It's the Lifestyle, Stupid

Back in Bill Clinton’s first successful run to the presidency, the insider theme of his campaign skewed off course a time or two. But “it’s the economy, stupid” somehow came back into focus in time for James Carville & Co. to craft a victory at the polls.

For most of my overweight life, I’ve been on and off course, too. I’ve always viewed my weight situation something like this: “Well, yes, I may be a bit heavy right now, but in a few weeks I’ll go on a diet and lose the weight.” The Atkins diet was always my salvation before I became middle aged (and older).

I could drop 10 to 15 pounds easily in a month by eating salad, bunless cheeseburgers and scrambled eggs. Who knows what my cholesterol became, but the diet worked - time after time after time. I must have been on and off the Atkins recipe a dozen times over the past 30 years. I did so because it worked for me much better than "calorie counting" (I quickly ran out of fingers). In a relatively short time, I could take off significant weight on the low carb method – in fact, I think I’ve gained and lost over 150 “yo-yo” pounds in my lifetime.

Now that I’m an “honored” citizen (as they now call us at many restaurants) things don’t work like they used to. It takes much longer to lose pounds, even on a low carb diet. Plus the medical profession says the Atkins approach is not “healthy” though they have little scientific proof to corroborate their views (that’s a whole ‘nother blog).

Not only is an older, deteriorating body the problem, but I’m also now told I must control both my blood sugar and cholesterol – period. Otherwise there could be serious health consequences in the years not too far ahead. Yikes. Suddenly the question has become, how to best accomplish this?

In seeking the answer, I’ve become a “fan” of the James Carville approach. From what I’ve read (and it’s quite a bit) just about everyone agrees that if you cut back on simple carbohydrates, your blood sugar does not tend to spike as is normal after every meal. For adult-onset diabetics like me (who fortunately can still control blood sugar with diet) it’s obvious I’ve got to limit carbs for the rest of my life to control those spikes.

It’s not a matter of “going on a diet”. That’s history. It doesn’t work. I’ve got to eat more healthily and live differently (get exercise), again, for the rest of my life. I’m finally coming to grips with it and am willing to deal with it.

This past week I’ve cut out all unnecessary carbs (not the healthy ones), and I’ve been to the gym three times. Admittedly, I feel better already. Funny how slightly abnormal but trending (in the wrong direction) blood tests can be a more powerful motivation than almost anything else. Diabetes doesn’t get better on its own with time. Quite the contrary. At best, you can only keep it at bay with healthy eating, weight control and exercise. It’s the lifestyle, stupid. And that's reality.