Health & Fitness

Category: Terry Foster's battle with diabetes

I had to admit I was fat

I can already tell I need to more serious and more timely with my diabetes blogs. I relaxed a bit and my email was flooded with people -- mostly men -- wanting to know how I lost weight and began this fight against Type 2 diabetes.

Step one was when my doctor told me four months ago that my blood work showed I was diabetic. She said when your A1C creeps over 6.0 you are a diabetic. Mine was 8.3 and I was rolling in at a chunky 232 pounds.

Today my A1C is 5.9 and I weigh around 210 pounds. So how did I do it? Well first of all the battle is not done. I want to get my weight below 200. And secondly I had to admit to myself that I was fat and that was the leading cause of the diabetes.

Whenever someone would say "Hey put on a little weight?" I would smile and seethe inside. I didn't think I looked that big. Or I tried to justify things. If the kids can have ice cream why can't I have a scoop?

Hey it was just one half pound burger, but I didn't eat all of my fries.

I was justifying everything fattening that I ate.

When my doctor examined me she asked what are all the things I love to eat? I told her burgers, fries, ice cream, cheese cake and steak. She said I can have all of that. I just have to eat in moderation and I cannot have a burger three times a week. Maybe once.

I do not have to clean everything on my plate at a restaurant. Eat until you are filled. Don't eat until you are satisfied because you always want more.

One of my first real test came when we took our family vacation to New York City. Now I was gonna have some cheese cake during our five day trip. But I never ate an entire piece. Instead my son Brandon and I would go through the menu of cheese cakes at Juniors, decide what flavor we wanted and we split it.

I didn't need an entire piece and neither did he.

Now what do I eat now? Stay tuned for the next blog.

I can be reached at Terry.Foster@detnews.com or 313-222-1494. You can follow me at twitter.com/bigscoop.