Do you know that you can actually reverse diabetes? Anyone who has diabetes can understand the pain of controlling their blood sugar levels. A slight fluctuation can cause headaches to frozen shoulders.
If not treated in time can even put you at the risk of kidney or eye damage. Moreover, if you love food, I know how heartbreaking it can be.
Modern medicine has devised ways to balance blood sugar using oral medication to insulin. But the same medication has made people its slave.
There is no promise of reversal even after quitting most food items. You find yourself desperate for one solution that will help you eliminate diabetes once and for all.
Tired by the promises of modern medicine, people have started looking hopefully towards alternative medicine. Ayurveda is a traditional healing system from India.
It has been treating this disorder for over 5,000 years now. One of the first books on Ayurveda, Charak Samhita, talks about the problem in great detail.
TCM or Traditional Chinese Medicine is another alternative healing system that focuses on holistic healing instead of isolated healing.
These traditional systems of medicines are based on the concept of treating the root cause of the problem instead of suppressing symptoms superficially.
These ingenious methods take into consideration your lifestyle, current mental state, emotions, diet, and physical activity.
It does not deprive you of food and gives you tons of food options to choose from without impacting your blood sugar levels.
It involves the use of herbs as home remedies for keeping these sugar levels in check.
In this post, we are giving a holistic healing plan based on Ayurvedic diet and lifestyle. It can help you bring down your sugar levels and medications significantly in 90 days.
What is Diabetes from the Ayurvedic perspective?
Ayurveda is a traditional Indian medicine system that goes back to almost 5000 years old.
Charak Samhita addressed the issue of diabetes or Madhumeh. Diabetes is a type of urological disorders in Ayurveda.
According to Ayurveda, an imbalance in Kapha dosha gives rise to diabetes.
Read more about Diabetes from an Ayurvedic perspective.
The pathogenesis of diabetes in Ayurveda is that insulin is either produced in low quantities or is unable to bind to the cells due to excess fat or toxins in the body.
In Ayurveda, a slow metabolism or excess Kapha dosha is responsible for accumulating fats and toxins.
Ayurvedic practices focus on healing the problem from the root, by increasing the metabolism and efficacy of the insulin produced. It enhances your body functions to reverse diabetes.
What is this holistic plan to reverse diabetes in 90 days?
This holistic plan is curated based on Ayurvedic principles and lifestyle combined with a modern approach. It helps you understand your body better.
Also, this entire program comes with a weekly tracker which is free and downloadable. It will help you track your progress throughout the plan.
1. Mindset reset
The mindset reset you need for this program is that “You can reverse diabetes”.
2. Diet reset
The plan prescribes a plant-based diet with a few exceptions like clarified butter or ghee from grass-fed cows.
If you are a non-vegetarian it is ok to be sceptical about why you should be following a plant-based diet when meat is acceptable according to the American diabetes association.
You can watch this really eye-opening documentary on the plant-based diet called “What the health?” On Netflix.
If you are still not convinced, consider this a 90-day experiment. You can decide yourself after 90 days if you want to go back to your previous diet or not.
3. Step by step guideline
This is a step by step guide to manage or reverse your diabetes using a holistic healing framework. This includes diet, lifestyle and exercise.
This will help you realise the issues with your current lifestyle and how you can do things differently to understand your body better.
Are you ready for Reverse diabetes in 90 days challenge?
This 90-day plan is divided into 12 easy to follow steps catering to lifestyle, diet and exercise. We will cover each one of them one by one.
Pre-Panning
1. A Blood test for Hb1Ac
The first thing to do before starting with this 90-day plan is to get your Hb1Ac levels checked with a reputed lab. Hb1Ac is an average sugar level in the last three months. Record this in your checklist.
2. Print your checklist
Get your weekly checklist printed in advance to keep a track of the program. To create a habit, it is important to track it. This checklist creates a habit of following the steps every day and tracks your progress.
3. Buy your herbs
In Ayurveda, it is recommended to start a day with a bitter herb that helps flush excess sugar from your blood and acts as a scraping agent for fat in your body. You can choose from a list of herbs based on where you live and availability.
If you are confused about which one to choose, the simplest and easiest available herb is fenugreek seeds (methi daana)or Swertia Chirata (Chiraita in Hindi). I would recommend Swertia Chirata.
90-days plan to reverse diabetes
1. Check your blood sugar levels
Check your fasting sugar levels and record it into your checklist every day.
Another measurement of blood sugar is taken 2 hours after your meal and is called Postprandial aka PP levels.
If you can record your PP levels every day, that is great. But for most people, it is not feasible to check your Postprandial or PP sugar levels during weekdays.
We recommend recording your PP levels over the weekends.
2. Drink soaked bitter water
The overnight soaked herbal decoctions along with 1 glass of warm water. Bitter herbs are proven to enhance gustatory juices and improve circulation in your digestive system.
Note that you have to prepare your soak your herbs a night prior. So plan accordingly or put a reminder in your phone.
3. Get into the workout mode
Include 50-60 minutes of exercise in your routine. It can be anything you like. A good running session, cross-fit or Yoga.
Walking is particularly easy to include. Try to include 10000 steps in your routine every day. Invest in a good fitness wristband or a fitness watch to track your daily steps.
4. Include breathing exercises
Include 10 minutes of breathing exercises in your plan as well. Please note that these breathing exercises are mandatory in the plan. These exercises support internal cleansing.
Skullshining (Kapalabhati) and Bellows Breath (Bhastrika), Alternate nostril breathing (Anulom Vilom) should be done daily.
4. Massage your body
Massage your body with sesame oil or mustard oil for 10 mins before bathing. For some people, the smell of mustard oil is a little too strong.
You can use sesame or almond oil instead.
Avoid coconut oil as it is cooling in nature and we need a warming oil to increase your metabolism.
5. Rub your skin
Rub your skin using a natural loofah, a natural ayurvedic exfoliating powder or towel. This activates your channels and increases your metabolism.
This increases your metabolism allows blood to reach all the cells on your skin.
This also promotes the optimum activity of sweat glands and helps you get rid off toxins and excess sugar in the form of sweat.
6. Plant-based meals
In this entire plan, we are using plant-based meals with and exception to clarified butter or ghee from grass-fed cows/buffaloes.
Breakfast
If you are always rushing in the mornings, oatmeal might be a great option for you. There are so many oats based recipes that you can try for breakfast. For other options, you can read about the Ayurvedic diet for diabetes here.
Since we are talking about a plant-based diet here, you might need to make some changes in the things you buy from the grocery store.
Lunch
Eating bread or grains twice a day is more than enough for your system. Your body and organs need adequate time to digest and assimilate all the food you have eaten.
Eating light meals during lunch, mostly fruits and salads is recommended.
These are easy to digest and give your system enough break to break your meals completely before you head off for your dinner.
Fruits contain fructose which has a considerably low GI of 25 compared to sucrose, which is 95.
Also, don’t mix incompatible foods while eating fruits and salads. Incompatible foods create toxins in your body. The right combination of Ayurvedic foods can be found on this website by Dr. Vasant Lad.
Snacks
Snack up on dried fruits, nuts, seeds or roasted Bengal gram.
Dinner
Lentil soup and rice is a perfect dinner for this plan. You can include any lentils or beans you like. Take a lot of soups, stews and broths along with warming spices like ginger, cinnamon, turmeric, black peppers and cloves.
7. Include more movement
Find ways to include more movement during the day when you have to work on your laptop for a long time.
Try to park your car as far as possible. Or if you have your workplace is nearby, try walking instead of taking a car.
Take public transport. Take the stairs in the office or at home as much as you can instead of using the elevator.
8. Drink more water
Drink at least 3 L or 100 oz water in your entire day. This will help you flush out excess sugar from the blood fast. Trust me this is the only way to get rid of excess sugar fast.
9 Post-dinner walk
Take a leisurely walk after having your meal. 400-500 steps are good enough.
10. Meditate
Sit in silence for 10 minutes before sleeping. It reduces stress and turns on your parasympathetic nervous system. Follow this guide if you are new to meditation.
11. Sleep early and wake up early
Sleep by 10:30 pm and wake up by 6:30 am. If sleeping late is unavoidable, sleep as soon as you come home. Take a good 7-8 hours of sleep and follow the same routine from step 1 to 10.
Things to do after 90 days
Get your Hb1Ac blood tests
Get your Hb1Ac tests done again. It will give you an average of the last 90 days. Compare the results with your previous readings.
Feel the changes in your body
Record all the changes you have been feeling in your body including your energy levels, your mood, your outlook towards life.
[emaillocker] Weekly Tracker for Diabetes [/emaillocker]
Conclusion
Diabetes is reversible with the right combination of diet, lifestyle and exercise. This entire plan will help you tune in to your body’s inner voice. Listen t your body and understand what it needs.
This process might be overwhelming for some people in the beginning. There are chances that you will see no activity or reduction in the first few days.
But don’t lose hope. Consistency and commitment will heal you. Most people lack perseverance and quit before they see the results.
Healing your body is possible and if you follow this with all the love and trust, you will see the magic.
If you know how to reverse diabetes using a plant-based approach or have experienced it, share your stories here. Help our community learn from each other.
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Chakshu is a US alliance certified yoga teacher, a biotechnologist and an Ayurveda evangelist. Her passion is to help people live a toxic-free life, emotionally and chemically. She loves reading self-help books. When she is not writing, she is busy thinking about life.
