I had a pizza last night.  “Is pizza good for diabetics to eat”?  No.   “Won’t eating pizza make you a diabetic again”?  Not one meal, no.

My bs reading this morning was 107 – in line with where my morning numbers are.  I forgot to take a measurement 2 hours after eating the pizza.  Based on prior experience, I’m betting that it had already come down like a normal person’s…and that the rise was also within a normal person’s.

So – I’m cured of diabetes?  Well, I prefer to say that I’m a former diabetic.  Eating pizza would be a way for me to bring diabetes back into my life.  But not one pizza.  One pizza occasionally didn’t make me diabetic in the first place.  I broke my body’s ability to handle sugar by overindulging against MY tolerance – for decades.  Healing to a non-diabetic level as I have — has not altered my inherent personal tolerance for sugar.

However – there is a cost to eating that pizza.  Just as you don’t become a diabetic in one meal, you don’t heal in one meal.  By indulging, I delayed my healing progress – by one meal.  If I keep that mindset, I’ll stay away from the notion of “I can eat pizza, it doesn’t affect my blood sugar”.  No, it does affect it…but there is a context.

Because I rarely (these days), eat that way, I started with a low sugar state and I’m far more physically active such that I burn sugar off more than before.  If I use my new level of health to justify the freedom to indulge in sugar — then I won’t be starting in a low sugar state.  Depending on physical activity to burn off calories/sugar is a fool’s errand.  You can’t out exercise a bad diet.

At least blood sugar can be easily measured.  A greater concern is insulin levels which can’t be easily measured at home.  We type 2 diabetics and former type 2 diabetics had chronically elevated insulin for many years before we got so bad that we couldn’t control our blood sugar.   During those years we went for our annual checkups and our blood sugar was excellent – but our health was declining.  We just couldn’t see it because nobody checks the insulin levels that it’s taking to keep our blood sugar excellent.  Chronically elevated insulin causes MOST of the illnesses that we attribute to diabetes:  heart disease, PCOS, strokes, alzheimers etc.  (read the book Why We Get Sick by Dr Ben Bickman)

Likewise, when we’ve regained our blood sugar control – that doesn’t mean we’ve completely healed our chronic elevated insulin.  Now a pizza every now and then even for a diabetic isn’t going to kill you — but you’d see the elevated blood sugar and realize “ok, that needs to be a very occasional treat”.  We need to KNOW this is still true of elevated insulin even though we can’t see it.

Consider this the next time you eat “diabetic unfriendly” foods and think it’s ok “because my blood sugar is fine”.   And if your blood sugar is fine because you are taking meds — then you shouldn’t feel it’s ok to eat “diabetic unfriendly foods” at all – anyway.  Not if health is your goal.  

I ate pizza and “got away with it” if the next morning’s number was what really mattered.  For my health?  No.  It’s not a good thing and it should be a very occasional treat.  Eat health, move healthy to be healthy.  

We are Winning Type 2 Diabetes Together

What a name for a facebook group…a mission…and a reality. Curalife (the company that sponsors and administers this group) has been heavily promoting their group in light of hitting the 100k member milestone. And they should be very proud of what they have built here.

Having a supportive community is a huge help in making progress and overcoming diabetes. Most of you know I have a supportive wife and partner and I’m grateful. Did you know that YOU — yes, you reading this and all those who put likes on my posts and send me encouragement — YOU are also my support system.

I take screen shots of some of the comments you write to me and I have a special folder in my photo album where I keep them. I’ve named it “Impact”. It motivates me to know that my story is helping others.

I’m asked quite a bit “how do you have such motivation”. I don’t have a recipe for it….but I do know that the interractions I have with you is part of how I keep motivated. Thank you.

It you that have convinced me to write a book. It is you that inspired me to launch the http://www.formerdiabetics.clubnewsletter. You are changing me in positive ways. Thank you.

We are — Winning Type 2 Diabetes — together. 

It’s that time of the month.  For the eighth time, I’m doing a 5 day, water only fast.  I’ve written before, and I’ll link at the end, of the health benefits.  This post is more about “what’s it feel like”.

To start with – I’ve become a fasting athlete.  What I do today isn’t something I could have done a year ago – or at least, not without a lot of suffering.  It’s exactly like getting into shape to be able to run a 5k, or a 10k, or even a marathon.  You can’t do it at the beginning, but with training, you can get there.   And I’m there.  I have trained, and I now have the habit of a once a month extended fast.

I do my fasts some time near the end of the month.  Yesterday was a celebration with family – a wedding shower for my middle daughter.  I enjoyed the meal and ate completely off plan.  I wasn’t excessive, but neither was I just having a nibble of this or that “forbidden” treat.  I’ve been eating close to carnivore all month so I was in a low sugar state before the meal, and I started my fast right after.  Fasting is a tool and it’s flexible and I make it work for me.   I was up 4lbs that night.  Potato skins, onion rings, loaded baked potatoes and cookies can do that to you.   But it’s already all off, and I’m even lower than that after day one of my fast.

My wife is out of town spending time with the kids which makes this another great time for me to do my fast.  I don’t have to shop or cook or clean up dishes.  I’m not spending any money on food this week.  Fasting is free.  Fasting frees up time.  

It’s around dinner time of the first full day and I am hungry.  Your body still has the ghrelin cycle and you’ll get hungry around the times you normally eat.  Normally you eat and the hunger goes away.   If you don’t eat – your body goes to your fat stores and “eats” them, and the hunger goes away.   If you try this and you haven’t upregulated your fat burning pathways – it’s a different experience.  Just like going out and running a 5k is a lot different if you haven’t gotten fit first.

For me, the hunger isn’t that bad.  It’s pretty much how you feel if you have to work through lunch to get ready for a client presentation.  You’re hungry, but you don’t die.  I do deal with boredom and habit.  Have you ever gone to the movies but were broke and didn’t buy the popcorn or bring snacks?  That’s more what I feel.  At times, particularly at night when I’m watching tv – I can experience “I want to eats!” – that’s not about hunger.  I like eating.  I like watching tv and eating.  I miss it when I’m fasting.

Right now my bs is 106 – that’s 27 hours after my last meal and my bs is still above 100.  My breath ketones are 4.1 which is “just below reliable ketosis”.  I still have to do the extended fasts to get into that blazing fat burning ketosis.  My bs doesn’t fall below 100 until day 2 or so.   I spent a lot of years piling on the metabolic dysfunction.  I’ve made a lot of progress in healing, but you have to do what you have to do.   It doesn’t matter if the fasting app says “ketosis starts at hour 16”…but your own body says “I’m not in ketosis yet”.

I finally learned that lesson last month when I did carnivore for a month.  A month of zero carbs and my triglycerides finally came down into the normal range.  That’s supposed to happen fairly quickly when you go low carb.  But for ME, low carb wasn’t LOW ENOUGH carb.

It may sound extreme if you haven’t read up on extended fasting.  But what do you think all that fat on your body is for?  It’s to feed you when there’s no food.  Only there’s always food.  After all this effort for 15 months, I am still very obese.  I’ve about 75 more pounds to lose to get to a “normal” weight.  I’m not even aiming for that low at this point – I can’t imagine it.  I am aiming to lose about 50 more.  A five day fast should cause your body to eat up 3lbs or so of fat.

I’m doing the hard work because there’s a lot of health that needs to be regained.  Diabetes is in my rear view – but a heart attack may well be looming.  By every health marker that is associated with heart disease….I have them all.  Or had them all.  I’m making improvements, but more to do.   My dad died at 64 of heart disease.  I’m 57.   What I’m doing is not extreme – getting in such poor health and waiting so long to do something about it — THAT was extreme.

It’s a long journey from my starting point to my desired finish line: to lose 130lbs before I’m 50 (2.5 years from now).  To keep me motivated and to celebrate along the way, I’ve been coming up with milestones that I’m going to be looking forward too.

I can’t wait until I can wear normal size clothing.  Right now I wear XX Large Tall — the “Tall” being the point of difficulty.  Without the tall, I end up with my belly hanging out the bottom of my shirt.  I’m not that tall, only 6′ 2″…it’s just that they don’t’ call it “extra belly”.   Because of this requirement, I have to shop at Big and Tall stores where clothes are more expensive.

I look forward to fitting comfortably in an airline seat.  When I look down, I’d like to be able to see my feet without having to lean forward.  Should a bit of food drop from my fork, I’d love for it to hit my lap, and not my belly.

Won’t it be great when I have to go buy some new clothes because I’ve lost so much weight?  I imagine it will be far easier to wear cloths that have gotten a little too big than my norm of feeling that constraint that comes from shirts and pants that have gotten too tight.

“Wow, you look great, have you lost weight?” – I can’t wait to hear someone say that.  My company has an annual conference where all the consultants attend — which comes around next in August.  It will be great to be 25 or so pounds lighter by then (thanks to my great boss for that milestone).

Of course there are all the numeric milestones…every 10 and 25 lbs of loss will be a time to celebrate.  

One of the keys to success is to begin with the end in mind.  I’ve been envisioning some very nice moments to come to keep me motivated.

Two Sacramento-area men were charged today by securities regulators with running a massive Ponzi scheme that might be the largest mortgage fraud case in the history of the region.

Read more here.

From the story:

FBI special agent Kathleen Nicolls said Loomis admitted the NARAS statements were false during an interview on August 15, eleven days before federal agents searched his Roseville offices and Granite Bay home. Agents hauled away hundreds of boxes of documents and dozens of computers.

During the August 15 interview with the FBI, Loomis admitted knowing Warren engaged in fraud while he worked for Loomis Wealth Solutions. But Loomis told investigators he never reported the fraud because he believed they were isolated incidents.

Poor Dad

fully story here.

Poor Dad

Story here.

Poor Dad

It’s turned into a real life horrific soap opera.

Poor Dad

This third person, the story alleges, was helping authorities build a case against Lee Loomis until he fled the country.

The Loomis attorney claims Loomis will be vindicated,

Of course — none of this comes to me via Lee Loomis.   I’m watching the news — just like anyone else.    Lee Loomis doesn’t even seem fit enough to send out emails to his “members”.

Poor Dad