Motivation
DietPrada
Posts: 1,171 Member
I've talked before about how diabetes in my family motivates me to eat Keto. Type 2 diabetes destroyed my Dad's arteries, causing his first heart attack at 50 - resulting in a quadruple bypass. His inability over the next few years to control his diabetes saw his health deteriorate. For the last few years he's been unable to even walk to the letterbox and back without shortness of breath and chest pains. For the last 3 years he has had about 4 heart attacks a year, and rushed to the hospital practically monthly with angina. The last 2 years he's been unable to sleep, because he couldn't lie down, because of the pain. June this year he was in hospital following a heart attack, and tests had shown another one was imminent, and would be his last. He seemed no worse than usual and said he might have til Xmas, or longer, he didn't know. July 25th this year he was taken to hospital and I sat with him for 2 days listening to him drown in his own lung fluid before he eventually passed away. He was 68.
Sometimes I hear people laugh about diabetes, even people who suffer from it. It's not serious, it just means "if I have cake I have to have more insulin", it's not seen as a big deal - not really. But it is a big deal. It's a huge deal. My Dad was one of 9 siblings, all of whom developed type 2 diabetes. At 38 my Doctor told me I was pre-diabetic and would have diabetes by the time I was 40 - like my Dad.
Today I'm 42. I still weigh a bit more than I would like, but 25kg less than I did. I have a clean bill of health. My blood sugar is fine, and I'm not on any medication. After 2 years of eating Keto I am not interested in eating carby foods. In fact where a lot of people see the pizza/pasta/sandwich/dessert and are tempted I'm actually kinda repulsed. I see these foods as the poison that they are, and I do not want to spend the next 25 years dying a slow and painful death for a temporary self indulgence.
Sometimes I hear people laugh about diabetes, even people who suffer from it. It's not serious, it just means "if I have cake I have to have more insulin", it's not seen as a big deal - not really. But it is a big deal. It's a huge deal. My Dad was one of 9 siblings, all of whom developed type 2 diabetes. At 38 my Doctor told me I was pre-diabetic and would have diabetes by the time I was 40 - like my Dad.
Today I'm 42. I still weigh a bit more than I would like, but 25kg less than I did. I have a clean bill of health. My blood sugar is fine, and I'm not on any medication. After 2 years of eating Keto I am not interested in eating carby foods. In fact where a lot of people see the pizza/pasta/sandwich/dessert and are tempted I'm actually kinda repulsed. I see these foods as the poison that they are, and I do not want to spend the next 25 years dying a slow and painful death for a temporary self indulgence.
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(hugs)
I hope the rest of your family can see the light as clearly as you. Healthy foods becomes an easier choice when the alternative is debilitating disease.
There's ice cream in my house right now. Your post was exactly what I needed to keep it all in perspective. Thank you.
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So sorry about the loss of your dad. I too have a family full of diabetics, which is what brought me to adopting a LCHF woe. I want to avoid diabetes, which seemed to be inevitable in my family but clearly is not.
Congrats on your success, and thanks for sharing your story.1 -
@EbonyDahlia - it is terrible that you have to have had that experience. Since diagnosis, I have found out so many people I know have diabetes that it is scary. Most think it is no big deal like you said. I don't personally know anyone who has died from it or complications of it. I don't think I need to. At last check, I was down to pre-diabetic and based on the readings I am getting now, I expect I may be below that level by the time I get it checked next in November. Keep hanging in there!2
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If that's not cause enough to eat right then I don't know what is!
I know that so many people feel like "that won't be me", as if stories like your Dads are the rare ones. We know better than that.
There are different paths we can take into our old age (hopefully old age anyway!)... I'll skip candy land and take the one paved in bacon!1 -
I'm so sorry you had to go through all that - and happy that you, at least, see clearly. My brother and my dad are both diabetics. My brother is obese, (though you wouldn't say it, he's tall and carries the weight well), my dad is just overweight and on insulin.
I didn't start LCHF for diabetes originally, just for satiety, but then it started curing some digestive issues I had and I was sold. I've since learned a lot on this group, and tried educating my father and brother on this WOE. But they are absolutely not interested whatsoever.
Whenever I try to make 'substitute' foods or decline bread and cereal, they make fun of me and see it as one big joke. So, I feel your pain.3 -
I'm so sorry about your dad. my dad is in a similar situation but the damage is to a different organ due to diabeties. I know what you mean about beople not taking it seriously. I was diognosed prediabetic may 5and started here on the 7th...normal numbers last month and 56 pounds down.....thank you for reminding me why I must keep fighting!! I started for the same reason. again so sorry about your dad.2
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I'm so sorry you had to go through that experience. It must have been heart wrenching to see your dad suffering. Thank you so much for providing such a stark reminder of why what we are doing here is important. Diabetes is a terrible disease but its easy to focus on the heart failure and other issues as being independent...when it is all cause and effect.1
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@EbonyDahlia ...you are clearly a very strong woman. More power to you for seeing the problem, making a decision and sticking with the path that's right for you!!0
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@EbonyDahlia ...you are clearly a very strong woman. More power to you for seeing the problem, making a decision and sticking with the path that's right for you!!
To be honest, it's more fear than strength. I am absolutely terrified of spending the latter half of my life gasping for breath in terrible pain waiting to die. I keep thinking my Dad was 40 when he found out he had diabetes. By the time he was 50 the damage was done. I'm 42. I can NOT go the same way.1 -
Bumping for @EbonyDahlia as a reminder for why you can be happy about his WOE even through a stall.1
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Thank you. I remember every day why I eat this way. That's why I haven't given up despite the lack of results.3
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Ebony dahlia you are an inspiration. so important to not get weight loss focused and remember why we started and why we are doing this. thanks for the reminder1
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Thank you for sharing this.
If I never lost another pound I would still continue this woe..I feel better now than I did in my twentys.
I no longer feel sick and tired..trying to get past the three o'clock crash , no energy, no motivation.
Keto has reconnected me with my body. And when you listen, it comes thru loud and clear!!!2 -
Thank you for sharing this! I am sorry for your loss and what you had to experience watching him pass that way.0
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Hugs to you! My dad was also diagnosed Type 2 Diabetic at around age 40. He is now 74 and still uses insulin as a crutch to eat whatever he wants. My mother is not diabetic, but she is obese and I think they just enable each other...very sad. My biggest fear is that something will happen to one of them and then the other will give up. For myself, I struggle to keep my weight under control and set a good example for my 3 kids. I have a brother and sister - sister is in good shape, brother is pre diabetic and overweight at age 40 just like Dad.
I don't understand why people won't try something different and work to get healthy. The problem is the doctors don't encourage it and my parents are of the generation that believe what the doctors tell them - at face value - and think people are crazy for researching and being an advocate for themselves... ugh! LCHF is so foreign to them and against what their doctors tell them, that I don't think they could ever change.
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christineellis wrote: »I don't understand why people won't try something different and work to get healthy. The problem is the doctors don't encourage it and my parents are of the generation that believe what the doctors tell them - at face value - and think people are crazy for researching and being an advocate for themselves... ugh! LCHF is so foreign to them and against what their doctors tell them, that I don't think they could ever change.
I'm agreeing with you and will add I think I am probably somewhat about your parent's age since you mentioned a 40 year old brother. I'm 63. The interesting thing is, as I reflect on my food choices today (keto) versus what I ate as a child in the 1950s and early 60s, foods are really quite similar.
We got our milk by walking to the neighbor's farm, giving them a quarter for a gallon and grabbing a jug from the spring house returning the washed, empty glass gallon jug. The top third of the gallon was full of the separated cream. We always had to shake our milk before drinking it. To this day, I'll shake a carton of milk.
Milk is just one example. There was no such thing as 80/20, 70/30, 93/7 ground beef . It was just ground beef and it was full of fat. Ice cream was just full fat ice cream. Chocolate/vanilla/strawberry. Maybe butter pecan. Certainly things like Ritz crackers and Oreos existed but were not staples in our diet. They were treats and there was was one style of each not every possible version available (including low fat). Grocery stores were probably about 1/5 the size they are today (or smaller) since there was no need for multiple aisles of boxed foods. 1 kind of canned tomatoes, 1 kind of oatmeal, 1 kind of rice. 1 type of Rice a Roni. A few different types of boxed cereal but certainly not a whole aisle!. Wheaties, corn flakes, Quaker puffed rice.
I'll digress but as "sugared cereals" were growing in popularity, a really cool toy inside the box was used as an incentive to purchase the sweet cereals. My brother and I took turns each week selecting our cereal from the store. Our choice was based on the coolness of "the toy", not the cereal.
Perhaps if you explored with your parents how they (and the general population) ate in their youth and how/why obesity/diabetes has increased over the last many years, they will make a connection.
A few months ago we had a short conversation here regarding the word diabetes and how it was once referred to as "sugar" . We didn't seem to have many "back then" with diabetes but if they did, they didn't have "diabetes". They had "sugar".
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