Here are eleven simple, positive measures, any one of which you can adopt. Each measure is a major step into the new lifestyle of eating that will result in lower blood sugar and normal weight.

Yet each of these steps, by itself is an easy step to take. I list the steps in order from easiest to hardest (as judged by most people). You can take them in any order, and you can take all or any part of them.

What did your doctor tell you?... "You need to go on a diabetic diet."

If you don't lose weight and eat right, your blood sugar levels stay high and your diabetic condition and overall health worsens. Amputation, blindness, sexual dysfunction, respiratory problems, heart disease and cancer are just some of the illnesses caused by uncontrolled diabetes. But this doesn't have to happen.

No more Yada Yada Yada....Let's get to it:

If you take all eleven steps you may be as much as 80 percent on the program. The more steps you take, the faster you will be making the LIFESTYLE Changes for a new life.

1. Increase your intake of fresh whole fruits.

I am interested in increasing your fruit intake not because of the nutrient value of fruit or because fruit has any special value in weight-loss programs. My interest is to provide you with a food source that will tend to displace your eating of sweets to some degree. If not right away, then a little later. Because fruits themselves tend to be fattening, choose lower calorie fruits like apples and oranges rather than very sweet fruits. Choose fresh whole fruits rather than canned, cooked, pureed, or juiced fruits.

2. Eat more vegetables.

Eat more vegetables of all kinds: cooked vegetables like broccoli, cauliflower, corn, peas, potatoes, zucchini, and beets, as well as raw vegetables like lettuce, tomatoes, carrots, celery, radishes, and cucumbers. Use spices to maximize deliciousness. Avoid butter, oil, and other fatty sauces

3. Make your vegetables attractive.

When you serve vegetables at the table, serve them in your most attractive serving dishes. Arrange them in the serving dish as attractively and colorfully as possible. Use paprika, egg whites, or pimientos for extra color. Even when storing vegetables in the refrigerator, make them attractive. Keep them in attractive storage containers, and keep them fresh and appetizing. Buy them fresh frequently, and throw them out when they wilt, change color, get soggy, or in any way lose their attractiveness or zip.

4. Decrease your contact with problem food.

Problem foods are the very high calorie foods so common in modern society: potato chips, cheeses, cookies, pies, cakes, fatty cold cuts, and so forth. By decreasing your contact with them around the house, you will decrease your consumption of them. You can decrease your contact by placing them in the kitchen and out of sight. Don't keep foods in the living room, bedroom, or den. Keep them in the kitchen in cupboards or in the refrigerator. Keep them behind other foods, back in the far reaches where they aren't easily seen. Believe me, it's true; out of sight, out of mind. Out of mind means out of the stomach.

5. Make eating a pure experience.

Frequently we eat while doing other things. This is a problem because we tend to associate eating with these other things. These other things become eating cues, and every time we do them, we have the urge to eat. When you eat, only eat. Don't combine eating with other activities like watching TV or reading. When you are ready to eat, first stop what you are doing. Then set yourself a place at the table, and eat your food there. Don't take leftovers to the TV or elsewhere to nibble. Either eat them at the table or put them away.

6. Increase your awareness of fats in food.

You probably don't know how much fat you eat in a day. Few people do. But your intake of fat is nearly 50 percent of your daily calories. Fat is not only the fatty substance around your T-bone steak; it is also the oil in peanut butter, nuts, and olives. Butter, cooking oil, and mayonnaise are 100 percent fat, avocados are 80 percent fat, and whole milk is nearly 50 percent fat. Low-fat foods (under 10 percent) are vegetables, fruits, grains, and nonfat dairy products. Increase your awareness of the fat in the foods you eat, read ProvenResultsHealth.com. Then, in the light of what you have learned try to determine which foods in your diet are especially high in fat and which are especially low.

7. Eat more nonfat dairy products.

As a first step in the reduction of your fat in-take, rather than cut something out of your diet, do the opposite: step-up your intake of nonfat dairy products. This includes nonfat milk, nonfat yogurt, and nonfat cottage cheeses (dry-curd cottage cheese or hoop cheese). Next, cut down whole milk and regular yogurt. Low-fat milk, low-fat yogurt, and low-fat cottage cheeses are O.K. as a compromise at first. But because low-fat dairy products are still relatively high in fat, the transition must ultimately be to nonfat products.

8. Decrease your usage of added fat and salt.

Fats and salts are added to foods in the kitchen and at the table. You can cut down on these added problem foods easily. It is usually unnecessary to cook foods in oil or fat. For instance, vegetables sautéed in butter give you a dish that can best be described as butter with vegetable flavoring. Vegetables can be sautéed in water over a high flame and the result is deliciously cooked vegetables, not butter. Butter and oils are added at the table on bread, over vegetables, in salads, and so on. These additions are not necessary to bring out the flavor of the food. In fact they usually hide flavor behind the additives' own strong odors and tastes. Simply stop adding them, or at least reduce their quantity. Adding salt at the cook pot and at the table also can be reduced. Food value is not enhanced by salt. In fact, salt is harmful to your body. You will miss salt at first. You will not be accustomed to the presence of subtle tastes in unsalted foods. But you will quickly become used to real flavors and then won't miss the saltiness to which you are now habituated.

9. Increase grains and cereals.

Eat more whole-grain foods: whole-grain bread, whole-grain spaghetti, and whole-grain noodles. Eat more brown rice, barley, and millet. Eat whole-grain cereals for breakfast with sliced banana, skim milk, and cinnamon as topping. You may need to find these foods in your local health food store. They are becoming increasingly available, however, in supermarkets. Eat these foods without added salt, fats, oils, or sweeteners of any kind. These grain and cereal foods provide you with an abundant supply of calories, natural fiber, slowly absorbed complex carbohydrates, and vitamins and minerals. They are low in fat but have plenty of protein and complex carbohydrate.

10. Cut down on cheeses, nuts, and fatty meats.

With added cereals, fruits, and vegetables in your diet, you will find no difficulty in reducing your intake of these especially fatty foods: cheeses, nuts, and fatty meats. Fatty meats include cold cuts, sausage, bacon, and hot dogs. Fatty meats also include choice and prime cuts of beef and lamb, and fatty hamburger. But good grade beef or lamb, and the leanest hamburger, present less of a problem. All cheeses are high in fat: 60-80 percent. And all nuts except chestnuts are high in fat: 70 percent or so.

11. Decrease sweets.

Because you have access to fruit, cutting down on sweets will be less of a problem. Remember, sweets include, not only candy, cake, pies, and other desserts made from sugar, but also honey, syrup, molasses, and all foods made from or with these ingredients. In cutting down on sweets it is helpful to keep them out of the house or at least out of sight as much as possible. It is also helpful to eat plenty of the less calorically intense foods, particularly grain foods, to provide a source of "safe" carbohydrates to replace those "unsafe" carbohydrates you are cutting out by reducing sweets.