Day 30

Howdy and welcome to the final day of "The 30 Day Diabetes Cure."

I have been sitting here looking at my test results from my doctor. It is a 5-page chart of all the blood tests that were done on 4-21-2010 listed next to the results of the tests taken on 7-7-2010. Among other things I found out that my blood type is A+ and my doctor said that people with this blood type usually do very well on vegetables. I think I am doing pretty well on vegetables, but I also believe I need to have protein to help keep the blood sugar low. I've been looking at the webMD site to see if I can understand what some of the tests mean. They have a section just for lab test results, but it does not really explain the tests, it just says why your doctor may have ordered it and what they might be checking for. This was helpful, but still leaves me on the low end of understanding, and still curious.

My A1C has gone down from 5.7 to 5.3 and my doctor was extremely pleased with this improvement. It had been slowly creeping up, and now it is going back down. This is evidence that my pre-diabetic state is reversing down in the right direction -- just as the book promised. So, if that alone were the single criteria then this program really did reverse my prediabetic state in 30 days -- actually in 15 days because the tests were taken two weeks ago. She was happy with everything, except that I did not really lose any weight and since her scale always weighs me 10 pounds more than mine, she thought I actually gained weight. Now I have to start keeping a food journal and counting my calories every day. So that is the next project.

Also: my doctor was pleased to see that my blood pressure numbers are actually coming down even though I did not take the BP medicine that she gave me to test out, because of major side effects after taking only 2 pills. I was glad that she was able to see the difference that I had been seeing in my home BP tests. The BP reduction can only be attributed to "The 30 Day Diabetes Cure" program that changes what you eat, and increases your activity levels through exercise. She said that the bottom number especially was very good and she seemed excited about that. (I'm sorry, I did not write it down, so I don't remember it.) I was pleased with her comments. She also gave me an EKG today and popped her head in the room to say that my heart is in excellent shape and she was very pleased with that. Me too! Yippee!!

Two things that did not get reversed was the amount of inflammation in my blood, and also the amount of insulin in my blood on the day I was tested. My insulin number was at 30 and the normal range is 3-28, so that was still high.Of course, again, that was two weeks ago, so I don't really know what it is today. My doctor wants to see me again in 6 weeks, so I am on my own now, and I want to be able to show good results when I go back, so I will start on the food journal tonight or in the morning. It all seems quite tedious to me, but maybe it won't be, once I actually do it. I won't know until I do it. I'm not going to worry about how I have done with food journals in the past, I shall look to see what I can do to make it work for me right now.

I need to keep track of the calories. My doctor put me on a machine that resembled an electronic scale called a "Body Composition Analyzer." I had to take my shoes and socks off and place them on these two metal foot pads and after it displayed some numbers I had to pick up these two handles and hold them until the attendant told me to replace them, and a little ticker tape came out telling me my BMI on different parts of my body. The thing my doctor wanted to know was what was my resting metabolic rate, or, in other words, how many calories do I burn when I'm doing nothing. The machine said I was burning 2242kcal, so she said that in order for me to lose weight I had to consume about 1800 calories on a low glycemic diet.


That is why I need to start keeping a food journal -- to see how many calories I am consuming, and notice where I can tweak and make adjustments to reduce that number to at or below 1800 where ever possible every day. I am not looking forward to this. But I suppose if I am going to ever lose weight I will have to do something like this. Nothing else has worked. Maybe this will. (I think this was one of the changes that we were supposed to make in the book, too, but I did not do it, neither did I ever make meal plans. I simply bought only food that was healthy and ate it in the fashion that I am used to, which is to go to the fridge and decide what I am about to eat and fix it for the current meal. All that other stuff was just way to tedious for me. I consider this blog to be my journal, so, in that sense, I did do it.)

I am afraid that counting calories will make me too hungry, like I have been in the past... but that is the past. I don't want to get stuck in that kind of thinking and possibly sabotage myself before I even get started. I think fresh raw veggies will still be almost unlimited, so maybe that will help. I must remind myself that it does not matter what happened in the past, that is not the marker for what can be done in the present. In fact, it actually has nothing whatsoever to do with what I can do today. And if I take care of today, the future will take care of itself.

The low glycemic part should be fairly easy since that is what I am already doing. I guess this means I'll have to get out my calorie counting book and maybe find a site online that will help with that and get started. I have a notebook so, that is taken care of.

I noticed when I exercised for 15 minutes this morning, that I am really beginning to like it more and more. My body is responding in a good way, to it. It makes me feel good to get on my Aerofit and start pumping my legs and arms as I listen to my favorite CD playing in the next room. If I get to a point where my back and legs no longer hurt at 15 minutes I will start increasing the number until I can do 30 minutes per day. And, will, of course, be learning and doing the strength training three times per week, too. The increase in muscle mass should help me to burn more calories and lose weight. At least I hope so. I guess I will only find that out after I do it, too.

On to day 30 in the book: Celebrate!!  Day 30 is about celebrating that you have actually reversed your diabetes. Since the normal range for A1C is 4.6 to 6.1 and mine measured 5.3 fifteen days ago, (a reduction from 5.7 last measured on 4/28/2010) I think I made it and the program does work. I started out 30 days ago to do the program to see if it worked. I think it did work, but I had to make some adjustments for my own body. As Dr Ripich says today, this is only the beginning. I can see that making the changes has made a difference in my health. I really think the 30-day approach is one of the true pluses of the program. I needed the one-day-at-a-time hand holding that it offers, and maybe others do too.


I am really happy that I went to see my personal doctor today, because she encouraged me. I had been feeling frustrated and depressed because I did not lose weight until she started to point out the areas where I have made actual measurable progress. That was refreshing. I needed the support to see my success and I see that the "Celebrate" chapter in the book has further encouraged me.

When I started the program, I had been in a state of resistance and denial for a very long time. I now know that I can make changes, and see good results from those changes. So maybe the mountain did not move, but a foothill has changed shape. Doing it today is the key for me. No longer putting it off until tomorrow or some other time really moved me along the path. I have to admit, or confess, as the case may be, that I have not switched over to totally organic food. I have switched over to eating many more fresh raw vegetables than I was eating before. I dropped out the chicken nuggets that I had been practically living on, and exchanged them mostly for hard boiled cage free eggs, which I put in nearly every salad I made. I dropped out processed meats, except for canned tuna and I eat processed cheese but I made sure to read the ingredients and did not see anything that I thought was dangerous.

I now read labels more than I did, although maybe not so well as is recommended. I did not follow the program to a "T", so to speak, but I followed it, at the level I did. My goal, now is to go through the book one more time, and reinforce what I have learned and take it to the next level. I am going to start doing the organic veggies and look for grass fed beef. I have only eaten beef once in the last 30 days and it was "organic" but not grass fed. It was all I could find in my grocery store -- it turned out pretty bad, so I still have two frozen organic beef patties in the freezer and maybe I'll add them to a pot of beans sometimes soon.

I am grateful to have discovered that the lowly bean is a good diabetic superfood. They are very cheap and good for you, and I have liked them since I was a kid, but had dropped them out because I thought they were sugar producers. I am very glad to have found out that just the reverse is true, so I have filled my pantry with plenty of them. I am glad to be able to eat something that is very filling and also good for me. I dropped out the products made with polyunsaturated oils (my mayonnaise that I used on nearly every item I ate) and replaced it with garlic pepper, herbs and a drizzle of EVOO -- which I ended up liking even better. I have even considered making some mayo myself out of eggs and EVOO, but since I will be starting to count calories to lose weight, maybe I should just leave that alone.

I thought I followed the program pretty well, if not perfectly, and am disappointed that I did not lose any weight, except for the weight I lost the first week. After that I made no more progress in the weight loss area and even put some of it back on. But, to be true, the book does not promise you will lose weight, it only promises to reverse diabetes, which has happened. Now if I maintain the eating program that I have started and tweak it in better directions, as is planned, perhaps I shall even lose weight.


I really enjoyed the Ezekial bread, but that was when I noticed all my strides were taken back, so had to wrestle that out of my life again. I have learned that I crave salads now. That is a new one. Me, craving salad! Who would have thought? But I really do. A salad is satisfying in ways that I did not remember. They may not be "stick to the ribs" but they are filling and the beans are "stick to the ribs."  I am so very glad to have the eating machine turned off, and to have had the breakthrough about "the clean plate club."  Just today, I left some salad over from lunch and had it for diner. I am going to count that as progress.

So, I do have lots to celebrate. I recommend you read the last chapter and see the ways that Dr Ripich celebrates and encourages us to recognize our success and feel good about it. He even gives a couple of celebration recipes that you may like to use. My personal doctor today was also pleased with the improvements she could see and she guided me to ways to make more improvements for myself. So... here it is, Day 30, and my diabetes has been reversed. That is amazing. It was quite a journey, and I have reached one destination. But there is so much more to see in the world and I plan to continue making changes and improving my health. There are more destinations to reach. Happy for this one, and on to the next one. Above all, I thank God for bringing this book to my attention, and for giving me the courage to step out and try it. Without Him, I can do nothing. Praise the Lord!

God bless you,

--Marcia