So for those of you who have just landed on this page and wondering what this post is about, I suggest that you read my previous posts (1, 2, 3) about my Low Carb High Fat (LCHF) diet and why I decided to go on it. Just for some background.
Before we get into the results I just want to say that if you are a diabetic – THERE IS HOPE!
I was VERY strict with the diet, I only cheated twice during the period. The first time was on Christmas Day when I had some desert and then on my son’s birthday when I had 1 slice of pizza and 1 3 slices of cake (I will still do a post about the cake). I was determined to give it my all in the time agreed with the doctor.
At the end of November I was taking 1x Galvas tablet twice a day and I was injecting 18 units of Novamix in the morning and the evening. My blood sugar levels were never below 9, more like an average of 12 when I was testing. According to the results of blood taken on 31/10/2013 the average was 13.2!
As I was progressing with my diet I was noticing a change in my body. I was loosing weight pretty fast, but more importantly my blood sugar levels started stabilizing. So I started taking less medication.
On the 1st January 2014 I decided that I would no longer be taking ANY medication going forward. No nothing. I was going to see how it was going to impact me.
Surprisingly my levels started becoming “normal”. The lowest reading was 5.6 mmol the one day (I had NEVER been this low). I was averaging about 6 – 7.5 mmol on my tester. I thought maybe my test strips were faulty – nope same results with different batch of strips. I tried another meter and the results stayed the same. It was absolutely crazy for me – these results by NOT taking medication but only eating differently!
My sisters wedding was coming up so I wanted to ensure that I did my doctors tests BEFORE I went to it, as I was going to cheat on this very special day and not worry about the diet!
So off I went on the 13th February 2014 to the CDE clinic and my favorite vampire nurse, Martie, drew like 6 vials of blood, took a urine sample and did a EKG also. I told her to make sure she had enough blood to do all tests that she could think of. I wanted to know if this diet was causing any problems. She really did draw enough as I saw there was a R2500,00 worth of blood work done according to my medical aid (over and above the CDE tests).
After explaining to Martie what I was doing she said that she wanted to test my cholesterol levels with her “very expensive machine”. We both waited with bated breath as the machine was doing the test. It started printing out the results…the look on Martie’s face was priceless (she was expecting crazy high cholesterol levels). Everything looked “normal”. She asked me if I was taking any medication for cholesterol and I said nothing – nada – niks! She then compared it to my previous results (done on the same machine) and she said the figures had actually come down, but she wanted to wait and see what the lab was going to say…
The 20th February 2014 arrived. Results and discussion day with my doctor. For 3 days prior to the visit I was testing my blood every 2 hours, this way the doctor could get and accurate reading of my blood throughout the day (from when I woke up to when I went to sleep).
She opened my file and asked how I was doing. I said I was doing great and wanted her to know upfront that I was no longer taking medication as from 1 January. I could see that she was expecting a bad blood work report. She quickly scanned over it and then started smiling…she wanted to confirm that I was not taking any medication any more. Yup doc, no meds at all! She plugged my tester into her PC and pulled the results (all green levels). Still smiling she turned the results page around and showed me my HbA1c results…
She then pointed out my average readings…
Through the grace of God, support from family and by changing my diet I had managed to LOWER my blood sugar levels in the 3 months that I had asked the doctor for!
My average blood sugar level as you can see above in April 2013 was 10.5 mmol. In October 2013 it was 13.2 mmol. In February 2014 it was 6.8 mmol!!!
I asked her about the other results. She said the kidney functions had improved and were looking OK and overall the results were looking very positive. Only area that she wanted to keep an eye on was my levels of Vitamin D (need to get more sun 🙂 ) and my Iron levels that were higher than normal. Other than that she was very impressed and wanted to know more about what I had been doing…
She said she was also very impressed with my weight loss in such a short time. She said the only other time that she had seen similar weight loss in other patients was when the one ended up in ICU after a hijacking incident and the other in hospital after taking a nasty fall.
She agreed. I was a man of my word and I had kept up my side of the bargain!
Now for those of you who are still skeptical about my results I have decided (against my better judgement) to upload it to my blog completely. Apologies for it being in Afrikaans, and the quality of the scan not being the best, but at least you can click below and zoom into the pictures.
I have blanked out only my personal details, but the notes made on the pages are that of the doctor. Feel free to have a look below.
In closing I would just like to repeat what I said earlier – if you are a diabetic and you are serious about getting better – THERE IS HOPE!
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*Disclaimer – Please note that I am merely sharing my experience and story, and I do not condone anyone stopping whatever medication that they may be on. Please see the About section for full disclaimer.
Many years ago I used to use ICQ to chat with friends online. This was the time way before Android was on the scene. While writing this article I was actually suprised to see that ICQ is still around and even has an Android app, so maybe I will give it a try again…one day.
But the main reason for this post is that when it was announced in the media that Facebook purchased WhatsApp for the insane price of $19 billion AND stocks, I thought it might be time to start looking at other options…
The reason why I felt this way was that for a while now I have not been using Facebook. Privacy is a concern on it (yes I know you can put the settings real high – but this may not be enough), employment agencies use it to profile candidates (even though the ethics and outcomes of this practice is questionable), it is becoming plastered with adverts and if you not careful about what you say on it you can either be sued or fired from your job. So frankly I have not bothered about it any more.
Now with Facebook buying Whatsapp, what is stopping Mr Zuckerberg from upping the price, loading it full of adverts, spying on the chats and frankly destroying an app that is working just fine – well actually nothing…
So the search started. I stumbled across and application called Telegram – https://telegram.org/.
It looks VERY similar to WhatsApp, also uses your cellphone to setup, however it also boasts the following features:
- Telegram messages are heavily encrypted and can self-destruct.
- Telegram lets you access your messages from multiple devices.
- Telegram is free forever. No ads. No subscription fees.
- Telegram keeps your messages safe from hacker attacks. (seems there is a reward if someone can hack it)
- Telegram has no limits on the size of your media and chats
The fact that it can be accessed from multiple devices is a plus for me. Often I see something while browsing on my Note 8.0 Tablet that I would like to share with someone, and then I can’t WhatsApp it as it is not my primary phone (so it is not “linked” to my profile). The only downside current is that it does not support PTT (Push To Talk)
After installing it on my HTC Desire I installed and set it up on the Note 8.0. Immediately I got a message saying that another device was trying to access my Telegram and if it not from my doing I need to terminate all the sessions. Impressive.
Seems also that the word is starting to spread as 2 of my other colleagues are already using it. 🙂
Check it out for yourself: 
I stumbled across this graphic a while ago, that shows the Super Mario Power Ups. I tried really hard to find the original artist, sadly without success…(if you know who please let me know so I can acknowledge this fine work of art).
Anyway it is a great graphic – enjoy!
(Source: via FunnyJunk)
