A journey from sickness to better health and well being. Not selling anything just telling my story. This was easier said than done.
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In 2011 I was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes and I was walking around at 189kg / 416lbs, in pretty bad shape. I guess you would have thought that the diagnosis would have been a wake up call, but like an idiot I buried my head in the sand and ignored my ailments. Moving forward into 2013 as my health continued to deteriorate I decided that I need to get a grip and try to take some control of my condition, this was easier said than done. I visited my doctor and was referred to a diabetic specialist. After a number of visits and twelve months of following diet sheets I really had made very little progress and my blood sugar was running rampant, totally out of control. Each time I visited my medical professional I dreaded the encounter because my diabetic numbers and weight were pretty much unchanged and I was sick of hearing that ‘I wasn’t trying hard enough’ and that the ‘numbers don’t lie’ especially from the diabetic nurse. The same lady who was giving me a diet sheet and telling me to eat 5 small meals a day, and over those 5 meals I should ingest 160g of carbohydrates. At this point no one had talked to me about my condition and explained exactly the way diabetes (type 2) operates in the body. I had no clue about insulin resistance or carbohydrate intolerance. My doctor (February 2014) decided that I should start using drugs and prescribed me with a statin (which I never used), metformin - 2000mg per day and the highest victosa injection allowed daily. At the end of 2015 I was still tipping the scales at 177kg / 390lbs and my most recent blood screen came back with my aba1c standing at 148 (UK) / 15.7 (USA). Heading into 2016 I was at breaking point. I was at logger heads with the medical people and had no real options except to try and research for myself. I posted on a couple of social media pages and a lady by the name of Laura suggested that I take a look at some ketogenic pages because she thought it maybe able to help me. Laura turned out to be the person who guided me to the light at the end of the tunnel. At first I was a little skeptical, as an athlete (International level basketball player in Europe) I had been taught about eating habits and the idea of removing things like pasta, potatoes, bread and rice from my diet and replacing it with a diet high in good fats, moderate protein and very few carbohydrates was alien to me. After three months of reading and researching I decided to take the plunge (what did I have to loose) as nothing was working that the medical establishment had offered me and the next step would have been more drugs and maybe insulin injections. October 1st, 2016 was my “D” day I suppose you could say and I removed bread, potatoes, rice and pasta from my diet immediately. It was tough but I figured I could do it for a month and if I did not see any noticeable improvements I could disregard it and move on. Going into October my daily fasting blood sugar readings were on average around 18 (UK) / 325 (USA) and these readings would be how I gauged my success. I wasn’t really looking at weight loss so much, it was all about controlling my blood sugar. Gradually I began to notice a lowering of these numbers and 10 days after starting keto my fasting blood sugar registered at 11 (UK) / 196 (USA). Now that’s still high but when you consider that it had not registered below 15 (UK) / 270 (USA) in the previous two years. This really gave me confidence to continue with the way of eating and a desire to learn more about the lifestyle. By the end of October my daily fasting blood sugar was holding at 9.4 (UK) / 170 (USA), the first time it had been under 10 in years. My next blood screen was due in January 2017 and this would be the “no turning back moment” for me. After my blood was drawn I was told to make an appointment to see the doctor the following week to discuss my results. 24 hours later I got a call from the surgery asking if I could go in that afternoon for an emergency consultation with the doctor. I went, in my mind not knowing what to expect, after all being called into to an emergency appointment by your doctor never really leads to anything positive in my experience. The doctor asked a million and one questions and I finally said “is there a problem”, “no quite frankly she replied”, “its the opposite”. I was baffled but it turned out that most of my diabetic markers had dropped off the chart and I was now in the ‘pre-diabetic’ category rather than being a full blown type 2 diabetic. They scheduled blood screens for me every three months and results kept improving and after my blood screen in July 2017 I was able to come off both metformin and victosa. A huge bonus along getting the diabetes under control was I lost weight, and of course that also aided my progress to better. Since May 2018 my aba1c has held steady at 38 (UK) / 5.6 (USA). My weight loss has slowed down and I now tip the scales at 115kg / 253lbs. I have recently started to incorporate intermittent fasting into my lifestyle and have felt the benefits from this with much better sleeping patterns. I am by no mean’s the finished article and have a ways to go and much to learn but I believe I have added time onto my life expectancy which is precious.
CONCLUSION
Don’t expect other folks to take responsibility for your well-being. You must be your own best advocate and research so when its time to make important decision about how you are going to live you can make informed decisions. Learn to listen to your own body and read signs because it will tell you what you need to do. Doctors have very little training in the area of nutrition an area that really supplies the building blocks for good health. We are all worth the investment of our own time to understand what we need and do the right thing for ourselves.
