Eating has consequences for diabetes

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If the title of this post caught your attention and you are thinking I’m taking some drastic measures,  well, you are right.  I’m stopping eating two meals a day and some of the foods that are mainstays of the standard American Diet.

 

Being a type 2 diabetic for many years is no fun.  I deal with blood glucose lows and highs and insulin injections daily, as well as the pain of neuropathy in my feet, legs, and hands.  I’ve lost some of my fine motor skills in my hands which makes picking up small objects more difficult.  I also suffer from fibromyalgia and degenerated discs in my low back.  I am in a wheelchair most of the day.  I’ve been in this wheelchair since the fall of 2014 when I developed severe diabetic feet and leg ulcers.  It was eight months before these were healed and life was very painful, excruciating even and trying.  I’ve been in this wheelchair ever since.

Like many type 2 diabetics, I’m overweight.  I wasn’t always overweight.  I was actually very normal and active in sports and coaching all through my 20’s and until I turned 34 and became pregnant with my only child.  I gained 60 pounds and my back went out – severely. Afterward, could not be active at all and continued to gain weight.  At one time I weighed 284 pounds on a 5.5″ frame.  In 2016 I found out about the “Whole30” way of eating and ate that way for most of the year.  I lost 30 pounds that year.  But I still had my issues with uncontrolled diabetes, even though the diet made some improvements overall.  It also helped with my inflammation and the pain of fibromyalgia, since I removed gluten and grains, sugar, soy, legumes and alcohol mostly from my diet.

Then I came across a book by Dr. Jason Fung, about how he is curing his diabetic patients of their type 2 diabetes through Intermittent Fasting.  It was the middle of December 2016 and I began Fasting the next day.  I did very well, fasting anywhere from 24-72 hours a couple of times a week and in February of 2017 my blood glucose numbers were so good I was off all my insulins.  My blood pressure was way down, my cholesterol was way down and my weight had dropped from 260 to 240 – a 20-pound loss.  I felt great.

Then I got a cold and ended up with a very bad sinus infection.  I was given 12 days of prednisone tablets.  This sent my blood glucose number skyrocketing and I was hungry all the time.  My fasting was impossible to keep up because of the hunger cravings and I had to go back on my insulins again.  This was in the summer of 2017 and I have struggled since that time to get back to fasting and eating low carb.  Its been uphill and downhill – mostly downhill.  Then the holiday season came and I had lots of social activities where I was not strong-willed enough to not eat the candies and cakes and bread.

2018 came around and I tried to go back to eating only one meal a day.  I ended up having to eat two meals a day more than I needed.  When I cook – I eat.  Yesterday I was miserable – my entire body hurt and my BGL was very high (high 300’s and 400’s), I cried a lot and decided I HAD TO get back to my fasting and low carb eating.

A Decision

So I began fasting after dinner last night.  Today, January 28, 2018, I kept fasting and only eating one meal a day again (OMAD).

Today was pretty successful with me eating only a large salad for dinner which really filled me up.  It was not an extremely low carb meal because it had some croutons and ranch dressing.  I did manage to push aside half of the croutons though.  When I checked myBGL tonight it was 277, (not good but much better than the 300 and 400’s I’ve been having at night.  We’ll see if I can keep this up.  I hope to get back to my LCHF (low carb hi fat) eating with no sugar and bread.  It may take a few days but that is my intention.

I weighed just now and I weighed 245.0 pounds.  I injected 70 units of long-term Lantus and 28 units of short-term Novalog tonight and took my regular 1000 grams of Metformin. I’m curious what my morning BGL will be as I tend to be high in the mornings (dawn syndrome).

Resources

You can read my post about the Whole30 healthy eating plan and access a link to purchase the book here.

You can read more about my decision to start fasting here.

Comments

Thanks for looking at my site and coming to this page. I would love for you to leave any questions or comments below.  In addition, I’m open to new topics to research and comment on as they pertain to my own health and experience living with diabetes.  Please share your interests and questions in your comments.  I also love to hear others’ stories about how they handle their own diabetic issues.

– Shirley