If you have a sweet tooth, consider artificial sweeteners. They satisfy sweet cravings without adding calories or raising blood-sugar levels, so indulging is safer. Your body uses energy when it's active, so exercise usually causes blood-sugar levels to fall and appears to help insulin work better. But be careful that your blood sugar doesn't get too low while you're exercising. Physical stress such as overexertion, illness, or injury can cause your blood-sugar levels to rise.
Mental stress can make blood sugar either rise or fall.
Either way, being rundown and stressed-out makes diabetes harder to manage, so it's important to get enough rest and learn to relax. Good stress-busting techniques include meditation , deep breathing exercises, physical exercise, and regular massage . Test your blood-sugar level. To test your blood, you'll prick your finger and place a drop of blood on a strip of test paper, then either wait for the strip to change color and match it to a color chart or use a blood-glucose meter to get a reading. Talk to your doctor, too, about other tests you might need, including a yearly eye exam.