10 Small Daily Habits That Make Diabetes Easier

Small daily habits do more for diabetes than an ambitious plan that lasts a fortnight, because the thing that matters is what you still do in month six.

Add these one at a time, in roughly this order. Give each one a week before adding the next.

1. Walk for ten minutes after your largest meal. The single highest-value habit on this list.
2. Eat the vegetables and protein on your plate before the rice or roti.
3. Keep a fixed time for your medicines, tied to something you already do.
4. Test at the same times, so your readings are comparable to each other.
5. Write the reading down with what you ate, not just the number.
6. Put a katori of dal or curd at every meal.
7. Stand up every half hour if you sit for work.
8. Keep boiled chana or roasted peanuts where the biscuits used to be.
9. Get to bed at a consistent hour — short sleep raises next-morning readings.
10. Check your feet when you take your shoes off. Ten seconds, every day.

National guidance asks for 150 minutes of moderate activity a week, which sounds like a lot until you notice that habit one, done after two meals a day, gets you most of the way there.

None of these needs a gym, an app or a purchase. There is more on making habits survive a bad week in our Knowledge Base.