient in their weight loss efforts. Research has repeatedly shown that exercise by itself is not likely to result in sustained weight loss. Similarly, research has also shown that diet plans that significantly restrict caloric intake are not successful for long-term weight loss when carried out exclusive of exercise. The best chance for long-term success with weight loss is to gradually work up to exercising a minimum of 250 minutes per week and to reduce caloric intake.

Milt Bedingfield is a certified diabetes educator and exercise physiologist.
Milt's other website can be found at: http ://www.NewlyDiagnosedDiabetes.com.

Type 2 Diabetes And Exercise

Many years ago when I was in graduate school studying exercise physiology we were taught how to calculate target heart rate ranges. More specfically, a range where someone exercising should strive to keep their heart rate in order to get the most out of the exercise. There were several means of doing this, all involving different formulas. It was common practice for aerobic instructors to stop their classes at various times just long enough for the participants to do a pulse check. "Get that heart rate up girls. Is it in your target range?" Even today, almost twenty years later, when you go to the gym you see various programs printed on the touch screen of the treadmills, bicycles, stair climbers and ellipticals explaining that if you do this workout it is for "cardio" and if you do this workout program it is for "fat burning." I like all this stuff, I loved graduate school and what I learned, but, in my estimation, this is a little too much, going a bit too far. There is a place for this degree of sophistication; for competitive athletes, professional athletes and Olympians, but not for the guy or gal that is just trying to stay fit, keep their weight down, burn up some sugar and just plain feel good.

In the six years I operated an in-house exercise program for people with diabetes and saw over five hundred patients, it is doubtful that I ever calculated a target heart rate range that I wanted the patient to follow. It simply wasn't necessary. That is not to say that having some type of gauge for determining exercise intensity is not needed because it is, but it is simple. It's called the talk test. Here's how it works: If you and your exercising partner are walking so fast that it becomes too difficult to talk because you are too out of breath, simply slow down (However, if what your partner is talking about is boring you to death or you simply don't feel like talking, then don't slow down). If, on the other hand, you are walking so slowly you have enough breath left to start singing or telling jokes, then you need to go a bit faster. Never, ever, ever, let the saying, "No pain, no gain" influence  the intensity of your workout.

 Another thing I used to do was watch the people breathe while they were exercising. If they were able to get all of the air they needed through their noses while they were walking, elliptisizing or cycling then they were not working hard enough. I would tell them that they needed to exercise vigorously enough so that they needed to breathe through their mouths to get the air they needed.

 I tell patients to pay attention to how they feel when they exercise and to adjust the intensity accordingly. As long as the person remains relativley comfortable without sharp aches and pains or breathlesness while doing the exercise then they are probably safe. It is always wise, however, to let the doctor know your exercise plans just in case he or she wants you not to exercise or follow different guidelines.

In summary, do what works best for you when you exercise. Just make sure you exercise......daily!!

Milt Bedingfield is a certified diabetes educator and exercise physiologist.
Milt's other website can be found at: http ://www.NewlyDiagnosedDiabetes.com.

When It Seems No Exercise Is Possible

As I was beginning my discussion on exercise guidelines one morning, I mentioned that walking was an excellent exercise. As I continued discussing the benefits of walking I noticed that a patient started shaking her head as if to say no and was starting to smile. I looked at her and asked why are you shaking your head?

She responded, “Can’t do it?”

“Can’t do what?” I asked.

“Can’t walk,” she replied.

“Ok, how come?” I asked.

“It hurts my legs too bad. If I try to walk, I have to stop and quit after five minutes cause my legs hurt so bad,” she answered.

“You might want to try walking somewhere like a mall where once your legs start hurting you can sit down and rest until they start to feel better. Then you can get up and walk a little bit more until they begin to hurt again. When that happens sit down and rest some more,” I suggested.

Again, the patient starts shaking her head as if to say no and the smile appears. “Can’t do it,” she says.

“You don’t think that might work?” I asked.

“There are too many smells in the mall and it bothers my asthma.” 

“Well it doesn’t have to be a mall, any place where you have the opportunity to stop and rest periodically will do. How about swimming or water exercise, those are both good, particularly swimming?” 

Again the patient starts shaking her head. “I can’t do that either, I don’t have a pool.”

“Do you have access to a public pool?” I asked. 

She shook her head no, while smiling.

“Okay,” I said, “How about riding a stationary bike, that works for a lot of people and is a great exercise?”

Yet again she smiled and shook her head. At this point one thing was certain, that the patient could shake her head very well from side to side. If no other exercise worked I knew I could fall back on that one. “Why can’t you ride a stationary bike?” I asked.

“I have hemorrhoids and it’s just too painful,” she stated. 

I began to get the feeling this was all a game to her. It looked as though she was going to come up with an excuse to avoid doing anything I recommended. It wasn’t funny, not to me anyway. It was actually sad. By now every time I suggested something the rest of the class looked at this lady to see if she was going to shake her head.

The patient, I believe, had pretty much convinced herself that she could not do any exercise due to her bad legs, asthma, hemorrhoids, etc. I think the patient thought she had some legitimate excuses not to exercise and whatever the consequences that resulted could not be helped. I couldn’t let the patient leave class that day with that attitude. I had to at least try and change the way she felt about her ability to get some exercise.

After pausing a moment, trying to figure out how I could be the most effective, I walked over to the table where the patient was sitting and explained politely but firmly, “You have just got to move. You have got to figure out a way to move more than you have been. The more you move, the better your diabetes is likely to be. Granted it may be more difficult for you to become active, and you may have more obstacles to overcome than some other people you know, but remaining sedentary is not an option. That is, not if you want to improve your diabetes control and reduce your risks of developing complications in the future.”

Orthopedic, cardiovascular or other limitations do not usually preclude exercise; it simply means they have to be more creative to figure out what they can do. In most cases, exercise is still possible, is strongly encouraged and is extremely beneficial.

Milt Bedingfield is a certified diabetes educator and exercise physiologist.
Milt's other website can be found at: http ://www.NewlyDiagnosedDiabetes.com.

Do not mistake weight loss for fat loss

So, it’s your first trip to the doctor after the New Year and he suggests that you lose twenty pounds. Let’s see, on the doctor’s scale you weighed in at 174 lbs. You lose twenty pounds as recommended and that puts your goal weight at 154lbs. You can do that, right? You have friends that have lost a lot more than that. They gained it back later, plus more, but that’s another article. So you go by the bookstore and pick up a copy of the South Beach or Atkins diet. You plan on this being your Bible for the next couple of months. You buckle down and follow the diet, (whichever you choose) for a while and before you know it you’re twenty pounds lighter; and it didn’t even take that long!

Great, right?

Not necessarily. Yes, you lost the weight, but what was that weight made of?

Did you lose any bone? Not likely. How about muscle? Very likely, and you may have even lost some fat, but not nearly as much as you thought. Losing weight is not

synonymous with losing fat. In many cases when following any extreme meal plan or diet which Atkins and South Beach both are, it is common to lose both fat and muscle, oftentimes large amounts of muscle. You definitely do not want to lose any muscle.

I tell patients that inside every muscle cell there is a giant furnace that burns up the sugar that enters the cell. Not all of it, but a lot of it. Fat cells have a very small furnace and cannot burn up nearly as much sugar as the muscle cells. Fat cells do not really do much. Have you ever sat and watched one? Not much going on in there.

Unfortunately, whenever any diet calls for an extreme reduction in carbohydrates or calories there is a great likelihood that a considerable amount of muscle will be lost in addition to the fat. In these cases body fat percentages can actually go up instead of down.

As an example, if someone at 200 lbs. with 32% body fat, loses 30lbs. which is made up of 15lbs. of muscle and 15lbs. of fat, their percentage of body fat at 150lbs. would be higher than it was at 200lbs. This is not at all what you want. This for one thing will make it a lot more difficult to keep the weight off because the body’s basal metabolic rate will be lower.

 The key point I want to make here is that losing weight is known to decrease insulin demands on the body, however, losing weight rapidly by severely restricting carbohydrates or total calories can cause too much of the weight that is lost to be lean muscle mass. To maximize fat loss, which is all you want to lose, caloric restriction should be moderate at best and exercise should definitely be included in the weight loss efforts to preserve muscle mass.

Milt Bedingfield is a certified diabetes educator and exercise physiologist.
Milt's other website can be found at: http ://www.NewlyDiagnosedDiabetes.com.

Exercise gets the rust off type 2's "rusty hinges"

Years ago, actually many,many years ago, I used to get out in the yard with my dad and we would do yard work together, pretty much ever Saturday. I remember those days well, and I learned a lot from my dad over the years. Back then as I learned how to take care of the lawn, little did I realize one thing he taught me I would later use when teaching my patients about diabetes.

I remember late in the afternoon on Saturdays, after the mowing and edging was done, my dad and I would settle down in the front yard with a trash can between us and start pulling weeds. I always got such satisfaction seeing how I uncovered some healthy St. Augustine grass after removing the weeds that covered it. I remember every so often my dad would look over at me and emind me to make sure I was getting the root of the weed when I pulled it. Otherwise he said the weed would grow back.

It is well known that insulin resistance, what I like to call "rusty hinges," is what leads to type 2 diabetes in most cases. With type 2 diabetes nutritin plays a very important role. Because people with type 2 diabetes have a much harder time getting sugar out of their blood and into their muscle, fat and liver cells, they would be wise to put less sugar in the blood to begin with. This of course means  there would be less sugar to remove from the blood. Although over time, consuming less sugar is likely to contribute to weight loss, which in turn will reduce insulin resistance, eating less sugar is something people with diabetes have to do since they cannot make adequate amounts of insulin. In time with more and more beta cells becoming dysfunctional less sugar can be consumed or more medication will be needed to keep blood sugar levels reasonably well controlled. Unfortunately, eating less sugar doesn't deal with the root of the problem, insulin resistance, exercise does. Exercise directly deals with the root of the problem, insulin resistance, or "rusty hinges". Everytime someone with type 2 diabetes exercises, in a sense, it's as if they are sanding the rust off of the hinges and then spraying them with WD-40. Exercise directly deals with the root of the problem, insulin resistamce, like no other treatment.  For many people with type 2 diabetes exercise is the most important thing they can do to manage their diabetes.

What Do You Say?

Let's say you are at a party or some other social function. There is a table with a lot of desserts, treats, goodies, etc.

You approach the table with the thought in mind of possibly, correct that, probably, coming away with some sort of dessert. There are others standing nearby, eyeing the desserts but not committing to picking up a plate and actively selecting one. You, on the other hand, are committed.

When you reach the table, plate in hand, your eyes begin making the rounds, that is, a quick, but comprehensive scan of what's available on the table. After the preliminary scan, a more purposeful detailed scan, actualy, more of a hunt for something that will really satisfy you. You begin to notice people around you observing your technique, anticipating what selection you are going to make. And then you strike, I mean, it happens, you reach out and grab a dessert. At this particular moment, usually when reaching for the dessert you have selected, you make a comment. I have found that at this particular moment most people say something like:

"Nobody saw me do this, OK?"

"I am going to have to walk another 20 minutes on the treadmill tonight."

"With the day I have had, I deserve this."

"I wonder how much exercise I am going to have to do to burn this off"

"Goodness, look at this food, come to Mama."

"Eating chocolate is supposed to be good for you."

"I shouldn't be doing this"

"This is going to wreck my diet, or maybe I just won't eat dinner."

"This is the first ______ I have had in ______weeks. Once in a while is OK."

"Next week I won't be able to do this because I start my diet on Monday."

My question: What do you say in this situation?

And, is it really necessary to say anything?  Why do we do it?

Please share your thoughts.

 Remember, to burn off the calories in one M & M, you have to walk the length of a football field.

4 M & M's equals 1 lap around a high school track.

16 M & M's means you have to walk a mile.

Makes you think, doesn't it.

Milt Bedingfield is a certified diabetes educator and exercise physiologist.
Milt's other website can be found at: http ://www.NewlyDiagnosedDiabetes.com.

What To Do At The Airport: Exercise

I am at the airport waiting to board my plane. My conference is now over and I'm heading back home.

I'm not even home yet and I have a major monumental goal to achieve between now and when I come to this convention next year, to see how many people with type 2 diabetes I can get to exercise, more than they are doing now, on a regular basis. I don't want to leave my goal open ended but I need to determine a number I am looking for.

I need to sit down with a calculator when I get home, but with all of the people who I come in contact with, I am thinking somewhere around 1,200 people.

When I accomplish that goal I will be thrilled, because I will know that I have significantly, positively influenced these people's lives in a way that will help them lead healthier, longer and far more productive lives.

Please let me know if I have or can help you.

Try this the next time you have to fly. After going through security and getting to the right concourse, instead of going straight to one of the food, snack or Starbucks locations to load up on something you probably don't need but are willing to eat to pass the time, stop, and think.

Make a smart choice. You are about to be on a plane, sitting, doing nothing for at least an hour, but probably more like two, three, or maybe even four. WHAT YOU need to do is walk the concourse for 10 minutes before you get a snack and wait for your plane.

THE BEST choice would be to walk for at least ten minutes and not snack. Ask yourself do you REALLY need it or would you just be eating it to help pass the time. You can easily consume 600-800 calories while sitting, snacking and waiting for your plane. Choose the healthy alternative, GRAB a bottled water and walk the concourse until you have finished it.      

Milt Bedingfield is a certified diabetes educator and exercise physiologist.
Milt's other website can be found at: http ://www.NewlyDiagnosedDiabetes.com.