Hello! I'm here with some positive news, which I'm so happy to be talking about! My blood glucose levels have started to come down to the normal range recently. As some of you may know, I have recently adjusted my diet. Over the past six months, I kept my calorie intake between 1300 - 1600 daily calories and based my food choices around plant and whole food items. The only meat that I ingested was the occasional fish (tilapia most commonly, sometimes shrimp on rare occurrences) and I did not exercise.

Over the past six months, I went from a size twenty to a size fourteen. This happened in just changing my diet. I removed dairy, using coconut milk for morning cereal (at the correct portion size) and Best Life Spread instead of butter in cooking - and even then, it was used sparingly. I did not use a lot of salt, to cut down on sodium. As a result, I lost weight just from a diet change alone. And this is something I did with a nearly inactive thyroid.

My diabetes is classified as "brittle". I had stubborn insulin resistance, and I would inject myself twice a day with 50 units of Lantus (50 in the am, 50 in the pm) and a large sliding scale of Humalog, sometimes upwards of 25 units at each meal. My sugars were still ranging 250 - 600 through the day.

As time progressed, I started to feel a bit better. Choosing fruit (natural sugars) over candy (processed sugars) and abiding by serving sizes (which are much smaller than you think) helped me curb my eating behaviors. Food that I absolutely hated before, such as cantaloupe and artichokes, I now found that I enjoyed. The humerus system of the body can adapt and teach you to like just about anything, really. I now completely enjoy eating carrots over Pringles.

Before when people told me "you can reset your diabetes by going to a plant based diet" I used to tell them they were full of shit. I'd ask the, "where are you going to get your protein from?" Then I realized that some vegetables and grains (such as quinoa) are rich in protein. There are substitutes for meat that are pretty spot-on as far as taste (although I'm pretty sure that meat is mighty tasty haha) and the portion sizes are outlined so much easier.

Truth be told, I have more or less reset my diabetes on diet alone. My blood glucose levels don't go over 200 now. My weight is still fluctuating a bit, I still need insulin (since I am a type 1.5) but instead of being a slave to the disease, I'm able to hugely take control. Six months was all it took for my body to reset itself back to a more acceptable level of control. I believe in time, I can get off a lot of the drugs I'm on. I no longer take Metformin or Humalog. (I still take Lantus, but only 30 units at night, once a day)

I feel frustrated for all the years that a completely low carb approach was taken to the diabetic diet. No, I don't splurge on carbs and try to keep my intake under 100 grams a day, but if I go over a little I don't worry too much because my carbohydrate choices come from whole foods, not processed starch and shitty turds. Without meat, I've felt better than I have in years. All the doctors I spoke with told me to eat meat, but keep it to a 'deck of playing cards' size at each meal. Each meal? That's a lot. Recent studies, in fact, show that a serving size of red meat at ONE meal per day lowers life expectancy.

I'm not against an omnivorous diet at all. Dude, I'll be the first to say I fucking loved a good bacon cheeseburger. Pork country ribs and sausage were some of my favorite things to eat. But I don't miss it now, not like I used to. Dropping 40 pounds feels better than eating 10 pounds of animal carcass. Now that I haven't had meat, I find myself realizing not only is it easier to live without it, it's more difficult for me to go back to it. I'm sort of a sentimental idiot about animals. I personally feel better knowing I'm not eating them - but like I said, I condone omnivorous living.

TL;DR - Eating a vegetable based diet will help your diabetes so much, please don't snub it.