Starting from Zero
Reviewed by CDE Mehandi Sharma · Updated
Most people told to exercise for prediabetes are starting from nothing. Aiming straight at the recommended weekly total is how that ends in three days.
So ignore the target for a month. Build the habit first; the volume can come later.
Week one: ten minutes of walking after your largest meal, every day. That is the entire assignment. Do not add anything.
Week two: the same ten minutes, plus one more ten-minute walk after another meal.
Week three: extend one of them to fifteen minutes, and start taking stairs where you would have taken a lift.
Week four: three walks most days, one of them fifteen to twenty minutes.
By the end of that month you are close to the general recommendation of 150 minutes a week without ever having attempted it directly — and, more importantly, you have a habit rather than a resolution.
Two rules that decide whether this works. Attach the walk to something that already happens, like finishing dinner, rather than to a time of day you have to remember. And when you miss a day, resume the next day rather than restarting the following Monday.
If you have heart or joint problems, or you get chest pain or unusual breathlessness, check with your doctor before increasing anything.