Part 9—Let’s Talk Weight…and Diabetes

My Mother’s Journey of Healing From Diabetes

My secret—I’m a Health Nazi!

Today there is a stigma if one is overweight in the USA. We have fashion models who look anorexic and probably are. We’ve lived through Nouveau Cuisine which is barely 300 calories of food for a meal…to gorging only to throw up all we’ve eaten, a condition called bulimia. There are also anorexic young women and men today who think they are fat.

It is fair to say that America has a problem with food and weight control.

Today we’re told we have more obese people than ever before in the USA. We’ve an abundance of food most countries would kill for—I mean that literally.

We even talk about the starving children in Africa to our own children. Somehow I don’t believe the food on my plate would ever make it to Africa unspoiled. My interpretation of all of this food talk is we all need to use food wisely, and that idea gets back to maintaining our ideal weight.

The doctor told my mom to lose weight to help control her diabetes. She was never told why. Maybe the doctors didn’t know. In Part seven I shared what I learned about Type II Diabetes, Sugar Metabolism, An Over Weight Body, and Insulin Resistance.

That is why I became a Food Nazi. Although she walked and the exercise helped with weight loss, I made sure she ate the right foods, and avoided the wrong foods.

We didn’t have any of the foods in the house which she wasn’t supposed to eat. She even tried to bribe our dog sitter once to buy her a pizza, and our dog sitter resisted.

As my mother walked, and controlled her diet, she lost the excess weight. The loss was witnessed and measured by her doctor and her medications were reduced when needed. Her loss was less than two pounds per week.

Because she kept a daily record of her sugar levels we were able to take these readings to the doctor and the doctor was surprised. As her weight decreased so did her need for insulin and her blood pressure medication.

It was dramatic and amazing!

We found a strong connection between weight loss and the need for prescription medicines to control the diabetes. We also found mom was more alert and less depressed as she grew healthier. Her diabetes medications went from high levels of injectable insulin to moderate to low dosages and then finally pills.

Mom also smiled more each day. Following are some of the ways her life changed.