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Blood,Sweat and Pain

Posts: 546

ActionJacks Road to Redemption
Posted by actionjack
Posted Fri, Jan-07-05

Plan: My Own Home Grown
Stats: 231/153/160
BF:
Progress: 110%

Location: London, UK

ActionJacks Road to Redemption

Well where do I start? Well I guess the best place is about 8 months ago...

I was 231 pounds and happy, my mornings were filled with sugar loaded cafe lattes and cream cheese and salmon bagels, my lunches were stuffed with Sushi and Thai food and snacks were pasties (donuts, iced buns, if it had sugar in it it was mine!) and Dinner was regularly going out for meals or KFC since I mostly couldn't be bothered to cook.

As far as I was concerned I was living life to full, fun times, great mates, good food and nice work environment, then slowly I noticed something was going wrong, it was weird at first I just couldn't put my finger on it, I just didn't feel right, I felt tired all the time even after 14 hours of sleep, I felt thirsty a lot and was constantly going to the toilet and I craved sugar like it was an addictive drug, I was buying candy bars by the dozen and drinking alcopops like there was no tomorrow and I seemed to having a case of eye strain which never seemed to get better.

Then one night after a serious drinking binge, I work up at 3am needing a drink, I put 1/4 of undiluted cordial into my glass and topped it with water, 20 minutes later I was back, this time it was 1/2 a glass of undiluted cordial, I went back about 5 more times during that night (in between loo BREAKs) and in the morning when I woke up, I couldn't see more that 2 metres in front of me it was like having cataracts.

What did I do? I freaked out and started searching the web for my symptoms, but in the back of my mind I already knew, my mum had warned me about Diabetes, she said it ran in the family, she had it, her mother had it and if I wasn't careful I'd develop it too, but I thought like hey! I'm 34 I've got years till I have worry about all that. Well surprise, surprise, life sometimes throws you a curve ball when your not expecting one and it hits you right where it hurts.

I went to the Doctor's and she confirmed my worst fears, I was now a type 2 diabetic with a blood sugar (BS) reading of 20.6 mmols (your average person is about 5), she proceeded to tell me that I will need to go onto a medically prescribed diet of mostly wholemeal carbs, avoid most dairy products, ditch all the stuff I loved to eat, need to take a whole battery of drugs, possibly go on insulin and then the coup de grace, she gave me my long term prognosis, if I could sum it up in one word, the word my friends would be bleak.

I was shell-shocked, why me? I thought as I walked home because I could no longer see well enough to drive. I then did all the checks and tests the Doctor told me to, I followed their diet and took their drugs but something was wrong, my BS readings were going up, so the Doc would prescribe greater dosages of metformin, one day my BS peaked at 25 mmols.

I thought if I don't take matters into my own hands then one day I'll be a blind, legless amputee waiting for either a stroke or heart attack to put me out of my misery because the pains from diabetes induced nerve damage were hurting so much. You know what I thought? Nuts to this, I ain't going out like that!

I looked on the web and found my salvation: 2 web sites
"What they Don't Tell You About Diabetes" http://www.geocities.com/lottadata4u/

and

The alt support diabetes website http://www.alt-support-diabetes.org/NewlyDiagnosed.htm

They taught me about using Low Carbing as way to control my blood sugar, naturally very interested I googled a bit further and found out about other type 2 diabetics who no longer needed to take drugs and whose symptoms had vanished with the aid of exercise and a low carb lifestyle. That same day I walked 5kms (wheezing and sweating all the way mind you!) and chucked those evil high carb goodies into the bin.

You know what? I never looked back, my motivation was easy, whenever I looked at my legs I though how nice it was to have them, that alone stopped me from quiting. So on month one I lost about 14 pounds and my BS dropped to 6 mmols, I walked that bit faster and sweat-ed less.

As the months progressed my weight loss stayed round about the same albeit I had a few stalls but I didn't mind I was getting fitter, I could walk faster, then walking wasn't enough I could jog some of the way, then I could run the whole distance, I was doing crunches and press ups and my blood sugar readings were averaging 4 mmols, My Doc couldn't believe it she had to constantly check her records to see if I was ever diabetic.

My low carb plan follows a general rule of thumb keep my carbs roughly below 30g's on an average day, that's it, the how wasn't so important, I borrowed ideas from Atkins, from the South Beach Diet, from the Low GI diet in fact I borrowed from everything and everyone that gave me the results that I needed and combined it with exercise and guess what? Today I reached my Goal of 160 pounds.

On reaching my goal, what can I say it was a long struggle and it isn't over, this is a way of life as well as a way of eating, many diabetics have fallen off the wagon and are paying for it now or trying to get back on their plans again, I'm hoping that my self determination and knowledge (forewarned is forearmed) is enough to keep me going for the long game and I pray they will be enough.

I'd like to thank the low carb forum and everyone who is on it, especially all those I corresponded with, you all played a major part in my success, I found out I wasn't alone, that there were others with even more difficult crosses to bear which made my problems pale in comparison, there was the constant encouragement, the kind words which raised by soul when I was down, the praises which kept me going and the slaps to the back of the head when I started to stray from my path.

Once again I would like to say thank you all, keep the faith and may we all achieve our dreams.

ActionJack

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