Once you receive a diagnosis of Type 2 diabetes, your life has changed or should change.
You can either choose to ignore medical advice, let the disease further damage your body, diminish your quality of life and, eventually, shorten your life also.
Or, you can gain control of your condition and live a long and happy life, virtually diabetes free.
Your best form of defense is knowledge.
Learn everything you can about Type 2 diabetes and what it takes to defeat it.
It is possible to improve your health to such an extent that diabetes is virtually non-existent.
But in order to do that, you have to know what to do and when to do it.
In fact, you need to end up knowing more about Type 2 diabetes than your doctor.
For those who choose to fight back, to reverse their Type 2 diabetes, here are some helpful tips: Meals are super important.
Not just what you eat, but how much of it you eat, and when you eat it.
With blood sugar, timing is everything.
But meals also include snacks.
Snacks are imperative to help you keep your between meals blood sugar level as close to the normal range as possible.
Without snacks, you risk your blood sugar dipping too low and causing yourself unnecessary problems.
Snacks also include having something available when you are away from home.
This is a crucial time for diabetics.
They feel hungry and it is so tempting to run through a drive-through.
Having the right snack with you at all times means never having to settle or be tempted.
With Type 2 diabetes, your weight is either your best ally or your biggest adversary.
Watch out for an expanding waistline.
If you don't keep your weight under control, two things will happen.
Your diabetes will be allowed to run out of control and you will suffer additional health concerns from it.
Keeping your weight within a normal range means your body is able to utilize sugar much more effectively.
Do you know more people around the world die from obesity than starvation? The weight gain connection is clear: if your blood sugar drops and then you eat a sweet or starchy food, your blood sugar level will rise sharply.
It will then drop again when your insulin converts it to fuel.
The fluctuations in your blood sugar and insulin levels lead to hunger, craving, and binge eating.
This is when you have no metabolic stability.
It's really a vicious circle.
Check areas that are often forgotten about.

• first, your eyes.
  More people lose their sight to blindness than any other illness.
  
• second, check your feet.
  We depend on them so much throughout the day, yet we never give them a second thought unless they cause us pain.
  Blisters, sores and cuts can easily become infected.
  Infection is not a friendly word for diabetics.
  

Another useful tip is to have glucose tablets or candy on you at all times.
A snack might not be feasible to tote around, but anyone can throw a tube or packet of glucose tablets in their pocket.
Even a morsel of candy will hold you over until you can make other arrangements.