The story so far

A summary of my first four years with type 2 diabetes, from diagnosis in December 2020 to now (June 2024).

2020 was a bad year for everyone. Overall, I really can't complain. But I did find one way to make it worse: getting diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. I'd probably been diabetic for a while before the diagnosis: I was pre-diabetic several years earlier, and had been putting off getting my blood test.

My initial reaction was grief and anger. I'd comfort-eaten my way through over a decade of mediocre mental health, and now it felt like I was being punished for doing the thing that helped me cope.

Once the emotional reaction settled down a bit, I started learning. I got The First Year: Type 2 Diabetes: A Patient-Expert Guide for the Newly Diagnosed by Gretchen Becker. Although a little dated, it was extremely helpful. I also started this website. At least I could feel like I was doing something, and perhaps provide a resource that would help a few other people.

I started 2021 with great motivation, a well-planned diet, and good carb control. My next HbA1C was encouraging. But then I went of course. This wasn't like previous diets, this needed to be a lifestyle change, and I quickly realised this was infinitely more difficult.

I persevered: more reading (including learning about very low calorie diets and the possibility of remission), more attempts to lose weight and/or control my carbs, and a lengthy (and expensive) period in therapy. The therapy was meant to be focused on food issues, but ended up being very broad. It probably got me a few moments of insight, but overall I didn't find it very helpful: the therapist's approach to food simply didn't make sense to me. Intuitive eating and 'no bad foods' doesn't really work when high-carb foods are a threat to my eyesight!

A new job in 2022, and a house move in 2023, provided all the reason I needed to continue comfort-eating, and regain some of the weight I'd painfully shifted in the preceding year. 2024 started with a deteriorating job situation and a job hunt in a tough market. And a lot of takeaway.

My wonderful diabetic nurse proposed trying the NHS Type 2 Path to Remission program. This is a VLCD, with coaching and support along the way. Although I had struggled massively with my previous attempt at a VLCD, I decided I ought to give it a go. As before, I made it through the tough early days, only to find myself a couple of weeks in with no energy and a brain that was struggling.

Which brings us to today. I decided that instead of doing my normal response to a failed diet (takeaway, and lots of snacks), I would take advantage of the fact I'd been on a low carb program and had already lost a few pounds, and finally try keto. I first heard of keto back in 2021, in Tom Watson's Downsizing. But I'd never quite committed: perhaps a little concern about the (as yet unknown) long term health implications, coupled with a sense it might be difficult, and concerns about how to get enough fats and proteins as a vegetarian. But at this point I don't have a lot of other things left to try.

I'm currently on day 3, with the 'keto flu' in full swing. However, my blood sugars are amazing, and I don't feel nearly as rough as I did on the VLCD. I'm fatigued, but not hungry, and my mood is wonderfully stable. My brain may not be at its sharpest, but it isn't absolutely screaming for food either. I'm trying not to get my hopes up: so many diets started, so many failures. But so far this one does feel different.

The blog, at least for now, will probably be focused on keto. Perhaps with some broader reflections on living with type 2, and with what I'm calling 'food issues', until I find a clearer term.