Diet

Long time readers know that about 5 or so years ago we were incredibly active people. We got bored with what we were doing, and then we sat down. And we spread out.

Doug had a physical in February that said he has diabetes.

When our doctor told Doug about his diagnosis, Doug did some research about early onset the possibilities of reversing what was just started. He decided that he would do a medically supervised fast. Our doctor does not believe that you can "reverse diabetes," you can lower your A1C but the minute you stop managing your diet and life, it goes right back up.

He said that the worst that will happen is Doug will lose weight. So he's on (I think) day 40 of the fast. He has 4 carnation instant breakfast packets a day, currently has a bowl of high fiber vegetable or some sort of small salad for dinner, and does not exceed 800 calories a day. And he walks, and he plays a LOT of Skyrim in order to stay out of the kitchen and away from food in the house.

He's lost close to 35 pounds.

At the end of this fast (8 weeks) he will go in and have all his blood work redone. If the numbers aren't different, ie: A1C lowered below 7%, he will go back on the oral medication our doctor initially prescribed for him to manage diabetes, and will resume eating, but will eat a 100% diabetes diet with no beer, no pasta, no sugars, whole grain, lots of high fiber veg. A full lifestyle food change...  And so will the rest of the family.

But if his numbers are different, he will shake his ass at our doctor and hoot and holler.

Which brings us to me. Because after all, it's my blog, not his.

I had a physical in April that says I also  have diabetes. A year ago right now I had perfect awesome unbelievable blood work. Now I have an A1C of 7.9, Estimate Glucose Level of 140, Cholesterol of 248 and the same doctor who wants me to come in so we can talk about my options.

Option one for me is to do the same medically supervised fast as Doug.

I started the process yesterday, and a very good friend is doing it with me. She will modify what she is doing and eat food but I'm going to follow Doug's plan. For the first week of this, I am not eating food at all, just the shakes. I'm having slightly more milk in my shakes than Doug has in his, because I'm just that way and really, it's straight up protein and calcium, which is something that won't hurt me.

Since Christmas 2010 I've lost about 20 pounds. Since Doug's birthday, I've lost 4. I have started the countdown for myself at a certain amount, which I will not broadcast here, but once in a while I'll maybe report a negative number and you will know what that means.

The hard thing for me is not having any alcohol. I greatly enjoy beer (as evidenced by the Shenanigans blog) and there is nothing more lovely than feet up, movie in, wine glass in hand. There are things I can drink, but at least through this first week I'm not drinking any alcohol.

As Homer Simpson says "I've become everything I hate."