You’re not a diabetic, you’re just lazy.

 

A few months ago I read an interesting article by a woman who is Type One diabetic. She talked about the mis-understandings people have about her illness, how much people don’t understand.

What people do not understand is that Type One develops when a person is young and will never go away. What people don’t understand is how she can manage her diet and still eat most of what she wants. What people don’t understand is that medication alone will not control her illness, she must take insulin. There are no cures by eating Iceberg Lettuce or Okra or Cinnamon pills.

And one of the things she gets pissed about is having her chronic illness confused with Type Two diabetes. Because, after all, people with Type Two are just lazy. If they ate right and exercised, they wouldn’t have this illness anymore.

Oh, I wish that was true.

Since last August the monster I was always terrified of reared its ugly head. My blood glucose numbers were at high levels, enough that my doctor called me and told me to pick up my new medication and start taking it immediately. My A1C was a 12. I knew I was tired but I also work a lot along with a bunch of volunteering.

The diagnosis came after I worked to lose weight and change my diet. I exercised and stopped eating white bread, white sugar, white rice. I saw my belly get smaller and I thought I had made headway. I managed to lose 40+ pounds and thought I was safe.

But no.

At first I was able to get my A1C down to 7.3. I worked harder, walked more, gave up soda and flavored coffee. Instead of losing weight, as I had seen other friends do after their diagnosis, I gained weight especially in the tummy area. So I doubled down, made sure I did that mile walk minimum daily. I ate more salads and only dark chocolate. I don’t eat after 9 pm and drink a ton of water. And my morning numbers are still high.

So much for dieting and exercise.

The sad fact is that Type Two diabetes is hereditary. Just being in certain ethnic groups puts you at risk, such as African, Asian, Native American, Latino, or Pacific Islander ancestry. If your parent is Type Two, there is a 10-15% chance their child will have it. Both of my parents, one grandparent from each side, and at least one great-grandparent on each side had it. Worse yet, I was gestational diabetic with almost all of my pregnancies. My last child weighed ten pounds.

Lately, I have felt as if I was a sitting duck and there was no avoiding this diagnosis.

The truth is, you don’t get Type Two without a genetic pre-deposition. My mother is a thin woman who walks regularly. She does not fit the profile while I do with the extra bit of weight and two desk jobs. We are both dealing with Type Two but she doesn’t have to take insulin. I do.

You can talk to me about alternative treatments because I am willing to listen. I might even be willing to try it. But don’t sit there telling me I am lazy and not willing to work the diet. Don’t sit there and tell me if I just work it, I will be cured.

It might be comforting in some weird way to think that Type One and Type Two are different beasts altogether. It’s like you want to have a pity party because your illness is worse. Sounds like the kind of fights that happen between autistic moms who tell Asperger moms their kids aren’t really autistic because their kid is functioning while a different kid will never be able to take care of themselves or talk or get out of bed.

At their essences, both forms of diabetes are the same. The body has too much glucose and the pancreas cannot do its job without supplemental assistance. I can’t just lose weight by exercising and working my diet to make it my Type Two diabetes go away. I have tried. And I really resent people who don’t get it, even fellow diabetics.

Now, if you will excuse me, I have to go to bed. Getting plenty of sleep is one way to control your sugar numbers, so I hear.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Looking for results from the one weird secret to losing weight.

All of us bloggers read our stats daily.

This is not a secret, we are all crazy enough to blog on a regular basis. And we want to know how many read our blathering each day. Then we want to know which blathering gets the most hits.

The one post in my collection of over 400 blatherings that everyone seems to love is called The One Weird Secret to Losing Weight. Two and a half years ago I wrote about how hard I was trying to lose weight. At that time, I was being tempted by quick weight loss solutions that always included acai berried and a colon cleanser. There was hydroxy cut and whey powders and all sorts of things that were promising quick weight loss. Oh, and I was not going to have to change my eating habits.

At that time, I weighed over 200 pounds. I was snoring so loud, I woke myself up. I was having dizzy spells and sugar spikes that I felt emotionally. If that was not enough, I was growing out of my clothing. I pretended I was a size 16 when in reality I was an 18 or higher depending on the cut. While I would have loved quick fixes, I have not gone that route.

Instead, I have made lifestyle changes. And the results have paid off. My weight has gotten to the 180s. I am no longer snoring and the dizzy spells have disappeared. This took a couple of years to achieve. I made one change at a time.

First thing I did was set up a regular meal plan. This includes a sweet snack in the mid morning. Then I slowly began to change things. I restricted the amount of soda I drink, making it into a once-a-week treat.  Once that became a steady habit, I added whole wheat or multi-grain breads to my diet in my daily lunch sandwich. This forces the blood sugar to rise in a slower manner and keeps me happy.

Then I worked yogurt in the diet. The next change I worked in was to eat carrot sticks with my lunch and a salad or fruit with dinner. Here the raw veggies and fruit work as fiber while keeping the sugar from getting too high.  But there is another benefit. That fiber begans cleaning out my system naturally. Which meant some days, I needed to stay near a bathroom as my system cleaned out a lot of junk.

But there was one other change I made in my routine. I began walking with the dog every day.   I started at a half of a mile and worked up to one mile. Some days I make it over a mile and a half. The dog loves it. My feet usually feel better when I do the walk.

Image by Orchid

This means I am losing weight and inches. As my weight goes down so do the symptoms of diabetes. While I have some other health issues going on, I know that they are going to improve because my weight is less of an issue.

That is the end result of my battle with the weight. I hit my goal weight and lost the muffin top. While I have gained a few pounds back, I believe I will be able to get them off. I have fallen away from doing the daily walk and that makes it hard to keep weight off. So this week, I am getting back into the groove.

Oh, and I have stuck with the original plan of eating less and moving more. It works, it really works. If you are looking for the one weird secret to weight loss, that is the only one.

Move more, eat less.

Funny how simple that really is.

The Answer Lady Comes Back

The Answer Lady has great shoes. Picture by J. Dunham

 

The Answer Lady had so much fun last time that she decided to answer a few other items that come up in the search column. There are some people who love being a font of information and some who are insufferable know-it-alls.

If the Answer Lady can make use of her knowledge acquired during her years of being an insufferable know-it-all, that is just the cherry on top of the hot fudge sundae.

Q. What is the old trick to get rid of belly fat?

A. Well, the simpliest way is to exercise and diet properly. You can read or listen to a lot of these internet ads that promise to make it happen lickety split. Most of them want you to fork over money for their colon cleanser product that is paired with acai berry.

Others tell you they have the pill that will take it all off without making changes to your lifestyle. Really? If you talk to your doctor, he or she will start talking about food intake and how much you exercise. If you eat and eat and eat but never ever exercise, sooner or later those calories turn into fat.

I recently listened to one site that talked about how some foods, even the healthy foods we are encouraged to eat will still make you fat.  At least this person had it sort of right. Isbella’s big thing that keeps us fat is processed food and foods with high fructose syrup. Those yougurts and whole grain breads still have fructose syrup which is very bad.

picture by Orchid

So she wants you to become a label reader as well as make more of your own meals so you can cut down on all of those chemicals that make the body worse not better. Oh, and she has a cookbook and a metabolism calculator and exercise diet plans to help you figure it all out. For X amount.

So if you really want to get that belly fat off, here is the old trick. Eat less, move more. Eat more fruits and veggies, make your own bread (remember that bread machine in the back) and eat less processed food. Start by dropping one bad habit at a time and replace it with a good habit.

I started with dropping soda and replacing it with iced tea. Next I replaced chips with carrot sticks.  Instead of sleeping in, I get up and do a fifteen minute walk. That is on top of the afternoon walk I do with the dog.

That is the only “old” trick to losing that belly. Once you lose 20 pounds, you will be amazed by the way you look and feel.

Q. I need an image of a brick wall.

Picture by Krumdieck

A. There are various content houses on the web. Some of these are free to use. My image of a brick wall was gained from one of these and you really need to find your own.

You eat that much?

Picture by Xenia

Today is Valentine’s Day and you have made the terrible realization that spring is not too far away. March 21 is just 35 days away. That means Spring and the clothing which is lighter and prettier and telling of rolls of fat is 35 days away.

“‘Noooooooooooooooo” is the collective scream being heard across the snow belt despite the joy of warmer weather. How does this happen? Where does all of this fat come from.

You know the answer.

Food.

Food loaded with fats and sugars and sodas that have nothing nutritional to give.

I love it, can’t get enough of it. When I am having a bad day, the thought of bread pudding cheers me right up. Chocolate cake, brownies with caramel swirls in it or even a simple frosted cupcake with a raspberry on top can do the same.

When it is my turn to make the Sunday Dinner, I go for chicken in cream sauces or crab cakes.  I like trying new recipes for soups, main dishes and desserts. All of which explains the extra weight I carry. 

That is why I put myself on a diet aimed at improving all-around health along the threat of diabetes. It runs in my family like the Mississippi during a flood. There are days that I feel like a ticking time bomb just waiting for my sugar numbers to explode and make my life miserable.

Today, I am sharing that diet that has helped me drop 30 pounds but be warned. This works for me and the condition I know I am going to have no matter how hard I try. My mother is a skinny woman and she has diabetes. I am 25 pounds over my highest allowed weight (by the insurance company’s charts) and despite making some great improvements, that chronic illness is headed my way.

What I have worked to do is make a diet that is tasty and not depriving me of anything. I also make sure to have plenty of liquid throughout the day.

 

Morning

First thing: 16 oz of water

Breakfast: 2 fried or scrambled eggs, slice of bread or malt-o-meal, 12-16 oz. green tea

Mid Morning: 12-16 oz coffee, 1 serving of a sweet cookie or a sweet roll)

 

 

 

Picture by Johnninbkk

Afternoon:

Lunch: Sandwich or soup, starch (bread, chips or carrot sticks), fruit, 12-16 oz water

Mid-afternoon: 12-16 oz. coffee, 2 small pieces of candy (pic-a-snack or 2 Dove squares)

After work: Protein (hard-boiled egg or peanut butter), 12-6 oz tea

Evening:

Supper: Protein, starch, veggie, salad, 12-16 oz drink

 

 

 

Picture by Karpati

The other important factor:

You have to get up and move. I walk about 20 -30 minutes a day with the dog, every day. EVERY DAY. I also try to do a 20-minute workout in the morning. I am getting a little anxious and want changes to happen quicker.

This is what works for me. Now tell me what has worked for you. Perhaps we can trade secrets that actually work.