And then...

I came away from the class feeling totally disheartened. I was doing everything right but felt so awful. Every other person in the class was taking medication of some sort, and they spent a lot of time explaining the different types.

I'm determined to not have to do medication, but when I suggested to the nurse in charge that I really want to control my symptoms with diet and exercise, she scoffed and said - it's inevitable. You will eventually have to take medication to control the disease. I am not yet ready to even admit that I HAVE a disease!

I made up my mind to try it my way. I cut out the rice, bread, and whole grain cereal. My blood sugar began dropping almost immediately. I eat lots of vegetable, protein and good fats. I love fruit but I have to limit myself to two small servings per day, and before exercise seems to be working best. The watermelon farmers will not be happy next summer when I limit my consumption to one melon a week instead of one a day. When my mother was pregnant with my sister her doctor told her to limit the amount of watermelon she was eating because it's very high in sugar. The rest of us in the family have always scoffed at that story, but there may actually be some truth in it. The doctor wasn't telling her it would make her fat, he was telling her it would spike her blood sugar.

I agreed to take part in an exercise study at the same time. I was assigned to a kinisiologist. I was given an EKG before we started. We did a full range of exercises to see what I was capable of. She gave me a resistance band to take home so I could follow her list. Nothing strenuous enough to break a sweat. I admit to being disappointed because I like to be pushed, and felt I was being pushed into an age group.

The treadmill. Bleccchhhh. Hang on to the handles so we can measure your heart rate and start walking until your heart rate reaches 108. Do not exceed 108. Do not let go of the handles. I spent 20 minutes on the treadmill and felt no more exerted when I got off than I did when I got on. I left with instructions to try to walk 10,000 steps per day without exceeding a HR of 108. Do the resistance exercises. Report back in a week. Anybody who can walk 10,000 steps without exerting themselves has way more time than I do. I failed at keeping to the HR limit but I did slow down if it got too high.

Let's talk about the EKG results...next time.