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We get exercise, but probably not nearly as much as we are told we should. We eat right, well, sort of. We still like our French Fries, burgers, pizza, prime rib steak, spaghetti/meat balls and so on. Also, can't give up our Bud Light just yet. Don't drink much, but do enjoy it. We both will share a shot of 1800 Tequila with a beer, at times.[/quote]
I respectfully suggest you revamp your diet.
What you're eating isn't a good diet for both of you being diabetics.
Read a book such as How Not to Die by Michael Greger M.D. (or similar)
Some folks will not move away from their favorite foods to improve their health. No matter what. Some will.
I follow a moderately healthy diet, meditate and do yoga, and run/walk/jog 3 miles several times a week. Not because I think any of these will make me live longer but because they keep me feeling healthy and fit and more able to enjoy life.
Whenever I fall off the wagon on any of them, it's only a few weeks until I start feeling mentally and physically blah. I suffered from chronic depression for 30 years but after adopting these practices in 2009, it went away and has never returned.
I follow a moderately healthy diet, meditate and do yoga, and run/walk/jog 3 miles several times a week. Not because I think any of these will make me live longer but because they keep me feeling healthy and fit and more able to enjoy life.
Whenever I fall off the wagon on any of them, it's only a few weeks until I start feeling mentally and physically blah. I suffered from chronic depression for 30 years but after adopting these practices in 2009, it went away and has never returned.
Wow, that's a strong testimony to living a well-balanced life, including diet. Know what you mean, I feel much the same.
Is is because each of our bodies needs to maintain a delicate chemical balance to stay in tune?? I suspect it's so.
This is maybe a placebo effect, but when I eat something really rich in nutrients, I "think" I can feel my body responding in an immediate positive way. Sort of like watering a thirsty plant and its droopy leaves perk up.
For example, just had lunch. Made a whole-grain wrap with avocado, sliced red bell pepper, spinach, olive oil, red wine vinegar. The sides were sliced apple and orange (half of each).
My body practically did happy tail wags (if I had a tail, that is).
Well, our doctors say we are doing fine, when we have labs done and a consultation about those labs. If my PCP says I doing fine, I should be able to trust him or her. Our glucose numbers are right where our doctors want them. What can I say......
I'd better add this as well: We watch our sugar intake. Get only Sugar Free or No Sugar Added things. I use Splenda in my coffee (one packet per cup and generally only one cup per day). We buy Low Sodium bacon and Lightly Salted chips.
My BIL ate right and exercised. He went to Whole Foods stores for food and rode his bicycle a lot. Only this, after doing all of the "healthy stuff", three years ago he started having heart problems that required three surgeries. Now is in a hospital for Crohn's disease and may not pull thru it. I remember talking to him over the phone when he got back home from one of his heart surgeries. He started telling me how wife and I should eat and get exercise and came back with......"you did the good/right stuff and where did it land you?" He didn't want to hear that and gave the phone to his wife.
Bottom line is........we do fine, with the medications we take. Like stated above......if our doctors tell us we are doing fine, he's the physician, not us. In fact, I was in the Exam Room with my wife when her doctor told her straight out how proud he was of her health and controlling her diabetes.
Your reply to my last posting: I respectfully suggest you revamp your diet.
What you're eating isn't a good diet for both of you being diabetics.
Read a book such as How Not to Die by Michael Greger M.D. (or similar)
Some folks will not move away from their favorite foods to improve their health. No matter what. Some will.
If you're fine with the medications you take, then you're fine!
Me, I don't want to take any medications. Especially for a life-time.
That's why I follow advice of doctors such as Michael Greger...if you read his chapter on How Not To Die from Diabetes (in his book How Not to Die) you might be very surprised at the evidence-based research into the cause of Type 2 diabetes.
It's not sugar, carbs but high consumption of bad fats...fats that come from meat, cheese, milk, eggs, fried foods.
Anyhow, I'm not arguing on contradicting your life choices or doctor's advice. Many folks are content to stay healthy with the use of medications.
Some want to know what caused their conditions to begin with..and maybe to get healthy and off their meds.
Let me ask my friend this question. 65 years old, never smoked, doesn't drink, beverage of choice is water, cooks everything from scratch, has a cooking blog, etc., etc... and last year was diagnosed with stage 3 nonsmokers lung cancer. Sometimes we can't control things like environmental pollution or genes.
True, I never smoked a day in my life but my lungs are scarred and look like a road map when they appear on an x-ray or MRI. I have pulmonary and systemic Sarcoidosis. No one knows why although I have a cousin who has the same illness. It sometimes does appear in families.
Genetics plays a very important role in health. That is not to say we can't help ourselves by exercising and eating right and so forth. But it is not the panacea for a guaranteed long or healthy life for everyone.
My mom lived to be 94. She ate sweets, more meat than she should have and didn't stint on the carbs. Salads consisted of lettuce. She walked everywhere because she didn't drive. When in her 80's she fell and after that was wheelchair bound. But she was otherwise healthy and sharp as a tack until the day she died.
I am not knocking a healthy lifestyle, I try to eat a lot of fruits and veggies and lay off the sweets and overly processed foods. I drink only water. But I don't expect it to either cure what ails me or extend my life. I just hope it will help me tolerate better what I have to deal with.
Like so many things, it's all about increasing or decreasing odds; there are no guarantees. A lot of the books, shows and sites make it sound like anything but their plan will kill you, but even some of the well researched and well known health tips really make modest adjustments to the odds. I am not saying you shouldn't follow some good healthy guidelines, but I would not change my lifestyle and diet to something I didn't enjoy because it decreased the odds of getting some dread disease from 10% to 7% (even though the book/show/site can rightfully claim that not doing X will increase the odds you get Y by almost 50%).
Last edited by ReachTheBeach; 01-29-2016 at 09:06 AM..
To those who go on about their diet and their health regimen... yawn. I do the best I can with certain indulgences. I walk more for fun than exercise. When it stops being fun then I'll stop. We all have genetic markers for something. It's genetic roulette.
I would honestly try to minimize medications than get by while medicated up.
I have found that I have been able to reduce some of my meds by using 'alternatives'.
I have bursitis in both elbows. Anti-inflammatory meds help a lot. But after a year on Naproxen Sodium I became concerned about the long-term effects of that.
I have found that 3000mg of fish oil each day, keeps the inflammation down and allows me to avoid having to use the pharmaceutical meds.
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