Since 2019 I have been on a journey to “reverse” my type 2 diabetes. It all started when an endocrinologist, after meeting me for 5 minutes, suggested I go on insulin. She didn’t ask me any questions, but simply looked at my blood panel and prescribed a drug. Her flippant manner turned me off and that may be why I didn’t take her advice. But then I got the same advice from my family doctor. He actually explained that my hemoglobin A1C was out of control (and it was), and that he strongly suggested insulin to stave off losing limbs or going blind. I was upset by this news, of course, but something in the back of my mind made my push back against the use of insulin. I had read a book a few years before this by Julian Whittaker called “Reversing Diabetes”, and asked my doctor if the use of insulin could be started but then reduced, or if someone has ever gone off the medication. My doctor, like so many other doctors I’m sure, told me that the disease is progressive and that reversing it was not possible.

I absolutely don’t blame my doctor for giving me this line. He has had 20 years of experience with people with diabetes not improving. His experience was to simply treat the disease with medication because that is what he was trained to do. I think many doctors see Type 2 diabetes as something they can try to manage, but eventually it will take their patients life in the end. That’s got to be really depressing!

But even though his advice was heartfelt, I pushed back. I told him that I would hold off on injecting myself with insulin for as long as possible. He countered by saying that based on my A1C and lipid panel, that time may be upon us. While I heard him, I also had that book title in the back of my head, and I wondered if I could actually reverse this fricking disease. So I did what doctors hate, I started to do research on Google.

I heard something recently about Google research by Vinnie Tortorich that I thought was profound. He said, and this isn’t an exact quote, that you can google yourself right. Meaning, if you want to prove to yourself that the Earth is flat, there are plenty of folks on the internet who will back this belief up for you. If you feel strongly about an issue, you are going to be able to do an internet search and find people who believe as you do, and organizations and groups who post things that solidify this thing that you believe. Back in 2019, I knew that taking insulin was not the path I wanted to take, and so I googled myself right. But opposed to the inanity of being a flat-earther, reversing type 2 diabetes or at the very least stopping the progression of the disease, seems like something I can do and I have to thank my internet research for this belief.

I started by putting this phrase “reversing diabetes” into the search window and getting back a few links. The one I clicked on wasn’t at the top, but I’m glad it caught my eye as it was reviewing a book called the “Diabetes Solution” by Dr. Richard K. Bernstein. I read the review, then the book, and then I found a Facebook group that was using Dr. Bernstein’s recommendations to help them with their diabetes, both 1 and 2. I read through their posts and their resources and started following the plan. The plan is a ketogenic way of eating, but getting into ketosis isn’t the goal. Lowing your A1C is the goal, and to that end the plan absolutely works.

I was extremely successful with this way of eating. I lost about 20 pounds and I lowered by A1C from 13% to 9%. Still extremely high, but I was moving in the right direction. Then the holidays began, and my new way of eating took a back seat. I’m sure many have been in my situation where you tell yourself that you will get back on that horse on Monday (always Monday). Well, quite a few Mondays had come and gone and I was still eating quite badly. Then things went crazy.

After that first Monday in March of 2020, I promised myself that I would get back on target, but as we know, COVID had other plans. It is a poor excuse to say the pandemic prevented me from eating correctly, but it was a contributing factor due to a reality that I had not been aware of my whole life.

COVID was stressful, and as a teacher I ended up teaching from home throughout the 2020-2021 school year. What do I do when I’m stressed? I eat sweet things. What do I do when I’m bored and stressed? I eat more sweet things, and carb-y things. Some people work out, and I did begin training in martial arts at this time, but I mostly ate crap I knew I shouldn’t be eating. Any weight I had lost the previous fall was erased by the 18 months of COVID crappola.

It was during this time that my A1C shot back up, of course, and I had to ask myself why I keep failing to succeed. I had success on Dr. Bernstein’s plan, so why couldn’t I keep it up? During this period I had been continuing my educational google journey into the Low Carb space and listening to many influencers. I had listened to Dr. Ken Berry since 2019 and saw his progression from Keto to something called Carnivore and wasn’t the least bit interested. Eating all meat all the time seemed insane! But, he did mention something that stuck with me which was that some people have to cut out sugar and carbs because it is an addictive food. I can’t find the episode when Dr. Berry initially says this, but he has many Youtube videos about this subject if you want to do a search.

I was left with the question: am I addicted to sugar? I pondered this for at least 2 seconds before the realization hit me in the head like a shovel. Of course, I was, and I was addicted to carbs as well. So the answer to staying on track was staring me in the face. I had to try Carnivore and eliminate the “drug” that was hindering me.

It has not been easy. My journey on the low carb spectrum continues in part 2…