I reversed my Diabetes with 9 weeks

THERAPY:

So that weekend I was lucky to discover Dr Mosley’s diet for lowering blood sugar and when I returned the following Monday I was ready to hit the road running. My doctor said he had heard of Dr Mosley and the book, but said I should start on the meds right away and that I should lose weight. I said that I was not keen, that I wanted to go med free, and follow Dr Mosley and control blood sugars that way, and also lose weight that way. The doctor wasn’t hugely impressed with this but said that was ok, but take the meds. He weighed me, said my weight had ‘skyrocketed’ and I told him not to tell me the number.

I had the script, but I just could not bring myself to commit to get it filled. I can’t say exactly why, but over the next three weeks I was hearing a lot about low carb high fat and ‘keto’. To begin with I didn’t even check out keto, I had my thing, I was following it 100%, I didn’t feel like I needed something else in the mix. I was overloaded with information, I was spending hours looking things up, finding out as much as I could, and then I opened the door for keto because my carbs were so low I was actually pretty much already doing it. The Diet Doctor website has been an incredible resource for me.

Three weeks in, I was saw my GP about something and he asked how I was. I told him how I had stuck to my eating plan 100%, and how I was feeling great. This is where it got bad. He said that I would fail, that I would lose my feet and my sight and I would fail. He kept saying ‘fail’, and I was stunned. He said that the only way to lose weight is through bariatric surgery, and I said, but you told me to lose weight (as though a person can do it). He said if I insisted on this plan he would have no choice but to stop treating me and I would have to find another GP. Then he laughed and said if I succeeded he would pay for me to fly to New Zealand (where he is from). By this point I was reeling from his responses, and said that he wasn’t supportive. I left that surgery reeling, my nice doctor had pretty much turned on me. I am not repeating everything he said, but it wasn’t nice.

I stuck to what I was doing, I was resolute. I did not waver and had started cycling to work again. I had done it for years, but had given up the year prior. I got hit by a car (inattentive driver) and broke my back in two places, broken ribs. I was in the spinal unit and then rehab for 5 weeks. I had to learn to walk again, still can’t walk unaided, incredible pain 24 hours a day, every minute. I still stuck to my low carb WOE. Have you ever tried eating low carb in hospital? It’s almost impossible, but I stayed the course, did not cheat. People brought me in food, and I would eat the protein and fat in the horrible hospital meals but not the carbs. Every day the tea lady would give me cake and I would push it away (a lot of different tea ladies it was hard to explain to them all) morning tea, afternoon tea and supper. But, I started having cheese instead of cake so I didn’t go hungry.

Before I was discharged they told me my weight, and I rang the GPs office to find out I what I had been eight weeks prior. I had lost 16 kgs, 35 lbs in 8 WEEKS. I’m still losing, that was a couple of weeks ago. Whilst in hospital they were measuring my blood sugars four times a day and in the last week twice a day, and EVERY blood sugar was normal. When I saw my GP last week he told me I had REVERSED my diabetes and said I would not need meds. He said he couldn’t believe it. I said ‘You told me I’d fail. I told you I would succeed, and I have,’ and he high fived me.

My tips so far: Support in this group. Stick to it, forget the old way of eating. Do it 100%, learn how to do it and it becomes your new norm. Have a laugh every day. Be kind to yourself. The photo is me in hospital at 3 weeks.