I got tired of looking at the blank page and figured that I’d do something about it. :) So I’d like to take a minute, just sit right there, I’ll tell you how I became the prince of a town called Bel Air.
For those of you that haven’t heard, last week I was diagnosed with type II diabetes. There’s two types: Type I is when your body doesn’t produce enough insulin to control the sugar in your blood; type II is when your body does produce enough, but your tissues have built up a tolerance against it and it’s not as effective as it should be. (This happens when you’re overweight, sedentary and have poor eating habits – sounds like me, huh!) There’s no “cure” for either of them yet. However, with type II, improving your diet, exercising more and making smart life decisions, you can recover the sensitivity you need to not be diabetic anymore. I’m type II, and that’s the mountain that I’m about to climb.
The test they ran to determine “yes” or “no” was a simple yet boring one. I went to the lab to have blood drawn, they gave me a drink with a shocking amount of sugar in it (10oz drink, 75 grams of glucose), make me wait two hours and draw more blood. That’s it – that’s all it took to make me rethink how I’ve been living.
So after a week, I’ve seen several changes already. I started on a drug called Metformin, which assists in controlling blood sugar. I joined the YMCA (surprisingly it IS fun to stay at the YMCA), and whereas I haven’t been as often as I’d like this week I did go to a yoga class the other night. That’s a much bigger workout than I expected, and it left me feeling so relaxed. I’m going to go to that every week. My goal is to work up to going five times a week, but I’m looking at that as a CHOICE rather than an OBLIGATION. I’ve pretty much cut all added sugar out of my diet that isn’t natural, like fruit, and I feel a ton better. The best part is, I don’t even miss it. I’m still eating foods that taste good, that I’m not forcing myself to eat – I actually want to. I’ve started eating fish, which the old me would NEVER have done – it used to give me problems, but I had no adverse effects this week. I think I can really do this.
So, I’d like to invite you all to join me on my journey to becoming fit and becoming the inner sexy beast that I know lives there. ;) From time to time I’ll post pictures (hidden behind the clicky link, for those that don’t want to see pasty white hairy tubby bastard) to document my progress. The mindset that I have for this life change is stolen from President Obama… “Yes, I can.”