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Submitted by PatientsEngage on 13 February 2015

Ling, a person with diabetes from Singapore and a DSS team lead talks of how she deals with Lunar New Year festivities 

I have to admit I'm not a good example when it comes to Chinese New Year.... I will relax and feast, .... I'm the kind who will rather skip a main meal so that I can enjoy the festive goodies eg new year cake.

The few CNY tips I would like to share are :

  • Do active spring cleaning to burn more calories! Include cleaning of windows, doors, furniture as well as long as health permits. But take care of the back when lifting heavy weights.
  • Take lots of veggies to bring down the overall glycemic load of the meal
  • Avoid eating the skin of the roast meats eg. Roast chicken or duck. This will cut down the fats consumed by a significant percentage.
  • Try steamboat for reunion dinner - with plain soup. Cook lots of veggies in the steamboat to go with your other dishes for that will cut down on the rice taken, as the fibre from the veggies will give the feeling of "fullness" in the stomach more quickly.
  • Monitoring of blood sugar becomes even more important when trying out festive goodies for the first time, as we don't know the effects of the new food on sugar levels. Note - the higher the blood sugars go up after food, the lower the subsequent drop in blood sugar. So do monitor closely when sugar levels go up.
  • Enjoy the festivities - if blood sugar levels ever go off targets due to the feasting, don't fret. Don't let that get to you. Just bounce back to disciplined care soon!
     
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