Fixing Diabetes Type 2

"Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting--
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things."

- from "Wild Geese" by Mary Oliver

I'm not sure today's quote from Mary Oliver has anything to do with today's blog
but I came across it on someone's Facebook profile and loved it,
so I had to share it.


A reader of one of my comments on someone else's blog wrote to me
and asked me how I got my blood sugar to drop by
one hundred points by putting carbs back in my diet.
I responded but I think the topic is also blog worthy so here goes.

I've been doing a low carb version of the Weston A. Price thing
(lots of grass-fed meats,
pastured eggs,
raw butter, raw milk,
soaked nuts and raw cheese)
for almost a year now.
As I weigh 280 lbs I was doing it super low carb in an attempt to lose weight.
I didn't lose any.

After losing a ton of weight after gastric bypass surgery in 2006 - down from 400 pounds to 240 lbs - and lowering my blood sugar from the 600s and 700s down to 189 I thought I was done with diabetes type 2 forever. The glucose test strips were too expensive so I stopped checking. I figured I'd slowly lose the rest of the weight, the sugar would normalize and I'd be healthy ever after.

Healthy ever after is not how it happened.
Instead I gained back over 40 pounds just from eating
normal sized portions of "healthy" low fat, high protein foods.
I burnt out on adrenal fatigue and other imbalances.
My energy crashed.
My appetite went through the roof.

Not having checked my blood sugar in two years I was curious.
Could part of my fatigue be blood sugar related?
Mind you I was, until a week ago, eating high fat, high protein and attempting to eat low carb (except for the slipping up every night by eating 4 cups of popcorn and nibbling dark chocolate alllllllll day long).
I checked my fasting glucose in the morning and it was 400.
I panicked.
That same day I found Matt Stone's blog.

I stopped eating the dark chocolate out of fear.
Out of that same fear I listened to Matt's advice confronted my unreasonable fear of carbs
and added some brown rice into my diet at every meal.
Two mornings later? Fasting glucose 256.
A few days later, about the same.

I've also purchased some support supplements:
1) Chromium as chromium picolinate or polynicotinate (500 mcg or higher)

2) Alpha-Lipoic or R-Lipoic acid – with biotin added (several hundred mg at least)

3) Vanadium as Vanadyl Sulfate (100-150 mg)

4) Magnesium (500-1000mg)














5) High potency B-complex

6) Vitamin C


7) High vitamin cod liver oil














8) Cinnamon


On Monday I'm going to the family doctor to get a prescription for insulin, long acting and short acting but I hope to give up the insulin soon.

I eat small meals/snacks, always in proportion protein/fat/carbs.
I carry a food bag wherever I go.
No more low carbing for me!

I don't eat too much fruit, though.
One piece per day at night on average.
I never drink fruit juice. It's too sweet for me.

I'm going to have a nice potato sometime soon which is a big deal for someone how has become afraid of carbs.

So far the only "carbs" I'm eating regularly are the air popped popcorn with gobs of raw butter,
some brown rice and couscous with my meat. I'd like to get a hold of some sprouted sour dough bread.

I feel pretty balanced.
The more balanced I eat the more balanced I feel.

I'm looking forward to reversing this diabetes for good.
I'm looking forward to grey areas rather than all or nothing.

*Lisa's Video Pick of the Day*
Clinical Nutritionist Alexis Beck, shows Video Host Sarah
the secret health benefits behind cinnamon for diabetes.
It won't replace insulin for high blood sugars like mine
but it will support maintenance of healthier blood sugars.
click here or click below

nutritional overseer

 

"If people were judged based 
only on the fact that they were doctors, 
then we would all conclude that:

Carbs are the best thing ever
Carbs are the worst thing ever
Animal protein is the best thing ever
Animal protein is the worst thing ever
Eat lots of fiber
Eat no fiber
Eat unsaturated fats
Don't eat unsaturated fats

... and on and on to infinitum.

There is no congruency about what doctors have concluded 
after doing their research. 
There needs to be an overseer 
that can track through the conclusions 
of a vast array of people, 
in a vast array of places 
and time periods, and so on."
- Matt Stone

Regarding the above quote: no, I don't think I'll be that overseer.
Let Matt Stone do the overseeing.
Matt Stone, Sean Croxton, Tom Naughton, Susan Powter (if she'd give up her low-fat vegan thing),
Diane Schwarzbein, Erin Huggins (Google any of their names)
can do the hard research oand poke holes in conventional diet advice.

I'm going to do the living-it part where I put their research to the test in real life,
my life.
Then I can just point to certain work and say "yes, good"
and get on with the business of helping people out of the
diet trap that has us all thinking that it's our poor
willpower that dictates our failing health.

See, most people who are giving diet advice,
even my beloved Weston A. Price folks,
have made up their minds.
They're S.O.S...stuck on something.

I keep doing it over and over again as I try to find the best way to eat.
I find a way that makes me feel better, think I've found the Holy Grail,
renounce all previous ways of eating, then wonder why I still don't feel better.

Hey, some people feel better and stay feeling better.
I want to be like those people.
That's what made me listen to Susan Powter in the first place.
She looks great for her age and is full of energy.
Her way of eating didn't work for me.

And thus began my search.
Throughout that search I knew,
thanks to the information and encouragement I got from good ol' Susan,
that the FDA was not to be trusted,
that diets don't work,
that factory farms produce sickly meat and dairy
by exploiting and abusing animals,
that organic and local is better than
genetically modified frankenstein food
and that the closer to natural, the better.

I began reading Susan Powter in the 80s
though my research into nutrition began earlier
when I found out about Candida overgrowth.

While I was struggling to find answers and overcome a binge eating disorder (that I'm not sure was really a psychological disorder but more so a biological imbalance)
I had weight loss surgeries
which, when I'm finally a
lean,
strong,
healthy,
pissed off
middle aged beauty,
will hopefully not get credit for how I look and feel.
Weight loss surgery was a stepping stone on the way to something a gastric bypass cannot
provide:
good nutrition and balance.

In the meantime, so glad we have Matt Stone and others to oversee the
confusing and contradictory messages
from the American Medical Association,
American Dietary Association,
Obesity Action Coalition,
and the FDA.


*Lisa's Video Pick of the Day*
"How did I start? A lot of failure!"
Paul Jr of PaulChekLive catches up with Sean Croxton, founder of UndergroundWellness.com, for a lively interview about the sanitized, over-simplified, and often, flat out false education he received at a prestigious college in Souther-Cali, as well as, sharing about his personal journey to becoming one of the most popular disseminators of traditional / alternative / holistic dietary practices for health, disease prevention, sports performance and weight-loss.
click here or click below

Trekking

"Since the jungle 

makes up the majority of the Island,

traveling through the jungle

is a part of every significant journey in Lost.  

Characters often trek 

through the jungle for various reasons...

...Typically, a character's journey 

starts and ends 

at locations outside the jungle, 

such as the trek from the beach camp 
to the Barracks. 

The jungle is often used to

both literally 

and metaphorically 

represent the hardship 

of that journey."

- Lostpedia

They trek and trek and trek and trek.
They walk
and hike
and sweat
and traipse
and trek some more.

What you never seem to see on LOST is one of our main characters
plopping in the sand exhausted,
taking off their shoes and wading into the surf
to soak their sore feet ankle deep
in the soothing ocean water.

They never complain about blisters.
They never say, "Walk all the way to the _____?
I can't.
I'm so tired from the last trek into the jungle.
You go without me."

I envy their stamina.
I wish I could say there was a time in my life
when I was as robust as they are.
I wish I could look back on my youth and remember
trekking
or hiking
or walking
with gusto.

Mostly I suffered.
Having a non-union fracture of my lower left tibia
at age 17
that put me in a cast for 3 years set me up for
a lifetime of soreness and limping.

But even before that in my teens I wasn't a "good" walker.
I tired easily.
I never seemed to have the proper shoes for long walks.
I remember my feet hurting a lot
and blisters
and wishing I was doing anything but walking.

What is it with me and walking??

It blows my mind that I waited a year, a whole year, to do something medically
for my torn up knee.
The stress of going through day to day life with an injury has taken its toll on me
over this past year.
I'm feeling pretty worn down.

I watch my beloved LOST and wish I could throw on a backpack and jeans
and trek for miles subsisting on fruit and water.
I wish I had that kind of stamina.

Will it ever be mine?
Can I correct the metabolic disasters I've been through and heal for real?

I'd like to think that at 45 I still have some life left in me,
some jungle treking, maybe.

Hell, I'd settle for a walk in the park.




*Lisa's Video Pick of the Day*
Here they are again, treking.
I'd want to put my hair up in a ponytail.
She looks sweaty.
Jack and Kate talk while treking through the jungle.
From LOST Season 4, Episode 6 "The Other Woman" 
Clip copyright of ABC.
click here or click below

Women in media

"Make The Girl Dance: Baby Baby Baby" with English text.
This song was featured on the Victoria's Secret commercial "Hello, Bombshell".
A student in my Women's Studies class sent this to me. She told me to pay special
attention to the text flashing across the women's bodies.

Hmmm.
Lots to think about.



click here or click below

Starving makes you fat, but I knew that!

"The vast majority thinks they need to 

"eat less and exercise more," 

but their physiology is stronger 

than their supposed willpower 

- whatever that is...

...People are struggling Andy, 

and this strategy is not working out.

It's causing a national eating disorder 

and actually contributing to, 

not solving, the obesity crisis...

I don't agree to disagree. 

If I did I would be in some other business. 

I didn't take the time to visit this site 

because I'm bored 

or feel like shouting in everyone's face 

that I'm right and you're wrong. 

It's about much more than that. 

There are people that need answers, 

and options...

 

...They need to know the truth 

- that packaged, 

processed, 

refined, 

modern foods 

are the cause of disease, 

and that wholesome real foods 
of any kind, 

from grain to saturated fat to bacon 

(mostly monounsaturated fat) 

can help a person overcome 

their health demons."

- Matt Stone in Bellati Karate

on 180 Degree Health Blog

I'll be putting together my book and slowly taking the old blog posts off line.
I've compiled so much information, much of it misleading, false or unhealthy
that I feel it is only valuable as part of my story.
My story is about the mistakes I've made and the truths I've discovered.

BUT...if some of these older blog posts are read out of context, people might get the impression
that I believe in the usual cardio-plus-starvation approach to weight loss
or even that I believe that focusing on weight loss is the way to get a lean, healthy body.

I know better now.

As I go through the old blog posts I know I'll find that early on I knew that balance was the key.
I always suspected that eating 2000 - 3500 calories per day would eventually put my body back in balance (meaning excess fat would burn off).
Even watching Half Ton Dad made me wonder.
The man was eating 30,000 calories per day (yes, that reads thirty thousand).
He's hospitalized for obesity.
They put him on 1000 calories per day
and I wonder 'Why?'

Why not put him on 2500 calories a day?
By putting him on 1000 calories per day they are guaranteeing he'll
suffer rebound weight gain,
be hungry,
succumb  to cravings,
eat more than 1000 calories and label himself a failure
thereby jeopardizing all their efforts.

I think that going from 30,000 calories per day
down to 2500 would produce weight loss.
It wouldn't slow his metabolism and
it would be more natural for him
rather than trying to maintain an unnatural
starvation diet.

I suspected this back in the days when I was over exercising and
trying to starve.
I was not able to starve.
My body won the battle over my willpower.
I ate more.

I gained weight and panicked starting the yo-yo dieting
and crazy deprivations all over again.
Had I just eaten more and been calm about it
my body would have reset itself and I would have been fine.

What I didn't know was which foods I should have been eating.
During that first year after the gastric bypass I flailed around doing the vegan thing,
the low fat thing, the soy thing, the high protein low fat thing.
I was never calm and in balance.
I didn't trust that calm balance would make my body well.

So, here I am at another square one.
It's difficult to stop monitoring my size as an indicator of health.
Everyone else is looking at my size as an indicator of my health and telling me
how fat is making me fat,
that all that saturated fat is going to clog up my arteries,
stop my heart,
and make me a circus fat side show like Half Ton Dad.

Can I really believe that eating high quality foods,
getting lots of rest,
and trusting my body will make me well?

I'm gonna try.


*Lisa's Video Pick of the Day*
If you or someone you know is on statin drugs or god forbid a doctor
is recommending your child take statins it's possible you haven't gotten the whole story. Here is some alternative info on cholesterol.
Here are Christ Masterjohn and Jerry Brunetti discussing THE TRUTH about saturated fat.
This time, I believe it really is the truth.
click here or click below

energy returns

My work day started at 9:00am and ended at 8:00pm.
That's a long day for me.
I remember back in my 20's I'd work all kinds of crazy hours,
double shifts, three jobs, overtime and after work I'd go out
for a drink or two with my work mates.
I wasn't all that into caffeine.
I just pushed myself.

I wasn't much of a sleeper either.
On my days off I wouldn't sleep.
I'd run around and do stuff.
Maybe do laundry or clean.
Man, I was a machine!!

It wasn't until I was in my 30s that I needed the caffeine.
In my late 30's and early 40's I added other stimulants.
Then I burnt out.
Now I maybe indulge in some dark chocolate and not often.
Since my high blood sugar wake up call 2 weeks ago
I've been very careful about putting sugar in my mouth.

I will stir some organic cocoa or cacao into my yogurt
and add some stevia.
That's my big dessert indulgence.
Yogurt.

It's good though.

So is this raw goat's milk that I'm sipping as I type this.
Sweeter than the cow's milk.

What's making me really happy right now?
I've worked like a farm animal all day
and I still have enough energy to blog, sip milk
and watch Project Runway.

Something must be working for me.
Something I'm doing is paying off energy-wise.

*Lisa's Video Pick of the Day*
The heroic Journey. Integrity and honor 
- learning to never sell yourself, 
and how to deal with the real enemy of self-importance.
click here or click below

Resolute Uncertainty

"Like I alluded to before, 
if you have insulin resistance 
from having a low metabolism, 
reducing carbs instantly cures you 
of many glucose intolerance-related symptoms. 
Excess protein, 
lack of carbs, 
and reduced hunger 
on low-carb diets 
leads to a worsening of the metabolism 
over time though. 
It makes the real underlying problem worse, 
not better. 
Once again, 
there’s a great parallel 
to calorie restriction...

...Cutting calories treats the symptom 
of excess body fat in the short-term. 
The real underlying problem; 
however, is storing fat 
from the food that you eat. 
Calorie restriction increases hunger 
and the propensity to store fat 
from the food you eat. 
It is counterproductive long-term, 
which is why it is a miserable failure 
as a strategy for staving off obesity."

- Matt Stone in Carb Wars Episode I

Staving off obesity or starving off obesity?
Either way, I'm living proof that Matt Stone is on to something.

Then I wonder.
Is this balanced approach to eating the
real deal?
Is this the place I'll land and settle down?

I don't know any more.
I was SO sure of myself when I was
starving,
over-exercising
and speeding.

I've was sure of myself when I went vegan (click here for why you shouldn't)
I was sure of myself when I did low carb (click here for why that's not healthy)
Damned sure of myself when I went for a gastric bypass (click here for negatives on WLS)

It's hard to be sure of anything.
I'm losing faith in my ability to make decisions for myself
BUT and everyone loves a big BUTT...
I have even less faith in other people making decisions for me.
So I'll stick with me, thank you very much.

"I see it all perfectly; 

there are 

two possible situations 

- one can either do this 

or that. 

My honest opinion 

and my friendly advice 

is this: 

do it or do not do it 

- you will regret both."
Soren Kierkegaard

Guess I'll have to keep my resolve

and move forward with the next phase of

triumphing over obesity and illness!

Meh, what's the worst that can happen, I fail?

I'll just have found another way that doesn't work.

But I tell ya,

balance strikes me as a sane idea.

*Lisa's Video Pick of the Day*

In her video "How To Trust Yourself", 

Dr.Sharon Melnick shares the secrets of her research 

at Harvard Medical School as to why people get in their own way.

click here or click below