| I wrote this for a board for B&B hosts and now they too are all off insulin with Type II.Thye all joined my band wagon.About 15 of us have lost 600 lbs on that board.
Please add you own success story to my new thread:SUCCESS
(12/4/03 3:04 am)
I am sharing this with you in case anyone can use any of this info for themselves, not to be judged as it may not be for others but it just may. I never thought it would be for me.....
I have always had a weight problem, my diabetes has been with me for a decade and about two plus years ago it got totally out of control so I had to go on insulin. I took a needle prior to every meal and a whooping dose of insulin before bed as well. It was a wicked juggling act and I was always tired, had to nap daily, gaining weight up and down, not feeling good, had dangerously high cholesterol, blood pressure problems, arthritis and migraines. It’s all tied together and it all gets worse with stress. I was supposed to go on an insulin pump this fall if my bg didn’t stabilize.
Well this summer with the fires, the stress was tremendous. Imagine guests arriving who booked into your B&B 6 months previously, over in a country they don’t know, expecting to see pristine national park, arriving to come over to the east side of the park, being stopped in their cars, not being told what is happening, heavy dense thick smoke, flames near roadway once they are let thru, helicopters flying over their heads as they swoop water from the river, arriving at this lovely 4.5 star B&B that is covered in ash, you can't see a mountain view or over the edge of the decks, its hard to breath at night especially when the relative humidity goes down and the smoke chokes you harshly. The house stinks and the air inside is grey, you can breath bit better at night if you sleep with a wet facecloth over your mouth and nose!!!
The flames can be seen off the deck. But it’s a prescribed burn!!!! So the co-operation level is low as things are being hidden from us. The town site was not in the situation we were in and so unless you lived on east side of the park or traveled here you had no idea, I would call the Parks Office asking what was occurring on certain days as we would not be able to even see out the window or couldn’t breath and they would say, “Oh it’s the Kelowna fire.” yet you could drive past our fire and once you passed our fire the air was clear, but you could see they kept burning this one bigger and bigger, (went from 400 acres to 37,000 hectares of uncontrolled burn) they tried to take focus off this fire and treated us like we were brainless. We were treated terrible, rudely, and not believed when we called in for info if our situation was worsened.
One night I did not take off my shoes as was ready to run in the middle of the night. I saw the hoses and sprinkler system down on the highway that they had ready to put on our roofs. The air was yellow it was so hot and hot pine needles were falling on my deck and blowing into the house thru the air conditioner. I packed my keepsakes at 2am so guests wouldn’t see. I never slept for three nights at the peak of the fire, yet they still didn’t treat us with dignity and the truth. While going quietly in and out to my car with old photos etc, I could see all my neighbors, park wardens loading their valuables into their cars too!!
Not to mention I have to use a puffer as I am allergic to smoke, when you use a puffer the steroids make your blood glucose (BG) go up and your blood pressure (BP). So to breathe, especially at night time, meant sucking on a puffer, which gives me a migraine, then overdosing on insulin to keep my BG levels within range then taking extra blood pressure drugs to keep my BP down.
My energy level was zapped from all upset guests, upset tourism operators around here, and rude arrogant Parks Canada employees. I was the head of a committee we had to strike, to fight with Parks Canada to get info. We wanted to tell our guests, to stop some of the panic they had driving on the highways and getting stopped and trapped between our B&B's and town. All this stress made me very ill.
Then on Aug 19, I got a call from a women from USA for next year, 2004 the July long weekend. Last thing I wanted to do was even think about next year, I was counting the days till we quit at Thanksgiving
Anyhow, back to this booking. I always ask if anyone in the party has any dietary needs or concerns and she says, “Well my dear, I am a severe diabetic and am overweight. I am in this new research program at the Duke University that is healing diabetes with the Atkins program." (I know, I know, you are all freaking as you hear the myths on the news).
She goes on to tell me she if off her insulin, all her drugs and
down 55 lbs and has no intention of regaining when she comes on holidays next year, that this is a way of life for her. We talked for an hour.
I got off the phone, went on the net, found the info, called and ordered the book and started the program on Aug 20. About 32 hours later I had to go off my insulin as I was going so low with BG that I would go into a diabetic reaction . It didn’t even take two whole days for my blood glucose levels and insulin levels to stabilize as I was not eating high carbs. I had my blood levels taken as was worried about cholesterol levels as I have been on chol drugs for years and my chol was still high, which is a problem is for diabetics. My doc freaked and didn’t want me on Atkins but she was not educated about the new program. She only knew the old one from years ago.
I read all the research the Duke University did and they came to the following conclusions as did many university studies across the USA:
1. Atkins program decreases blood glucose
2. It decreases chol, and increases the good chol.
3, It decreases blood pressure.
I have always had trouble on Weight Watchers, any low fat program, low calorie as I would be starving. With diabetes, if your numbers fall you starve, and when they are high, you are ravenously hungry too. So it always seemed like a lose lose situation. I could do a diet for about three weeks then be so hungry I would fall off the wagon, so had resigned myself to always being a big woman.
Well since Aug 20 I have not fallen off the wagon, I don’t cheat, this is a WOL (way of life) for me till I die as you don’t get hungry and when you do, you can eat something with fat in it that is fulfilling and not a carrot stick or piece of celery. It has stabilized my BG, my BP and my chol has dropped from about 6 to now is 3.7. (4 is average)
I have stopped $700 worth of meds a month. I don’t need
insulin, don’t need anti diabetic drugs, don’t need drugs for
neuropathy as I had lost feeling in my feet, no migraine drugs, don’t get them anymore, stopped all blood pressure drugs and all arthritic drugs.
My hands are losing those big arthritic bumps and my fingers are almost straight. My knees, feet and back have NO pain. I stopped my anti cholesterol drugs too and just got all blood work done on Monday and all my tests are that of a young, healthy woman. Even my damn hormones are good, and was hoping I would be menopausal soon as almost 54.
Well I am down about 55 lbs and have lost over 2 feet…24.5 inches off my body. I have energy galore, I don’t nap...I cant, I don’t sleep in till noon, how I loved to do for decades and now see it was all part of the illness/weight as blood glucoses always bouncing around and making me exhausted.
I even bought myself a bow flex machine a week ago and am trying to get addicted to exercise.
I eat meat, cheese, fish, eggs, salad, three cups ,or green veggies a day, butter, olive oil, seeds, nuts, berries and even found a low carb bread from a Calgary bakery. I live on less than 30 grams of carbs a day, am never, ever hungry.
Bob has done it with me and he too is down about 60 lbs and feels great.
I took over 100 pieces of clothing to the second hand store and the Goodwill as nothing fits me anymore. I am going to lose more but doing it slowly and focusing on health.
My doc is now dancing for joy and has referred two overweight pharmacists in town who have recently been diagnosed with diabetes. And other over weight people. She was skeptical but now is a believer of all the new research done on this program.
I am totally amazed that eating nutrient dense food has made my immune system do a 360 degree turn around. Diabetes, arthritis etc. are all auto immune deficiency diseases; my blood tests are now lower than my friend's and my husband's who are NOT diabetic. I just feel so great
There is only one concern I have: I still am not good enough to get into the Scott tournament of hearts and curl with Colleen Jones!!!!
So if any of you have any of these issues and would like to discuss them with me, please feel free.
If any are Atkins bashers, or haven’t read the book and are reacting to the myths of the media, please go to Duke University and key in 'Atkins' and read the research, or I can email it to you as I have corresponded with the Docs there and at University of Minn.
Thanks for giving me a chance to tell my story, I feel so proud as all my life I have been over weight and struggled and was never successful in losing or in mainlining my health issues.
Now I am a loser...and proud of it!!!!
Since writing that I have lost almsot 36 incehs and down 57 lbs, my husband is down 66lbs.
I am a feature story in the new Atkins Diabetic Diet Revolution to be released in 2004 sometime. :wave | |
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April 1st, 2004, 11:39 AM
ha 
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