High aic and the scare

[rayinpenn]

With about 4 weeks to go until my quarterly doctors visit I vowed to clean up my act. No booze, watch I eat and walk. The doctors visit came and my a1c was terrible. Then the conversation came with my insurance company nurse. She mentioned that 20% of her patients had lost a toe. Scared me.

Terrified and determined to mend my ways i stared walking the for past month -2 brisk walks a day religiously. If its raining i hit the treadmill 30 minutes. Podcast in my ears like this american life, the Clark Howard show, freakeconomics, etc., also I’m trying to go Light on the carbs. Had some on my birthday but that was it. Ive lost some weight.

How do you get and stay motivated...

 

[LOL!]

I enjoy walking in the rain. I have an umbrella and a rain jacket.

If it is raining, I don't take the dog, but if it not raining, the dog enjoys 4+ mile walks twice a day.

I don't listen to pod casts because I meet very interesting people while walking and they want to talk to me, too.

Another thing: I can include a trip to stores during my walks: grocery store, drug store, pet supply store, library, whatever. I can even drop the car off for service and go for a walk instead of waiting for service.

 

[trumpeting_angel]

Speaking of the car, park in the farthest end of the parking lot. Yes, at the mall, too, if you go to the mall. Always take the stairs. Instead of setting your glass down on the table, carry it to the kitchen then and there. Take every opportunity to add movement, and if you must watch TV, do it from the treadmill at a walking pace.

Really watch the carbs, don’t just try.

The scare is more than just a toe, as you know. It’s a leg, a foot, your eyesight, your kidney functioning. You can cheat for your daily blood glucose readings, but not the A1C. It measures the past few months.

Find an exercise buddy. Visit the dietician! You want to be around to use that lovely retirement you worked for, and you want to be out for a walk, not confined to a wheelchair!

Best of luck! I need to exercise for real, as well, although I don’t have DM. I. have osteoporosis, and I’ve developed a bit of a hump. I need more strength and flexibility to ski in the winter! I need to practice what I preach!

 

[athena53]

So how terrible is your a1c? Mine was at 5.9, down to 5.7. No risk factors whatsoever- very active, low end of normal BMI, no family history.

What keeps me motivated? Seeing people in the grocery store on a scooter with an empty sock where a foot used to be. I've cut out potatoes, rice, pasta, etc. because I do love my nightly scotch and every once in awhile I eat a piece of bakery cake and relish every fatty, sugary molecule. I don't want to get to the point where I have to cut them out completely.

 

[Scuba]

I used to volunteer in the PT ward of an acute hospital. Many of the patients were diabetics with amputations. That made an impression on me. It’s still a daily struggle for me, and I don’t exercise every day nor am I at a perfect weight, but I try to eat healthy most of the time and have cut back on wine significantly.

 

[msieweke]

Find Jason Fung on YouTube and watch as many of his talks as you can. He is a kidney specialist with a lot of experience treating T2 diabetics. Diet is primary. Once you get your diet right, your energy will go up and you'll feel more motivated to exercise.

 

[RAE]

You don't mention what your diet has been like, other than you've cut back on carbs a little bit. Diet is extremely important. Eat as many veggies as possible, and substitute veggies for grain-based carbs whenever possible. Cut out all the junk food that comes in a box/bag with a long list of ingredients on the side. Eat more of other healthy foods like eggs, fish, olive oil, berries. Also, cinnamon has been shown to lower blood sugar. You can just start adding more cinnamon to foods that you eat, or take a daily cinnamon capsule if that is easier.

And of course keep up the daily walking. My dog bugs me twice a day to go for walks, whether I feel like it or not (and I am thankful that he does).

It motivates me to do this stuff every time I think about friends of ours that have either died too early or who can't do much of anything now due to diabetes, heart disease.

 

[MRG]

Diet. If you're not a person who understands nutrition I'd suggest a calorie logger to help you understand where your carbs come from. Sounds crazy but for many years I didn't really understand what contained carbs.

Exercise is important too. I've added 3X40 elipictal workouts in addition to the 3X50 weightlifting sessions. We always walk every day too.

 

[scrabbler1]

When I was in the hospital 3 years ago for an unrelated ailment, I was also diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes (talk about adding insult to injury!). I met with a dietitian and we went over making some changes to my diet. They weren't huge changes, thankfully, just getting rid of the worst things and fixing the easiest things to fix. One was controlling portion size, especially from foods with carbs.


Next was paying close attention to those nutrition labels on the back of most foods, particularly the Carbs amount. It was amazing how something billed as "low-cal" or "sugar-free" in big letters on the front of the container meant nothing if the carbs count was still high.


Like Athena53, my A1C has been just under 6 for the last year or two, making my doctor (endocrinologist) very happy. It was over 7 when I was first admitted into the hospital 3 years ago but quickly came down through the 6s in the next 6 months.

 

[Lawrencewendall]

Last year around this time, my A1C was 8.6. I went on metformin and starting taking fiber capsules (6 in the morning and 6 at night) and A1C was under 7 by October. I started the Keto lifestyle in November and last month my A1C was 5.3. Doc said whatever I'm doing, keep at it. Virtually no exercise due to my commute time and all around laziness still manged to lose 24 lbs since last year.

 

[chilkoot]

How do you get and stay motivated...

Motivation is mental. When I joined a gym years ago I knew their business model was to sell memberships, get people to go 1-2 times, then cancel after a few months. I decided to make the decision one time only. If I ever felt the urge to "just give it a miss today" I had a mental rebuttal all ready: Nope, not an option. That decision's already been made.
Several years later, it's still working.

 

[jimnjana]

I use a pedometer app on my phone to monitor my steps. Keto diet is worth looking into. For me cutting carbs and sugar helped. In three months dropped 25+ pounds and dropped A1c from 6.8 to 5.7 . Monitoring glucose levels was key for me to see just how bad I had become and to see how different foods affect sugar levels.

 

[Ed B]

....

How do you get and stay motivated...

I got motivation from something my father told me when I was first diagnosed with T2 about 12 years ago. Dad had been what was once called a borderline diabetic his whole adult life, but blossomed into full blown diabetes in his 50s.

Dad said, "Diabetes is something you can die from or die with."

The implications are obvious. I plan to die with it in as far as I can control it.

Another big motivator is seeing people who have suffered amputations, hearing loss, and/or blindness because of complications from diabetes. That will motivate a person to do what they can as well.

Diabetes isnt a death sentence and if used for motivation it can be life changing in a good way. I was not a skinny T2 like my Dad, but I now weigh less than I have in 20 years and feel su much better in so many ways.

Here's hoping you can make lemonade from the lemon you were handed in life.

 

[flintnational]

You don't mention what your diet has been like, other than you've cut back on carbs a little bit. Diet is extremely important. Eat as many veggies as possible, and substitute veggies for grain-based carbs whenever possible. Cut out all the junk food that comes in a box/bag with a long list of ingredients on the side. Eat more of other healthy foods like eggs, fish, olive oil, berries. Also, cinnamon has been shown to lower blood sugar. You can just start adding more cinnamon to foods that you eat, or take a daily cinnamon capsule if that is easier.

Good advice. I will add the DW and I have found sugar, flour and processed carbs are highly addictive. While it may seem you cannot give them up completely, (that's the addiction) once you get beyond about 30 days, the cravings go away. Use homemade (not the store bought junk) low carb recipes for nut breads, nut crackers, zoodle pastas (veggie spirals) and low carb desserts to bridge you to this point. I now crave my lunch salad with homemade dressing, protein and packed with veggies!

Edit to add: Cauliflower is your friend. It can become rice or faux mashed potatoes.

 

[aja8888]

Good luck, Ray!

Yeah, it's all about diet and exercise. No getting around it.

I am 74 3/4 and very active. I walk a few miles per day (with and without the dog). I have two close friends my age and we walk the local championship golf course for 1.5 hours every Wednesday evening @ 7:00 PM, rain or shine.

BTW, I am not diabetic and do all I can to not go there.

I have a handicapped wife: lots of incurable problems with the worst being COPD and severe osteoporosis. Because of her condition, she need me to be in good shape and there for her.

You should get lots of great advice here as there have been many threads on this stuff.

 

[eytonxav]

I think its a lot like body building, 70% of the results come from proper nutrition, and 30% occurs from what you do in the gym or exercise wise. For me, the motivation comes from what I see in mirror and being able to fit into to some of my tighter clothes, and in getting favorable results from my quarterly Dr checkups. Controlling stress levels and getting enough sleep is important, as it's easy to fall off your diet if you are under heavy stress, but the good news is that exercise is a great way to reduce stress.

 

[madsquopper]

You might be able to accomplish a lot with diet and exercise. A year and a half ago I was surprised to get an a1c reading of 8.7. After taking a diabetes nutrition class and learning about how to reduce carbs realistically (I still eat them but am careful to limit), I've been able to get my a1c down to 5.7 so far with just dietary changes plus bumping up my exercise a bit more. But everyone is different, you have to find out what works specifically for you.

Larry

 

[Hillbilly]

After surgery plus 6 weeks in skilled care (with 80 IV bags @ $800 each), my dad's foot was saved. My FIL lost a toe: my neighbor across the street just lost 1/2 of a toe. I woke up after seeing all this and said not me if I can help it. Just saw doc last week and A1C was lowest yet at 5.0. No breads, no dairy, walk 2 miles per day, drink 1 gallon of water per day, eat birds (chicken/turkey), protein every meal and fast 16 hours each day. Fun, no. A chance to keep the feet, hopefully.

 

[RAE]

I read a nutrition blog by Chris Masterjohn, and he had this on his blog the other day, regarding ways to help control blood sugar. Just a few things to consider trying, in addition to any other needed changes to diet/exercise:



" Alex Leaf, who you may know from his work at Examine.com, or who you may follow on Facebook, where he shares a lot of research, recently posted a few hacks to control your blood glucose after meals.
So, he says, “How can we reduce postprandial glucose and glycemic variability? A couple of hacks are to consume 1 to 2 tablespoons of vinegar before you eat, consume 3 to 5 grams of glycine before you eat, consume your proteins and fibrous vegetables before your starchy carbohydrates, and go for a brief walk after eating.


So, if we go through these one by one, the vinegar, it’s probably the acid that’s important, but I would use raw apple cider vinegar. You can take your pick of choice. For the glycine, to get 3 to 5 grams of glycine, we could either get that from pure glycine powder, or you get it from collagen or gelatin, or we could get it from bone broth. If we’re talking about pure glycine powder, then the advantages are it’s cheaper, and it’s also sweet, so you can use it as a substitute for sweetener."