Just this morning, I had my latest HbA1C test. The result was shocking, my blood sugar level is completely normal. I was actually expecting to be a little higher than 7. I was more than happy to see that my blood sugar level finally dropped and now maintained in a very normal state. I consider it “close to reverse my diabetes”.
See my actual lab result:
The question is, “HOW DID I DO IT?”
Before I begin to tell your story, I want you to know that I “seldom” take Metformin and Diamicron now. I only take them now if ever I know I ate too much or must have consumed too much sugar. A little disclaimer, I do not recommend that you do what I do concerning my meds. I am experimenting myself to get away from those meds and just maintain a natural way to lower my blood sugar. After all, these medications do not solve the main problem in diabetes. Again, “consult your doctor” first alright? This is just me.
I am always an advocate of natural things. If you can do your medication naturally, then do it in natural way. I am not against synthetic drugs, but as I dig deeper on the possible result of taking Metformin and Diamicron, the more I believe that these drugs does not actually solve diabetes. We are just simply allowing our sugar to be lowered but not actually solving the real problem inside our body.
But I want to reverse my diabetes. For sure, Metformin and Diamicron will not do that. They actually can do more harm than good especially if you don’t know if your kidney is already damaged.
So to answer the question, it’s really simple. Walk. For the past two months, I disciplined myself to walk every morning for 2.5 miles average, that’s a little over 3-4km in a day. This also takes about 45 minutes – 1 hour of walking exercise. I know it may not be applicable to all diabetics. But if you are like me who can still walk and run and diabetes is just new, I strongly believe that it can still be reversed and you can get back your normal blood sugar level. Even if we say it’s hereditary. Both of my parents are diabetics. My brother is diabetic, and I am diabetic. So it’s not an excuse not to exercise. There are dead simply exercises that you can do. And one of these is walking.
I am not saying that you walk 4 kilometers everyday. I only started with 1km, then 1.5km, then 2, then 3, now I want to have an average of 4km. It will depend on what you can. But one thing for sure, if you get used to it, you will target higher and higher.
The main problem in doing exercise though is still personal discipline. So how did I maintain the drive to pursue my walking exercise every morning?
- Get a walking / running partner. Getting used to walk may take a while unless you have a partner. It is always boring and hard if you do it alone and therefore you will lack the drive to continue if you don’t have a company. When you have a friend who loves to walk and run, then go out and walk with him. Your wife is also a good candidate. It’s good because both of you will have a healthy lifestyle.
- Set your short term goals. My main goal is to lower my blood sugar level and this is probably your main goal. But what we are talking about when we discuss walking is your goal distance to walk. If you are weak, then you can set your goal first to 1km, then 2, then 3 so on and so forth. Just desire to do it a little farther and beat your own records from time to time.
I will try to make my daily program so that you can have a start. Watch out for it.
- Set your long term goals. My farthest walk is 3.19 miles. My long term goal however is to reach 7 miles per session. That would mean that I will need to run instead of walk. Of course it will take time to achieve that, and that’s the reason why we call it “long term”.
- Install a fitness app. It does help when you have a fitness app if you have a Smart Phone. There are several apps available, but what I personally use is the Nike+ app. It’s very intuitive and easy to use.
Apps help us to make a record of our accomplishments and give us a little boost to pursue our goals and beat our records.
- Do it in the morning. I always find early morning walk is the best time to walk simply because it is not hot, and it’s a perfect time to stretch and do exercise. Afternoon can be good too, but your main challenge in the afternoon is to keep that energy high enough to do some run.
Well, you have now my secret. Go and get up and walk. Time to change your lifestyle.
Let’s talk about food. I am not so strict with my food, but I did quit table spoon sugar high food and softdrinks. The point is, if you eat cake just eat a small portion without the icing. If you cannot stop drinking softdrinks at least moderate it to one can a month and drink diet or zero sugar sodas.
Consume more fiber, meaning avoid processed foods and oily foods. Instead, eat more vegetables and cook your food in a more natural way. Avoid using artificial flavoring and coloring stuffs.
The principle is dead simple, stop consuming high sugar content, very salty, artificial, processed foods. This will allow your body to detoxify better and give time for damaged tissues to recover faster.
Watch out for my upcoming walk program that you can follow.
