Hi All
This is my first posting on this forum. It is really heartening to hear of the massive success stories that you all achieve and I really think it spurs the rest of us on to work at controlling our diabetes
I was diagnosed T2 about 5 years ago and have been diet controlled in that time. My readings on the HbA1c hovered around the 40s until about 4 months ago when a routine check resulted in a score of 83. Needless to say I and the diabetic nurse were not impressed. I admit I had let things go a bit and I had suffered the trauma of losing both my parents (both over 90), within a year. The nurse said OK its medication for you. No! says I. So she gave me 3 months to improve. Long story short, and when I went back 3 months later my score was 51 and my weight had only gone down by 2kgs. Result! and no medication. She was flabbergasted and I was really pleased. She said she would have been pleased with anything under 70 as long as the decline was maintained.
So, how did I do it? Firstly I did not deprive myself of anything, but I did limit the amount of cakes, chocolate and snacks I ate to once a week. I had bacon and 2 eggs for breakfast twice a week and 2 Weetabix on the other days. I had 2 slices of brown bread with tomato and cucumber filling, a bag of crisps and a weight watchers yoghurt for lunch, and a chicken fish, or other meat dinner with vegetables for an evening meal. Snacks were fruit or raw carrot or cauliflower. I also had a beer or glass of wine twice a week. Hardly a starvation diet! I walked a minimum of 10,000 steps per day and I started going to the gym once or twice a week. At each gym session, I started running on the treadmill for 3 kms at 6.5km/hr (first time running for 39 years!) and walking at 6km/hr for a further 2 kms. I rowed 1km, and cycled 10kms in half an hour. Because I was going to the gym and exercising, I was building muscle hence the reason I hardly lost weight. I feel fitter and my waist has lost 2 inches from 38 to 36. My weight is 89kgs and I am 184cm and 65 years old. My diabetic nurse urged me to "tell my story" as if I can do it, so can many others.
Sorry about the long post, but if this helps anyone, it is worth it.
Regards
To all
Mark