No More Medications For Me
[polldaddy poll=2808525] At this stage of My Journey To Reverse Diabetes It’s been a few months since I was diagnosed as a pre-diabetic. It was time for my A1c test, which came came back high (I believe it was 7.1). As a result my doctor put me on the popular diabetic medication “Metformin” to help manage my diabetes. This was an added motivation for me to get a point where I could say “no more medications for me.”
No More Medications For Me
It was then that I realized that if I was going to beat diabetes, I would have to change my perspective of food. I realized that I would have to eat to live, not live to eat, as do so many of us. I decided not to eat with my “eyes,” that sent a message to my stomach if something looked good and appetizing. Instead I purposed to eat based on the knowledge I was still in the process of developing. In short I changed my focus from what looked and tasted good, to what was good for me in the long and short term alike. I knew if I stuck with my plan it it would be soon when I could say, “no more medications for me.”
“No More Medications For Me”- said Drew Carey
“I’m not diabetic anymore. No medication needed,” he said. Another benefit: “I like being skinny. I was sick of being fat on the camera. Really, I just got sick of it.”
Read the full Drew Carey article first published July 2010 for further quotes. Others like myself are doing it everyday but the information does not become public as in someone who is as popular as Drew Carey.
Another quote from the article above says: “Carey also said he drinks nothing but water and does lots of cardio.” If this true then he did it the harder way. Why? although cardio is effective to burn calories and increase sensitivity to insulin, resistance training achieves the same results except that it continues after the weight training is complete. This is because muscles continue to build many hours after completion of the weight training. This why personal trainers will tell you to rest muscles for 36 hours between muscle groups.
September 28, 2007 — Joel Fuhrman MD has cured hundreds of people of diabetes using diet and lifestyle. The American Diabetic Association wanted him to write about his work — but then objected because their sponsor, Eli Lilly drug company, might feel threatened by an MD promoting a cure which could destroy the market for their diabetes medications. This is an excerpt from Dr. Furhman’s presentation at the Healthy Lifestyle Expo 2007.
No more medications is the first goal. Reversing the condition can be next.
A New perspective
Armed with this new mindset I was determined to improve. My improvement showed up in my next weeks with my glucose readings. So much so that I called my doctor and told him that I no longer needed to be on medication. He agreed, but with the understanding that I would keep monitoring my blood sugar. Yessss.! Already I could say, “no more medications for me.”
My next A1c reading of 6.5 provided clear evidence of my improvement. Still not where either my doctor or myself wanted it to be, but nonetheless a great improvement. In doing this, I was now re-training my body. As someone who always had a sweet tooth, I found I no longer craved sweets as much. For example, I was now drinking mint tea without sweetener and actually enjoying it.
I am told most Chinese do not use sweetener in their tea, so I decided to try it also. Lately, I use an artificial sweetener without the, at best, controversial Aspartame, which is usually Stevia. (More on this in an upcoming article on diet). It is good to be able to say, “no more medications for me.”
My moment of weakness
It was during this time when I became a little shall we say overconfident, lax, weak, or a combination of the above. Throw in the fact that I ran out of testing strips and did not replace them for about two months and you can see why my next A1C reading went up to 6.8. I was not surprised since I allowed myself the luxury of indulging in two of my favorite foods; cranberry scones and coconut biscuits. Both were high in carbs and sugar respectively. I could see that I would have to apply an extra dose of “self control” which is spoken of as one of the gifts of the spirit in Galatians 5:22.
A Vote of confidence
During the subsequent meeting with my doctor, I assured him that I would get it down below 6.0 on my next A1c reading. My doctor knows me well enough to know that medication is a last resort for me. He made the comment; “You are one of the few patients who I can be confident that you will do what you are supposed to do, and what you say you are going to do.”
Let’s take charge of our health. Nobody else can do it for you. You can reverse diabetes without medication. You too can say, “no more medications for me.” If not eliminate it completely, you can reduce your medication for sure.
Wishing you good health,
Patrick Brown
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March 26th, 2010 at 2:00 pm
Patrick,
I especially like this one because it addresses my primary weakness which is comfort eating the fact that like many of those of us who comfort eat, I don’t have any sense of being full or at least don’t respond to it any more. That is a real challenge that I am looking to retrain myself on. Any suggestions??
March 27th, 2010 at 12:05 am
Jay,
Good to hear from you. My initial suggestion to the issue of overindulgence with which many of us struggle is to use the same principles that worked for me.
(1) Change your mindset as it relates to food. Start seeing it as something that can be helpful or harmful in excess. Determine to control what, and how much goes into your body.
(2) Start eating smaller portions. Over time our stomach will stretch like a balloon to accommodate more food. When you “train” your body to eat smaller portions, over a relatively short period of time the stomach shrinks back to it’s normal size. At that point it becomes uncomfortable for you to ingest larger portions. (Isn’t it amazing how well the body compensates).
(3) Eat a predominantly low carb, unprocessed, natural food diet. A high carb diet tend to encourage cravings, and of course raise blood sugar levels. Reducing carb intake will also will help you to lose weight.
(4) I know. Old habits die hard, but you can do it…if you want to badly enough. And of course, we all know what the Bible says about gluttony.
Hope that you find this helpful my friend.
Wishing you good health in body, mind, and spirit,
Patrick
April 22nd, 2010 at 3:32 am
Diabetes is a condition where the body, or to be precise the pancreas, loses its ability to create insulin, the chemical necessary to regulate blood sugar levels. As we take in food, a substance called glucose enters through the bloodstream, and it is insulin’s role to make sure that that glucose is carried to different parts of the body, in turn fuels us with the energy we need. Diabetes is often considered as a silent disease, much like cancer and nearly five out of ten people are unaware that they have diabetes.
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