I'm in my last week, last four days in fact, of my deviated Newcastle diet, aka, therapeutic VLCD - LCD.
But last week I had a rediscovered sense of awe, and regained sense of the awfulness of T2D. Just when a sense of complacency was settling in, writing up numbers and figuring out averages and so on for a final report to post in here online (no great shakes, if I can use that expression - but respectable), having gotten used to having a waist again, even a few abs, and wondering about how to keep my HBA1c going south where I want it to go, at the end of this - I had an intimate face to face with what it means to have a malfunctioning blood glucose and insulin system. I got a good slap in the face with it, indeed.
What did this? Two things.
One - big problems with my digestion. (What? Seven weeks of being on 800-1000 calories might pose some problems with food going through? The short answer, sparing details is - yes! Or - YES! Argh! lol.)
But at least I have learnt to deeply respect my digestive system, and treat this part of my bodily function with a renewed sense of care and tenderness. (I hope!) I can't go as far as to outline it online (just my own inhibitions! No reference to anyone else's descriptions of such!) but I thought I should mention it.
(I should have watched my water intake much much much more leading up to and last weekend. Let it be said as a warning.) (You can get a bit slack with something like keeping up the fluids, as time marches on, is my experience.)
Also, I would like to share that if doing a 'real food' deviated ND, I would strongly suggest taking a fibre supplement. This is what I would do if a fairy came to me and waved her wand and asked me if I could go back to the 21st of January and do something different - that would be it. I would take a good fiber supplement - to aide digestion and for healthier easier elimination, and to offset the hunger. (Feelings of hunger, of not having enough, of wanting more More MORE - never went away for me like it does for some people.) (And I know NDers in here, and Roy Taylor himself have said it is to do with the meal replacement sachets - which I guess is powdered fiber? To fill the tummy, and the push things through the digestive system.) (I wish I had thought that one through! But it took me seven weeks, alas.)
Ok, and now the second thing.
Last week I had an opportunity to get an invasive diagnostic test done free at hospital - and as it is with such services you kind of have to take the opportunity when they arise. So I decided to do it. But I stressed, and I was scared, and I was anxious - about the pain, about taking medication (which I do for procedures), and generally lolling about in cancer fear and anguish. I realise I am quite bodily sensitive - which has some really nice benefits in my life, but the downside is I really feel stuff - physically, and emotionally too I guess. And invasive diagnostics are a real bummer! (They hurt - me, at least.) Commonly called stress.
And I paid for it in terms of my fasting blood glucose level - shot up for the first time since I started my deviated ND - a whole point to the likes I saw only before being hungry for a month, and now nearly two. (ie living off my fat stores more than I have in a very long time.) (I know my fat stores are largely depleted, as I have seen it. I took photos. But no, I won't be posting them on youtube
.) And when dealing with the post-procedure pain, and general anxiety - I had another couple of real diabetes days when I started the day out in the upper 6s (and so having 6s until the afternoon when they came down again).
Then the anxiety of watching my meter closely to see what will pop up. That is less than the pain and anxiety around hospitals and pain though, thank goodness - otherwise I would never have healthier blood glucose levels!
So, even though I am now officially with 'intermediate hyperglycemia' I see my malfunctioning liver and pancreas can remind me there is a problem, still, there for sure - and those precious FBGs can spike up overnight to remind me! In response to stress in my case. And if I can ever get my HBA1cs into the post-diabetic range over time, I need to see my insulin and blood glucose system as the truly awesome, and awful system it is! As a T2Diabetic. Sigh.
