You are pre-diabetic! - Yes you!

The headline may sound a little dire, but if you bear with me for just a moment, I'm hoping this will inspire someone to action. Now is probably a good time to insert a "I'm not a doctor and you should probably talk to yours about this" disclaimer. Good? Read on.

My parents are obese. My father is type II. My mother has Alzheimer's (early onset). My father-in-law also has type II diabetes. I'm not getting any younger and my family history isn't all that rosy. So we decided to get smart about nutrition, health, and wellness.

If you accept the premise that a "pre-" condition is one where one or more factors exist that are reasonably likely to result, over time, in a full-blown clinical diagnosis, then, in this instance, "pre-diabetic" means that you are running with a dietary crowd of hooligans that - sooner or later - will land you in trouble.

So - what are these conditions?

1. Do you eat the "Standard American Diet"? - Cereal or toast for breakfast, sandwiches for lunch (with white bread or buns), pastas, soda, enough sweet stuff to constitute a renewable energy source.

2. Are your pantry and fridge loaded with boxes and packages with labels, rather than whole, raw foods? - Processed foods (ESPECIALLY those with labels like "low fat") are designed to last a long time on your shelf, distribute cheaply, and make you want (read: purchase) more again soon. As a result, these foods are composed of the cheapest ingredients possible, nearly devoid of any real nutritional value, substituted highly with additives that improve texture and longevity, and flavored with chemicals that are literally designed to be addictive to the eater.

3. Are you getting enough sleep? - Your body needs sleep to repair itself.  Sleep deprivation is chronic in America and we have lost track of how important it is.  The body undergoes metabolic recovery during sleep that it can't accomplish any other time.  Short on sleep and your body is stressed.  A stressed body is preparing itself for hard times.  In evolutionary terms, that means storing fat.

4. Are you happy with your body? - I realize this is touchy, but are YOU, in yourself, not because of Cosmo or Men's Fitness cover shots, truly happy and comfortable with how you look with your clothes off? Most of us shoot right to the imperfections in our appearance, and if your issue is with the extra 5, 10, or insert-number-here pounds that seem to accumulate in unwanted places, then you, like most of us, are storing extra fat that is the result of your body having more carbohydrate intake than it can put to use.

There you have it. Did you see yourself in two or more of these questions? If so, you're on your way. You are engaged in behaviors that nutritional science KNOWS will ultimately lead to insulin resistance, metabolic syndrome, and ultimately type II diabetes. Even more disconcerting, many researchers are now considering Alzheimer's Disease to be type III diabetes! These facts are easily verifiable on just about any reputable site about health, fitness, and nutrition. By all means, be skeptical and see for yourself.

I hope, by now, I have your attention.

What can you do to change the course?

Understanding that human health is enormously complex and that everyone is different and responds differently, these suggestions are the most broadly applicable to the majority of otherwise healthy adults. Again - talk with your doctor, nutritionist, or personal trainer about what's best for you.

Action 1 - Lose the processed packaged foods.
We have become completely inundated with nationally branded convenience food products, up and down every aisle of every grocery store. Even worse, we've had two generations of marketers telling us that we "don't have time" to cook fresh and that it's "too hard". The problem is, YOU HAVE NO IDEA, speaking nutritionally or even chemically, what you're putting in your body. Nutrition labels are really no help for most of us.
Try this experiment: Go into your pantry and pick out any five "healthy" items. Read the ingredients. How many of them have corn syrup (i.e. sugar), gluten (a common substitute for natural fats in "healthy" alternatives that acts as a binder), or chemicals you can't pronounce, much less identify as food? How can anyone possibly control or even evaluate their nutrition plan with so many hidden traps?

Professional athletes and body builders have been "eating clean" for years. While the exact definition remains elusive, the more readily you can identify the things you eat as something that once walked the earth, swam the ocean, or grew in the ground, the better off you are. Have you ever heard of a diabetic olympian?

Shop the "outer" regions of your store. Fresh produce, meats, and dairy. There are thousands of recipe sites online. Cooking fresh isn't any more difficult or time-consuming than from a box. Its more rewarding to serve your family and it tastes better too.

Action 2 - Ditch the simple refined carbohydrates (yes, sugar, I mean you)
The good news is, if you have taken action 1, you're already halfway (or more) there. Once you can see the precise ingredients that go into what you eat, it's pretty hard to miss which components might be leading you astray.

Your body naturally makes sugar out of nearly every food you eat. There is no nutritional need to consume it. Your muscles burn sugar in order to contract and produce force. Your body produces insulin to transport the sugar through the bloodstream to the muscles that need it. So, in that sense, sugar in the blood is essential for you to function. BUT: not all sugar is the same.

WARNING: Food science for dummies.

Sugar belongs to the macronutrient group: carbohydrates. Most foods have some carbohydrate content naturally. The kind of sugar your body uses to produce fuel for the muscles is glucose. Refined sugar is half glucose and half fructose. High fructose corn syrup has twice the amount of fructose as table sugar. Fructose IS NOT used by muscle tissue to produce energy. It is metabolized by the liver into - you guessed it - fat. Complex carbohydrates like sweet potatoes and simple carbohydrates like fruit primarily offer glucose.

So, the more sugars you consume, the more your body has to produce insulin to try and deal with it. If your muscles aren't depleted or, worse, have become resistant to insulin due to the constant barrage of sugars in your diet, the body doesn't know what to do with the sugar. It causes a chain reaction of additional insulin production as the body has to work harder and harder to find a way to process it. In short - that cola is a time bomb!

The strategy that worked for us was putting protein "forward" in our nutrition plan. We made meats, eggs, and cheeses the primary and central ingredient in most of our meals. It is hearty and satisfying and it becomes a major player in Action 3. Second on the plate are vegetables - any kind and as many as you want. Carbs (bread, pasta, potatoes, etc) become the supporting actor to a meal, rather than the prominent filler.

Action 3 - Ramp up your metabolism with strength training.
Your resting metabolic rate depends largely on your body composition. Muscle tissue burns 75 calories an hour compared to fat which burns only 5. This is what you call a win-win! Since your muscles need to work in order to burn accumulated sugar, and the more lean muscle you have, the higher your resting metabolic rate, incorporating a regular regime of strength training as a priority in your fitness plan will not only help burn existing sugar supplies (including stored fat) but reduce insulin resistance and turn your body into a better calorie-burning machine going forward.

One of the great side benefits of strength training is that your body will be tired.  Not in the drained, emotionally exhausted way, but in the "I've got some repair work to do" way.  I bet you dollars to donuts that if you start a weightlifting routine you will find yourself sleeping faster, better, and longer.

If you're hard-core cardio, consider swapping a couple of your workouts for strength training. I'll bet you see gains in both.

If you're hard-core couch, getting started is easier than you think. And what could be more important than your long-term health?