Sally,
Very nice and very smart of you to start this conversation.
Why am I very different from all the type 2 diabetics that I have known insofar as success rate in treating my diabetes is concerned? Because of my background. I think that I am the only one who had the experience of completely missing food for several days when I was young. This experience taught me how to successfully handle total hunger. (This was during the Japanese Occupation during WWII of the Philippines where I grew up.)
What do I mean by success in treating my diabetes? This month marks the 21 1/2 years that I have been a diabetic and the only anti-diabetes med I have been using is daily exercise.
What have I been eating? Mostly carbohydrates which must, as much as possible, be natural foods. Do I always get high after-meal and fasting blood sugar readings caused by carbohydrates? Yes, consistently since my diagnosis based on a fasting bs reading of 468 mg/dl in July 1991.
Why have I not been harmed by these thousands and thousands of blood sugar highs? I really don't know. All I know is that most of my past A1c's were in the range of 5.2% to 6.3%, the one I got on August 28, 2012, being 5.6%. I have no diabetes complications yet.
What does hunger have to do with my way of treating my diabetes? I eat only 3x/day, breakfast being the heaviest meal, lunch is lighter, and dinner is the lightest. I eat only when I get hungry. But before I eat, I exercise first to make all the cells in my body hungrier. What seems to be the logic for this practice? To kill the weak cells and to hasten the demise of the healthy and strong ones. So what happens next? They get replaced by new ones. How do I know this process? No, I don't know anything about it. It just seems to be a natural and logical phenomenon to happen to a living body which is exposed to regular and constant hunger or fasting and then properly fed with adequate nutritious foods and then allowed to have enough daily rest time.
When it comes to eating, exercising, and most everything else that I do, all are generally measured, timed, and scheduled. Deviations from any of them are strictly avoided. In short, no food will ever tempt me to try it if it is not healthy for me to eat it or if it is not the right time to put it in my mouth.
As I have said before, I try very very hard to be DUMBER (Disciplined, Upbeat, Motivated, Bold, Empowered, Resourceful).
Believe it or not, every time I take my weight, it is within the 137-lb. to 143-lb range. My height is 5'7". In about a month, I will be 77 years old and feeling like I am half my age.
Thanks again, Sally.
Bonny Damocles
