Trying something different for my type 2 diabetes

Hi Bear, long time no hear! Sorry about the ups and downs with the meds. In any case, meds or not, the more consistant your diet (eating plan) is, the better your blood sugar will be. Also, the more sustained exercise you have (like walking, swimming, running), the more stable and controlled the blood sugar will be, too. If you were eating bread, potatoes, rice and pasta, you were feeding the meds. That is, the carbs kept your blood sugar so high that your meds were trying to keep up with the food to control the blood sugar. Meds work in different ways in the body but they are all supposed to help control the blood sugar and keep it at more normal levels. If you were still eating all those carbs (and they're pretty fast-acting carbs at that), then your blood sugar would have been very high. Bear, you should already know this for all the time you posted here before! Once you stop those carbs, you would have seen much lower blood sugar and when that happens on meds, your doctor would probably lower the dosage or eliminate one of them. It's hard to say if you can actually control your diabetes with just diet and exericse though. This depends on how much insulin you still produce and how well the body is metabolizing the carbs with the insulin's help. If you can bring your averages down, it would be excellent. 148 fasting (or over 126) is what a doctor would diagnose as diabetes but normally the diagnosis would include a few fastings and probably the GTT. In any case, the bottom line is your eating plan. If you want to try to stay off meds, you have to have lower readings and you'll get them by 1) cutting out those carbs and eating more vegetables and salad food in addition to the protein, 2) continuing the regular walking routine, and 3) continuing to lose weight. If you can do the first two, then you should lose more weight. In a way, it's a pretty simple idea but it may be harder to accomplish if you don't follow the plan. And that's my point; this can't be a once in awhile trial or whenever you remember to do this; this should be your new and forever eating plan with rare aberrations (a birthday, holiday). Finally, if this doesn't work, I would suggest seeing an endocrinologist to be re-evaluated. (Does your doctor know you stopped the meds?) Read the info in Diabetes 101. It may be helpful.

(((hugs back at ya!))) Pain and stress can make your blood sugar rise, so considering the dental work, some of the blood sugar problems might be because of that. I hope that's over soon. Ugh. Despite that, try to cut out those fast-acting carbs and eat more of the colorful veggies along with the protein. What I've been doing lately is eating raw broccoli, bell peppers and cauliflower on the side like a salad with no dressing along with a meal of meat/chicken/fish and cooked veggies like zucchini, onion or mushrooms in combos. The sides of the raw veggies make me a regular person. If you get hungry in between meals, snack on: nuts, cheese cubes, unsweetened or artificially sweetened yogurt, some raw veggies I mentioned. Pack your own lunch and put the snack food in the small plastic baggies. You can do this. I know you can.

Hi Jeannie!
I think I will start it tonight. I have to do something, my readings are going up. I read it takes about 2 weeks to get the full effect. I'll let you know what happens. (((Hugs)))

Good for you bear! Keep with the diet ... but a word of warning ... start shopping for new clothes! You're going to need'em-- the old, baggy ones won't fit in a few weeks ;-)
Do what Lanie & Jeannie are saying -- worked for me

tangerine bear said...
Hi Jeannie!

I think I will start it tonight. I have to do something, my readings are going up. :) I read it takes about 2 weeks to get the full effect. I'll let you know what happens. (((Hugs)))

When I took my first dose of MetFormin (BGL 330 and 400), I was feeling better inside of an hour. But then I was pretty sick, so "feeling better" was relative. Wikipedia says it has a Half life of 6.2 hours, so that's pretty fast.