Bet On Yourself

So much of the standard care for treating diabetes is rooted in this – patients will not change, will not take care of themselves.  In fact, much of how we treat Type 2 Diabetes has at its core that “patients should be able to live a normal life”.  Sounds wonderful, doesn’t it?    Aren’t you glad the medical profession has at its core the value that you should be able to live the same life everyone else does?   Is there anything better?  Well, yes, actually.   Being healthy and free of a deadly and debilitating disease is far better.  For that outcome, though, it’s going to require changing what you eat, when you eat, exercise,  sleep and stress management.  That’s hard work and it’s worth the hard work.  The medical system can’t take the time to inform, train, teach and coach those lifestyle changes – and they don’t believe in you – and they don’t think it’s right to expect your life to be different than the modern life.   Take your pill, take your shots, change nothing and be glad that you will still die in pain and disability, just perhaps a few years delayed.

I’m reading “Rethinking Diabetes: What Science Reveals About Diet, Insulin, and Successful Treatments” by Gary Taubes.  He is telling the history of all the different ways doctors and researchers have been approaching diabetes.  It’s a “how we got here” treatise and it’s eye opening.

We’ve known for 100 years how to effectively treat diabetes but all that went away when we had insulin shots and all the drugs that came after.   Why change your diet when you can eat whatever carb laden food and desert you want and “cover it” with insulin?  Why should diabetic children have to be different than any other children?

Sounds wonderful.  Sounds compassionate.  So much better than either eating very little, fasting, or eating a low carb, high fat diet.  Just eat your cake and take your insulin shots.  

And watch decades later with the disability and health disasters that didn’t have to happen if only folks could have been trusted to do the difficult work of changing how they eat and live.

The good news is that YOU can have faith in you.  You can bet on yourself.  I went from highly diabetic on 3 meds including the $1000/month Trulicity, and I was scheduled to get on an insulin pump.  I read the book “The Diabetes Code” by Dr Jason Fung, went strict NSNG (No Sugars, No Grains) – keto diet, added intermittent fasting and exercise.  In three months – THREE MONTHS – I was off all the meds.  I’m three years into my health recovery journey and the words my diabetes specialist said still stand out in my mind “Not everyone is willing to make the changes you did”.  That was her reason when I asked why she didn’t teach what I’d done that  reversed my Type 2 Diabetes.  That is why she told me, “Diabetes isn’t your fault”, and then piled on more and more meds.

She wasn’t willing to bet on me.  She’s probably not wrong about most people being unwilling to make the changes.  But you?  You can believe in yourself.  You can do hard things.  You can overcome Type 2 Diabetes as I have.  As many tens of thousands have.

Bet on yourself.

p.s.  Always consult your own health team for your specific needs

p.p.s. Educate yourself to fully participate in your health strategy 

My three year review of beating type 2 diabetes: https://lessoflee.wordpress.com/2024/04/22/three-years-into-winning-type-2-diabetes-from-highly-diabetic-to-normal-and-drug-free/