Monday, July 20, 2009

Pre-Diabetes. HUH?

Dear Lucy,
So, before I ran--stark raving and mumbling to myself--away from home I had gone to my doctor and had some blood work done to check my cholesteral and such. The doctor said my cholesterol was fine but that by blood sugar was on the high end of normal.
She suggested that I start living like a diabetic now, and said to get my blood checked in August again.
I didn't think much about it until I went to the bookstore after getting home and found books on Pre-diabetes. HOLY COW!
I don't know what my numbers are, but those books certainly got my attention, and I am really trying to learn all about diabetes now.
Mom became an insulin dependent diabetic when she was in her late 50's and so my chances are very high.
Fortunately, I have lost a lot of wieght in the last year or so, and walk every day so I have that on my side, but being vegetarian and trying to do a diabetic diet on top of it has thrown me for a loop. As a vegetarian I ate a lot of rice and pasta with vegetables and more cheese for protien. Can't necessarily do that with high blood sugar.
So, I am back to step one with my diet. I have started eating meat again in an effort to cut back on carbs until I know more about what and how to do a low carb no meat diet.
I had gone Vegetarian after reading lots of Buddhist philosophy of non harming other sentient beings. That and what I had read about how big of a carbon footprint a meat based diet is.
Going vegetarian was easy for me (was hard on Anne though!), I cooked meat for everyone else and didn't eat it myself. I took the mind set that I was expanding my culinary tastes by eating meat substitutes and I did very well.
But carbs??? Not so easy to change. They hide in seemingly healthy things like fruit and vegies. I think they are in just about everything save celery!
Now along with being Chief Cook, Bottle Washer and Dog Walker, I am busy being crazy, morose, sober and carb-onless!

--Kathy

2 comments:

  1. Relax, it's not really all that hard to be both vegan and low-carb.

    Eat lots of raw fresh high-fiber low-carb foods like avocados, celery, tomatoes, red bell peppers, and even a few pecans and walnuts.

    You'll have plenty of fiber, most vitamins (except possibly B-12 and folate), and you'll even have enough protein.

    If you lose too much weight, just increase the avocados and pecans, which are excellent sources of healthy mono-unsaturated fats.

    And you'll feel great, lower your blood glucose and hemoglobin A1c.

    Enjoy.

    Or as Mister Spock said in Star Trek, "Live long and prosper."

    ReplyDelete
  2. I was diagnosed diabetic 6 years ago. The best advice I can give you is educate yourself as much as possible. Dr.'s will try to medicate it away - but with dramatic lifestyle changes you can reverse the process naturally Check out this book: Reversing Diabetes by Julian Whitaker, MD. And don't be stupid like me and ignore it. I've lost some vision and have stage 3 kidney disease.

    ReplyDelete