How can you manage gestational diabetes naturally?

In most cases, gestational diabetes can be easily managed through diet and exercise. Eating a balanced, whole foods diet and avoiding processed foods like candy, cake, refined grains and fast food, and getting some form of exercise most days of the week should keep gestational diabetes under control and decrease any potential risks to you or your baby. Medication may be prescribed if diet and exercise alone don’t help to lower your glucose levels, but this is rare.

Let’s see…….plenty of exercise, lots of fruits, vegetables and healthy protein and little or no processed foods. Sounds a lot like what I was already doing! Another reason I felt confident I was not at risk, but I still didn’t want to leave my baby’s health to chance.

How does gestational diabetes affect your baby?

If you have gestational diabetes and your blood sugar levels are too high, your baby’s blood sugar levels will be too high, as well, which will cause the baby’s pancreas to produce more insulin. The additional glucose and insulin can cause your baby to gain too much weight in utero, to the point that the baby may be too large to fit through your birth canal or to become injured during delivery. On top of that, babies who are born with a higher than normal birth weight because of gestational diabetes often go on to be overweight in childhood and adulthood.

What is gestational diabetes?

According to babycenter.com, gestational diabetes is a form of diabetes that between 2 and 10 percent of expectant mothers develop during pregnancy. Because of the hormonal changes to your digestive system during pregnancy, it is possible for your cells to become less responsive to insulin. If your pancreas can’t produce enough insulin to keep up with your body’s demand, you can have too much glucose in your bloodstream and develop gestational diabetes.

There are certain factors that may put you at a higher risk for developing gestational diabetes, such as body mass index, a diagnosis of gestational diabetes in previous pregnancies, the presence of sugar in your urine or a family history of diabetes. Excessive first trimester weight gain has also been linked with a higher occurrence of gestational diabetes.

It is possible to develop gestational diabetes without the presence of any of these risk factors, which is why most practitioners screen all of their patients between 24 and 28 weeks of pregnancy. With so many unknowns, I felt it was important to address the issue of gestational diabetes with my midwife, even if I wasn’t on board with the traditional testing methods.

Natural Pregnancy – Gestational Diabetes Test Alternatives

Let me start off by saying that gestational diabetes is a condition that should be taken very seriously. If there had not been a viable alternative, I would have sucked it up and drank that nasty, orange glucose drink for the sake of my health and my baby’s. But the good news is that there are alternatives and if you wouldn’t usually willingly gulp down a large, sugary beverage and are worried about the effects a real food diet could have on the test results, talk with your healthcare provider about your options (Read: I am not a doctor and only your healthcare provider can advise you on your risk and your options).
Along with these testing alternatives, I would also like to offer you my own personal guidance. You can learn more about managing your diet during and after pregnancy in my book, The Everything Paleo Pregnancy Book.

A 28 Day Minimalist Fat-loss Program For Busy People

Confession time...

Are you frustrated with your training?

Tired of doing long, grueling workouts that leave you drained and beaten up?

Fed up spending hours each week in the gym, just to get weaker and flabbier?

I understand.

I’ve been there before.

Like you, I sifted through all the muscle magazines and websites, searching for that perfect program to transform my body.  All I found were complicated workouts that left my joints achy and my body exhausted.

These workouts were also time suckers.

And who has time to waste?

Not you.

You need an effective, fat-loss solution that you can do in 30 minutes or less.

That is why I created the BURN 120 program.

What makes Burn 120 so awesome?

• Workouts elevate calorie burn up to 48 hours
• Workouts require very little equipment
• Workouts comprised of basic exercises that almost anyone can do
• Workouts are only 20 minutes

Did you catch that?

Each workout is less than 30 minutes!

So you can get an effective workout in, even on your lunch break.

Now don’t get me wrong, these workouts are not “easy.”

But fat-loss never is.

You’re gonna have to work for it.

You’ve been warned.

But if you dig deep, focus and attack your training sessions, and follow my simple nutrition rules, you will be much leaner in just 28 days.

This is the perfect program for anyone who wants to burn body fat and build lean muscle in the shortest time possible.

This Instantly Downloadable Program Contains:

• 3 Metabolic Resistance Workouts Per Week
• 2 Core Conditioning Workouts Per Week
• 1 Interval Cardio Workout Per Week
• My Simple  "Get Lean" Nutrition Guide
• My Diet Hack For Quicker Fat-Loss

Grab your copy now for only $9.95!

You're only 28 days from fat-melting victory!