Beyond Willpower

That's it, I officially have diabetes. It's early, and I can reverse it if I try. I've started taking Victoza, it's an injection medication (non insulin) that makes you digest food more slowly. Keeping you feeling fuller longer. This is EXACTLY what I have always needed, because the anti-psychotics I take for my bipolar basically turn OFF my full signal. This stuff is great. in about three weeks I have lost 15 lbs. By my next doc appt (on july 19th) I am hoping to be back in the 200's. I'm only a few lbs away as is! I don't have much to say, other than I love this med and hope that it continues to work for me. I seem to have hit the medication jackpot. Bipolar meds are working great, I'm on neurontin now for my fibromyalgia, also working great, and now the victoza. Life feels in balance. I'm on my way!

Blood work. My cholesterol is high, my triglycerides are ridiculous, my sugar (A1C) is 6.1, all as of last October. I have an appointment for my yearly physical on January 26th. I've been doing all I can to improve these numbers. I'm eating between 7-13 servings of fruits and veggies daily. More on days I'm off and can stay home and munch, and less on days I work. I've decided to start prepacking baggiges of fruits, veggies, and nuts, to snack on while I'm at work so that I can get as many servings in a day as I can. I wasn't going to weigh myself for 3 months, but then realized I need to weigh myself NOW so that if what I'm doing isn't working I can adjust it somehow. I've lost 5 lbs so far on this particular Way Of Eating, and I've lost a total of 25 since my high weight. Woot! Nothin' to sneeze at! I feel like my body is so sick, and I am doing what I can to make it well again. That means eating ALL the fruits and veggies, whole grai...

Well, I got my 6 month check up at the study and my blood work keeps coming back better and better, even though I've gained some. For the first time in memory, last check up my sugar was normal at 99, this time it was normal at 95, my cholesterol was 209 before, and now it is within' normal ranges at 195. These are still high numbers for as well as I eat, I feel like genetics have something to do with the cholesterol. (my very thin vegetarian great aunt had an eleventybilliondruple bypass a few years ago.) Okay, maybe it was a quadruple, but still it was bad. and my gpa has high cholesterol as well. I've doubled my dose of fish oil, hoping that helps. Oh! My triglycerides, which were 146 last time were 119 this time!!!! WOoooooooOOooooOOooo! :D At one time they were 260, normal is under 150. My thyroid is a bit low, my hair is falling out and crispy in some places and I am not binging but I'm gaining as if I were. I'm worried. I am tracking everything ...

So, I haven't had much to say lately, mainly because it's been a struggle and I feel like you guys are probably sick of hearing me whine. I'm sick of hearing me whine. It's been about a week or maybe a bit more, that I've been doing well. I haven't been weighing,  right now I don't think it's that important. It's more important to get my eating on track than it is to beat myself up for not losing or for gaining .5 ounces or whatever. I've decided to set my goal low. Every 6 months I get weighed and blood work and all that for my study I am doing, and my goal is to lose 20 lbs in the next six months. I know it's slow going, but I think it's all I can handle at the moment. I'm doing well with my food, drinking fresh juices, I think tomorrow I will start tracking again. For the last week I've just been trying to make better choices. btw, I had my blood work (cholesterol, thyroid, sugar, etc) checked in january and I haven...

So, I have been vegan now since October 2010 and was vegetarian before that. In february I had blood work done that came back with 'ok' but not great results. My fasting sugar was 111. I have been pre-diabetic for almost 10 years if not longer. I started getting tested for diabetes in the early 2000's. I believe back then the results were if you were fasting and your sugar was 125 or higher you were diabetic? I think I was 124. It slowly lowered over the years but never got below 109. It needs to be between 70-99 Until now! OH HAPPY DAY! This time my sugar was 93!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm so excited. My mom will be happy, she worries a lot about diabetes with my weight and our family history. My cholesterol is still just a few points above where it should be. My goal is to have it down to below normal in six months. I was told I have "Virtually no cardiovascular risk" based on my blood work. Woooooo! :) Oh, and my a1c which should be from 4.3-6.1 was 5.4, so prett...