The Phases I Experienced Resolving Type 2 Diabetes

and how I continue to learn

I was admitted with a pretty severe case of pancreatitis back in May of 2019. A1c of 9.9, sky high triglycerides, and overall poor health. As a result, my body was telling me, “that’s it…I can’t take this anymore.”

After three days in the ICU and a preliminary diabetes diagnosis there have been a series of significant changes to my life in order to keep me healthy, active, and maintaining blood sugar levels between 5.2 and 5.6 without medication for over a year.

The easiest way to organize the experiences I’ve been through since being admitted back in 2019 is to describe it in three phases:

This is not meant to be a “how to” guide for resolving type 2 diabetes and is a very personal journey that I’ve experienced. I wanted to share what has helped me since I’m a father and husband who wants to see his family grow up. If there are lessons that can help others that’s an awesome tangential benefit.

The immediate news of hearing your diabetic while your kids are visiting you in the hospital is humbling and sad. Getting visits from endocrinologists in the hospital, learning about A1c measuring devices, hearing that you “never” recover from having diabetes or that it may turn into type 1 is frightening and surreal.

The first thing I did was change my diet to be as healthy as possible with vitamin rich foods, lots of vegetables, and whatever I could eat which aided in weight loss. After getting more information about the relationship between carbohydrates and sugar my feelings turned into fear questioning whether what I thought was “healthy” in fact was healthy (e.g. vegetable chili may seem packed with legumes, fiber, and vegetables, but also potentially loaded with canned tomato sauce, sugar, and then adding oyster crackers creating a huge amount of simple sugars and extra calories that defeat the purpose eating healthy).

This fear of not knowing how many “good” carbohydrates and calories were being put in my body led to phase 2 of my experience, Exercise and Compulsive Tracking.

Don’t get me wrong, understanding the macronutrient break down of what you put in your body is very helpful especially when getting started on changing lifestyle and there are great apps out there like MyFitnessPal which have a huge database of information for logging your meals/snacks.

However, as I started using the gym more frequently and seeing my body fat at 25% I started to combine overtraining with poor fuel. I was so scared of carbohydrates. I would restrict my carbohydrate intake to < 100 grams a day, eat 4–5 Quest bars per day, and only eat protein plus vegetables (no potatoes).

I tracked everything I ate. I learned about net carbs, protein/carb/fat percentages, simple vs. complex carbohydrates, sugar alcohol impact on carbs, heart rate zones, body composition (skeletal muscle mass vs. body fat), water intake, caloric intake monitoring, and would not allow myself ANY type of cheat meal except for my birthday when I had a cupcake. I was incredibly hesitant to eat out at restaurants, approximate the caloric intake of meals when the nutrition labels were not available, and found myself alienating my family at meal times because I had to make my own dinner which was very strict.

I was also taking medication at this point and my A1c started to come down. Then my doctors slowly lowered the dose to the point where we went off the medication entirely when my weight had reached a level 70 pounds less than when I was admitted to the hospital. The best news from all this activity is when my endocrinologist sent me a note that read, “Yes, your A1c of 5.3 off medications is normal and indicates that your diabetes has been resolved with your lifestyle changes.”

While this was music to my ears, the lifestyle changes were not comfortable and quite frankly I’m not sure they were sustainable. This led to the third phase which is developing a healthier relationship with food and having manageable goals.

This is an ongoing battle for me. Fortunately, I’ve sought out help from family, colleagues, dietitians, trainers, apps, and so many online resources there are too many to mention (and there is so much you can learn for free from YouTube, Podcasts, Medium articles, etc.).

For example, I got more comfortable eating carbohydrates knowing they were acting as fuel rather than being stored as fat as long as I was exercising regularly. Additionally, I set goals with exercise like achieving a certain body composition, running a particular distance, completing a difficult exercise circuit, etc. and it helped me set incremental goals that kept me active (I just finished running my first Spartan Race in Jacksonville which was a Super 10K + 25 obstacles in the Age Group division having finished in the top 30%…aroo!).

Now I’ve signed up for four more races this year which forces me to be accountable to consistent training and healthy eating so that my body can handle the endurance and strength requirements. It also gives me goals for the next 9 months as I now have committed to completing a Spartan Trifecta (running a Sprint, Super, and Beast level race in the same year).

I also noticed my A1c was staying steady even though my carbohydrates had increased. The difference was that I was eating healthier carbohydrates like complex carbohydrates (sweet potatoes, brown rice, oatmeal, etc.) and found ways to make them tasty (adding some PBFit + raisins to the oatmeal, making the sweet potato baked with spices and adding scrambled eggs/peppers/cheese to make a bowl, etc.). I also ate a lot more fruit since it did not seem to impact my A1c and you get so many vitamins and micronutrients from them.

I no longer monitor anything I eat or my heart rate as these are more intuitive now. I also allow myself a cheat day every few weeks and while I might not have the cheat days Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson has, I still find ways to enjoy foods like chocolate or pizza as long as THE VERY NEXT DAY it’s back to the consistency of what has gotten me to this point.

Overall, it sounds like a cliché, but consistency is what’s helped me stay healthy and active. It takes a lot of work, commitment, and education (and it’s NEVER over since this is about lifestyle change, not a “diet” so I’m constantly trying to learn more about areas like sleep health, flexibility, metabolism, and meditation) but my family and I are proud and I truly hope there are some nuggets of information that can be helpful for you if you’re facing a similar situation.

Thanks for reading my story if you’ve made it this far. Best wishes to anyone starting a similar journey or looking for inspiration to have a healthy and active life.

You just read another post from In Fitness And In Health: a health and fitness community dedicated to sharing knowledge, lessons, and suggestions to living happier, healthier lives.

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