A Typical Day

I thought I'd begin by describing a typical day in my life. Not that it is all that interesting of course. But some of you may have prediabetes or full on diabetes or just found out that you are at risk of getting it. My intent here is to show that living with diabetes ain't no thing at all. In my case it probably saved my life!

To begin with, let me tell you how I was on Jan. 1, 2006. That was the day I found the bathroom scale and decided to use it. I stripped down to my birthday suit and stepped on it. Get off you fat pig! Get off! At least I thought it said that. Boy, was I big. Man, the read out was 210lbs. I'm only 5' 7", so I was a beach ball. Plus, I have sleep apnea and the fat on my neck guaranteed my use of CPAP for the rest of my life. I don't know why I felt the need to get on that scale but it put into motion all that happened later.

Around late March of '06 I had a physical with the doctor. The results of the testing confirmed what I knew in my gut. The doc said that if I didn't lose weight and exercise more then I was headed for insulin shots. Well, that was all the kick in the butt I needed to get on some kinda program to not have to use a needle on every square inch of my body. I watched my dad have to do that for years. My wife does it now. No thank you! I got with a nutritionist for an hour and that was the best money I ever spent in my life. A program came together from just the info she gave me. The doctor gave me 6 months to show improvement or else.

I won't go into all the details now but in those 6 months I dropped my weight to 160lbs, a loss of 50! After weighing myself this morning I'm proud to say that I'm still at 160lbs. And do I feel better! No more extra mass to move around. My cars and bikes get better gas mileage too! And the best side benefit of all, by a long shot, is I'm off that CPAP machine for good. I've used that darn thing since 1989. The bennies are well worth the effort I tell ya.

Let me make one thing very clear right now. There is NO magic to losing weight. There is NO pill that will burn it off. Don't waste your time and money chasing what you know is not right. To lose weight, stop feeding your face. It's that simple. And exercise. That is all that I did. Well, and stopped eating all the wrong things; white bread, pasta, processed sugar and what not. And I cut down on my portions. And I keep a close I on the carbs because of the effects to a diabetic. But really the best thing to do is get with a nutritionist and work all the details out.

So, what do I do on a daily basis? My routine? To start, I get up everyday at 4:30am - -

• Make a breakfast of Quick oats and black coffee. Get done about 5:15am


• Go for a 15 minute walk


• Snack at 9:00am; eggs, toast, coffee, some mornings bacon


• Go for a 15 minute walk


• Do work


• Lunch at or near NOON; usually something lite, sandwhich (flourless bread), 3oz of ice cream


• Go for a 1.5 hour walk


• Do work


• Dinner (Supper) about 5:30pm; salad, a meat


• Go for a 15 minute walk

That is my basic day. Not very exciting like I said in the beginning. But I sure feel great. And one more thing, I don't deny myself anything in the way of food. I have my ice cream. I'll eat a juicy cheesy sloppy burger, just not like I did in my ole way of life. You see, I'm not on a diet, no sirree, it's a food management program supplemented with a calorie management component. Now, that's so much better than a dumb ole diet!