You play a major role in managing your diabetes. The more you know about your disease, the better you can care for yourself. For the best chance at a long, healthy life, you need to set goals for your treatment, including taking an aspirin, following your diet, getting regular exercise, maintaining your target range for blood sugar control, and caring for your feet. If you are overweight, remember that even a small weight loss (5% to 10% of your weight) can help you achieve normal blood sugar levels.

Take an aspirin daily

If you are 30 or older, talk to your health professional about taking a low-dose aspirin daily to help prevent heart attack, stroke, or other large blood vessel disease (macrovascular disease).⁶

Follow your diet

Work with a dietitian to plan menus that help you spread carbohydrate throughout the day to keep your blood sugar from rising sharply after meals.

Get regular exercise

Start including exercise in your daily life. Try to do activities that raise your heart rate. Exercise for at least 30 minutes on most, preferably all, days of the week. It may help to keep track of your exercise on an activity log(What is a PDF document?). The American Diabetes Association suggests that you include resistance exercises in your program.⁷ Resistance exercises can include activities like weight lifting or even yard work. See the topic Fitness for ideas on how to add daily activity to your life.

Maintain blood sugar control

Check your blood sugar level often so you can learn how exercise and various foods affect it. For more information, see:

Home blood sugar monitoring.

Quit smoking

If you smoke, quitting may help lower your risk of diabetes complications.

Care for your feet

Inspect your feet every day to look for cuts or other signs of injury. (If you have poor eyesight, have someone else check your feet.) Diabetes can damage the nerve endings and blood vessels in your feet, making you less likely to notice when your feet are injured. Diabetes also interferes with your body's ability to fight infection-if you develop a minor foot injury, it could develop into an ulcer or a serious infection.

With good foot care, you can prevent most of these problems. For more information on foot care, see the topic Type 2 Diabetes: Living With the Disease.