I don’t have any support – how can I recover from Type 2 Diabetes?
When I was first diagnosed with prediabetes, I had no idea what that meant for me and my life. I knew it was bad but wondered just how bad? Did prediabetes mean that I was going to die? Was I going to be able to get healthier? I didn’t know the answer to “how I can recover from Type 2 Diabetes without support,” yet.
Support, when you have a potentially scary diagnosis, is critical. Many people ask us: How can I recover from Type 2 Diabetes without support?
When I was first diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes, I started reading everything I could. I wanted to know how I got this disease. What could I do to turn it around? What kind of damage will my body have from this?
I was also incredibly upset to learn that my doctors had known that inheriting the tendency to have Type 2 Diabetes was common. They didn’t tell me this!
It’s very common for people from the same family to have Type 2 Diabetes.
This is what happened to me. I was very healthy until suddenly I wasn’t. The genetics passed down to me. My paternal grandfather, several uncles, my aunts, and many cousins all had Type 2 Diabetes. I didn’t stand a chance!
However, what your family probably didn’t pass down to you was how to eat healthy foods.
I know this because if I had learned to eat more healthy foods as a young person, I wouldn’t have become prediabetic and almost into a Type 2 Diabetes diagnosis.
“Type 2 diabetes does not have a clear pattern of inheritance, although many affected individuals have at least one close family member, such as a parent or sibling, with the disease. The risk of developing type 2 diabetes increases with the number of affected family members. This increased risk is likely due in part to shared genetic factors, but it is also related to lifestyle influences (such as eating and exercise habits) that are shared by members of a family” H/T Medline Plus.gov
When my fasting blood sugar was 104, my doctor didn’t say anything. Then at the next lab test, it was 117. My A1C was 5.9. Now I know that these numbers were clearly in the prediabetes range. My doctor did not say anything to me. To learn more about why doctors forget to tell us that we have prediabetes, click here.
I felt betrayed by my doctor. If I had known this information sooner, I could have started to make changes to reverse my prediabetes.
Prediabetes leads to Type 2 diabetes. The good news is, it does not have to become Type 2 Diabetes.
Did you know that diet and lifestyle changes can put Type 2 diabetes into remission?
“The strongest evidence we have suggests that diabetes is mainly put into remission by weight loss.”1https://www.diabetes.org.uk/guide-to-diabetes/managing-your-diabetes/treating-your-diabetes/type2-diabetes-remission
Once I learned what to do and started making changes…I felt betrayed again! This time the betrayal was from my family.
Had I known the signs earlier I would have realized a long time ago that my family was very diabetic.
All of the signs were there:
- Heavier weight
- Swollen ankles and legs
- High blood pressure
- Kidney problems
- Constantly craving sugar and carbohydrates
- Drinking beverages constantly
- Always in pain
These are people who share my genetics. They did nothing to reverse their Type 2 diabetes. It’s likely no doctor ever told them they could put it into remission.
They think I am strange because I don’t just take my meds and eat whatever food is in front of me. I learned that my family doesn’t want to hear about what I’ve learned either. That’s ok. Everyone gets to make their own health choices. I love them all the same.
Some family members were unhappy when I refused to eat the foods offered to me at gatherings. My aunt acted as if I was doing a terrible thing to her by not eating the food she made. It wasn’t personal, but this was hard for her to understand.
I now eat different foods than I did before, and also do not eat a lot of foods that I used to eat. What I will no longer eat is a basket of fried foods with a side of more fried foods at a restaurant.
I have to know there is something at the restaurant that I can safely eat, or I won’t go.
One thing I tried was eating something at home before going out to restaurants. Then I enjoyed sitting and talking with everyone, but that didn’t work. People, especially my family, would not stop harassing me about food. Have you experienced something similar?
I had no intentions of making anyone else feel bad. The food choices I made I kept to myself. I didn’t say anything about my new diet or lifestyle.
This is what can happen: Because I was making better food choices, this shined a light on their poor choices.
People don’t enjoy eating cheesecake while sitting with someone who didn’t order it because that is an unhealthy food for them. To my family and friends, I was “no fun anymore.”
I felt unsupported by my doctors and my family. No one wanted to talk to me about it. Guess what I did that made all of that worse, in their eyes? I started to get healthy and then I lost weight. My skin cleared up and swelling went down. I had energy! Then I started riding my bike!
Now I was rubbing everyone’s nose in it, in their perception. I wasn’t doing anything TO them, but they thought I was.
“How can I recover from Type 2 Diabetes without support?” was a question I asked myself daily
How did I manage to do all of this with no support? To be honest, I found a great support group. The group was full of people learning about the same challenges. We shared recipes and ideas. I felt like I wasn’t alone.
Finally, I had people who were on the same path I was!
I want that for you. You don’t have to go it alone!
You can join our free group here, and get some excellent dietary recommendations that may just reverse your Type 2 Diabetes diagnosis!
Her tragic family history of Type 2 Diabetes, and her own diagnosis of prediabetes in 2021 caused her to research more deeply, leading to a passion in educating people on how to hopefully put this disease into remission.
