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This is an update to my earlier post (Lazyitis). In checking the date I see that it was at the end of July. Time really does scurry along without mercy!

Since then I have taken the bulls by the horns and slaughtered the laziness as well as the Diabetes. My blood sugar was increasing steadily in spite of being on Metformin and making significant changes to lifestyle and diet. My kidneys hurt a lot and I was totally nauseated and therefore feeling hungry all day long. It was just a bad scenario all round.  My doctor did the only thing he was trained to do – he upped the dose. It continued to rise as did my frustration at the whole messy business of sugar.

I took it upon myself to stop the medication all together (even though it is being touted as a drug that can extend your lifespan to 120 years old – actually, that’s even a better reason to have stopped it, but that’s another blog post subject!)

From there I made an appointment with a naturopath with my MD’s blessing. (“Yes, I believe you can do this Lesley. We’ll test again in two months.”)

If anyone is familiar with Naturopaths, you will have noted that they are extremists. They are extreme in every form. I was promptly off all:

Sugar, dairy, carbs, gluten …

Actually the what I could eat list is shorter:

Protein and vegetables 6 times a day. 

It soon became very apparent that just about everything has sugar in it. I became an avid label reader and tossed out a lot of food. The rest went to the food bank (and it was good stuff, but even my trusted whole wheat Cheerios had sugar).

I continued to go to the gym 5 days a week, which is sometimes 4 days, just because of life getting in the way.

Within two weeks my sugar levels were down to normal and continue to be. I have added legumes into my diet and still have my beloved coffee (double double) once a day. I continue to have two glasses of wine every night and allow an occasional great meal of pasta or pizza now and again. If I add in those high carbs my reading goes up a point or 1 1/2 points and I am still in range. My kidneys love me and I am no longer starving all the time nor am I nauseated constantly. So, Goodbye Metformin; Hello my life back.

Now then, you would think I would have lost masses of weight, but I haven’t. I have lost tonnes of fat and the fat I do have has been broken down into a more soluble, losable type. And I have gained lots of muscle. I am 10 times more mobile and agile and have a lot more energy. My joints hurt most when I indulge in those very delicious bad carbs. It is totally noticeable which really makes me stop and think about what sort of effect the food we eat has on the body, as well as the mind.

On a side note but on the same subject —- In between, I went through a medical emergency which landed me in the hospital for a day. In the middle of the night, my tongue swelled to about three times its normal size and I was covered in hives. I have been tested since for allergies, but it was determined that it was an oddball virus that will likely never re-occur, thank you very much.

While I was trying to find ways, once the drugs started working,  to convince the doctors to just let me go home in spite of my predicament, the man in the next bed was bleeding profusely all over the place. It was gushing to the floor and in the air. His knee would not heal nor stop bleeding. I finally asked that they close the curtain.

The closed curtain didn’t stop the flow of conversation from meeting my ears. I now consider it one of several ‘meant to bes‘ in my life.

It turned out he had type 2 diabetes, untreated, went for dialysis 5/days a week, had previously lost one of his toes to gangrene … the list continued. I heard him say, ” Yeah, I got type 2 diabetes, ” with a chuckle, “so I guess everything is my own doing.” And that moment and the one that followed where the nurses were discussing (in French which he didn’t understand), the likelihood of having his whole leg amputated due to the infection and inability to stop bleeding, I swore to uphold my promise to myself to listen to my extreme Naturopath and thank him for his whippings.

The nutritionist at the hospital puts together the recommended meals for diabetics. I received one and was horrified. 

Cereal (10 gr), milk (5 gr), whole wheat bread (6 gr), jam (49 gr), peanut butter (9 gr), jello (19). All have sugar. The total is … 98 grams of sugar. That is why everyone and his brother and sister are diabetic…

Before anyone feels sorry for my taste buds though I have to post a typical dinner photo … Cheers to all our health!! Keep taking care of number one even if you have to question those who are supposed to have the knowledge.

dinner

Can you spot the sugar? It’s there, in the salad dressing – 6.76 grams.

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Lesley Fletcher is a writer (freelance, books, content, lyrics,stage plays) as well as a visual artist specializing in monoprints. To learn more about her please visit the tabs here on WordPress or her website at http://www.LesleyFletcher.com

To view other books by Lesley, have a look at her author profile on Amazon.