She will be loved
Wednesday, Aug. 07, 2002
Weight and diabetes
I thought that I would write a little bit about my weight and diabetes. My diabetes was diagnosed in December, 2001. I was 25 years old at my diagnosis. I have type 2 diabetes, that's the kind that fat people, or old people, get.I always knew that I would get diabetes eventually. My father's father had type 1 diabetes and died from it's complications. Both my mother's parents developed type 2 later in their lives. My father got his type 2 when he was forty. It was inevitable that I would get it, but I always thought that I would be in my late 30's at least.
I was normal weight until I was about 10 or so, then the pounds started piling on. Both my older siblings were skinny, so everyone in the family was very preoccupied with my weight. Why is she so fat? There must be something wrong with her. I very rarely faced any taunting or discrimination in school, for some reason I was usually friends with the people who made fun of others. That was probably a survival instinct. I was funny and well-liked in junior high and high school, I never dated but I had plenty of friends. I never worried about my friends then, but I always thought that my family was ashamed to be seen with me. Eventually this made me very ashamed of myself.
Except for doing Jenny Craig for a few months (I lost a whopping 13 pounds) my freshman year, I never really dieted. I was on the soccer team, but I was never any skinnier during season than I was the rest of the year. While I didn't try fad diets, I tried to eat pretty healthy. It made no difference. I graduated high school weighing about 220. When I was 20/21, I studied in Japan for 8 months. If you think school cafeteria food is bad in America, you will have a whole new appreciation for it after trying it's Japanese counterpart. I ate very little there, mostly subsisting on starchy foods like rice, noodles, and bread. I didn't lose a pound while I was there.
I have a different body type than most fat people, unfortunately. I have a non-existent butt, an average chest, and my legs and arms are very skinny and muscular. All my weight is around my abdomin. This is called truncal or visceral obesity, I call it looking like a beach ball on toothpicks. This is the same type of body that my father has, that's why I knew that I was destined to his fate.
I've always had irregular periods and some male-pattern hair growth. For these reasons, along with my weight, I thought that I might have polycystic ovarian syndrome. I went to have this checked out by an endocrinologist in December and that's when the diabetes was discovered. My blood sugar was checked at least once a year by my doctor and nothing had been wrong before, so I must not have had the disease very long before my diagnosis. For a few months, I had had several symptoms of the disease, but I never made any connection. Extreme thirst, frequent urination-especially at night, intense cravings for candy, no energy, unexplained weight loss, occasional blurry vision, and some tingling in my feet and fingers. Other than the thirst and peeing, I had no idea that all these things were connected.
I never would have imagined getting this disease so early. I knew that I was fat, but I'd always thought of myself as a fairly healthy person. I knew plenty of fat people much larger/older/less healthy than me without diabetes. But the key thing with my weight is where I carried it. Insulin resistance leads to abdominal obesity because of the way the body processes sugar. The larger that the stomach is in proportion to the legs, the more likely that the person will develop diabetes.
After my diagnosis, I started reading and studying everything that I could on the disease. I learned that in digestion, all starches turn into sugar, and that is what raises blood sugar. Everyone's body reacts differently to different foods, and by testing and experimenting with my blood sugar, I learned that a potato, rice, or pasta will raise mine much faster than sugar or candy will. Most people assume that diabetics can't eat sugar, but I don't have much of a problem with it, I have to stay away from starch. That explained everything for me, that's all that I lived on before diagnosis. I always thought that fat made you fat, but carbs were what did it for me. By limiting my carbs and avoiding starch as much as possible, I've gotten great control of my blood sugar and am finally seeing great changes in my body and weight.
My father has not been so fortunate in his diabetes control, but his is a story for another time. As with many instances in my life, I have learned how not to live my life by observing the way he lives his.
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