Living with Diabetes "Grit"

Six months ago on April 3rd, I walked out of my Endocrinologist appointment with a couple of sample bottles of some off label use drugs to help me control my blood sugar spikes. (I have been t1d since 2000)

Side effects of these drugs can be urinary tract infections and yeast infections.  Those side effects really got stuck in my mind.  I thought about this the whole one and half hour drive home.


Do I really want to take a drug that is going to force my body to get rid of sugar through my urine?

Am I really going to take ANOTHER drug to combat my blood sugar?

What if this makes my body lose so much sugar that I have MORE lows instead of less?

What if this drug doesn't work and I am just disappointed all over again?

I started reading and paying more attention to the people on Facebookland who were posting pictures of their INSANELY flat line Dexcom graphs.  I thought to myself, how in the freaking hell are these people doing this?  There is no chance in hell I can obtain that.  I read the comments, I asked questions, and the common theme with all of them was that they ate low carb and or followed the Bernstein diet.

Who is this Bernstein dude and why are they all talking about it so much, is what I thought.

I looked it up and did research.  I read the list of things a person can't eat and I was like what the bleepety bleep is that?!  Who the bleeping bleep can eat like that?!

There is that crazy list:  http://www.diabetes-book.com/no-no-foods

I read this:  NO Grains and Grain Products
• Wheat, rye, barley, corn, and lesser-known, “alternative” grains, such as kasha, quinoa, and sorghum
• White, brown, wild rice, or rice cakes
• Pasta
• Breakfast cereal
• Pancakes and waffles
• Bread, crackers, and other flour products


And I was like WHAT? WAIT?  HUH?  How the hell do you eat then?

Then I read more on Facebook and did a ton of trying to figure out how you live without these things.  The Dr. Richard K. Bernstein's Diabetes Solution Advocates group has 4877 members and the TYPEONEGRIT has 1201 members and all these people are living and breathing this way of living and havent croaked yet.  I figured there must be a way.

So I joined the Bernstein group to get the ball rolling, finding recipes, asking questions, figuring out that I have to COOK EVERYTHING that I eat for the most part.  There is NO MORE eating food out of box/bag/wrapper.  This is why it is called typeoneGRIT, it is freaking HARD!  It is hard but it is WORTH it, your blood sugar stability is WORTH it.  

I started following the Dr. Bernstein way of eating (woe) 6 months ago at the end of April.  My first grocery bill was $400.00 and I almost died.  Buying almond flour, stevia, coconut flour, sugar free natural peanut butter, extra virgin organic coconut oil, a TON of spices, a TON of eggs (which is why this Spring we are getting Chickens), and a whole lot of other ingredients and barely one thing out of box was shocking.

My blood sugar stability is amazing and shocks me constantly.  I am still figuring it out and rewiring my brain to take insulin for protein and fat vs carbs. Reworking my pump settings and basically kind of working through being diagnosed with Diabetes, all over again, because I am learning how to eat all over again.

My A1C has dropped dramatically down to 6.9 and my goal is to hit 6.0 by December.  I need to go buy an at home A1C kit.  My longterm goal is 5.0 but I have a lot of work to do to get there.  The main driver of changing my life was that I was sick and tired of the spikes and the lows, OH the lows and I had them daily.  I was so over the lows.

I was OVER the fact that doing anything outside would end up with me low and we moved WAY out in the country last September and my entire life has changed because there is so much MORE to do outside.  I wanted to enjoy the time I was loving being outside but carrying glucose on me nonstop was getting really exhausting.  I was tired of being tired from the blood sugar swings and the food comas (not really a coma but I would call my level of energy after eating a lot of carbs a coma, because all I wanted to do was sleep because of the high blood sugars that would always follow).

I can now eat breakfast with no spike, lunch with no spike and dinner with no spike.  Its freaking amazing!

If you want to learn more about controlling your blood sugar spikes, living a long life with no complications, please go to:  http://www.diabetes-book.com/ to learn more about the way I have chosen to live the rest of my life until they cure my broken pancreas.

No matter what anyone else says to me, questions why I have chosen to live my life this way they will not get me down, they will not make me change how empowered I feel.  The way I feel now is 1000% better than before when I was eating a ton of carbs. 

I am ruling my disease and that is all that matters to me and my family who I want to live a long life with to enjoy spending time with them.

Thank you to all of those who have supported me in this journey, given me recipes, given me advice, given me more reasons to keep on going down this track, boosted my morale and helped me remember this is for MY good, MY health, MY family.  The members of those two groups I posted about, are priceless and have priceless advice to give and they give it so willingly that it will make your willpower and drive to stay low carb thrive in your heart and in your mind. 

I have been asked a few times, sooo what do you eat? Click the tab at the top of my blog for my pinterest recipes. Theyre are also a whole bunch of low carb recipe bloggers. Typeonegrit is also on pinterest.

Now go kick some ass you low carb DIABETIC WARRIORS!


Please leave me your comments.  It helps keep me motivated to blog!  =D