SCOTT'S STORY

 My Story

As a story, this isn’t the most entertaining, but it is real.  As in “real life”.  I’m a 45 year old white male living in a small Midwestern town.  (I’ve always wanted to write that)  When I was a wee lad, I was rail skinny and wrestled in high school at the 119 pound weight class.  But since that time, I’ve put on a few pounds.  Well, it was actually more than a few.  Over the course of my life, I’ve put on a lot of pounds.  My maximum density was 268 pounds, weighed at the doctor’s office for a visit for strep throat in October 2013.  Now, I do have to tell you that I’m only 5’7” tall, so that helps put it into perspective. 

Shortly after that appointment, I started losing weight, seemingly without trying.  Yes, I was kind of watching my food intake, but not religiously.  I was always thirsty and urinated super frequently.  But I thought that was a function of the drinking.  I didn’t associate the thirst with anything.  I made it through the holiday season without any major issues and I was still losing weight.  Lots of it.  But I was not sleeping through the night because of the urination and my vision had started to change.  My prescription glasses were no longer effective.  So, I called up my doctor and made an appointment in January.

January 14, 2014 – my day that will live in infamy.  I went to the doctor and had blood drawn.  At that time, she didn’t say anything about diabetes.  It wasn’t until three days later that I was called back to the office and told my a1c was 13.2 and that I needed to start Metformin and testing.  Well, actually, I didn’t hear the part about the testing until we were back in the room.  And that scared the bejeezus out of me because I hate needles.  But I did a couple of tests and the results showed 282.  When they told me I should be shooting for 120, I knew it wasn’t good.

So, I took the prescription and testing stuff and left for home with my fiancé.  We are a team and were going to beat this together.  I didn’t spend a lot of time lamenting the fact I had diabetes.  I wanted it gone.  I wanted off the meds and rid of the testing needles, so I was going to do everything I could to get things back under control.  We read articles on food.  We tested countless recipes using low carb ideas.  I began using MyFItnessPal program on my computer and phone to track my food.  I kept a diary of food and testing numbers.  I’m a scientist by nature, so having a couple of spreadsheets of data was actually a good thing for me.  I tested frequently to see how certain foods would change my blood sugars.  I drank more water.  I exercised a lot more.  I restricted my calories because portion control has always been a problem for me.  I reduced my carb intake to around 100 grams per day.  My calories were set by MyFitnessPal based on the amount of weight I wanted to lose per week, so all I had to do was log my foods and stay within that range. 

I would recommend that program to anyone with diabetes because you can see the calories and carbs (among other things) for just about any food.  And, it also has foods from a huge number of restaurants.  This made it easy to eat out when I wanted.  But you have to do the work.  Log everything you eat.  Measure everything you eat.  That way, you own what is going into your body.  It makes it real.  I know it has kept me from overeating.  And changing some of the foods I eat has also helped.  I do eat more vegetables now.  I use spaghetti squash instead of pasta for my Italian fix.  But I don’t eliminate my carbs.  I just know through my testing what works and doesn’t.  For example, lasagna doesn’t spike me, but macaroni does.  Don’t know why, but it just does.  So I don’t have macaroni.  And lasagna is a special treat. 

At my follow up test in April, my a1c had dropped to 6.3.  My weight is down to 202.8 at my last check this week.  My doctor has been very happy with the results.  I’m not fully happy because I’m still testing and on meds, but it is my goal to be done with at least the meds by the end of the year.  How did I get to this point?  By being diligent and owning the disease.  And that’s what it takes to win.

Scott is a member of the type 2 diabetes support group