Going Paleo....

In December of 1996 I was diagnosed with Diabetes.  Not really a huge shock for me since it runs in my family, but I was only 18 and I was the only kid out of eight to get this fabulous news.  So, over the past 16 years (wow, has it really been that long?), I've been all over the map with how good I've taken care of myself . I've gone from tight control with A1c's of 6.5 while pregnant to really bad control (groan!) with A1c's of 11.3.  That is an incredibly embarrassing number for me to admit.

A quick primer for the general public on what an A1c actually is, it's a blood test that shows your average blood sugar over the past 2 - 3 months.  A 6.5 translates to an average blood sugar of about 154 (excellent) and 11.3 to about 329 (very poor).  Yeah, you can see I'm really good to myself.  I've had to come to terms with the fact that this isn't going away.  And it's definitely not getting any better while pretending that pft, no, I don't have diabetes, what are you talking about?  Bottom line, I have 3 beautiful children that want a fully functioning mommy for as long as I can be around.  At least, that's how they feel today.  :)

This brings us to the beginning of a journey.  Since this year began (2012) I've been doing research.  Tons and tons of research.  So much research that I think my husband is tired of hearing, "Honey, you have to hear this!"  I have just felt all along that there is a way to take care of myself that will negate the need for medication.  I don't feel good on insulin, never have and I'm fairly certain that I never will.  You see, I'm not just diabetic, I have insulin resistance.  In a nutshell, my body still makes insulin, just not enough (diabetes) and to add insult to injury, my body doesn't even use what it makes effectively (insulin resistance).  So, when I'm on insulin, I'm just pumping my body full of more of the hormone that my body already can't use, so when I've been put on insulin, I take a lot.  That just doesn't seem effective to me... at. all.  And I really don't want to take insulin even less when I feel like crap on it.  Thank goodness oral medications work for me!  But even then, I only want to take them if I have to.

So, this is why all the research.  I know my body better than the doctor or any researcher out there.  No, I'm not saying I'm smarter than them and I certainly don't have all the answers.  But if I listen closely, it tells me what it needs, so I've decided to go ahead and listen and see where we end up.  

The first thing I ran across was a study that was done way way way back in the early 1900's involving a Starvation Diet for a very short period of time (12 weeks) and how it had reset some Diabetic pancreas' and turned the clock back for them.  Basically, by doing this they were giving their overworked pancreas a break and allowing itself to reset.  This sounded great!  But honestly, who can live on 800 calories?  Especially when I have a hungry crew to feed and shop for.  Yeah, I went ahead and tried this, brave sole that I am.  I did great for 6 weeks... dang, I only made it half way through!  I mean come on, I'd made it through the hardest part, how dare I give up at that point?  Sigh... 

I then moved to books.  The first book I read was The Leptin Diet: How Fit Is Your Fat? by Byron J. Richards.  There was a lot in this book that clicked for me, maybe not everything, but a lot of it made sense and it started the wheels rolling for how I needed to treat my body.  Next I moved on to Wheat Belly by William Davis, MD.  This book pulled more pieces of my puzzle together and I was starting to get really excited.  Once again, there were a lot of things that I just knew would work for me.  Last, I read The Blood Sugar Solution by Dr. Mark Hyman and voila, everything clicked into place and a plan jelled together for me.

Basically, my goal is to eat lots and lots of non-starchy vegetables with some meat.  I don't eat sugar, dairy, grains, legumes, nuts, etc. and I've even limited fruits to 1/2 cup of berries per day and man, I feel great!  Well, this is great for me and it very well may not be the best answer for everyone and that's okay.  You have to find the right solutions for you. 

I started thinking about my own growing family and decided I better keep researching to find something that will work for them and that's when I found the Paleo diet.  And bam!  We have a winner!  This keeps my family off of the wheat and sugar and processed foods that I just don't feel good about feeding them and it adds in fruits, nuts and some other vegetables that are healthy that they can eat, but my blood sugar just doesn't seem to like.  This is something the whole family can do and it's a littler more well rounded than my personal diabetic diet is requiring.

This is all just starting, so I wanted to start recording how this goes for us from the beginning.  I did one solid week last week and my blood sugars were perfect, I felt great, my belly started shrinking and I felt really good about the changes.  This next week, my family will be going full Paleo and the work will really begin.  We'll do measurements on Sunday and take pics... ones that will only get posted as "before's" when I'm able to post the "after's" as well cause really, who likes to see their "before's" knowing that's how they look to the general public?!  Okay, so maybe I'm just being a little vain... instead, I've posted our most recent family picture below!  :)

Here's to a new chapter of "Health Happens!"