Sugar Spikes and Weight Issues?

When I first started helping my mother with her diabetes I felt like a diet cop. 

There were times when she felt she couldn't eat anything but lettuce.  We were both frustrated with her meter and scale readings.  We tried several different diets with minimal to no results.  The consensus was none of those diets was going to work as long as she hated the food, and we were going to continue to fight over what she was allowed to eat.

Together we watched television doctors, talked with dietitians, and even resorted to listening to exercise gurus who gave every confidence they knew what we should do.  We heard stories and testimonials about others who had lost weight only to gain it all back within months. Nothing seemed to work for my mother either, and we quickly realized the "specialists" didn't have all the answers?

I spent months researching and reading all the information I could find about diabetes and dieting. 

After many trials and errors, groceries bought and thrown out, and recipes tried and failed I finally came up with a plan we could both work with.  At long last my mother was getting filling, nutritious meals and we weren't breaking the grocery budget.  Within 4 months my mother lost 70 lbs, her meter readings were more consistently normal, and her doctor was pleased to see improvement in her overall condition.

I was still consulting my mother's dietitian, and after learning about our amazing results she asked me if I'd ever thought about becoming a licensed dietitian.  My immediate response was, "No way!"  I didn't want to be one of those experts with "all the answers" that only helped a few.  My plan was untested, it had only been 4 months, and I wasn't confident enough to share what I was doing.  And really I was still just an ordinary person trying to understand a disease that was slowly killing my mother.

But I've decided it's pretty selfish to keep it to myself.

If I'm able to help someone else then it's worth coming out of my shell.  I will share with you what my mother and I tried, and what worked.  Hopefully you will find some humor and comfort in the what did not work.  I'm sure there are many who have made the same mistakes we did, and sharing the failures is just as important as the successes.

There is some science and technical terms in the process, but you won't see a lot of that here.  I'm not an expert, so sharing too much of that may just get me into trouble trying to explain it all.  Here you will get it simply and honestly.

What do I have to offer that you can't get from the experts?

Personal experience for one thing.  I've gone through the struggles, frustrations, and tears of helping my mother gain control.  Another thing you might gain by what I'm sharing is a complete plan.  The experts seemed to only give us a starting point, I had to make all those adjustments to what they offered while putting reality into the plan.  I haven't met anyone yet who has tried a diet they can stick with for the rest of their lives, that's why I prefer to call mine a plan and not a diet.  It will become your lifestyle and you might gain success for your entire life, not just for the moment.  And isn't that the whole point?

Diabetes is a horrible disease that causes some major damage to the human body.  Your ability to get it under control now will affect how you spend the later years of your life.  My mother struggled for years with this disease, and is paying a high price for being unsuccessful.  Dementia soon set in before we were able to claim victory over diabetes.  I hope to help you avoid some of the devastation this disease inflicted on her.

If you have any questions I encourage you to share them in the comments.  I'd be thrilled to help you get control of this disease and share the journey with you.

photo credit: lydia_shiningbrightly