Opus 2012-198, Healthy Insights: A Word of Hope for Diabetics, Part 2 of 3

I was slow getting serious about dealing with my diabetes.  The problems were sloth and gluttony.  I did not want to be bothered and I enjoyed eating.  Food is my big sin.  I don’t drink, smoke, do drugs, chase women, gossip or watch sports all the time.  I eat.  I wanted to hang on to that.

I tried counting carbohydrates and walking.  The GP gave me a goal of 200 grams of carbs a day and I was able to do that.  It slowed things down but did not stop the upward swing.  Counting carbohydrates works well for gluttons.  Think of all the great foods that are carb free:  Cheese, steak, and fish.  I could really scarf and feel righteous about it.  But the numbers don’t lie.

Finally, when my wife was out of town and I had complete control of what I ate and no one to blame for my overeating I took the plunge.  I began to get serious about what I ate.

My first step was twofold.  I kept my carbohydrates below 200 grams and my calories below 2,500 a day.  I am a big guy.  I began to lose weight on 2,500 calories a day.  I was not after a big showy loss.  Like most overweight people, I have lost weight before.  I am not impressed by losing weight.  It is like some people who stop smoking.  They have done it many times.  I was in for the long hall.  As long as I was going down I was happy.

I also tried to get away from focusing on weight and diet and tried to zero in on change of lifestyle.  I only weighed once a week.  Most weeks I lost.  I also kept track of what I ate so that I could look back and see what was going into my body.  I wrote everything down in a little notebook.  I weighed everything I could and went on line to find sites that could give me information when I ate out.  By doing this I could take the weeks when I did not lose anything because I knew what I was doing would work.  I had the numbers.

My numbers began to go down with the weight.  I reached a point where I asked the doctor if I could ignore the carbohydrate counting and we gave it a try.  The numbers kept getting better.  We cut back on my diabetes medication.  The numbers kept getting better.  Eventually he took me off of all diabetes medication, blood pressure medication and cholesterol medication.  The number kept going down.  I have not taken any of those for about six months and my numbers are great.

I just saw my GP and he went though all the blood and urine tests.  Everything is well into the normal range.  My diabetes doctor says I am one of the 5%.  I hope that remains true in the future. 

To be continued...

homo unius libri