Chancey Bruce’s Journey

I want to thank Chancey Bruce for taking the time to write up his story. His story is typical of most diabetics and provides clues as to why the ADA Food Pyramid is destined to fail for not only most diabetics…but for most people. I communicate with many diabetics and those that fail at maintaining proper BG control have a common theme running through their stories… we’ll discuss at the end of the post.

Chancey Bruce’s Story

I was diagnosed with Diabetes Type 2 in 1998 after being taken to the hospital with Acute Pancreatitis and a blood sugar of 475. The ER doctor asked me if I knew I was diabetic, and I said, “I guess I do now”. My weight at the first hospitalization was 299 lbs.

It is July, 2010 now and I have gone through 12 years of riding the rollercoaster. I would eat the ADA way but eventually I would fall off the wagon completely, eating what I wanted. Neither of the food systems worked as I was in the hospital another 15 or 16 times over those years. I began working out and following the Anabolic diet in June of 2008 and did really well for a few months. It was low carb for five days a week and two basically free days, in which I went nuts and ate everything in the house. It was however, fairly effective as I went from 261 pounds down to 217 and reduced insulin shots down from four a day to one of just 30 units of Humilin N.

On the weekends I would have to take extra insulin to cover the carb loading and eventually I fell back off the wagon. Later that next year (October, 2009), my weight had increased back up to 261 pounds and I had begun eating whatever I wanted. As a result, the next January, 2010, I was back in the hospital. Once again, I came out of the hospital in February 2010 trying to eat the ADA way and found that I needed 4 shots again every day to control the sugar as I put the ADA recommended number of carbs into my system.

Eat up and shoot up. It did not work for me. I got tired of it . . . again, and am now on the primal paleo meal plan and I have lost from 254 lbs down to 237 today. I am now trying to limit carbs to less than 30 per day and absolutely less than 50 per day. I have made this progress over the past couple of months and I still have a long way to go. But once again I am down to one shot a day and I have recently reduced the amount of that shot from 90 units a day to 60 and have hopes of eliminating it and oral meds completely.

My first goal will be to get back to 217 lbs and be the lightest I have been in two years. My next weight goal would be to get down to 200 lbs or less, but the main goal is not merely weight but body composition. I do not care how much I weigh if it is muscle weight and not bodyfat, this is why I believe the BMI index is not a good guide as it does not take body fat percentage into account. I would be fine with weighing 225lbs if it was solid muscle. For now, I will just keep working on eating paleo and working out with weights/cardio, and see where I can go from here.

I am feeling much better than I have in months since I got through the first two weeks of the paleo diet. The first two weeks I seemed to be in a mental fog as I adjusted to the new eating pattern. Now when I finish a workout I feel like I could go another hour with no problem. The energy I get from not eating carbs seems at times almost endless.

Summary

As I read Chancey’s story I was reminded of all the other stories I’ve read or heard…. diabetics who attempt and fail to stick to the ADA Meal Plan. Both of Chancey’s meal plans (ADA and Anabolic) are similar in that they encourage high carb foods at times. Also, BOTH encourage the consumption of highly inflammatory foods … people it just doesn’t work.

Imagine an alcoholic being told that he can binge drink on weekends. (Anabolic) or being told that “you can drink 3 beers a day as long as you plan for it”…. IT JUST DOESN’T WORK!!… nor is it healthy.

Thanks again Chancey for sharing and I hope people learn from your story!!!