Diabetes

[daugen]

Wakey, I promise I watched part of that. I could hear my arthritic bones cracking. A few too many operations and fusions for
some of those gyrations. But the breath control is important. Does calm you down.
Nothing like a good deep breath of fresh air and a drink of clean water

I don't drink enough water. May be dilution is the solution. Drink a lot of coffee and V8 though.
I also drink a fair amount of Diet 5 cran-mango. Maybe I should cut that out and just drink nothing but water.
That would be a good test.

my understanding is they still don't have a non invasive way of checking your blood sugar.
Something without a needle poke of some type. Ok once in a while, long term not so sure.
I want Star Trek's hand held analyzer....

 

[Spike56]

You are right, at that point the pancreas will never function like it used to, but if a person doesn't have to take meds/injections for it and their blood sugar is within normal, healthy range as long as they eat correctly, they are as "cured" as they are going to be. Much better, imo, than relying on a daily shot or two so I can continue eating the garbage food that most supermarkets are chock full of. And, will probably extend that person's life, and allow them to enjoy the benefits of overall better health, too.

Agree. There are / have been all kinds of rumors about "curing" diabetes. All hogwash, just trying to sell books or some products. Maybe someday, but not today. ONE, person had an experimental pancreas stem cell treatment, and it was claimed to "cure" but I do not know any details or why only ONE person.

 

[Rustyiron]

All I drink is water, and although retired I still cut about 7-8 cords of firewood yearly (mechanized) and am just finishing a 2 year project.

A building for my sawmill.

So I'm on my feet most of the day. I think this is very important as we age and probably very difficult if you "grew up" an office worker living in a development. (No judgment from me)
My land and my lifestyle I believe helps me with this.

 

[MossyDell]

My new young doctor, an internist, took me to the woodshed a year ago about being pre-diabetic, at 99 fasting glucose, and obese. It was the kick I needed. I got heavy 15 years ago in a perfect storm of stress. I'd manage to take off 10-15 pounds in the last few years but would put it back on. This time I got serious and have lost 45 pounds. My numbers are great.

I lost the first 20 pounds the hard way, my own "low carb" and intermittent fasting diet with help from a brother who does low carb and keto and fasting sometimes. I didn't have enough information, didn't know what to eat. He gave me grief for eating an apple daily. I didn't go all in, no fruit etc. and was probably falling between two stools—never converted my body to burning fat instead of carbs. I did try hard. For instance, I did TWO three-day water-only fasts. No food at all. But it was crazy to consume heavy cream with frozen fruit as a treat, when at the least I should have been consuming skim milk. Super high calories in heavy cream compared with skim!

So I joined Noom, a calorie-counting weight loss program like WW. But new and up and coming. Not sure it's better, have known friends WW worked for, including a friend who lost 50 and has kept it off for 15 years. But I felt I needed actual calorie counting knowledge at least at first, rather than the WW point system. Noom doesn't ban anything but is big on eating less calorie dense foods. They divide foods into green, yellow, and orange. So fruit and veggies are basically green, carbs are yellow, and fatty meat and cheese etc. are orange.

Each day now starts for me with a 10-12 minute Noom lesson on my phone, stuff like psychology and food knowledge. I log my meals and snacks on the phone app and try to stay under my calorie goal. Noom adjusts my maximum upward if I get in a lot more steps. I still have issues, such as binging when I feel bad, but have built new habits. I also enjoy my food a lot more.

 

[crashz]

Mossy - I did very similar.

My blood sugar was at 111 last year. At my heaviest I think the scale once read 340. I tried every imaginable diet plan possible. Fasting, Atkins, Low Carb, Keto, etc. Bought Golo by the case.

Still big. Some heart issues brought it all to the forefront.

I've been using an app called MyFitnessPal and its working pretty good to count my calories. I set it originally to a pretty aggressive setting of 1700 calories a day. By limiting calories, I had two choices: Eat lots of healthy, low calorie foods (mostly unprocessed vegetables and lean meat) or eat tiny portions of less healthy food. I chose option one.

Really my diet was never very bad, I just ate way too much and ate some foods that were surprising to me. Two of which are olive oil and cheese. Both I have nearly cut out because they are extremely calorie dense. I used to eat A LOT of both.

The gym is also a great way to log extra calories per day and get in shape too. Both have been good for me. I'm getting good strength back, feeling good, and currently down to 270. I'm shooting for a goal weight of 240, but slowed my loss rate down.

 

[ljjhouser]

Diabetes is an experience that affects everyone and changes over time differently from one person to the next. We learn what we can eat. Then do the best we can. Only at the end of the road can we say whether we were right or made a mistake.

There is an excellent book titled "Dr. Berstein's Diabetes Solutions." It gives a complete coverage of both type one and Type two. Understanding how the body works with the production of insulin and how the cells accept or reject glucose helped me understand what may or may not work for me.

There is also an book "The First Year: Type 2 Diabetes: by Gretchen Baker.
This book has a chart in it - showing the projected outcome of high A1C It is based on the national average of 8.4 A1c.
Even though it is a projection, it is "eye opening" in itself.

Well, a lot of time has passed since your first post. I hope you are doing well.
I did not read all 17 pages of the thread. Best Wishes.

 

[dmccarty]

Gracious this is an old thread. Interesting to see what I said years ago.

Seems like "journey" is a new word to use so I will use it. My weight loss and weight maintenance journey still include walking for my exercise, tracked by a cheap Fitbit, and trying to eat better. "Better" is a key word since everyone seems to have a different definition. I walk 10K-15K steps a day which is 5-6 miles. Sometimes 20K.

For the last few years I have been doing intermittent fasting. It took awhile, but I figured out, well my body told me, that I needed a good 16 hour fast to loose weight and limit my usual calories intake to loose weight. I can eat as usual to maintain weight. The problem is I need to loose 10-20 pounds which what I always need to loose.


Earlier this year I was down about 15 pounds which I gained back when the wife fell down and could not get back up. She missed a single step, fell down, yet somehow did not get seriously injured but was not able to walk for months. Usually, we just graze at night and I would eat limited amounts of food, but I had to feed her so I would cook some really good meals. The meals would be a bit more calories than I would normally eat, very healthy though, but the problem was BEER. If I have a good meal I want a good beer or two to go with it. Danged beer is what makes me maintain or gain weight due to the extra calories and carbs.

As mentioned years ago in this thread, in the past I would drink flavored carbonated water to keep away from beer. Over the last few years, I have been making a herbal iced tea that did not need sugar. When I would drink the tea and just eat a bit of food for dinner while intermittent fasting, I would drop weight fast. However, there always has to be a however, the tea changed and would make me sick. The tea is made from apples and is sweet but I wonder if they sweetened the tea even though the label says no. I also wonder if they were sweetening the tea and then started using a sugar substitute than I cannot digest. Any who, it was back to beer and I gained some weight back.

I found some different tea on the shelves and have been drinking that instead of beer. Just found some herbal teas on Amazon that I will try as well.... Will see how this works out.

With the intermittent fasting, for years I was eating a cut oatmeal with almonds, fruit, and cinnamon. I was wondering if that was preventing or minimizing my weight loss so I started eating a breakfast burrito. The burrito has cheese, onions, colored bell peppers, arugula, a hot dog like sausage or maybe bacon. Pretty healthy, depending on who you believe but I don't think it made a difference from a weight loss perspective. Going to keep eating the burrito until I get my blood work checked and then maybe go back to the oatmeal.

Intermittent fasting does help me if the fast is at least 16 hours and I stay away from beer.

Why is beer, pizza and bread sooooooo good? Well, and white rice!

My granny always said there were three evil white foods. White rice, white sugar, and white bread. She picked up processed food being bad for you at least 40-50 years ago. Wish I knew how she knew.....

 

[txdon]

I could use some advice before I get an earful from a specialist.

New info since 2012.
It's not the sugar it's the fat.

Added Dietary Sugar Poses No Prediabetes Risk

Cross-sectional review of more than 5000 US adults showed no apparent link between added dietary sugar and prevalent prediabetes.

www.medscape.com

 

[txdon]

Gracious this is an old thread. . . . .
With the intermittent fasting, for years I was eating a cut oatmeal with almonds, fruit, and cinnamon. I was wondering if that was preventing or minimizing my weight loss so I started eating a breakfast burrito. The burrito has cheese, onions, colored bell peppers, arugula, a hot dog like sausage or maybe bacon. Pretty healthy, depending on who you believe but I don't think it made a difference from a weight loss perspective. Going to keep eating the burrito until I get my blood work checked and then maybe go back to the oatmeal.

Who is this that you believe that hot doglike sausage, bacon, and cheese are healthy?

 

[dmccarty]

Who is this that you believe that hot doglike sausage, bacon, and cheese are healthy?

There are all sort so doctors with YouTube channels and books saying to minimize carbs to loose weight and to improve general health. Others say otherwise, thus my statement on who you want to believe. Also as I said, I will get my blood work checked and see how the numbers go. Then go back to the cut oatmeal and get tested again. That was the plan before the pandemic hit and there was no going to the doctors at that point.