About me:
I am a 57 yr old male. At diagnosis (as the result of FBGs taken as part of a routine physical), in February 2008, I was overweight, but not obese (6 ft. tall, 220 pounds--BMI 29.8). I now weigh approximately 167 (or a couple of pounds more or less, depending on whether I'm retaining water on any given day) (BMI 22.6).
I am pre-diabetic--but, based on my A1c at diagnosis (6.5, which the ADA now recommends as the level at which someone be diagnosed as diabetic), and on my FBGs at that time (127--sufficient for a diagnosis of diabetes, had it been repeated--and 123, on the retest), I consider myself functionally a Type 2.+ I am not on meds.
Between February and November of last year, I lost 65 pounds. I began walking at lunch. I started eating a low-fat, no-refined carb diet (e.g., I ate whole-grain breads and Ezekiel bread), but wasn't seriously counting carbs so much as simply not overdoing it. I was testing a couple of times a day. (My BGs during that initial three-month period were 111, 110, and 112, with FBGs of 103, 106, and 110; my highs were 174 (first month, during which a third of my readings exceeded 110), 159 (37% of readings over 110), and 154 (48% of readings over 110).)
By the three-month mark, my A1c was down to 6.0. Going through Passover in late April--when Jews eat no leavened bread, and generally avoid foods that have any grain in them--and testing a few more times a day, I became more aware of the effect that carbs had on my BGs. I decided to learn more. Researching diabetes books on Amazon, I found, and ordered, Gretchen Becker's excellent primer on Type 2 diabetes (The First Year: Type 2 Diabetes). Amazon, as is its wont, helpfully pointed out that many people who bought Gretchen Becker's book also bought Dr. Richard Bernstein's The Diabetes Solution. I ordered that as well, and started reducing my carbs.
That was a little more than half-way through May. My average BG for June, 2008 went down to 101; my average FBG was 94, and only 15% of my readings exceeded 110. By November of last year, my A1c was 5.5; this past March, it was 5.3. Most recently, in September, it was 5.4.
Since last June, in cycles, my monthly average BG has run between 92 and 102 (with one 30-day excursion down to 91), my average FBG has run between 88 and 97. For the past three months, my average BG is 93. My high for the last three months is 131, and 4% of my readings have exceeded 110.
