Hi everyone, I am Tony, I live and work in Bangkok Thailand and have been here for 4yrs. I was given T2 for my birthday last year (happy 40th to me) in August, so I am pretty new to it all. I guess this was down to a combination of bad living lifestyle and total laziness, anyway, I just wanna share some stuff with you about how things have gone on here in the land of smiles.
As you no doubt know, the NHS does not stretch this far east, so all medical cover has to be paid for, its pretty cheap to be honest and I have to say I have no complaints at the level of care you get here. However, even though T2 effects a large number of Asian folks, the level of support for a new T2 seriously lacks. The info they have is outdated and all they want to do is stick you on as much medication as possible to make you go away. So needless to say I have had to work the majority of this stuff out for myself. I have looked at great sites like this and I bought books on diabetes and diets, but the best help has come from the nice people that post here. You cannot get better advice than from people who have been through it themselves and this again is why I am now posting (I am no expert, a newbie but things are working well).
Background done, let me tell you what I have been up to, to get all my levels down to normal...
When first diagnosed my levels were all bad, I mean everything. I had bad sugar level at over 300 (after fasting) hepatitis on my liver caused by fat on it, high blood pressure, high bad cholesterol and very low good cholesterol. I was in panic mode, not knowing what to do and where to go and getting really no help. Once calmed down a started to search the internet and found a guy called Timothy Ferris, he wrote the 4hr working week and a new book called the 4hr body. The book has nothing to do with diabetes, he doesn’t even suffer from it or anything. Anyway in that book is there is a diet called “the slow-carb diet” and it said I would lose 9kg in a month, plus you don’t have to count calories and stuff. Ok so I gave it a try, I am not kidding you it worked!
This is the diet:
Rule 1 avoid “white” Carbs - all Bread, rice, pasta, cereal, potatoes, tortillas and fried food with breading, no dairy at all!
Rule 2 Eat the same few meals over and over again
Rule 3 Don’t drink your calories, just have plenty of water, you can have red wine every night but not white or beer
Rule 4 Don’t eat fruit, sounds crazy because of everything we get told, but get and read the book and find out why its fascinating
Rule 5 (the best rule) take one day off a week, the best rule!
Stick to those rules and it will work I promise. I combined it with cycling 4 times a week to work and back plus a long Sunday ride out. I have lost a total 20kg , feel fitter stronger and I no longer take any medication. I eat spinach like I am Popeye and then on a Saturday I pig out on take-aways beer chocolate and everything else I can lay my hands on, Sunday I weigh myself and I have added 2kg, but by Tuesday I am back down to pre gorge weight. I was at my doctors today and told her I took myself off metformin over a month ago and told her what I have been doing, she didnt seem happy and wants me back in two months to see how its going, she was surprised at how much weight I had lost and how normal my levels were.
I have nothing to do with either the book or Timothy, I am just telling you what worked for me, so good luck if you want to do it, the book is called the 4-hour body by Timothy Ferriss!
As you no doubt know, the NHS does not stretch this far east, so all medical cover has to be paid for, its pretty cheap to be honest and I have to say I have no complaints at the level of care you get here. However, even though T2 effects a large number of Asian folks, the level of support for a new T2 seriously lacks. The info they have is outdated and all they want to do is stick you on as much medication as possible to make you go away. So needless to say I have had to work the majority of this stuff out for myself. I have looked at great sites like this and I bought books on diabetes and diets, but the best help has come from the nice people that post here. You cannot get better advice than from people who have been through it themselves and this again is why I am now posting (I am no expert, a newbie but things are working well).
Background done, let me tell you what I have been up to, to get all my levels down to normal...
When first diagnosed my levels were all bad, I mean everything. I had bad sugar level at over 300 (after fasting) hepatitis on my liver caused by fat on it, high blood pressure, high bad cholesterol and very low good cholesterol. I was in panic mode, not knowing what to do and where to go and getting really no help. Once calmed down a started to search the internet and found a guy called Timothy Ferris, he wrote the 4hr working week and a new book called the 4hr body. The book has nothing to do with diabetes, he doesn’t even suffer from it or anything. Anyway in that book is there is a diet called “the slow-carb diet” and it said I would lose 9kg in a month, plus you don’t have to count calories and stuff. Ok so I gave it a try, I am not kidding you it worked!
This is the diet:
Rule 1 avoid “white” Carbs - all Bread, rice, pasta, cereal, potatoes, tortillas and fried food with breading, no dairy at all!
Rule 2 Eat the same few meals over and over again
Rule 3 Don’t drink your calories, just have plenty of water, you can have red wine every night but not white or beer
Rule 4 Don’t eat fruit, sounds crazy because of everything we get told, but get and read the book and find out why its fascinating
Rule 5 (the best rule) take one day off a week, the best rule!
Stick to those rules and it will work I promise. I combined it with cycling 4 times a week to work and back plus a long Sunday ride out. I have lost a total 20kg , feel fitter stronger and I no longer take any medication. I eat spinach like I am Popeye and then on a Saturday I pig out on take-aways beer chocolate and everything else I can lay my hands on, Sunday I weigh myself and I have added 2kg, but by Tuesday I am back down to pre gorge weight. I was at my doctors today and told her I took myself off metformin over a month ago and told her what I have been doing, she didnt seem happy and wants me back in two months to see how its going, she was surprised at how much weight I had lost and how normal my levels were.
I have nothing to do with either the book or Timothy, I am just telling you what worked for me, so good luck if you want to do it, the book is called the 4-hour body by Timothy Ferriss!
