I've gone the route of diet and exercise as well. With a fairly straightforward "core" to the diet, it's become fairly easy to eliminate the swings in energy, level out the blood glucose.

A good amount of salad, every day. With as many different veggies as you can pack into it. Fresh, "gritty," fibrous greens (ie, spinach, mustard, chard, turnip greens ... or a mix). Mustard, a good extra-virgin olive oil, splash of a good balsamic, limited amounts of cheese, a quality meat if you want (ie, ham, shrimp, turkey, chicken, tuna). Can toss in a few olives. Can add pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, chia or flax seeds.

A couple pieces of raw fruit each day. The fruit, not packaged juices made from fruit that's processed. Or, you can do smoothie blends with some frozen fruits in them, ie strawberries, grapes, peaches, half a banana, plus some sort of healthy protein powder (whey, egg ablumen).

A decent amount of protein, overall. Fish, shellfish, poultry, lean meats, all in moderation.

Vast reduction in packaged, industrialized, labeled foods. Start making most of your own stuff, from scratch. Cut out the stuff you can't pronounce, the chemicals that you don't know the impacts of. Dramatically cut back on carbs, particularly ones not containing huge amounts of soluble and insoluble fiber; better still, go "raw" (fruits, veggies) to get that fiber.

A homemade soup, if you're up to it. It's not that bad, if you spend a day making it once a month (at most), then freezing the excess. Can eliminate all the crud that's in canned soups, that way. And the flavors can really "pop" with your own soup.

Lots of fluids.

Quantities in moderation. Say, limiting any given meal to 400 cals, any given snack to 200 cals, having 3 meals max during a day, having 3 snacks max during a day. Once you nail the content, simply adjust portion sizes for the right calorie load for your body and activity.

Each meal or snack having a proper combination of protein, fat, carbs (low to no sugar, high fiber). Every combination. A given dish might have high carb, or it might be strictly protein (ie, fish), and you might have high-fat oils or whatever ... but the combination overall has a high percentage of protein, moderate fats, lower carbs, very low sugar, fairly high fiber.

Pretty simple, once you nail the handful of centerpiece dishes you'll frequently have. Then, vary the add-on items and the portion sizes, after that. Easy to put together 10min dishes, that way. Easy to pre-make your salads and soups, using air-tight containers.


Ensure your physical activity is strenuous enough. Time involvement is great. Just also ensure it's strenuous enough, for the time you do put in. Intervals, sprints, cardio, hills, varying the training across different activities (cross-training). Can do a surprising amount of higher-intensity stuff on the floor at home and with a couple sizes of hand weights, actually.

The whole combination can really drop blood glucose, really drop cholesterol, moderate your energy levels. And once nailed, it needn't take any more time than you're putting into things already. Just takes some smarter choices.

BTDT, myself.