Super Sniffers – Divabetic

We’re talking about coping with diabetes, depression and shame during the holidays on Divabetic’s podcast with musical inspiration from Leona Lewis.

‘Tis the season for family, festivity, and temptations that may disrupt daily diabetes health routines. That means it’s also the season when eating healthy, staying active, and taking medication on schedule is more challenging. The added stress and anxiety of staying on track with your diabetes self-care may cause even those who are usually content to experience loneliness, anxiety, and a lack of fulfillment.

Several studies show that people with diabetes have a greater risk of depression than people without diabetes.

Just like denial, depression hinders good intentions in self-care. It can even make it harder to do things you enjoy.

“I have a best friend who has severe depression, who takes medication and still struggles, so I know how bad it can be,” says Leona Lewis.

Leona’s friend describes herself as having “highs and lows” brought on by circumstance, not a clinical illness.

If you’re feeling down, remember you’re not alone. It’s important to share your feelings with your healthcare team. Seeking help takes courage and can be the first step toward feeling better.

Leona Lewis’ holiday song, One More Sleep, sparks our discussion about how the holidays affect your sleep. Insomnia during the holidays is quite common. The holidays bring parties, overeating, later bedtimes, shopping, overspending, and traveling, which may bring on jet lag. The financial pressures associated with gift-giving can also cause sleep disruption during the holidays.

Changing your behaviors and attitudes and adding more physical activities can go a long way toward eliminating insomnia so you can enjoy a deserved and joyous holiday season.

Traveling or spending time with family can shake up our usual meal routines, too. Megrette Fletcher, a diabetes educator, mentioned in an interview that everything changes and can be quite stimulating when we’re away from home, which might lead us to let our guard down a bit. Common sense says eating too much doesn’t improve the food experience, but when faced with an array of delicious treats, it can be hard to resist. As Megrette says, “Food is part of the enjoyment.” Just because you can’t take the food home with you doesn’t mean you have to eat everything in sight if you’re already full. It’s okay to savor the moment and stop when you’ve had enough!

We also have some fantastic guests on the Divabetic podcast, including experts like Debby Kay and Megrette Fletcher, and inspiring people like singer Leona Lewis, who will be sharing her music from the Christmas, with Love album. Plus, don’t miss our chance to win 6 months of mySugr Pro access in our INSTANT WINNER challenge!

Throughout the podcast, we will feature music from Leona Lewis’s Christmas, with Love album courtesy of SONY Music.

It is a well-documented fact that more people living in the USA are overweight than any other country. This also seems to be true for American dogs as well. Research has shown that being overweight not only causes dogs to suffer more frequently from joint disease and related problems but it also reduces their life span by up to 30%. Yet people for whatever reason continue to feed their dogs too much food.

In my 40+ years of dealing with people who overfeed their dogs I have noticed that most of them do not even recognize that their dogs are overweight. So how do you tell if you have a fat dog. The easiest way is to compare it a chart that Purina research has put out that shows what the differences in weights on dogs looks like. Even with this great chart many people still cannot tell fat from muscle. Muscle is lean and when a dog is in proper weight you can see the cuts in the muscle very distinctly. Fat will make a hard rounded appearance and a very obese dog will have sides that roll back and forth like Jello™ when they are trotting towards you. The ribs of the dog should be easy to feel with lean muscle over them just enough to cover but not hide them.

If you have determined however, that your dog is overweight here are a few tips to help you get those pounds off.

1. Cut the amount you are feeding in half for one week. If let’s say, you are giving 2 cups of dry food in the morning and the same in the evening, then cut back to 1 cup for each meal.

2. Snacks should be meat or raw veggies like carrots and nothing else.

3. Double the exercise and make sure this is aerobic exercise. For example, if you take the dog on a walk to park once a day, keep that but add in another session where you jog instead of walk. Or if your dog likes to swim, add in a session of 30 minutes of vigorous swimming.

4. If you don’t jog you can put your dog on a treadmill for 30-60 minutes a day. I have one just for dogs with a longer base but, if you do things slowly, your dog will adapt to a human treadmill no problem.

Once you get the weight off keep it off by regularly weighing your dog at the vets. They don’t charge for it and it will give you a good guide that those pounds are not creeping back on when you thought you have gotten them all off.

You might want to switch foods as the one you are feeding may have too many carbohydrates or grains in it. A good grain free, balanced food like Rachael Ray’s Nutrish Grain Free diets might just the ticket to keeping those pounds off.

Debby Kay has been a pioneer in scent detection work for over 40 years. Debby teaches Super Sniffer® workshops for amateur dog owners and professional trainers alike. She has set up several non profit organizations worldwide for Diabetes Alert Dogs and her Sweet Snoopers program is now in 22 countries around the world helping people manage this disease better through the use of trained alert dogs.

Debby is a founding officer and lifetime member of the Labrador Retriever Club of the Potomac, and a member of the Labrador Retriever Club Inc. She is a professional member of the Dog Writers Association of America, The Association of Professional Dog Trainers, and the International Association of Canine Professionals.

DIVABETIC BOOK SHELF: ‘Walking with Peety: The Dog Who Saved My Life’ by Eric O’Grey

Eric O’Grey was 150 pounds overweight, depressed, and sick. After a lifetime of failed diet attempts, and the onset of type 2 diabetes due to his weight, Eric went to a new doctor, who surprisingly prescribed a shelter dog. And that’s when Eric met Peety: an overweight, middle-aged, and forgotten dog who, like Eric, had seen better days. The two adopted each other and began an incredible journey together, forming a bond of unconditional love that forever changed their lives. Over the next year, just by going on walks, playing together, and eating plant-based foods, Eric lost 150 pounds, and Peety lost 25. As a result, Eric got off all oral medication, and became happy and healthy for the first time in his life-eventually reconnecting with and marrying his high school sweetheart. ‘Walking With Peety’ is for anyone who is ready to make a change in his or her life, and for everyone who knows the joy, love, and hope that dogs can bring. This is more than a tale of mutual rescue. This is an epic story of friendship and strength. ORDER NOW

Don’t miss our exclusive interview with Author Eric O’Grey on Diabetes Late Nite scheduled for Tuesday, December 12, 2017, 6 PM, EST.

Tag: Super Sniffers

Holiday Podcast With Music From Leona Lewis

Overweight Dogs by Debby Kay