It's 2022! A decade has passed.

I haven't blogged in years.   My experience with diabetes has continued.  I did well until the pandemic of 2020.  Between food shortages and isolation and fatalistic pessimism, my A1c, blood glucose numbers, and weight began to rise.  It was a crazy time.

A TIA (ministroke) landed me in the hospital nine months ago and the whole litany of diabetic protocols was heaped upon me.  Insulin and other meds were given.  One doctor told me that I would be on them for the rest of my life.  I assured him that I knew what I had to do.  I got this.  

I was not believed.  Well, I didn't have much "street cred" with an A1c clocking in at 12.2! To say I blew it is an understatement.  It was amazing that so many years of good management could be undone in such a short time.

Well, I'm here to say it is possible to get back on track.  It took 15 weeks, but I got everything back on track with a keto-approach low-carb eating plan.  I'm feeling great.  My latest A1c was 5.4 and my lipids (cholesterol/triglycerides) are all at optimum levels.  Since my hospitalization nine months ago, I have also lost an additional 35 pounds, total of 65.

I'll post next on how I got back on my path to no longer being diabetic.

Well, it's been a while!

I haven't blogged here since last June.  Everything is going great.  I've been living my new life diabetes-free.  I keep losing weight, slowly but surely.  I'm not trying to.  It just happens.  My blood sugar readings are in the normal range of 80 to 90 usually.

I have not had a return of the neuropathy symptoms that I originally had.  My wrists and fingers are fine.  My feet are fine.  I haven't had a single episode of heartburn in 14 months.  I haven't had a single yeast infection in 14 months.  I sleep like a baby and rarely get headaches.

So life is just normal.  I don't dwell on food choices any longer.  I don't eat wheat and I eat carbs very sparsely.  It's just normal and non-interesting to me now.  I know exactly what I can eat and how much of it. I no longer have to weigh and measure and research all of my food.  Like I said, it's just normal now.

Interestingly, my mother is a diabetic who has been on medications for at least the last decade.  Inspired by my results, she recently made the choice to give up wheat and eat low-carb.  She has been able to go off her meds (with her doctor's blessing) and has seen many, many benefits other than just blood sugar readings in the low 100s.

It really is amazing how freeing life is post-wheat addiction!

New Lab Results Are In!

The news just keeps getting better!  Five weeks ago I was thrilled that my A1C numbers were reduced to 6.9.  Well, today I found out that it has further reduced to 6.1!  And my blood sugar is down to 102.  I've lost almost 30 pounds to boot!

Moving to a new house has been a challenge this week.  Weeks of packing and now unpacking have made testing difficult.  I just kept eating the way I had been and I was pretty confident everything would go well enough.  Blood sugars are down, which is A Good Thing.  Sticking to eating wheat-free and low carb has become just second nature.

This is me. Lots of pounds lighter and healthier.

First Lab Results Are In!

I went to the lab for blood work on Thursday.  The results are in...

My A1c went from 14 (unheard of) to 6.9!  It's still considered high, but I'm getting close to normal.  I managed to cut my A1c more than in half.  My cholesterol numbers are now out of the stratosphere and on the verge of normal.  I'm scheduled to go back for more blood testing in two weeks.   

I've been wheat-free for 10 weeks and I feel great.  I've lost five pant sizes and many, many inches.  I'll get an update on the weight at my next doctor's visit at the end of May.

Holiday Cooking

I just completed my first wheat-free holiday menu.  Everyone seemed quite pleased with the food.  There was quite a bit of it and a great variety.  Most everything was also low-carb.  I wanted to be able to eat what I was making.  So with the exception of the baked potatoes, I was able to enjoy everything in small amounts.

Here's what I made:

Appetizers:
  
Cucumbers, carrots, celery sticks
Simply Kraft onion dip (the only one I could find without added wheat) 
Rolled prosciutto and mozzarella slices 
Corn tortilla chips for dipping 
Salsa 
Bubbling hot buffalo chicken dip



Dinner:


Ham
Turkey breast
Mashed cauliflower
Leaf lettuce, spinach, and cherry tomato salad
Pineapple
Baked potatoes (with toppings to choose - butter, sour cream, chives, scallions, bleu cheese crumbles, cheddar, bacon)


Dessert:


Mini sugar-free cheesecakes with almond crust


So I'm happy to report that no one starved.  Happy Easter and Passover to you!

Update III: How it's going

I was at the doctor's today for an appointment for my mother, so I hopped on the scale.  I lost three more pounds in the last two weeks.  My blood sugar numbers are still hovering around 100, but they are very steady with no spiking.

Also, it has been brought to my attention by my son that the book, "Wheat Belly," has its own Facebook page.  There are a lot of knowledgeable people over there who are willing to answer questions, including the book's author, Dr. William Davis.

Reversal of symptoms

Other than the reversal of blood sugar numbers and losing weight and inches, I have been experiencing the reversal and cessation of many other symptoms:

Heartburn.  I have been living on TUMS for years.   The acid reflux affected me most while I was working.  I have a large bottle of TUMS on my desk.  I haven't even looked at that bottle in over seven weeks.

Eyesight.  A couple of months ago I had to go to my optometrist because I was having difficulty seeing mid-range writing, which was especially problematic in reading the computer screen,  too far without glasses and too blurry with distance glasses, but not needing regular reading glasses.  So I got another pair of glasses just for computer use.   Since getting my blood sugar down, my eyesight is improving.


Thirst.  I was always thirsty.  I could down four or five unsweetened iced teas at lunch.  That thirst has completely abated.  One glass of water, seltzer, or iced tea is all I need.


Feet.  My lack of feeling in my feet (called diabetic neuropathy) is clearing.  I can now feel my feet.  Before getting my blood sugar down, if I stubbed my toe, I hardly felt it.


Cramping.  I was having charley horses in my calves and feet while sleeping.  I was also having a "restless leg" sensation, which sort of feels like the cat is sleeping on your legs.  These symptoms haven't occurred in over seven weeks.


Yeast Infections.  This was the symptom that started the ball rolling in getting my blood sugar tested initially.  I had never had yeast infections in my entire life and all of a sudden I was having repeated infections.  This has not reoccurred in the last seven weeks!


Inflammation.  I have been experiencing painful arthritis in my fingers and carpal tunnel in my wrists for several years.  This has greatly improved.  I am running up and down the stairs in my three-story home without becoming winded and without knee pain.
 

So in addition to the improvement in all of the above conditions, I am feeling more energetic and focused. 

Update II: How it's going

I'm having a good week.  Yesterday my afternoon blood sugar was 96!  That's my first reading under 100.  

I've also lost an inch from my bust, waist, and hips since last week.  That's when my doctor took the measurements for the first time.  We hadn't been doing that before then.

I don't weigh myself.  I don't even have a bathroom scale.  I wait until I get weighed at the doctor's office.  I figure I'm obsessing about blood sugar numbers and that's where my focus is.  My weight will be whatever it is.  That's just a perk.

No wheat! So what's left?

I do fully realize that removing all wheat products from your diet is a concept unwelcomed by most people.  To me, becoming an insulin-dependent diabetic with a whole host of unpleasant side effects was much more unwelcomed.

So what's left to eat?  I'm not here to recommend a set diet.  I've avoided packaged diet plans because, frankly, I don't like most foods that are offered.  Why, oh, why is every "diet" food smothered in broccoli?  I detest broccoli.  I won't even eat food that touched broccoli on a plate.  I also don't like nearly all cooked vegetables.  Love cabbage -- until it's ruined by being cooked.  Love carrots -- don't even think of cooking them.  Love spinach -- the cooked version can make me lose my lunch.  And the list goes on.  All prepackaged and/or frozen "diet" foods rely most heavily on cooked -- actually overcooked vegetables.  That doesn't work for me.

So what I'd like to recommend here:  In order to reverse your diabetes, find nutritious foods that you love that are naturally low in carbs.  And eat them.  A lot.  It doesn't even have to be a wide variety of foods.  If you find a menu of food that is working to lower your blood sugar numbers, stick with it.  I find routine menu planning to be (1) easier to prep beforehand (2) easier on your imagination and thus (3) less stressful at the end of a long day.

According to Dr. William Davis, author of "Wheat Belly," these foods can be consumed in unlimited quantities:

1.  Vegetables (not including potatoes and corn)
2.  Raw nuts and seeds and roasted peanuts
3.  Oils  (EVOO, avocado, nuts, coconut, flaxseed)
4.  Meats, fish, and eggs
5.  Cheese
6.  Non-sugar condiments (mustards, horseradish, salsa, mayo, vinegars, Worcestershire, soy sauce, chili sauce)
7.  Spices, cacao (85% dark chocolate), olives, coconut, avocados


Foods that can be consumed in limited quantities:


1.  Non-cheese dairy (milk, cottage cheese, yogurt, butter)
2.  Fruit (avoid dried fruit and be careful with pineapple, papaya, mango, and banana.  Berries are best)
3.  Whole corn (not cornmeal or cornstarch)
4.  Fruit juices
5.  Non-wheat, non-gluten grains (rice, quinoa, millet, oats, etc.)
6.  Legumes (beans, chickpeas, potatoes, yams)
7.  Soy products (tofu, tempeh, miso, edamame, soybeans)


Foods to never eat:


1.  Wheat-based products
2.  Unhealthy oils (corn, sunflower, safflower, grapeseed, cottonseed, soybean)
3.  Gluten-free foods (made with cornstarch, rice starch, potato starch, tapioca starch)
4.  Dried fruit
5.  Sugary snacks
6.  Fructose-rich sweeteners (agave, nectar, honey, maple, corn syrup, sugar)
7.  Sugary condiments (jelly, preserves, ketchup)

Update I: How it's going

I had the pleasure of canceling my first appointment with the endocrinologist that I was supposed to see next week.  My doctor didn't see the need to send me there any longer.  My blood sugar numbers are dancing around now in the "pre-diabetic" arena.   Ha, for me they are the "post-diabetic" numbers.

So I no longer need to see the specialist for injections for metabolic syndrome.  I also have not taken any insulin drugs, such as metformin and the like.


My afternoon blood sugar number was 104.   Only 14 to go to reach "normal."   Week 7 starts tomorrow.

Tools to use

There have been several tools that have made this life change easier.  First and foremost, read the labels of everything!  I am unconcerned with the amount of fat and cholesterol in anything.  I don't even look at those numbers.  I am concerned solely with the calories and the carbs.  It's only because I try to stay under 1200 calories a day that I'm even concerned with the calories.

It's the carbs that count.  According to Dr. William Davis, author of "Wheat Belly," someone seeking to reverse pre-diabetes or diabetes should try to keep to under 30 carbs per day.

Carbs appear in strange places.  An example:  Philadelphia cream cheese has 100 calories and one carb per ounce.  Philadelphia fat free cream cheese has 30 calories and 2 carbs.  Philadelphia 1/3 Fat cream cheese has 70 calories and no carbs.   So even though the fat free has less "fat" than the others, it is NOT the best selection due to having twice as many carbs.  The carbs come from fillers.  The best selection is the 1/3 Fat.  It has less calories and no carbs.

There are other instances of "fat free" foods that include fillers that add carbs to something that shouldn't have carbs.  The only way to know is to read, read, read the labels.

A kitchen gadget that I can't live without is my digital scale.  There is no way that I can eyeball how many ounces of turkey I'm slicing.  Mine zeros out, allowing me to weigh my ingredients as I prepare a dish.  Place a dish on the scale, zero it out.  Place another ingredient in the bowl, read the weight, then zero it out.  Without removing the bowl, I can add another ingredient, see the weight of the new ingredient, and then zero it out, and on.

Measuring cups and spoons are also a necessity.  When my favorite "lite" blue cheese dressing says two tablespoons are 70 calories and one carb, they're not talking about soup spoons.  I use a measuring spoon to ensure that I am indeed getting only one carb.

The other invaluable tool I've been using is my Day-Timer notebook.  On the individual calender day slots, I've been keeping track of my blood pressure, blood sugar four times a day, and foods I've eaten with corresponding calories and carbs.  I just cannot accurately carry in my head the numbers of carbs I've eaten in a day.  By the time dinnertime rolls around, I need to know exactly how many carbs I have available for the day.

I also keep a running list of those foods that I use most often in the Notes section of my Day-Timer.  I'm just not that adventurous of an eater.  I tend to like to eat similar combinations of food each day.  Once I look up how many carbs are in a food, I don't want to have to do that research again.  So I'm keeping a running total so that I can just reference my list when totaling up calories and carbs each day.

For homemade recipes, I total up the calories and carbs in each ingredient, add them together, and divide by the number of servings it makes.  It's tedious at first, but I jot the numbers down and never have to do it again for that particular recipe.

I find my calorie and carb information online on a couple of different sites:

www.acaloriecounter.com
www.livestrong.com
www.caloriecount.about.com
www.myfitnesspal.com

It's also helpful to note that all restaurant chains have nutrition menus online.  I google the restaurant, go to their nutrition section, and determine what will work for me.  I have done this both at home before going out and also from my Android phone while seated at the restaurant.  There are even apps for this purpose.

I hope this information has been helpful.

My love affair with wheat

I'm finding my way out of diabetes through removing all wheat products from my low-carb diet.  But you should know:  No one -- and I mean no one -- loved wheat products more than I did.  I have the blood sugar numbers to prove it!

Toast or a bagel for breakfast, a sandwich for lunch, pasta for dinner with garlic toast, and on and on.  I love to bake.  My banana bread is infamous.  I bake breads, quick breads, cup cakes, pies, cakes, brownies, biscuits, and cookies galore.  

Three weeks ago it became apparent that my affair had to end.  I was down to one flour tortilla a day for lunch.  100 calories and 17 carbs.  That's really good for tortillas.  But it had to go.  I could tell from studying my numbers that I couldn't support even that small amount of wheat any longer.  

Here is what I found:  Wheat craves more wheat.  Wheat craves other foods as well.  Two hours after eating a lunch of one single tortilla wrap with lots of stuffings, I was ravenous.  Painfully hungry.  My wheat addiction (oh, yes, it was!) was causing me actual pain to cause me to eat more.  More wheat.  More food.  More carbs.  I physically needed another "fix," another blood sugar spike in order to carry on throughout the day.

I have been wheat-free for three weeks.  I had no idea that life could be like this.  I'm simply not hungry.  I don't have food cravings at all.  I don't have hunger pains.  I still love food and enjoy everything I'm eating.  But it is for sustenance, not to quell hunger pains.  I'm perfectly happy with less than 1000 calories and 30 carbs a day.  I never want to go back to being hungry all the time again.  That's why I know I'm wheat-free for life.

I have begun baking again.  I've been using the recipes from "Wheat Belly" by Dr. William Davis.  I'm using almond and coconut flours.  I've made quick bread, muffins, cheese cake, cookies, and breaded chicken with various outcomes.  Some great, some not so great.  I've been adapting recipes of my own.

I really wish I had known how remarkable this one change in my life would be.  I would have done it a long time ago.

I'm a diabetic?

I'm a 52-year-old single mother of three adult sons.  I work as an editor, spending most of my day attached to a computer keyboard in my home office.  Lately, I've been experiencing some rather strange symptoms.  My eyesight was changing (surely that's normal for my age, right?)  I was having issues with my legs, such as cramping and a restless feeling, among other things.  I didn't know whether to attribute everything to just age.  

I come from a long line of Type II diabetics.  My mother and all of her siblings are diabetic.  I had a sinking feeling that my symptoms might be the beginning of a pre-diabetic condition.  Was I ever wrong.  I had my mother test my fasting blood sugar with her supplies.  Nothing could have prepared me for the result:  450.  If you're not familiar with blood sugar numbers, normal is below 100.  Pre-diabetes is up to 125.  Seriously.

I went to my doctor and she sent me for labs.  My A1C numbers (an overall long-range predictor of diabetes) came back as a 14.  One is categorized as a pre-diabetic at 6.  My doctor had never seen a 14 in her entire career.  My lipids and cholesterol numbers were crazy out of whack.


I figured I'm screwed.  Since I am self-employed and have a history of cancer 30 years ago, health insurance is not a possibility.  The simple fact is:  I can't afford to have diabetes.   I have to fix it myself.


My doctor sent me home that day five weeks ago with instructions to make an appointment with an endocrinologist for investigation into new injections used for metabolic syndrome, to reduce caloric intake to 1200 calories per day with a low-carb diet, to test my blood sugar four times a day and my blood pressure twice a day.  She also recommended seeing a diabetes counselor (a suggestion I outright rejected).

Checking my blood sugar four times a day proved to be very educational.   I spent the last five weeks pricking my fingers for blood four times a day.  I recorded all of my numbers on a spreadsheet and kept track of all calories and carbs.  As the chart was filling with numbers, a clear pattern became apparent to me.  I began eliminating those foods that caused my numbers to spike.  First thing to go was bread.  I replaced bread with a low-calorie, low-carb wrap.  Pasta was eliminated also.  What became clear was that all wheat products seemed to be a problem. 


Two weeks after I began this process of trying to lower my blood sugar numbers through diet alone, I picked up the book "Wheat Belly" by Dr. William Davis.  It confirmed everything that I had been figuring out.  The problem is wheat.  So now I realized that I have to eliminate all wheat products, which meant my tortilla wrap had to go.  


So for the last three weeks, I have been totally wheat-free.  This is not easy.  It's everywhere on everything.  It is a bit trickier than having Celiac disease.  Those with Celiac aren't necessarily also avoiding most carbs.  There are plenty of gluten-free foods available these days.  They're mostly made from potato or brown rice starch which are high in carbs.  Carbs are what produce glucose.  Glucose is the problem.  So no wheat and no gluten-free substitutes.


Three weeks later (today) I went back to my doctor for a follow-up.  My doctor was absolutely shocked by my numbers.  I had lost 15 pounds in five weeks.  My blood sugar went from 450 to 127.  127 is still considered diabetic, but lowering one's blood sugar 323 mg in five weeks by diet alone is seemingly impossible.  It has been written that it is possible to reverse diabetes in around 12 weeks.  But I started with numbers the like of which my doctor has never seen.



But I did it.  It's possible.  And it wasn't even very hard to do.  So my oldest son set up this blog so that I can show people that it can be done and let you all come along for the ride for the next seven weeks until my diabetes has been completely reversed through diet alone.


Diabetes II is optional.  You have to choose to have it.  I chose not to have it.