Day 24. Reflecting on Week One.
This journey is Mission 44. It's thirteen months long and will end on my 44th birthday, January 31, 2020. It has several phases, each with their own goals, which I will outline in a future post. The phase I am completing now is called Project 43, a one-month kickstarter phase that began on January 1 and will end on my 43rd birthday, one week from today. The goal of Project 43 is to lose 25 pounds and reduce my average blood sugar. I'm almost there.
This journey had a beginning, and that beginning was December 5 of last year. It was my most recent doctor appointment, the fourth of four yearly visits that I've been requested to do since my doctor told me that I had type Type-2 diabetes back in 2015. Mission 44 wouldn't begin for several weeks, but my doctor told me something that started the wheels turning:
"Your A1C is terrible. I'm going to put you on another medicine."
At this point I was already on four: Metformin and Januvia to control blood sugar, Lisinopril to control hypertension, and Atorvastatin to control cholesterol. I made the decision immediately that I was not going to add a fifth, but my doctor continued.
The first medicine he described was something that would control the blood sugar but would make me put on weight. I weighed in at 349 and change, so that was the last thing I was looking to do.
The second choice was something that would make me excrete sugar through my urine with a probable side effect being yeast infections. Gross.
The third option was insulin injections. More insulin? I was already on Januvia, a medicine that made my pancreas excrete extra insulin already.
I decided not to take any of them.
I told my doctor that I would fix the A1C myself and blow him away by the next appointment, my physical in March. I had made many comments like that since my initial diagnosis, but something was different this time. I was genuinely scared.
So I took my medicines without fail throughout December and tried to reduce the amount of sweets I was eating. I wasn't a big fan of monitoring my blood sugar, so I promised myself that I would be a good diabetic and start monitoring in January. Here's a picture of that first day:
I took all of the pills, went for a 2.5 mile walk (the first in a loooong time), and tested my blood sugar three times. I couldn't tell you what I ate that sent my numbers into the 200s, but that was after Januvia and Metformin.
The next day I went on my walk and thought about this. I hadn't monitored my blood sugar in a while and these numbers terrified me. I thought about what I knew about diabetes and insulin, and as I walked I remember thinking that maybe adding insulin injections was the choice I would make in March. But something didn't make sense. I had done low-carb diets before and I knew about insulin resistance, so why was I going to add even more insulin? And wasn't I already doing that with the Januvia and still seeing numbers in the high 100s and above 200?
After the walk I took a shower then looked up "reversing Type-2 diabetes" on Google. I discovered a post by a doctor named Jason Fung that described a body suffering from Type-2 diabetes as an overflowing sugar bowl, and the addition of insulin only served to pack even more sugar into every cell. This made sense to me, and I decided right then to remove two things from my life: refined sugar and excess insulin.
I ate no sugar on day two or day three. I also stopped taking Januvia. That was scary. I had been taking it for a year, so stopping cold turkey worried me, but I wanted genuine change. I also started writing down the food I was eating in order to keep myself accountable. The walking and the reduced sugar made an impact on my weight immediately, but anytime I change eating habits I'll drop a few pounds. The change in my blood sugar was what really caught my attention, though.
By the last day of that week my blood sugar was below 120 every time I took it. I was still on Metformin at that time, but sugar had not been part of my life for several days and my body was using my own insulin. I decided to start keeping a notebook with more detailed entries, which I will describe in a later post, and I didn't want to lose this first week so I taped my seven Post-its into the first few pages of the notebook.
At this point I've been working on Project 43 for a couple of weeks beyond day seven. It's been mostly positive so far, though I've had a few obstacles to overcome. A lot of little successes have me close to achieving my first big goal, however, and I look forward to the post I get to write on my 43rd birthday.
See you tomorrow!
*********************
General disclaimers: In my posts I describe things that I am doing to reclaim my health based on what I know about myself. Please don't emulate my actions. I'm not a doctor, and when you read things in my blog they are not meant as advice to you or anyone else. They are simply a record of my own experience. Things like abandoning prescribed medicines and walking for miles while dealing with morbid obesity are bad ideas, but I'm an idiot and do them anyway. Don't be like me. Talk to your doctor before making major lifestyle changes, please. Also, if I write about a product, service or book and provide a link to it, you should assume that I'm part of a related affiliate program. This blog needs to be supported somehow!
This journey had a beginning, and that beginning was December 5 of last year. It was my most recent doctor appointment, the fourth of four yearly visits that I've been requested to do since my doctor told me that I had type Type-2 diabetes back in 2015. Mission 44 wouldn't begin for several weeks, but my doctor told me something that started the wheels turning:
"Your A1C is terrible. I'm going to put you on another medicine."
At this point I was already on four: Metformin and Januvia to control blood sugar, Lisinopril to control hypertension, and Atorvastatin to control cholesterol. I made the decision immediately that I was not going to add a fifth, but my doctor continued.
The first medicine he described was something that would control the blood sugar but would make me put on weight. I weighed in at 349 and change, so that was the last thing I was looking to do.
The second choice was something that would make me excrete sugar through my urine with a probable side effect being yeast infections. Gross.
The third option was insulin injections. More insulin? I was already on Januvia, a medicine that made my pancreas excrete extra insulin already.
I decided not to take any of them.
I told my doctor that I would fix the A1C myself and blow him away by the next appointment, my physical in March. I had made many comments like that since my initial diagnosis, but something was different this time. I was genuinely scared.
So I took my medicines without fail throughout December and tried to reduce the amount of sweets I was eating. I wasn't a big fan of monitoring my blood sugar, so I promised myself that I would be a good diabetic and start monitoring in January. Here's a picture of that first day:
I took all of the pills, went for a 2.5 mile walk (the first in a loooong time), and tested my blood sugar three times. I couldn't tell you what I ate that sent my numbers into the 200s, but that was after Januvia and Metformin.
The next day I went on my walk and thought about this. I hadn't monitored my blood sugar in a while and these numbers terrified me. I thought about what I knew about diabetes and insulin, and as I walked I remember thinking that maybe adding insulin injections was the choice I would make in March. But something didn't make sense. I had done low-carb diets before and I knew about insulin resistance, so why was I going to add even more insulin? And wasn't I already doing that with the Januvia and still seeing numbers in the high 100s and above 200?
After the walk I took a shower then looked up "reversing Type-2 diabetes" on Google. I discovered a post by a doctor named Jason Fung that described a body suffering from Type-2 diabetes as an overflowing sugar bowl, and the addition of insulin only served to pack even more sugar into every cell. This made sense to me, and I decided right then to remove two things from my life: refined sugar and excess insulin.
By the last day of that week my blood sugar was below 120 every time I took it. I was still on Metformin at that time, but sugar had not been part of my life for several days and my body was using my own insulin. I decided to start keeping a notebook with more detailed entries, which I will describe in a later post, and I didn't want to lose this first week so I taped my seven Post-its into the first few pages of the notebook.
See you tomorrow!
*********************
General disclaimers: In my posts I describe things that I am doing to reclaim my health based on what I know about myself. Please don't emulate my actions. I'm not a doctor, and when you read things in my blog they are not meant as advice to you or anyone else. They are simply a record of my own experience. Things like abandoning prescribed medicines and walking for miles while dealing with morbid obesity are bad ideas, but I'm an idiot and do them anyway. Don't be like me. Talk to your doctor before making major lifestyle changes, please. Also, if I write about a product, service or book and provide a link to it, you should assume that I'm part of a related affiliate program. This blog needs to be supported somehow!
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