Diabetes: A Patient’s Guide Review – Insightful, Healthy Tips for Lifestyle Changes

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Category: Books

Published on Friday, 04 August 2023 13:01

Written by Janet Walker

Diabetes: A Patient's Guide to Changing Behaviors & Mindset for Disease Management, from Hatherleigh Press, presents a thorough presentation of helpful ideas, presented with anecdotes, and a breakdown of complex behavioral and emotional trigger management.

I must admit looking through the stack of books needing reviewing, I had planned to leave this book until the end of the pile. Reviewing a book about diabetes, especially after seeing my mother check her blood sugar daily and inject herself with insulin shots, was just a reminder of her.

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My mother didn't always have diabetes, she wasn't even born with a pre-disposition, in fact no one in my family had diabetes. I do remember when she explained she had been diagnosed with borderline diabetes. Unfortunately, she didn't see the diagnosis as an action flag to make immediate and permanent lifestyle changes.

She did pass down to me the determination to do everything in my power to maintain daily, physical health and mental health, which is gold. Once I began to review Justin Kompf, 160-page paperback guide, I realized I am in a better place, even with the nagging images that play in my mind.

Over six chapters Diabetes: A Patient's Guide to Changing Behaviors & Mindset for Disease Management presents ideas to slowly move the needle of change. In our modern society, we have all the information, walking is good for you, emotional triggers usually cause indulgences, goal setting can lead to failure, depression, and a spiral into an abyss of unmanageable behaviors until we feel self-loathing.

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So, the idea with Kompf's guide is making a conscious choice to incorporate one behavioral modification into your life, even changing the word choices we use when we undertake lifestyle changes.

He explains behaviors through simple illustrations and even drills down on the words to help anyone see the correlation between thinking and action. Of course, change begins with the individual, and for those on the borderline of making those healthy decisions, you've probably heard all the stories and ideas that get you to the gym, it's what keeps you there, on connected to your health management program that is key.

Kompf describes "Positive Outcome Expectation and Management;" this explanation is where it gets real. We all have had larger than life expectations of something in our lives; relationships (and yes, your relationship to health management and food are also a relationship) which if set to high are guaranteed to disappoint, which is like a match to the stick a dynamite.

The compact guide also provides many acronyms developed by clinicians to help the buzz word stick: "WOOP" which means Wish, Outcome, Obstacle, Plan. This drills down into thinking, dissecting the parts that are blocking the implementation of our lifestyle change, putting them on paper, and identifying the obstacle and then creating the plan. Another acronym "SMART" means Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Timely; this becomes the nuts and bolts of our lifestyle change plans, not the abstract, the specific, the measurable, the achievable.

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He also explains the trip wire that can derail even the most dedicated: emotions. Understanding that emotions, momentary anger, frustration, disappointment, and prolonged feelings of heartache, unhappiness, loneliness, can trigger negative responses that include indulging in activities that are unhealthy. Kompf provides a table of "Feelings," "Descriptive Words," and "Needs Not Being Met," which can act as an action flag and help realize the absence and pinpoint possible fulfillments.

By now readers will be examining "Chapter 5: Creating Your Change Menu." For some, the complexity of creating change is like a knotted, tangled, piece of string. The idea being the straight line somehow got bunched up and impossible to untangle which is where creating your change menu meets you.

Kompf's built a chart that allows individuals to incorporate one change into their life, taking the stairs, reducing, or eliminating soda, adding a green vegetable, weekly, then daily, reduce processed meats, add more plant-based options to your daily diet.

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And he also explains the importance of sleep. For those who are incorporating health management into their lifestyle, then the proper amount of sleep is imperative to a fully functioning system. As the book is on diabetes, Kompf doesn't fully discuss the importance of sleep-in optimizing health, vitality, disease prevention, mental sharpness, the benefits of understanding sleep are conducive to a healthy life not to mention proper sleep aids in cognitive decline prevention.

Diabetes: A Patient's Guide to Changing Behaviors & Mindset for Disease Management, unpacks a complex topic hitting the high points without overwhelming readers with doomsday predictions and statics, which are real, and can often derail before you begin.

Diabetes is an epidemic, 1 in 10 Americans have diabetes. Understanding health choices can greatly reduce the onset of this gateway disease and Justin Kompf's guide can greatly aid anyone looking to begin and maintain disease management, so it won't even come close.

Title: Diabetes: A Patient's Guide to Changing Behaviors & Mindset for Disease Management.

Author: Justin Kompf, PhD.

Publisher: Hatherleigh Press.

Length: 160 pages, Softcover.

ISBN-978-1-57826-919-8.

MSRP: $15.00 (US) $20.00 (CAN).