I have never written a blog / post etc but i wanted to do this today to show how anyone with Type 2 can try and get rid of it using the same process that i followed. Its scary when someone tells you that you have a chronic condition and I hope anyone reading this will take confidence that with some focus and dedication you can reverse the condition with type 2.
I am 39 years old (Male) and in January 2018 i was feeling quite unwell, really tired all the time, going for lots of wee's, dry skin, lost a bit of weight without trying and generally felt under the weather. So i went to the doctors where they tested my blood sugar levels. On the test it came in at 18.8 (should have been under 7) then following a HbA1c blood test the reading was at 109 (basically off the scale it was so high). The doctor told me the same day that it was highly unlikely to be able to reverse it as the reading was so high. Now like most people when they say you cant ' wont do something it quite often gives you even more motivation. They also told me to take 1000mg of Metaformin… this I thought was excessive so I told the doctor I would only take 500G (i.e. 1 tablet in the evening) and see what the blood tests at home I was doing looked like.
So from that day i started off basically just eating eggs, tuna, mackerel, salmon fillets and vegetables. I stopped drinking red bulls everyday, stopped eating fast food and whatever i ate did NOT come from a packet nor could it be microwaved, instead i made it. In January i was about 16.5 stone with a BMI of 30. I then started walking everyday slowing building up to on average 10KM per day (this was really helped by getting a fitbit). I also started to run initially just 0.3Km then built this up daily to 5KM. Now i am a heavy smoker and this hasnt changed and i also like beer and i didnt change either. It was just the diet and exercise I focused on.
Everyday i would weigh myself and found that on average i would loose 0.15KG everyday on average. Today is the 8th June and i weigh 12.6st having lost about 4 stone since mid January. I dont feel any different but i did have to buy all new clothes.
I went to the doctor this morning to get my results of the second HbA1c test. I was so pleased to see that in 5 months my reading went from 109 to just 37. Effectively putting the type 2 diagnosis into remission. The doctor said you dont have diabetes now and I don’t need to take any medicine, however if you go back to eating rubbish and not doing any exercise it could come back. I am so pleased with myself I almost cried.
Having lived (quite healthy.. not including smoking and beer consumption) i cant see any issue with continuing with the same diet. It nice people complementing you on how you look and I wouldn’t want to go back to being overweight. I would suggest buying some scales for the kitchen so when you measure out the food you know exactly the amount. You wouldn’t believe how small a recommended portion of Special K looks like till you measure !
I should have said i have a 5 year most gorgeous daughter and the thought of passing away early due to this condition scared the life out of me. The doctor had told me I was as likely to have a heart attack as someone who had already had one. So everyday i would do the following :
80 sit ups
50 press ups (breaks every 10)
8-10Km walk
5Km run
Special K every morning for breakfast (30 grams)
Salmon fillet and salad for lunch or a tuna salad
No snacks or chocolate
No fizzy drinks
Eggs in the evening with some more salad, typically a omelette with 15g cheese and tuna
Beer in the evening
Daily food in take was around 700-800 calories / beer in take 700 calories (on average)
This was pretty much my daily process for just over 100 days. And today after doing this i no longer have diabetes. Now i understand it only in remission and could come back if i start being unhealthy again but for me to not take any medicines and have a normal blood sugar readings in my mind makes me clear of the condition.
What surprised me was the doctor saying in 10 years he had never seen anyone do this, which sounds mad to just accept it and not try and fix things. With focus on a goal (for me it was to not take any medicine and to have a BMI of 25 or less) you can prove doctors wrong. Their starting point is to just give out tablets and not try and make their patients put the work in to avoid a lifetime of medication.
I appreciate being only 39 helped and it wouldn’t have been anywhere near as easy without my wife supporting me, understanding that we will eat at different times, have own our food, wouldn’t be able to enjoy our weekly trips to mcdonalds and I would need to regularly be out of the house doing exercise and so on.
So if there is anyone out there in a similar position I want this my first and last post to be a little encouragement that it can be done, other people have done it and with enough effort you might be able to also.
As for me… tonight I am eating 5 big mac’s, 5 portions of chips, full fat coke and maybe a KFC for pudding. However tomorrow I will be back on the case and although it might take 2 days to get the weight back off it will be done.
If you have made the effort to read this far then hopefully you have found it useful and gives you some confidence that the doctors aren’t always right…. “ you wont be able to reverse it with your levels” she said…. My response today is “nonsense”
I would really like it if you would post a reply to this post on what you thought and wether it helped.
Ross