Ever since I was diagnosed, I have been looking for somebody in the same situation that I can talk to.
It has been hard. My mom is also a diabetic, but she is not very well following any strong guidelines. If I knew what I know now about two years back I would definitely not have been diagnosed with diabetes. I would have taken steps to stop the progress of diabetes right then and there. All my life I have exercised somewhat religiously or at the very least kept active by engaging in hiking or other forms of strenuous exercise. I have always taken care of what I eat and in general kept away from fast food, kept away from soft drinks, kept her from other sugary drinks and taken care to put good stuff in my body. Not only this, I actually went and talked to nutritionists on how I could lose weight... I talked to doctors and I, in general tried to make sure that I was in good shape. As I have already mentioned in one of my previous posts I used to exercise vigorously three times a week by running between four and 6 miles. There definitely have been days where I ran lesser and there definitely have been times when I skipped running. However if you look at the general broader scale, I have kept up exercising consistently throughout the last 10 years of my life.
So when I say that I had talked to nutritionist, well, my workspace offers free screenings for usual health conditions once a year. One of those is blood sugar checks as well. So about two three-years ago when my numbers started hitting close to 100, the person manning the health checkup referred me to a nutritionist. I did go to the nutritionist. However every single time when I have gone to nutritionist, I have been given the same advice. Usually the interview would go like this, "you are Indian you must be eating a lot of sweets", "you are Indian you must be eating a lot of Ghee" or even things like "you should eat stuff in moderation eat more fruits eat more vegetables". However, I never truly gathered the severity of the 100 blood glucose mark. I always thought that whenever I would go for a checkup, just like the cholesterol level sometimes would be little bit up or a variety of other factors might be a little bit in non-optimal range, it would not be a big deal and by exercising or by other means I would bring them back into the right range. Well, I thought the blood glucose would be the same thing and that 100 is not something to be worried about and nobody actually pointed out that this is pretty severe and that I should have taken immediate steps.
Now after reading Dr. Bernstein's book I believe that I should have taken immediate steps the first time I got my 100 reading. Not only that I should just have ignored the nutritionists advice which was actually never in line with what I should have been doing. I should have followed Dr. Bernstein's advice and started cutting down carbs long time ago.
Anyways, coming back to the point, what I really am saying is that once I was diagnosed I wanted to be able to compare notes with someone so that I could see what condition I am in and what I could do and whether it correlates with what other people are doing so that I could learn from them or they could learn from me. In spite of everything that I have done, sometimes the blood glucose levels are not optimal. This has been especially true with my morning blood glucose levels which nowadays tend to be somewhere in the range of 100-108. I still exercise pretty vigorously and my postprandial blood glucose levels are usually under 110 at the 75 minute mark, however, the morning blood glucose levels still worry me a little bit. I have read Dr. Bernstein's book a few times and from what I understand it is simply the dawn phenomenon. However, a few months ago I used to get a blood glucose level readings of about 94 – 100 at fasting. So now I do not know why the fasting readings have increased even though my postprandial figures remain the same. To put things in context, I do believe that my blood glucose meter is actually incorrect and gives the readings about 10 points higher. Last time I went for the lab tests, I actually perform a self test with my personal blood glucose meter right before the drew the blood. I wanted to see how accurate my meter was. My meter gave me a reading of 95 and the numbers that came in actually showed a reading of 85 so I have always assumed that I'm that my meter gets about 10 points higher. However I am not certain given that these readings from the meter can have an error margin of 20% either ways. Essentially I do not know if my meter is consistently 10 points over or if it was a one time deal. Would someone else know, I have no idea. Amazon reviews seem to point either ways. Some people say that the readings are higher and others say the readings are lower. So I guess it is hard to figure out which way my meter is tending unless I can read it somehow.
I know that I have changed a few things in my diet for example I eat a little bit less soy products now a days and I eat a lot more vegetables and I still continue to eat the same amount of cheese as I used to do. So I thought that it is a possibility that the effect of soy which events out blood glucose levels is not present in my diet anymore and that might be the one that leads to higher fasting blood glucose levels. However I have no one to turn to, to compare notes.
So eventually, I joined the forums on http://diabetes.co.uk. I think I'm going to follow this for a little for most of my questions. I will try helping other people and in general asses the mood of the forums and see if it truly helps.
On that note, I did help out a lady who was recently and newly diagnosed with diabetes. She was misinformed by her nurse and given the advice that going on a low-carb high-fat diet would be bad for arteries in terms of I cholesterol. However multiple people including me were able to help her and tell her that this is not necessarily so. In fact correlating with my first test I could tell her from my first hand experience that in spite of eating a lot of cheese, as long as I kept my carbohydrate intake lower, my blood glucose levels were even and my cholesterol has in fact been the best that I've seen in a long long long time. In fact is 100% normal.
Tuesday, July 19, 2016
Wednesday, June 22, 2016
Exercise is my religion
So, when I was diagnosed, I asked the doctor what could I do. She said that losing weight will help significantly and I told her that I was going to go all gung-ho and start exercising like crazy and lose weight very quickly. Seeing my enthusiasm, she said that she was going to put me on a low dose of metformin, 500mg daily so that I don't become hypoglycemic.
I have managed it with that for a while but it is getting a bit difficult and the fasting levels are not ideal and now mostly remain in the 100-105 range. The last time I had a lab test done, I tested my meter just before they drew the blood. The meter showed me 95 and the lab test showed a 85. So, it seemed that the meter was measuring about 10 points higher than what things were. If I go by that, then my glucose levels are at about 95. Not ideal, but a work in progress.
Another issue that I believe I might be facing with the low dose of metformin is that, Exercise has become pretty much a demanding, in your face fact of life. I need to strenuously exercise everyday. I mean EVERY FRIKKIN DAY! I don't know how others manage it and how doctors say that you should walk 30 minutes a day or so. Walking, even fairly long distance, a few miles, does not do much to my blood glucose. So, for now, I run 6 miles 3 times a week and then on the off days, I do strenuous weight training. By strenuous, I mean that I push reasonably heavy weights in such rapid succession and such high repetition count that I am sweating and panting. Usually, a 30-45 routine keeps the glucose level for that day in check.
This also means, that over the weekend, if I take a lazy day off, the glucose levels start veering off from the optimal range. Sigh.
Next time I meet the doctor, I am going to ask him/her if I need to increase my dosage.
Anyways, here is a small tip that I discovered with experimentation. Sometimes, in spite of all the precautions, post-prandial (after meal) glucose levels are not optimal. There are two ways you can handle it:
- You can ignore it and wait for it to go down slowly with the medicine and passage of time
- You can exercise to bring it back into line fairly fast.
I take the second option. The exercise that helps is just strength training. I was recently travelling where I did not have access to my gym and weights or equipment and the glucose levels were not optimal. In desperation, I just started doing Squats without weights, then I did fast paced pushups, picked a chair and did dips. Even to simulate some weights, I took a tiny bucket with a handle in the hotel room, filled it with water and did some one arm lifts and then bunch of crunches where my elbows would touch the diagonally opposite knees. In about 25-30 minutes, I was able to drop the glucose levels about 20 points.
Dr. Bernstien says muscles have a different way of metabolizing glucose that does not require insulin and so strength training is better than aerobic exercises. I guess I can agree with that after having experimentally verified that.
Now a days, if I am just a teeny bit over the optimal range, I let it go. If things are more than 10-15 points over the optimal range, I try to find weights or other exercises where I can stress my muscles and try to put it back into the normal range.
Tuesday, May 24, 2016
Back after a while with mostly good results
So, this is a post after a while and it has been an interesting journey. When I started, I was not sure how long I could hold on, whether I could really make eating a VLC (Very low carb) diet a lifestyle etc...
Well, so far, I have been able to mostly. I have dropped from 186lbs to 145lbs (about 66kgs). That is a whopping 41 lbs. I am 5'6" so I am within a hair of my perfect weight range. I want to get to 62kgs which would be 138 pounds or so, but that is now very slow going. In the initial phases, the weight dropped like crazy.. I dropped the first 30 pounds within 3 months and then it took 2+ months getting the next 15 pounds or so. Now the weight is mostly stable around 145.
Apart from a small timeframe when I visited India and I did not keep good records, I mostly did keep food and glucose records. Here is what I have learned so far:
Well, so far, I have been able to mostly. I have dropped from 186lbs to 145lbs (about 66kgs). That is a whopping 41 lbs. I am 5'6" so I am within a hair of my perfect weight range. I want to get to 62kgs which would be 138 pounds or so, but that is now very slow going. In the initial phases, the weight dropped like crazy.. I dropped the first 30 pounds within 3 months and then it took 2+ months getting the next 15 pounds or so. Now the weight is mostly stable around 145.
Apart from a small timeframe when I visited India and I did not keep good records, I mostly did keep food and glucose records. Here is what I have learned so far:
- Mushrooms are your friends - they have almost no carbs, but tons of minerals. They do fill you up, so eat up. I get my mushrooms from Costco, where they are to be had for fairly inexpensively. The best tasting mushrooms that I like are the Shitake mushrooms from Fred Meyer. They are most $6 per pound though.
- I had one full checkup for lipids and blood sugar, A1C etc. Even with eating crazy amount of cheese to make sure I get enough calories, the cholesterol from the test was the best that I had in years. It was 100% normal. Triglycerides at 98, HDL at 41 (well, that is low, always has been) and LDL at 96. The Cholesterol/HDLC ratio was 3.8, well below the normal range of 5. So, eating tons of cheese with only vegetables and very little carbs, seems to keep your cholesterol in check.
- The A1C was a bit of head scratcher. It turned out to be 6.2%. When I was diagnosed, it was 8.3% so bringing it down in 3 months seems like a great deal, but based on my understanding and calculations based on the extensive logs I kept, it should have been much lower. I guess I will check with the doctor I meet next time on why the discrepancy.
Anyways, On and On.
Monday, December 28, 2015
Mail to my friends: How to feed a Indian Vegetarian Diabetic
A mail to my friends on how to accommodate my dietary needs
I wrote this mail to my friends that I usually hang out with. We invite each other for lunch/dinner/tea etc all the time and I think it might be hard for them to understand how to cater to my dietary needs and lead to awkwardness. So I thought, I would proactively let them know on what they can do and we can minimize the fuss and inconvenience to them upfront. Also, as someone else in a similar boat recently mentioned to me... "What I want is empathy, not sympathy". Understand my limitations and accommodate them so much as you can, but don't feel sad for me or be gloomy for me. I understand what situation I am in and I am dealing with it the best I can and I am better for it. So, if you show sympathy, it just makes me feel weird and awkward... better if you just behave as if everything is normal while accommodating me as far as you can. I will be happy to talk to you about it and tell all about things, but that is likely going to be boring unless you have a relative etc who has diabetes and you want to help them. Anyways, here is the mail:
---- mail start ----
So, friends, I have recently been diagnosed with diabetes and have had to make a bunch of lifestyle changes. Some of these changes were easy e.g. exercise more, drop weight around the tummy etc and some of them are pretty hard; dietary restrictions are one of the hardest things that I am having to adjust to. It is even harder for me because I am a vegetarian and that limits the pool of things that I can eat to a very small set. However, this is a journey, as I learn, I become better at managing my condition. With proper management of my blood sugar levels around the clock, I can leave a very normal life without any complications of diabetes.
However, I understand that this impacts us when we meet for lunches and dinners and even tea and snacks. Although I have spent a lot of time researching what I can and cannot eat and how to manage my blood glucose levels, I am certain you haven't and I would not want or expect you to do that. Given that, I will provide you with easy to do things that will keep our parties lively and full of foods that we all love and that I can share with you.
Essentially, in a nutshell, I am on what is called a Very Low Carbohydrate (VLC) diet. This is a largely vegetable/plant based diet with a significant amount of calories coming in from Proteins and Fats. I am choosing to completely cut out all of my grains. Yep, you read it right, COMPLETELY off of grains. That includes all daals (lentils). The only grain (actually oilseed) that I will eat is soybean and soybean derived products such as nutrella (textured vegetable protein), Tofu and soy flour mixed with wheat bran. If we are having dinner together, I will be bringing the soy flour/bran roti, so don't inconvenience yourself over this. I always keep a good supply handy, so this is pretty straightforward for me.
Anyways, in reality, what this translates to is that to accommodate me, all you need is a big bowl of any vegetable prepared without potatoes or other starches and added sugars... Practically, any indian vegetable sabji e.g. Lauki (opo squash) or karela or green beans, cabbage, Cauliflower pick your favorite vegetable and very high likelihood, I am going to be fine with it. Also, I can eat any sort of cheese (except feta), paneer works just fine, cream cheese, full fat yogurt, greek yogurt. A big bowl of vegetable and a 40-60gram of cheese/yogurt is plenty enough to satisfy me and meet my dietary needs. I am not restricted on any oils, so use what you would normally for any dish.
When making tea, I would appreciate if you took out the boiled tea without milk for me. I will add milk as per my own requirement.. usually a teaspoon or two. Also, I will bring my own sweetner, Stevia. I am avoiding all the powdered sweeteners as they contain small amount of sugars. Snacks for me are unnecessary as I don't need them and will not have them in any case.
That's it.
That was easy, wasn't it?
Anyways, hoping to see you soon at our next get together.
---- mail end -----
I wrote this mail to my friends that I usually hang out with. We invite each other for lunch/dinner/tea etc all the time and I think it might be hard for them to understand how to cater to my dietary needs and lead to awkwardness. So I thought, I would proactively let them know on what they can do and we can minimize the fuss and inconvenience to them upfront. Also, as someone else in a similar boat recently mentioned to me... "What I want is empathy, not sympathy". Understand my limitations and accommodate them so much as you can, but don't feel sad for me or be gloomy for me. I understand what situation I am in and I am dealing with it the best I can and I am better for it. So, if you show sympathy, it just makes me feel weird and awkward... better if you just behave as if everything is normal while accommodating me as far as you can. I will be happy to talk to you about it and tell all about things, but that is likely going to be boring unless you have a relative etc who has diabetes and you want to help them. Anyways, here is the mail:
---- mail start ----
So, friends, I have recently been diagnosed with diabetes and have had to make a bunch of lifestyle changes. Some of these changes were easy e.g. exercise more, drop weight around the tummy etc and some of them are pretty hard; dietary restrictions are one of the hardest things that I am having to adjust to. It is even harder for me because I am a vegetarian and that limits the pool of things that I can eat to a very small set. However, this is a journey, as I learn, I become better at managing my condition. With proper management of my blood sugar levels around the clock, I can leave a very normal life without any complications of diabetes.
However, I understand that this impacts us when we meet for lunches and dinners and even tea and snacks. Although I have spent a lot of time researching what I can and cannot eat and how to manage my blood glucose levels, I am certain you haven't and I would not want or expect you to do that. Given that, I will provide you with easy to do things that will keep our parties lively and full of foods that we all love and that I can share with you.
Essentially, in a nutshell, I am on what is called a Very Low Carbohydrate (VLC) diet. This is a largely vegetable/plant based diet with a significant amount of calories coming in from Proteins and Fats. I am choosing to completely cut out all of my grains. Yep, you read it right, COMPLETELY off of grains. That includes all daals (lentils). The only grain (actually oilseed) that I will eat is soybean and soybean derived products such as nutrella (textured vegetable protein), Tofu and soy flour mixed with wheat bran. If we are having dinner together, I will be bringing the soy flour/bran roti, so don't inconvenience yourself over this. I always keep a good supply handy, so this is pretty straightforward for me.
Anyways, in reality, what this translates to is that to accommodate me, all you need is a big bowl of any vegetable prepared without potatoes or other starches and added sugars... Practically, any indian vegetable sabji e.g. Lauki (opo squash) or karela or green beans, cabbage, Cauliflower pick your favorite vegetable and very high likelihood, I am going to be fine with it. Also, I can eat any sort of cheese (except feta), paneer works just fine, cream cheese, full fat yogurt, greek yogurt. A big bowl of vegetable and a 40-60gram of cheese/yogurt is plenty enough to satisfy me and meet my dietary needs. I am not restricted on any oils, so use what you would normally for any dish.
When making tea, I would appreciate if you took out the boiled tea without milk for me. I will add milk as per my own requirement.. usually a teaspoon or two. Also, I will bring my own sweetner, Stevia. I am avoiding all the powdered sweeteners as they contain small amount of sugars. Snacks for me are unnecessary as I don't need them and will not have them in any case.
That's it.
That was easy, wasn't it?
Anyways, hoping to see you soon at our next get together.
---- mail end -----
Monday, December 21, 2015
Bringing Blood sugar to (mostly) normal
So, continuing from the previous story... I did say that I am a runner, right?
So, after week 1, I used my trusty fitbit to track my exercise. I used to run 3x a week and get nearly 12,000-15,000steps on the three days (monday, wednesday and fridays) but the rest of the days, my step count used to be pretty abysmal.
So, after I came back from the doctor's visit, I upped my step count. For the whole next week I walked at least 15,000 steps, sometimes surpassing and ending up almost at 20,000 steps. In a week, my legs were shot and constantly tired. Getting to run was becoming a chore as my calves, hamstring and practically all other parts of the lower body would start screaming in agony. Climbing a flight of stairs became a bit of pain as by the end of one floor, the calves and hamstrings would be in agony.
Two words: NOT GOOD!
Being a long time runner and exercise aficionado, I know all about rest and recovery times. Clearly, I was stressing my body beyond its current abilities. TIME TO STOP! TIME TO REST! So, I cut back a little bit. One week, instead of running, I just did very long walks and on the off days (Tuesdays and Thursdays), I barely did 6000 steps. I rested on Saturday and Sunday.
Monday, the muscles felt more relaxed and I could actually run 4 miles.
Even though I did not enjoy the salad and heavy infusion of vegetables in my meals, I was beginning to be OK with it.
Sometime during this week, during my incessant research on diabetes, I came across Dr. Bernstein's Diabetes Solution book on a forum. Curious, I read the reviews. The book is VERY HIGHLY rated on Amazon with over 450 reviews and most of them 4 and 5 starts.
Being an engineer, if there is one thing I believe in, it is the Wisdom of Masses. There has got to be something here I thought and bought it. Amazon Prime delivered it to my door within 2 days flat. Thank you Amazon and Thank you Internet.
I am not one to easily be swayed by diets and self-help books like the one above, but I must say, this book DID MAKE SENSE! It made on outlandish promises. It explained things. The author has been a Type 1 diabetic all his life (he was diagnosed at 12 as a Type 1) and has made it to 80+ so there has got to be something here.
As I started reading the book, I started incorporating a lot of his advice in my lifestyle. At the very least, I immediately started putting Dr. Bernstein's meal plans into action. Being a Type 1 Diabetic, Dr. Bernstein lives a spartan life that still puts me to shame. However, his diet did bring my blood sugar in control. Here are the readings:
11/30/2015 Dnc after breakfast 2 cup salad kale and zucchini and 1 tbsp cheese and nuts and 1 scoop whey
11/30/2015 2:00pm Dnc Lunch Salad greens and zucchini 1/4 cup cheese and tofu and walnuts and pine nuts and tabasco
11/30/2015 10:07am 125 1:45 after dinner 1/2 tab 1.4 opo and tofu and nutrella and 1/4 cup peanuts and 2 tomatoes
12/1/2015 10:49am 85 Fasting
12/1/2015 10:52am Dnc breakfast 1 scoop whey + 1.5 cup left over salad and some opo squash + tomato + 10 grams nutrella + little tofu
12/1/2015 4:10pm 118 1:45 hours after lunch 1 avocado + 1/2 cucumber + 1 cup kale/other greens + 1/2 apple + 2 tbsp pomegranate seeds + Almonds + tabasco
12/1/2015 11:28pm 122 1:45 after dinner Opo squash and tofu and soup using two tomatoes, tofu, celery, mushrooms and 25 grams quinoa
12/2/2015 8:15am 96 Fasting
12/2/2015 10:20am Dnc breakfast 1 scoop whey + half a cup of tofu soup with tomatoes/celery/mushrooms and quinoa
12/2/2015 1:48pm 121 forgot to take med with breakfast, took with lunch
12/2/2015 3:15pm 126 1 hour 8 minutes after lunch 1 scoop whey + 2-3 tbsp breakfast soup + salad (kale/zucchini/parmesan cheese 1/4cup + 1/2 block tofu + tabasco)
12/2/2015 12:18am 114 1:50 after dinner 2 cups bok-choy boiled with spices + mushrooms + 1 tomato + tofu + nutrella
12/3/2015 11:45am 109 fasting for nearly 13 hours and waking up till 4:30am
12/3/2015 5:43pm 120 1:45 hours after lunch Cucumber, kale, 1/4 apple, pine nuts, 1/4 cup parmesan cheese, 3/4 cup edmame, 1 cup asparagus
12/3/2015 9:37pm 93 1 hour after dinner Bok choy blended plus tofu plus nutrella plus tomato 2 cups
12/4/2015 9:09am 78 Fasting
12/4/2015 9:30am Dnc breakfast 1 scoop whey + 1/4 apple + 1/4 cup mushroom and Tofu
12/4/2015 1:40pm Dnc Lunch 1 scoop whey + bok choy + mushroom + tofu + nutrella
12/4/2015 7:57pm 106 1 hour after dinner 3/4 cup mushroom and tofu + salad (1/4 apple, kale salad 1 cup + 2 tbsp pine nuts + 2 tbsp walnuts + 1/8 cup cheese + 1/4 cup peanuts)
12/4/2015 9:57pm 104 2 hours after dinner
12/5/2015 10:25am 90 Fasting
12/5/2015 12:45pm 108 2 hours after breakfast Mushrooms tofu half a bell pepper red and celery stick and a scoop of whey. Did some weight training
12/5/2015 9:24pm 116 2 hour after dinner Mushroom and celery and tofu 1 cup plus two cup green bean and nutrella
12/6/2015 6:53am 93 Fasting
12/6/2015 7:15am Dnc breakfast Beans with nutrella/ a bit of mushroom and celery and tofu
12/6/2015 12:00pm Dnc Lunch 1.5 cup mushroom and celery and tofu
12/6/2015 8:53pm 105 2 hours after dinner 1 cup kale plus a little bit tofu/mushroom/celery dish, 1 zucchini + 2 slices pepperjack cheese on top
He advocates a high protein and reasonable amount of fat with tons of veggies diet. His secret sauce: No more than 6 grams of carbs in breakfast, no more than 12 grams in Lunch or dinner. That is ALL CARBS. That includes the carbs from veggies!
THAT SUCKS!
BUT THAT WORKS!
Sigh.
So, I did put his plan in action. And it did work. And I was not liking chewing Kale Salad, over and over, again and again.
And thus, I decided that if I was to have long term success, I needed to morph his suggestions that would be suitable for Indian Vegetarians.
Did I mention my mom living in India is a Diabetic too?
Did I mention that it took me a month to breach the topic with my parents.
Did I mention that I did not pay too much attention to her glucose levels assuming she was taking care of it? Did I mention that when I heard about her blood glucose levels my eyes popped out! They were high!
Did I mention that what most sources on the internet and doctors in clinics tell you WILL cause you to have complications over time?
No, that is not for me.
Dr. Bernstein said:
So, after week 1, I used my trusty fitbit to track my exercise. I used to run 3x a week and get nearly 12,000-15,000steps on the three days (monday, wednesday and fridays) but the rest of the days, my step count used to be pretty abysmal.
So, after I came back from the doctor's visit, I upped my step count. For the whole next week I walked at least 15,000 steps, sometimes surpassing and ending up almost at 20,000 steps. In a week, my legs were shot and constantly tired. Getting to run was becoming a chore as my calves, hamstring and practically all other parts of the lower body would start screaming in agony. Climbing a flight of stairs became a bit of pain as by the end of one floor, the calves and hamstrings would be in agony.
Two words: NOT GOOD!
Being a long time runner and exercise aficionado, I know all about rest and recovery times. Clearly, I was stressing my body beyond its current abilities. TIME TO STOP! TIME TO REST! So, I cut back a little bit. One week, instead of running, I just did very long walks and on the off days (Tuesdays and Thursdays), I barely did 6000 steps. I rested on Saturday and Sunday.
Monday, the muscles felt more relaxed and I could actually run 4 miles.
Even though I did not enjoy the salad and heavy infusion of vegetables in my meals, I was beginning to be OK with it.
Sometime during this week, during my incessant research on diabetes, I came across Dr. Bernstein's Diabetes Solution book on a forum. Curious, I read the reviews. The book is VERY HIGHLY rated on Amazon with over 450 reviews and most of them 4 and 5 starts.
Being an engineer, if there is one thing I believe in, it is the Wisdom of Masses. There has got to be something here I thought and bought it. Amazon Prime delivered it to my door within 2 days flat. Thank you Amazon and Thank you Internet.
I am not one to easily be swayed by diets and self-help books like the one above, but I must say, this book DID MAKE SENSE! It made on outlandish promises. It explained things. The author has been a Type 1 diabetic all his life (he was diagnosed at 12 as a Type 1) and has made it to 80+ so there has got to be something here.
As I started reading the book, I started incorporating a lot of his advice in my lifestyle. At the very least, I immediately started putting Dr. Bernstein's meal plans into action. Being a Type 1 Diabetic, Dr. Bernstein lives a spartan life that still puts me to shame. However, his diet did bring my blood sugar in control. Here are the readings:
11/30/2015 Dnc after breakfast 2 cup salad kale and zucchini and 1 tbsp cheese and nuts and 1 scoop whey
11/30/2015 2:00pm Dnc Lunch Salad greens and zucchini 1/4 cup cheese and tofu and walnuts and pine nuts and tabasco
11/30/2015 10:07am 125 1:45 after dinner 1/2 tab 1.4 opo and tofu and nutrella and 1/4 cup peanuts and 2 tomatoes
12/1/2015 10:49am 85 Fasting
12/1/2015 10:52am Dnc breakfast 1 scoop whey + 1.5 cup left over salad and some opo squash + tomato + 10 grams nutrella + little tofu
12/1/2015 4:10pm 118 1:45 hours after lunch 1 avocado + 1/2 cucumber + 1 cup kale/other greens + 1/2 apple + 2 tbsp pomegranate seeds + Almonds + tabasco
12/1/2015 11:28pm 122 1:45 after dinner Opo squash and tofu and soup using two tomatoes, tofu, celery, mushrooms and 25 grams quinoa
12/2/2015 8:15am 96 Fasting
12/2/2015 10:20am Dnc breakfast 1 scoop whey + half a cup of tofu soup with tomatoes/celery/mushrooms and quinoa
12/2/2015 1:48pm 121 forgot to take med with breakfast, took with lunch
12/2/2015 3:15pm 126 1 hour 8 minutes after lunch 1 scoop whey + 2-3 tbsp breakfast soup + salad (kale/zucchini/parmesan cheese 1/4cup + 1/2 block tofu + tabasco)
12/2/2015 12:18am 114 1:50 after dinner 2 cups bok-choy boiled with spices + mushrooms + 1 tomato + tofu + nutrella
12/3/2015 11:45am 109 fasting for nearly 13 hours and waking up till 4:30am
12/3/2015 5:43pm 120 1:45 hours after lunch Cucumber, kale, 1/4 apple, pine nuts, 1/4 cup parmesan cheese, 3/4 cup edmame, 1 cup asparagus
12/3/2015 9:37pm 93 1 hour after dinner Bok choy blended plus tofu plus nutrella plus tomato 2 cups
12/4/2015 9:09am 78 Fasting
12/4/2015 9:30am Dnc breakfast 1 scoop whey + 1/4 apple + 1/4 cup mushroom and Tofu
12/4/2015 1:40pm Dnc Lunch 1 scoop whey + bok choy + mushroom + tofu + nutrella
12/4/2015 7:57pm 106 1 hour after dinner 3/4 cup mushroom and tofu + salad (1/4 apple, kale salad 1 cup + 2 tbsp pine nuts + 2 tbsp walnuts + 1/8 cup cheese + 1/4 cup peanuts)
12/4/2015 9:57pm 104 2 hours after dinner
12/5/2015 10:25am 90 Fasting
12/5/2015 12:45pm 108 2 hours after breakfast Mushrooms tofu half a bell pepper red and celery stick and a scoop of whey. Did some weight training
12/5/2015 9:24pm 116 2 hour after dinner Mushroom and celery and tofu 1 cup plus two cup green bean and nutrella
12/6/2015 6:53am 93 Fasting
12/6/2015 7:15am Dnc breakfast Beans with nutrella/ a bit of mushroom and celery and tofu
12/6/2015 12:00pm Dnc Lunch 1.5 cup mushroom and celery and tofu
12/6/2015 8:53pm 105 2 hours after dinner 1 cup kale plus a little bit tofu/mushroom/celery dish, 1 zucchini + 2 slices pepperjack cheese on top
He advocates a high protein and reasonable amount of fat with tons of veggies diet. His secret sauce: No more than 6 grams of carbs in breakfast, no more than 12 grams in Lunch or dinner. That is ALL CARBS. That includes the carbs from veggies!
THAT SUCKS!
BUT THAT WORKS!
Sigh.
So, I did put his plan in action. And it did work. And I was not liking chewing Kale Salad, over and over, again and again.
And thus, I decided that if I was to have long term success, I needed to morph his suggestions that would be suitable for Indian Vegetarians.
Did I mention my mom living in India is a Diabetic too?
Did I mention that it took me a month to breach the topic with my parents.
Did I mention that I did not pay too much attention to her glucose levels assuming she was taking care of it? Did I mention that when I heard about her blood glucose levels my eyes popped out! They were high!
Did I mention that what most sources on the internet and doctors in clinics tell you WILL cause you to have complications over time?
No, that is not for me.
Dr. Bernstein said:
- 83 blood sugar at fasting
No higher than 140 after 1 hourNo higher than 120 after 2 hours
Updated: Actually, Dr. Bernstein's book says that for Type 2 diabetics, he aims to maintain 83 before, during and after a meal. Seems I mixed up things when reading the innumerable number of articles I found online. I am having a hard time understanding how that is even possible but what I take away from the above is that I should aim to have a max spike of a 100 post-prandial (after meal) and all other times, be at or around 83. *Sigh*
I am going to stick to that, thank you very much.
I am going to stick to that, thank you very much.
I will get there.
And I will keep it.
I will tell you about the next two weeks and the difficulties I faced and am I still facing as I go forward.
For now, Good night.
Got diagnosed with diabetes
So, I am a somewhat newly diagnosed Indian Vegetarian
Diabetic. I have always been a bit overweight, but never overly so. In
fact, for the past 7 years, I have been running 3x a week between 4-6
miles, and ran a few half marathons. I used to do a lot of strength
training and in general I mostly kept track of what I was eating... At the time of being diagnosed, I was 186lb at 5'6"
And I usually would get a checkup once a year and last year's numbers were slightly elevated but not overly so... So, when this year, during a routine checkup my blood sugar came up to a 164, they drew more blood for a thorough lab work. They pretty much said that I was diabetic but the doctor was very hesitant in committing until I pressed her for a hand-waved confidence level.. She said near 80% chance and my heart dropped... I still could not believe it. I thought I was living a well balanced life without much in terms of excess. I mean I eat the usual daal and sabji and I had switched to brown rice almost completely years ago...
This happened on a Friday, and the physician’s office was closed for the weekend, so I went to the pharmacy and got a Bayer Contour Next blood glucose meter, needles and strips and the poking journey began.. I checked my blood sugar many times on Saturday and then Sunday. By Sunday Evening, I was ready to believe it. All evidence pointed to me having diabetes. Sigh. Facepalm.
Here were the readings that convinced me...
11/21/2015 12:53pm 128 Fasting
11/21/2015 3:22pm 171 2+ hour after meal
11/21/2015 6:53pm 217 2 hours after meal
11/22/2015 9:45am 150 fasting
11/22/2015 8:00pm 156 2 hours after meal
11/23/2015 7:11am 136 Fasting
Anyways, so Monday, resigned I went to the doctor's office and asked for the diabetes medication. By then, the results of the bloodwork had come in and the A1C was at 8.3%. Certain Diabetes.
The doctor came in and started telling me things and in about 5 minutes she realized that I have been diagnosed. She was taken aback and then she was back in about next 5 minutes. She explained about the diabetic physiology, how things work, mentioned that for her internship, she had picked Diabetes as her research subject and that there is a slim chance but diabetes can even be reversed (or be put in remission, as I later realized.) I had researched and found this magic "starvation diet" which could reverse diabetes and the doctor frowned upon that and said, don't do that... One it does not work and two you will lose a ton of muscle mass which will actually go against you.
Anyhow, She gave the standard food chart: 50% veggies, 1/4 plate beans/lentils and 1/4 rice etc, put me on 500mg Metformin (break in half and have 250mg in the morning and 250 in the evening) and sent me on my way and asked me to come back in a week so she could adjust my dosage if required. She also asked me to keep a food log so she could see what I was eating.
So off I went and being an engineer, I wanted to understand and be able to measure where I stood. So, for the next many days, I measured my blood sugar at fasting levels, 1 hour and 2 hour after food and was a bit startled at what I saw. I always thought steel cut Oatmeal was a good food - I usually use about a 1/4 cup for breakfast and I could count on that, but I noticed that my blood sugar would spike almost to 150-170 within two hours of breakfast. Similar things would happen after lunch dinner where I would have 1/4 cup legumes/beans.
The doctor had mentioned that I should have only 1/4th of my meal from Wheat and Rice so I completely gave up on them. Now that legumes/beans were spiking my blood sugar, I had to give up on those too... So, I was down to just eating Salad.. tasteless salad.. my Indian tastebuds that had for all my life been used to spices and rice and daal etc were screaming.
Here is the blood sugar and food log for the week before I went to the doctor. I had gone cold turkey with my diet and completely cut out ALL GRAINS from my diet. Yes, that is ALL GRAINS!
Note: DNC below means Did Not Check (or could not check)
11/23/2015 11:33pm 148 2 hours after meal 185 1/2 tab
11/24/2015 8:43am 143 Fasting 180-morning
11/24/2015 1:02pm 169 1.5 hours after breakfast 1/2 tab
11/24/2015 4:06pm 147 30 minutes of meal shaky hands.. walked 7.5k steps before lunch
11/24/2015 10:38pm 140 2 hours after meal 1/4-1/2 cup kidney beans + 2 zucchini + 1 stalk celery + kale/cabbage + tomato chutney
11/25/2015 9:16am 136 Fasting
11/25/2015 11:35am 147 2 hours after breakfast 1/2 tab 1/2 cup uncooked oatmeal in water + 1 scoop whey
11/25/2015 1:43pm 139 after running, before lunch
11/25/2015 2:44pm 152 1 hr after lunch feeling sleepy 1 cup chinese stir fry veggies + 2 cups kale/cabbage + 1 tbsp cheese + 1/2 apple + tabasco
11/25/2015 3:50pm 128 2 hours after lunch
11/25/2015 10:18pm 108 1 hour after dinner 1/4 cup black grams + 1 cup salad + 6 tomato chutney . earlier snacked on chinese stir fry veggies
11/25/2015 11:20pm 130 2 hour after dinner
11/26/2015 9:40am 123 Fasting
11/26/2015 11:07am 178 1 hour after breakfast 1/2 tablet 1 scoop whey and 1/2 cup oat in water and 1 cucumber
11/26/2015 12:00 148 2 hours after breakfast
11/26/2015 15:49 121 1.5 hours after lunchwas walking 2 cup kale salad + 1/2 avocado + 1/2 apple + 1 tbsp nuts + 1/2 cup black gram + 2 cup broccoli/asparagus/celery/zucchini/ mushrooms
11/26/2015 8:32pm 144 dinner 1.5 hours after 1 cup chinese mix + 2 cup kale salad + 1/2 avocado + 1/4 pomegranate + 1 tbsp nuts + 1/2 cup black gram
11/27/2015 9:40am 123 Fasting
11/27/2015 12:16pm 155 2 hours after breakfast 1 cup carrots + 1 cup mushroom + 1 zucchini + 2 tomatoes + 1 scoop whey + indian pickle
11/27/2015 5pm 176 1.5 hours after lunch 2 cup kale and 1/4 cup pomegranate and 1/2 apple and 5 sweet mini peppers and 1 tbsp cheese and 1 tbsp vinegar balsamic 1 tbsp pine nuts and 1 zucchini
11/27/2015 9:44pm 166 1.5 hours after dinner 1/2 tab 2 cup bok choy + 2 cup mushroom + 2 cup chinese mix + 1/2 cup brown rice + 1/2 cup black gram + 1tbsp oil and spices
11/28/2015 10:05am 125 fasting
11/28/2015 11:42 133 1.5 hours after breakfast 1 scoop whey and 2 zucchini and 1 cup asparagus 1 tsp canola oil, 1 tsp olive oil
11/28/2015 12:45pm 118 2:15 after breakfast
11/28/2015 Dnc could not check 3 cup salad /zucchini/cucumber/kale 1/2 red bell pepper and 1/3 block tofu sauteed in 1/2 tsp oil and spices
11/28/2015 10:38pm 113 1 hour after dinner ran 3 miles boiled/blended 6 cups spinach + 1/3 block tofu + 10 grams nutrella + 1 tsp oil + spices and garlic + 1 cup salad with 1 tsp djion mustard
11/28/2015 11:42pm 115 2 hours after dinner
11/29/2015 9:40am 101 Fasting
11/29/2015 126 after breakfast 1 scoop whey + 2 cup Salad + Cheese?? don't fully remember
11/29/2015 3:40pm Dnc could not check 1.5 cup spinach + nutrella + tofu + 1 avocado + 1/4 cup parmesan + kale salad
11/29/2015 10:40pm 117 Forgot to take med with food so took with measurement 3 cups salad 3 tbsp Djimon mustard
11/30/2015 7:55am 97 Fasting
11/30/2015 Dnc after breakfast 2 cup salad kale and zucchini and 1 tbsp cheese and nuts and 1 scoop whey
So, with this diet, I was able to bring my sugar back to almost normal levels in about a week. It was a really harsh learning though. Note all the highlighted lines above. Having carrots+tomatoes in the same meal is bad (155). Having 1/2 cup brown rice and 1/2 cup black gram is BAD (166)!
Armed with this data, I went to the doctor a week later. I was depressed. She was impressed. She said that she would be amazed if even half of her patients could keep their blood sugar regulated like mine. She was a bit alarmed though... She mentioned that I am a pretty "Spartan" diet and that I should adopt a lifestyle that I can maintain for life. I told her how ANY GRAINS spike my blood sugar and she offered to increase the dosage of Metformin. WHOA! That was something that I did not want to get into. Here I was trying to change my lifestyle so I could go into remission and the doc was telling me to eat more carbs and to increase the dosage of Metformin... We had a pretty long conversation.. almost an hour and she gave me a few ideas.. She mentioned the video Forks over Knives, gave me ideas about eating tofu, mentioned that I should not have a full apple, only half at a time and that I could use cheese even though she discouraged using milk as it has milk glucose.
She told me that She was hesitant to put me on Metformin really since I was going all gungho with my exercise and she was worried that I could become hypoglycemic. She told me to skip Metformin if I was going to skip a meal..
She mentioned the SPARTAN lifestyle again but I was a bit adamant. I told her that I can be very stubborn and steadfast... That is how I kept up 7+ years of running 3x a week and I told her that I am going to worry about keeping up my food lifestyle for the rest of my life after 3 months when I bring my A1C and weight completely in check. She was a bit amused. She gave me another prescription for 2 more months of Metformin so that I would not have to come back just for a prescription and sent me on my way.
Thus ended episode 1. Week 1 of the Indian Vegetarian Diabetic's journey.
And I usually would get a checkup once a year and last year's numbers were slightly elevated but not overly so... So, when this year, during a routine checkup my blood sugar came up to a 164, they drew more blood for a thorough lab work. They pretty much said that I was diabetic but the doctor was very hesitant in committing until I pressed her for a hand-waved confidence level.. She said near 80% chance and my heart dropped... I still could not believe it. I thought I was living a well balanced life without much in terms of excess. I mean I eat the usual daal and sabji and I had switched to brown rice almost completely years ago...
This happened on a Friday, and the physician’s office was closed for the weekend, so I went to the pharmacy and got a Bayer Contour Next blood glucose meter, needles and strips and the poking journey began.. I checked my blood sugar many times on Saturday and then Sunday. By Sunday Evening, I was ready to believe it. All evidence pointed to me having diabetes. Sigh. Facepalm.
Here were the readings that convinced me...
11/21/2015 12:53pm 128 Fasting
11/21/2015 3:22pm 171 2+ hour after meal
11/21/2015 6:53pm 217 2 hours after meal
11/22/2015 9:45am 150 fasting
11/22/2015 8:00pm 156 2 hours after meal
11/23/2015 7:11am 136 Fasting
Anyways, so Monday, resigned I went to the doctor's office and asked for the diabetes medication. By then, the results of the bloodwork had come in and the A1C was at 8.3%. Certain Diabetes.
The doctor came in and started telling me things and in about 5 minutes she realized that I have been diagnosed. She was taken aback and then she was back in about next 5 minutes. She explained about the diabetic physiology, how things work, mentioned that for her internship, she had picked Diabetes as her research subject and that there is a slim chance but diabetes can even be reversed (or be put in remission, as I later realized.) I had researched and found this magic "starvation diet" which could reverse diabetes and the doctor frowned upon that and said, don't do that... One it does not work and two you will lose a ton of muscle mass which will actually go against you.
Anyhow, She gave the standard food chart: 50% veggies, 1/4 plate beans/lentils and 1/4 rice etc, put me on 500mg Metformin (break in half and have 250mg in the morning and 250 in the evening) and sent me on my way and asked me to come back in a week so she could adjust my dosage if required. She also asked me to keep a food log so she could see what I was eating.
So off I went and being an engineer, I wanted to understand and be able to measure where I stood. So, for the next many days, I measured my blood sugar at fasting levels, 1 hour and 2 hour after food and was a bit startled at what I saw. I always thought steel cut Oatmeal was a good food - I usually use about a 1/4 cup for breakfast and I could count on that, but I noticed that my blood sugar would spike almost to 150-170 within two hours of breakfast. Similar things would happen after lunch dinner where I would have 1/4 cup legumes/beans.
The doctor had mentioned that I should have only 1/4th of my meal from Wheat and Rice so I completely gave up on them. Now that legumes/beans were spiking my blood sugar, I had to give up on those too... So, I was down to just eating Salad.. tasteless salad.. my Indian tastebuds that had for all my life been used to spices and rice and daal etc were screaming.
Here is the blood sugar and food log for the week before I went to the doctor. I had gone cold turkey with my diet and completely cut out ALL GRAINS from my diet. Yes, that is ALL GRAINS!
Note: DNC below means Did Not Check (or could not check)
11/23/2015 11:33pm 148 2 hours after meal 185 1/2 tab
11/24/2015 8:43am 143 Fasting 180-morning
11/24/2015 1:02pm 169 1.5 hours after breakfast 1/2 tab
11/24/2015 4:06pm 147 30 minutes of meal shaky hands.. walked 7.5k steps before lunch
11/24/2015 10:38pm 140 2 hours after meal 1/4-1/2 cup kidney beans + 2 zucchini + 1 stalk celery + kale/cabbage + tomato chutney
11/25/2015 9:16am 136 Fasting
11/25/2015 11:35am 147 2 hours after breakfast 1/2 tab 1/2 cup uncooked oatmeal in water + 1 scoop whey
11/25/2015 1:43pm 139 after running, before lunch
11/25/2015 2:44pm 152 1 hr after lunch feeling sleepy 1 cup chinese stir fry veggies + 2 cups kale/cabbage + 1 tbsp cheese + 1/2 apple + tabasco
11/25/2015 3:50pm 128 2 hours after lunch
11/25/2015 10:18pm 108 1 hour after dinner 1/4 cup black grams + 1 cup salad + 6 tomato chutney . earlier snacked on chinese stir fry veggies
11/25/2015 11:20pm 130 2 hour after dinner
11/26/2015 9:40am 123 Fasting
11/26/2015 11:07am 178 1 hour after breakfast 1/2 tablet 1 scoop whey and 1/2 cup oat in water and 1 cucumber
11/26/2015 12:00 148 2 hours after breakfast
11/26/2015 15:49 121 1.5 hours after lunchwas walking 2 cup kale salad + 1/2 avocado + 1/2 apple + 1 tbsp nuts + 1/2 cup black gram + 2 cup broccoli/asparagus/celery/zucchini/ mushrooms
11/26/2015 8:32pm 144 dinner 1.5 hours after 1 cup chinese mix + 2 cup kale salad + 1/2 avocado + 1/4 pomegranate + 1 tbsp nuts + 1/2 cup black gram
11/27/2015 9:40am 123 Fasting
11/27/2015 12:16pm 155 2 hours after breakfast 1 cup carrots + 1 cup mushroom + 1 zucchini + 2 tomatoes + 1 scoop whey + indian pickle
11/27/2015 5pm 176 1.5 hours after lunch 2 cup kale and 1/4 cup pomegranate and 1/2 apple and 5 sweet mini peppers and 1 tbsp cheese and 1 tbsp vinegar balsamic 1 tbsp pine nuts and 1 zucchini
11/27/2015 9:44pm 166 1.5 hours after dinner 1/2 tab 2 cup bok choy + 2 cup mushroom + 2 cup chinese mix + 1/2 cup brown rice + 1/2 cup black gram + 1tbsp oil and spices
11/28/2015 10:05am 125 fasting
11/28/2015 11:42 133 1.5 hours after breakfast 1 scoop whey and 2 zucchini and 1 cup asparagus 1 tsp canola oil, 1 tsp olive oil
11/28/2015 12:45pm 118 2:15 after breakfast
11/28/2015 Dnc could not check 3 cup salad /zucchini/cucumber/kale 1/2 red bell pepper and 1/3 block tofu sauteed in 1/2 tsp oil and spices
11/28/2015 10:38pm 113 1 hour after dinner ran 3 miles boiled/blended 6 cups spinach + 1/3 block tofu + 10 grams nutrella + 1 tsp oil + spices and garlic + 1 cup salad with 1 tsp djion mustard
11/28/2015 11:42pm 115 2 hours after dinner
11/29/2015 9:40am 101 Fasting
11/29/2015 126 after breakfast 1 scoop whey + 2 cup Salad + Cheese?? don't fully remember
11/29/2015 3:40pm Dnc could not check 1.5 cup spinach + nutrella + tofu + 1 avocado + 1/4 cup parmesan + kale salad
11/29/2015 10:40pm 117 Forgot to take med with food so took with measurement 3 cups salad 3 tbsp Djimon mustard
11/30/2015 7:55am 97 Fasting
11/30/2015 Dnc after breakfast 2 cup salad kale and zucchini and 1 tbsp cheese and nuts and 1 scoop whey
So, with this diet, I was able to bring my sugar back to almost normal levels in about a week. It was a really harsh learning though. Note all the highlighted lines above. Having carrots+tomatoes in the same meal is bad (155). Having 1/2 cup brown rice and 1/2 cup black gram is BAD (166)!
Armed with this data, I went to the doctor a week later. I was depressed. She was impressed. She said that she would be amazed if even half of her patients could keep their blood sugar regulated like mine. She was a bit alarmed though... She mentioned that I am a pretty "Spartan" diet and that I should adopt a lifestyle that I can maintain for life. I told her how ANY GRAINS spike my blood sugar and she offered to increase the dosage of Metformin. WHOA! That was something that I did not want to get into. Here I was trying to change my lifestyle so I could go into remission and the doc was telling me to eat more carbs and to increase the dosage of Metformin... We had a pretty long conversation.. almost an hour and she gave me a few ideas.. She mentioned the video Forks over Knives, gave me ideas about eating tofu, mentioned that I should not have a full apple, only half at a time and that I could use cheese even though she discouraged using milk as it has milk glucose.
She told me that She was hesitant to put me on Metformin really since I was going all gungho with my exercise and she was worried that I could become hypoglycemic. She told me to skip Metformin if I was going to skip a meal..
She mentioned the SPARTAN lifestyle again but I was a bit adamant. I told her that I can be very stubborn and steadfast... That is how I kept up 7+ years of running 3x a week and I told her that I am going to worry about keeping up my food lifestyle for the rest of my life after 3 months when I bring my A1C and weight completely in check. She was a bit amused. She gave me another prescription for 2 more months of Metformin so that I would not have to come back just for a prescription and sent me on my way.
Thus ended episode 1. Week 1 of the Indian Vegetarian Diabetic's journey.
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