I'm forty-eight years old. I'm five
feet six inches tall and I weigh 133 pounds. I have taught yoga for
the past fifteen years. I walk at least twenty miles a week, often on
steep trails with my mountain goat of a husband, and can be found
hiking in Joshua Tree National Park or the San Bernardino Mountains
on the weekends. I ate meat once or twice a week, I had an occasional
soda (my crack of bygone days), I was juicing with my lunch every
day, I meditate on a mostly daily basis, and I have pre-diabetes.
It's actually called insulin resistance, but the old school term of
pre-diabetes gives a little clearer picture of what I'm dealing with,
I think.
When the doctor announced my diagnosis
I was like, “What the fuck?” Excuse the language, but I was
pretty shocked to hear this diagnosis. People who don't eat right get
diabetes. People who don't exercise get diabetes. People like me
DON'T get diabetes. I'm also not an idiot and the tests were very
clear, I have a resistance to insulin. The doctor talked with me for
over an hour about the genetic component and the fact that had I not
been taking care of myself all these years that my condition would
probably have been pretty obvious. Her guess, because of numerous
anomalies in my health history, is that I've had this condition for
years but no one thought to look. The healthy, active, juice loving
yoga teacher couldn't be teetering on the edge of diabetes, so no
need to check for that.
I'm now forty days into my carb detox
and this is what I know: I feel better. I'm sleeping through the
night without allergy pills. I have more energy for chores. My face
is somehow healthier looking, one of those “I can't put my finger
on it” kinda' things. I've lost five pounds. All of this positive
change just by changing the way I eat. That's it. Everything else is
the same.
I started wondering how many of my
fellow “carbotarians” are silently carrying this condition as
well. Insulin resistance means that my body doesn't use insulin
efficiently, so my pancreas has to make a lot more insulin to
regulate my blood glucose. So, because I have this issue, it might
take my body five times more insulin than normal to bring my blood
glucose back down to a healthy level (Hart/Grossman, 7). The latest
statistics show that twenty five percent of Americans, or one in
four, have this condition
(http://www.rightdiagnosis.com/i/insulin_resistance/prevalence.htm).
Insulin is one of the major hormones in the body and when it's out of
whack everything else can become thrown off, such as: estrogen,
testosterone, progesterone, it can contribute to high blood pressure,
thyroid issues, heart disease, and a plethora of other physical
ailments.
When I began to look around for
guidance I became frustrated because the majority of the information
out there on the internet assumes I did this to myself. Lose weight,
exercise, change your diet, and then...no more insulin issues. The
reality is insulin resistance is not only a lifestyle issue but a
genetic issue as well. The way I ate before was clean and healthy,
but it wasn't right for my genetic make-up. I now understand that.
For my body I must balance my protein to carb ratio more equally. I
cannot exist only on quinoa, pasta, oat bran, grainy breads, with a
heaping side of fruit and veggies. I have to increase protein so that
my body can process the carbs more efficiently.
I don't think everyone out there has
this issue, nor do I think my way of living/eating is right for
everyone, but there will be some of you that resonate with my
experience. If you are living on fried food, potatoes, grains, Lean
Cuisines, pasta, if you crave sweets, if you carry extra pounds (all
in the belly area), you might just have some insulin issues as well.
The simple fix is to balance the number of carbs you are taking in to
protein. I think perhaps, in my hippie leaning ways, I may have
thrown the baby out with the bathwater. Now that I have returned to
eating (mostly) how my Midwest ancestors ate: eggs for breakfast
(bagel thin on the side), turkey and cheese on my salad for lunch,
chicken and a heaping side of veggies for dinner, I feel amazing.
After the last forty days, as my sugar cravings are subsiding, I know
I will continue on this path to optimum health for my body. Wishing
you all a healthy summer filled with a heightened intuition that will
guide you to eat what your body needs as well.
