Insulin resistance can be building for years before anyone tells you your blood sugar is a problem. Through most of that stretch a standard fasting glucose still comes back normal. The early work is mostly food and movement.

These are the four numbers I come back to. They’re easy to remember because they’re all 30.

Number 1: about 30 grams of protein at each meal

Breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Protein slows how fast a meal hits your blood sugar, and it’s usually the number that’s furthest off.

Not sure what 30 g looks like? Here’s one breakfast:

2 eggs, about 12 g
1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt, about 10 g
1/4 cup nuts, about 4 g
1/2 cup berries, about 1 g
1 slice whole grain toast, about 4 g

That comes to roughly 31 g.

For lunch and dinner, start with a protein source, then add vegetables and a carbohydrate:

A palm-sized chicken breast, roughly 30 g
A piece of salmon about the size of your palm, roughly 25 g
1 cup plain Greek yogurt, roughly 20 g
1 cup cooked lentils, roughly 18 g
1/2 cup cottage cheese, roughly 13 g

Breakfast is where this usually falls apart. Toast and coffee lands closer to 6 g, which is part of why you’re starving again by 10.

Number 2: work toward 30 grams of fibre a day

Fibre slows sugar absorption and feeds the bacteria in your gut. Your cholesterol numbers benefit too. Most women I see are sitting closer to half of 30.

Build up slowly. Going from 12 g to 30 g in a week brings bloating and gas, and then people quit, which is a shame, because the fibre was never the problem. Add about 5 g a week and drink more water while you do it.

Each of these is roughly 5 g, so pick any six across a day:

2.5 tbsp ground flaxseed
1/3 to 1/2 cup cooked lentils or chickpeas
Half a medium avocado
3/4 cup raspberries or blackberries
1 cup cooked broccoli
One medium pear, or an apple with the skin on

You’ll have an easier time getting to 30 g if most of your fibre comes from food. Bars marketed as high fibre are often 3 to 5 g.

Number 3: keep added sugar under 30 grams a day

Added sugar, specifically. The sugar that comes with whole fruit or plain milk gets to stay.

The ones people often miss: coffee drinks, flavoured yogurt, granola and granola bars, protein bars, sauces and dressings, and most packaged food marketed as healthy. One bottled coffee drink can use up the whole day.

Canadian labels make this harder than it needs to be. Our Nutrition Facts table gives you total sugars and doesn’t break out added sugar the way American labels do, so read the ingredient list instead. Anything ending in “ose,” plus syrups, cane juice, molasses, and honey. Ingredients are listed in order of how much is in there.

Number 4: 30 minutes of movement

Walking counts. So does strength training, cycling, yoga, gardening, or being outside with your kids or the dog.

You do not need a hard workout every day. Regular movement matters more. Most days is enough.

If you’re adding one thing on purpose, make it strength training. Skeletal muscle is one of the main places your body takes up glucose after a meal, so having more of it gives that glucose somewhere to go.

The bonus: walk after you eat

This is the one I push hardest with patients. It is also the easiest one to actually do.

10 to 20 minutes of walking within half an hour of your biggest meal.

Working muscles can take up glucose with less reliance on insulin, which can help your body handle the glucose from that meal. It costs nothing, and it doesn’t ask you to change what you already ate.

Where to start

Pick one. Four at once is how this falls apart.

Get breakfast to 30 g of protein first. It changes how the rest of the day goes. Then walk after dinner, 10 minutes to start. Give those two a few weeks before you add a third.

On testing

Food and movement do most of the work here. But where you actually sit is a blood work question, not a guessing one.

The markers worth asking about are fasting glucose, fasting insulin, and hemoglobin A1C. Your family doctor or nurse practitioner can order these, and in Ontario that route is usually covered. Test, don’t guess.