How to survive in a sugar world

A few months ago I was diagnosed with diabetes during my annual physical. I was completely caught off guard and it took a while for me to begin to grasp what this meant in my life.  I remember the doctor saying your A1C fasting blood test came back, you have diabetes.  She said to avoid sugar, eliminate as much white flour as possible, stay away from fried foods, and eat lots of vegetables and exercise.

She also explained that it would take time to lower the number A1C and that if I were to eat perfect and excise for one week, it still would not make a difference.  We discussed trying to regulate the levels with diet and exercise then come back in 3 or 4 months and see where we stand, because no one wants to take medications if it could be reversed naturally. 

Driving to work after the appointment I was in a daze, trying to figure out want this would mean for me in the days and weeks ahead.  I want you to understand that I love food. I love to eat, cook, read recipe books, and look for new recipes and ways to cook the foods that I love. Of course that would include all the foods the doctor advised against.

One of the first things I did was look on the internet to see what a diabetic should be eating.  Imaging how surprised I was to find there was no specific diet to go on, no list of foods to eat and that left me wondering what in the world I would do.   I asked several of my friends that have diabetes about what they typically eat and was even more confused. Although they were helpful, I just could not figure out how much and why, I had more questions mounting every day.

After several days afraid to eat, and yet craving sugar, I called a nutritionist that just happened to be across the street from where I worked.  We met and I must tell you that was the best decision I have made for my heath and sanity. She gave me encouragement and very much needed information.  Armed with a new set of eating guidelines I went on about my daily life trying to find the necessary gratitude.  It was difficult, some days were just down right awful, wanting to eat my favorite foods, but knowing that was what probably got me in this mess in the first place.

So I settled down to a new way of living, it took me about 30 days just to figure out what would work for me and another 30 to let go of some anger over the diagnosis.  My nutritionist was very supportive and we met twice a month for a while.

I am writing this because it has been over 4 months tomorrow and I need to go on back to the doctor and see what my A1C level would be…I am very apprehensive over this and would rather wait another month or at least a week, but I will go and find the results out tomorrow.

I learned a lot about nutrition, diabetes and being able to make wise choices, but let me tell you the most difficult thing I have done in a long time is give up sugar (did I say give up?  I mean eliminate as much as I can) cause I still like a brownie or cookie now an then.  I am learning how to survive in a sugar world.