Category: Milestones

Just six months ago, I was in a diabetic crisis. Flashback to January 13, 2020, I was a type 2 diabetic with a blood glucose reading of 450. I went to the doctor, and he did an A1C test.  The results (see pic) came in as 14+. My doctor said I was on my way to needing insulin.  He immediately added a second medicine to reduce blood sugar and advised me to go on a low glycemic index diet, along with daily exercise. 

Less than two weeks later, on January 21, 2020, I woke up, and my eyes couldn’t focus on anything. I couldn’t read anything, and everything was a big blur, I couldn’t read any letter that wasn’t at least 2 feet tall. My wife rushed me to the ER, and they performed a series of tests and sent me home with a referral to an ophthalmologist. I saw the ophthalmologist a few days later, and he said the blood vessels in my eyes were under distress from diabetes. He asked how my A1C was, and I let him know that I had just had a 14+ test and added glipizide to my medications to help lower my A1C.  The addition of the glipizide and a new strict low glycemic index diet had helped bring my daily blood sugar test down from 450 to about 250.  Hearing this, he knew what was happening because he said he had seen it before.  Over time my eyes and the blood vessels had adjusted to the high levels of sugar in my blood.  That was constricting the blood vessels, and the sudden decrease in blood sugar was putting less pressure on the blood vessels.  The result is that my eyes were trying to adjust to this, and he thought if I continued to lower my A1C, my eyes would self adjust in about a month.  As a result of this wait and see (pun intended) approach, I had to call into work for a week because I still couldn’t see, and the ophthalmologist recommended not get any new glasses until I had another eye exam in a month.

The drastic change to my eyesight and my recent A1C test was the epic health scare that I needed to make real change in my life.  Over the next month, I searched for a way to create a healthy lifestyle and then discovered Dr. Jason Fung and the Intermittent Fasting lifestyle. That led me to Gin Stephens and Delay Don’t Deny. On April 5, 2020, I started Intermittent Fasting. Since then, I have lost nearly 30 pounds, my vision returned to normal, and I went back to my old glasses. My daily glucose levels now register between 89-110. On June 26, 2020, I went for a checkup, and my A1C was 5.9! (See pic). My doctor took me off glipizide, and the new goal is to get off metformin eventually. I return in October, intending to be 5.6 or below.  The last six months have been an incredible journey.  I have had some successes, but there is still a long way to go on this health journey.  I have proved to myself that I can lose weight and reverse my diabetes through Intermittent Fasting. This is not a diet for me. Instead, this is a new way of life.  It is the beginning of a new lifestyle.