Type 2 Diabetes Lifestyle Change Testimonial

” Saw my endocrinologist yesterday. Was a little bit nervous about telling her that I stopped taking my diabetes medicine. Told her what I have done as a different direction. After I explained to her everything I’m doing she looked at me and said you are a genius. I was really surprised because I looked at her and told her I thought you would be mad at me cuz I didn’t consult you first. She said oh no what you’ve done is what I would hope all of my patients do. She asked what was it that happened in your journey in the last year that made you decide this course. I told her because I realized the medications are not cures. That if I want it to resolve this pre-type to diabetes the only real solution is personal change. Personal change is hard. I said the bottom line is I realized my organs are old and I’m trying to expect them to do the job of younger organs. Young healthy organs can do amazing things. Young people can toss anything into their body for the most part and their organs will give them a break. But when you get older you cannot do those behaviors that are young and reckless. What I really had to do for me was to act my age. Feed myself based on the body that I’m in today not 20 years ago with 30 or 40 years ago. That said I told her how I powder my snacks that are either higher carb or whatever with cayenne. It forces me to eat slower and less. Plus Cayenne is extremely good for you. I told her I got rid of all refined sugar. It was two and a half tall kitchen bags of junk I had in my pantry. I told her that I am monitoring absolutely everything that goes into my body and creating new recipes that are diabetes friendly but yet gourmet.

It was an entertaining and surprising visit. I was surprised that she said the majority of her patients don’t seek solutions. They simply expect a different medicine to fix the problem as it evolves. But that’s not a cure. Diabetes medicines only mask the problem or defer the inevitable destructive consequences of behaviors that can be changed.

I told her, my discovery about flavor and refined sugar is this, when you are no longer eating refined sugar your taste buds adjust. A regular simple red apple tastes so extraordinarily sweet that you can barely eat the whole thing. I have discovered that sugar in the quantities that most people regularly eat deadens the taste buds to sugar, thus demanding more sugar to taste the sweetness. It’s like heroin. Always demanding more to get the effect. It’s a vicious cycle.

I told her I even went through withdrawals for 2 weeks but once I was out of the sugar withdrawals I felt no craving for those types of sweets.

She asked what was really at the core of your desire to do this extreme change? I said I want my feet back. The medication was causing paradoxical peripheral neuropathy. It was causing me to not be able to walk the limited walking that I could do because shoes felt so painful. In order for me to lose the weight I’ve got to use my fuel that I put in and that means I’ve got to be able to walk. Obesity is causing the pre-type two diabetes. I’ve got to get the obesity down but I can’t do that without being active and the medication was blocking my ability to be active. So the choice was clear. I love my feet and I want my feet to do their job. ”

– Elaine, Dr. Kimball’s patient