087: Glucerna Challenge Me Blogger Event!

Few weeks ago, I grabbed the opportunity to join the Glucerna Challenge Me Blogger Event! It was not a only fun and leisure event but a very insightful one for me!

I definitely do not mind getting up early on a Saturday for this! This event taught me more about Diabetes, a disease which took my grandmother's life. Not directly but in a way related.

Apparently diabetes is not a disease but a group of disease that affects how the body uses blood glucose, more commonly known as blood sugar. Glucose is an important source of energy but when mismanaged, it will cause serious damage to the body.

Currently, we have about 2.6 million adults in our country who are affected by diabetes and that puts Malaysia as one with the highest diabetes rate in the world. Definitely not something to be proud of. Rather, something we should be really concern about.

Here we are being briefed on diabetes and it's complications.

Diabetes is a very serious group of disease that when left untreated / uncontrolled, will cause serious complications to the body such as - heart disease, kidney failure, blindness, skin complication, and amputation.

The bad news is, diabetes cannot be cured because the pancreas has become malfunctioned. However, we still have a good news which is; the glucose level in the body of a diabetic person can be controlled! How? The answer is in 3 simple steps; 1) have a healthy meal plan, 2) intake of specialized nutrition such as Glucerna and 3) exercise ofcourse! These 3 steps are able to help diabetics address 3 important components of 1) managing blood sugar level, 2) supporting weight management and 3) reducing cholesterol.

Sounds so tedious that you don't even feel like lifting a finger to try, right? Well, be thankful that there's a programme called Glucerna Challenge Me to make everything so much easier and more manageable!

First try on Glucerna.Surprisingly, it does taste sweet instead of bland.

It is a myth that diabetics cannot take anything that taste sweet because everyone thinks that all sweet food/drinks are going to contain high level of glucose! Well, it is both true  and wrong to some extend. Diabetics can still take food or drinks which contains glucose but they would need to control the amount of intake. Also, a food that taste sweet does not necessary contains an alarmingly high amount of glucose! 

To be honest, when I first tried the Glucerna drink, I was a little surprised to taste sweetness in it. Apparently, even though it taste sweet, it does not contain high level of glucose! So, diabetic cupcake lovers, go ahead and enjoy your cupcake! BUT, before you head to the fancy bakeries out there, I need your attention first!

I'm not saying that you CAN just grab any cupcake. I'm saying that you CAN enjoy a cupcake made with Glucerna as a substitute to the large quantity of sugar as ingredient! At the event, we were demonstrated on how we can add Glucerna in as the cupcake ingredient and then omit a large amount of sugar as ingredient!

It was quite fun because I get to hands on certain steps in making the cupcake and also learn some valuable baking tricks!  

Fun time with our diabetes friendly cupcakes! We get to decorate it and bring it home to enjoy with our loved ones! The cupcakes taste just like any other cupcakes! No one noticed that there was less sugar in it! So it's myth busted! Sweet food does not necessarily contains high level of sugar~

 Various decorated cupcakes!

After all the fun, let's get serious and down to business! Haha. I'm just kidding! Relax!

Here I would like to briefly introduce the Glucerna Challenge Me and how you can get started!

1. Go into this website: https://www.glucernachallengeme.com.my
This website is English  and Malay language friendly, so you can go about with your most comfortable language!

2.Register yourself with some personal info to personalize the programme to fit your body and diabetic condition.

3. When you are done, you get to see your personalized dashboard!

 Your daily personalized meals

 Your progress tracker

 Your calorie log tracker

 Your Glucose Log Tracker

Your exercise schedule!

Everything in One! Your healthy meal plan, you nutrition intake & your exercise plan! Besides assisting in planning, you might also review your progress such as glucose, weight, and calorie level!

Now controlling and managing your glucose level is so easy! However, please do make sure that the info that you input into this plan is accurate and please do heed to the experts for assistance for best results!

Here's to a better and sweeter life! <3

Lastly, thank you everyone who made this event so informative and we all went back with very helpful new found knowledge! I hope this post helps out a lot of people out there and erase those misconceptions!

Personally, I find this Glucerna Challenge Me event very helpful and eases the stress of new diabetics. Do not be afraid! Brace yourself for the Glucerna Challenge Me programme and you will be just fine!