This morning I when I weighed I had reached my original goal of losing 15% of my body weight!!!!!
I started my journey on July 5th 2016. I was diagnosed with symptomless diabetes in 2012 and, along with many people, my first reaction was disbelief followed by anger and lots of other emotions. I was given the usual 3 months to try and improve my blood glucose, by losing weight, before being offered metformin. Needless to say with the dietary advice on offer I struggled to lose any weight. So three months on and I started taking metformin.
My diabetes has never been out of control really. I started with a HbA1c of just over 7 and whilst I’ve been on metformin it’s stayed in the mid to low 6’s.
So what prompted me to change my life? I was, and am, really overweight. I had been for many years but it wasn’t a problem until my mobility became challenged in 2007 and over the next few years I put on even more weigh. Still I carried on, head in the sand for most of the time, until last year.
My friend has uncontrolled diabetes and in 2015 had a toe amputated. That made me think a little. Then last year another of his toes was compromised but fortunately was ok. That made me really sit up and take notice and around the same time I found ‘The Book’.
I read the book from cover to cover and it just made so much sense. I realised that I ‘just’ needed to lose 15% of my body weight to improve my BG and possibly avert problems from diabetes in the future. That was to be done by cutting out simple carbs. No problem! So I started the journey!
After quite a short time I realised that 15% was a really tall order so I reduced that to 10%, which seemed more manageable. So to my journey….
Unlike some people I was not totally focused so my journey hasn’t been the smoothest. The first month or so was great I never had ‘carb flu’ or any nasty side effects and really wasn’t that hungry. I found fatsecret and filled it in religiously. All was going well and then life got in the way … a holiday! Still I managed to lose a very, very small amount of weight that month and carried on.
Three months had passed by now and my first diabetes review since starting BSD was due 4 weeks later. So that gave me the impetus to carry on and sure enough my next HbA1c had reduced from 6.4 to 5.5. I was delighted. It was now November and I started to rest on my laurels because my next review was 6 months away. The next 2 months were hit and miss with ‘life’ getting in the way again …. holiday, birthday, Christmas etc. All good excuses and no damage done really just a very small weight loss.
This year has been better for me despite, or maybe because of, an illness and I’m now back on track but in a far more relaxed way. I don’t really count at the moment but I do check new foods for their carb content.
I think one of the reasons for this post is to encourage all those who aren’t losing vast amounts very quickly. It can still be done in time. This way of eating has become part of my life now and I very rarely eat simple carbs I just have a few too many ‘indulgences’ now and again!
Also, I would really like to thank the many travellers who have kept me company on the ‘challenges’ over the months. Without you all, and the challenges, and these forums, I know I would have given up ages ago.
If I have learnt one lesson over the last seven months it’s that this is not a diet to be started and finished, it’s a change in lifestyle and to be sustainable it has to fit into ‘life’. We each have individual and different demands on our time and so we each have to tailor this way of eating to fit our individual circumstances. If that means losing weight less quickly then so be it. It’s the arriving that’s important, the journey is just a means to an end. At the end is a new way of living!
So where to now? I would still like to lose another 15% of my original body weight and I know that may take some time. Life won’t stop being lived but I will keep on keeping on and I will get there in the end!