Surviving Super Bowl Sunday Parties with Diabetes

Surviving Super Bowl Sunday Parties with Diabetes Surviving Super Bowl Sunday: 10 Important Tips for Diabetic NFL Fans Just a few more days until the much-awaited Super Bowl and your diabetic self has been receiving invitations left and right to Super Bowl parties, if you haven’t been giving them away yourself. Well, let me pitch you a straight one here (that was quite possibly the wrong sport): those parties are a nightmare for your blood sugar. The best tip, of course, is not to go at all. If you’re really not interested and/or is just using the â€Å"but everyone will be there† excuse, just don’t go. Nobody’s going to burn you at the stake for it and you’ll save yourself from the calories. Unfortunately, if you’re a true fan or if you’ve turned watching the Super Bowl to some sort of tradition, not attending is almost synonymous to sacrilege. This article is aimed at giving tips to help out those diabetics out there who intend to go to one or two Super Bowl parties, no matter their reason. What can I eat? Super Bowls parties are known for their high-strung screaming and emphatic arm gestures aimed at football players who can’t see them. In order to prepare for all this work, party planners serve a lot of sugar in many forms, be they in the guise of drinks or actual food. It’s not exactly a paradise for diabetics. My tip? If you’re planning the party yourself, do not forget the healthy snacks. Don’t be scared of people thinking you’re lame for serving them. The Super Bowl is one fun-filled night, it’s not exactly worth getting blood-sugar complications over. If the list of your guests has a few true friends, they’ll understand. If you’re attending a party, however, the tip basically is to make healthy choices you’ll actually enjoy. Basically, Less carbs, more protein. If you want to go for meats, make sure that they are either roasted, grilled, seared, or broiled. Dip you can have a small spoonful of or, if you can, none at all. Make this your motto for the night: â€Å"If you don’t like it, don’t eat it.† Okay, so if I don’t like it what am I suppose to do with it? Well, you could not touch it at all? Or if you’ve already placed it on your plate, just don’t eat it. Remember, your mother is not there to tell you to finish everything on your plate. If she is, well, sucks for you, man. Of course, it’s not good to waste food. Just never fill your plate completely with food and manage your portions well. If you accidentally put too much, ask someone else to finish the food for you. Ask your mother. Anything specific I should avoid? The bread and the rolls, definitely. Not only are they usually full of calories, they don’t even taste that good by themselves. For them to actually taste like anything, you have to go and smear more calories on top. If you’re planning to eat calories, save the space for some that actually taste like something. In general, do not pick up foods that you know are filled with calories if you also know they’re not worth it. Anything I shouldn’t forget at home? Well, don’t just bring your Super Bowl spirit with you. Bring your prescription medicine! Never leave your home without your med for anything! Do so and your diabetes might just get a touchdown on you. Another thing you shouldn’t leave home without doing is eating. Yes, eat at home even if you’re going to a food-packed Super Bowl party. Please do not forget that the food that party will be packed with is probably full of sugar and if you’re hungry by the time you reach the aforementioned party well, let’s just say good luck to your blood sugar. The last tip for this portion would be to pack your own food as there is a huge chance that, that party you’re going to will not have even a pinch of healthy in it. No, that is not lame. Do not be afraid to be that kid who packed lunch for school, even though everyone else was buying food from the cafeteria. That kid was smart, and he or she saved money by not buying those over-priced, rarely good cafeteria foods. In this case, you wouldn’t be saving money, but you’d be saving your life and that is pretty cool, if I do say so myself. How should I eat? My tip here is to eat slowly. You are not racing against time. You have the whole night and you don’t have to eat everything on your plate all at once. Try to just eat a small amount per quarter. Remember that the body is rather slow when it comes to realization. It takes some time for it to understand that it’s full. If you eat too quickly, you’re going to eat way over your limit. Eating slowly would also help you avoid sudden spikes to your blood-sugar. What if the calories are unavoidable? How do I deal with them? If consuming calories are really unavoidable, then my tip would be to eat them, don’t drink them. Calorie-rich drinks are too quick to transform to blood sugar and can be a real problem for diabetics. Eating calories would give more delay to the transformation, helping you avoid sudden spikes to your blood-sugar. Speaking of drinking, um how should I deal with that? Alcoholic drinks are sort of a given at parties like the ones at Super Bowl Sundays. Unfortunately, they’re not exactly a diabetic’s best friend so just don’t go. That was a joke. Down a large glass of water after every drink of alcohol, that is my tip for you. Doing so will keep you hydrated. It will also make you pee a lot, so you can flush out the junk in your system as soon as they come in. Drinking water between alcohol can also keep you from getting full-on drunk and revealing all your dark and dirty secrets while your favorite team muscle their way through for a touchdown. Don’t worry, the only way to fully get rid of the alcohol in your system would be to take a good night’s rest. This tip will still allow you to keep that laugh-inducing buzz running around your head. Anything else I should do? You know, other than to constantly walk between the TV and the water dispenser? Yes, walk around in general. It is an undisputed fact that exercise is good for diabetics, and actually for anyone alive who intends to live long enough to meet their grandchildren. Exercising and enjoying the Super Bowl all at once is not impossible. Just get up during commercial breaks and simply walk around. If you’re up for it, really get into the football fever and challenge a few friends to a game or two in the backyard. So I really can’t eat any of the good stuff? Seeing as it’s a special occasion, I suppose it can be allowed, but only in very small portions. Like if it’s cake we’re talking about, just take a slice and no more. If you realize after a few bites that it’s not really as good as you imagined it to be, go ask someone else to eat it for you so you won’t be so wasteful. Anything else I shouldn’t forget to do? Do not forget to monitor your blood-sugar regularly. Even if you think you’re handling yourself well, you could be wrong, and it is always better to be safe than sorry. Being diabetic and enjoying Super Bowl Sundays are two things that have never been easy to manage together, hence youre researching and discovering these tips. But really, you could get away with anything if you just manage your food well. Or, if you have an intention of getting drunk out of your mind, at least task someone else to do the managing and the checking for you. I advise that you do not task your mother. Oh, and one last tip: enjoy the Super Bowl. You’re working this hard to manage your diabetes for it so you might as well enjoy it.