This is What Pre-Diabetes Looks Like

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.