Good morning all! I am excited to announce that I now have my very own column in the employee newsletter at my job. I love sharing my story not to brag but to inspire, to help others in hopes to improve lives. I want to share my first article with you which was published at the beginning of April. I received great feedback, it opened up lines of communication with others struggling with living a healthy lifestyle and Diabetes. I am very excited about what is to come.
Three years ago I was diagnosed with Diabetes at the age of 38, I was devastated when the doctor relayed the news, I cried, wiped my tears off, went home and began taking my medication but never changed my eating habits. Then the day came when I got tired of the way the medicine made me feel, of feeling tired and depressed all the time, the pain in my knees, the back aches and how obese I had become so I decided to make a change. I decided to lose weight, and one of the decisions I made was to not just lose weight but rather change my lifestyle completely, at the time I had no clue what this entailed but I was soon going to find out. I wasn’t looking for a “quick fix diet” or a “fad diet” because I love food (emphasis on the love part), I am a foodie therefore, I knew that if I began a no carb diet, cabbage soup diet or any diet that would deprive me of eating foods I enjoyed I would fail so I had to be creative.
My solution was to create my own diet, which I named the “common sense diet”. Let me break this down for you, this diet is the one where you know that biting into that burger is no good for you; the one where you know there is too much food on your plate but you eat it all anyway and wash it down with a diet soda; the one where you add extra butter to your toast to follow the grease filled bacon you are having for breakfast knowing that it will clog your arteries, well you get the picture. My challenge was finding a way to lose weight, be healthy and not feel deprived, but was that even possible? Absolutely it was, I began tweaking the recipes I was already preparing making them healthier while also incorporating new healthy options to my diet and voila, the “common sense diet” was born.
With somewhat of a plan on hand, now it was time to do some serious research, well ok I used google. My very first step was to understand how much I should be eating and how to keep track of it. I had no clue because I always ate until I was full, well let me rephrase that, I always ate until I was so full that I could barely breath and passed out on the couch right after.
I googled several calorie calculators and came up with an average amount of calories I needed to consume in order to lose 2 lbs. per week and then I downloaded an app called My Fitness Pal and began tracking my food intake.
This first step was big because for the first few days I would consume my daily calories before lunch so this helped me to better understand how much I should be eating and boy was that a learning curve. This first step took some getting used to however, it kept me on track and taught me a lot about portion control. Because I am a diabetic, I found that eating smaller portions every 2 hours worked best for me keeping my sugar levels regulated.
I have not taken a diabetes medication in over a year and my lab results always turn out as my doctor says “better than someone without Diabetes” and that alone is a huge accomplishment. I have run several 5K’s and obstacle races and I just signed up to do my first ½ marathon in October. Although I do not look like a fitness model and I still need to lose more weight, I am in the best shape I have been in my entire life and I love setting an example for my kids so that they don’t have to struggle with obesity or diabetes like I have, my only regret…not starting sooner.
I am not a nutritionist, fitness expert or anything even close but I would like to share some of the things that have helped me, along with some recipes in hopes that it will also help motivate you to take that first step so stay tuned, there is more to come ;)
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