This is a “real” account of the frustrations from one of our valued subscribers, who wrote describing the feeling of being “overwhelmed.”
This is precisely how I began my journey with diabetes. Frustrated and over-whelmed by good-intentioned people attempting to tell me what to do, what to eat, and how to get there. None of them had diabetes, so I put their passionate opinions in the “thank you, but it is my body, my mind and my decision on how to live my life with diabetes.”
I decided if I was going to have a quality of life living with diabetes, I had to get on with a journey of discovering what foods would lower blood sugar, what are the symptoms of diabetes, what is a good range for glucose levels and how to maintain that with an appropriate diabetes diet, all while having a “normal” life.
An Email from a Subscriber
Having diabetes is no easy task, which anyone with diabetes can attest. My personal goal is twofold. First to conduct all the diabetes research necessary for me to be able to understand and implement diabetic treatments that are going to lower my blood sugar. Second, to be able to help people with diabetes who are feeling like our subscribers. One of our subscribers emailed a day ago, expressing being “overwhelmed,” and frustrated, and talking to her, worn out trying to sort everything out in her personal goal to live a better quality of life living with diabetes.
Following is her email:
Thanks again so much, Wayne. It sounds like you have a wise Dr! I love his words!
I feel overwhelmed at the moment. To be honest; so much to learn and take in.
No doubt it all becomes more straightforward, and I hope things will become much clearer after taking the course. Thanks again for the support
Response Email from Damndiabetes.ca
Hello:
The way you That is exactly how I felt with all of this Diabetes... “overwhelmed” and had no one to really talk to for guidance.
After running around like a chicken with my head cut off (ha), I decided I needed a benchmark to use as the basis for starting my new journey.
I did three things that helped:
I stopped running around – I decided to make my plan for moving forward. No nutritionists giving me instructions about what to eat or not to eat, and I threw out that plate that divides your food. I also had to decide that a diet would be for me, and the rest of my family could eat what they wanted. To begin, I cut out the following:
No rice
No potatoes
No Processed foods – hot dogs, processed ham, sausage – off the menu.
No store-bought salad dressings, except I use a little mayonnaise.
No store-bought bread
No Sweet potatoes
No pasta
No bread
No desserts
All sweets and starchy foods were also off my plate.
That was my starting point.
I also cut my red meat consumption to about 50% of what I was eating previously.
No change in chicken and fish – but no fried foods – I have found it easy to cook with:
Instant Pot – provides lots of options for no fried food.
Air fryer – even fried foods in this do not use oil.
I use apple cider vinegar and sometimes a little olive oil for salad dressing. There are many recipes on the internet, but I constantly adjust the sugar and salt content.
With my benchmark set, I bought the LifeStyle Libre 2 sensor system. To do this right, I needed the constant monitoring that this provides. It would be hard to do the continuous food testing I do without having the sensor information.
My process now.
I take food that I am not eating and start to test. I will take a small amount and test the impact on my blood glucose. For example, I began with ¼ slice of bread without impacting my glucose level. I went to ½ slice, ¾ slice, one slice and then up to 2 pieces. At two slices there was a small impact – so I cut back to 1 ¾ piece. That works for me.
I take the same approach with every food I am thinking of eating or drinking. For—for example, wine. I tried the wine and it does not impact me... even up to 3 glasses. Beer and hard liquor do not affect either... albeit if I take two glasses total per month, that is a lot.
Desserts – Ice cream, more than 100 mg, starts to affect me, but cheesecake has no impact. The other night, I tried Tiramisu, and a small slice was fine. Interesting too, Billie Minor's pie at the Keg has no impact.
My point, there is a lot that each can eat – we do not have to live with a bland diet, and I just got frustrated with listening to everyone else. It is my body, my mind and I will decide what I want to do.
It helped me take a step back and start building my eating plan by looking at each specific food. It has been easy and gets easier each day.
Also, I let myself occasionally slip... for example, last night, I was “dying” for cherry ice cream. I had about 300 g, which spiked my sugar to 10.1. Not that bad as it went down very quickly. It is not only about how high the glucose reading goes; it is also about how long it takes to go back to normal. My doctor said that 2 hours is ok.. but he does not like it if the reading gets up in the 15 – 16 range, which I have hit a couple of times.
My diet now consists of the following:
Meat (chicken, beef, fish) – I will have 5 – 6 ounces
Cooked vegetables. – I roast or steam them (carrots, squash, cabbage, mushrooms, beets, turnip, bok choy, just about any vegetable)
Salad – I always have a large salad (lettuce, tomato, cabbage, Feta cheese ( I use the Costco Kirkland feta cheese)
And lots of sparkling water. I bought a “SodaStream,” so I do not have to carry bottles , and I know there is no plastic in my water. I drink at least 2 litres of sparkling water each day.
My next project is to try fasting – I will be reporting about that on my website and YouTube.
All this does not have to be frustrating or overwhelming.
Just stop and start with your A1C reading.
Go to a basic diet of meat, vegetables, and sala.
Cut out all starch.
Begin testing starch food to see what and how much you can eat.
Oh yea, eat in this order. Salad, vegetables, meat, starch. Do not mix your food when you eat.
And talk to your doctor about all of this.
I bought AG1 – ordered on the Internet. Some friends highly recommended it, and I am now trying it out. It has about 75 minerals and vitamins – it might be something you want to investigate and discuss with your doctor. Also, you might want to begin taking a mineral mix because when cutting out starch foods, many minerals go missing.
Best wishes, and any questions, all you need to do is ask.
Wayne
Update: I talked to my doctor, who has approved me to begin a Fasting Program – one day on and one day off. We also discussed food, vitamins and minerals, and quantities to eat. I will be reporting on this as the days go on.
Wayne Drury has been diagnosed with Type II Diabetes. He was frustrated with the lack of usable information on the treatment of diabetes and how to lower blood sugar effectively. His passion now, using all he has found with diabetes research, is helping others on a path to a better quality of life living with diabetes, which he shares on his personal website.