My Type II Diabetes Journey

Let me give you some background: Just one year ago, I visited with my doctor due to a persistent cough from which I had been suffering for around three months. My doctor recommended a full check-up as long as I was in the office, so I headed out to the blood clinic in order to get all my necessary bloodwork done. Days later, when I returned to my doctor for the results, I expected him to prescribe me some simple antibiotics for my cough, but it turned out he had bigger news to share with me. My bloodwork had revealed that I actually had early Type II diabetes. I was shocked. While it was not advanced enough that I would need to take insulin, he did prescribe me six months worth of tablet medication I would need to take daily.

In addition to the medication, my other prescription was to get my body in motion. Essentially, I was advised to get up from the couch, even though I was lacking confidence somewhat, to increase my level of activity, to reduce my caloric intake--basically, get moving and lose weight. It sounds so easy when you say it that way, doesn't it? In reality, when you have spent the better part of your life vegetating on the sofa, it takes some serious changes. Diabetes, though, was a pretty strong motivator to make those big changes. It might not have been the type of motivation I was hoping for, but it worked all the same.

The first step it seems everyone takes when they decide it's time to get into shape is joining the gym, and I was no exception. My one-month membership at my local gym was one of the longest 30 day stretches I can ever remember living through. While I have no doubt plenty of people truly enjoy attending the gym regularly, I was not one of them--in fact, I grew to dread my daily trip to the gym a great deal. Of course, during that month I did reduce my weight a little bit, and I enjoyed some improvements to my general muscle tone, but the sheer misery of the experience for me more that outweighed those benefits, and I knew it was not a viable long-term solution for me.

Once I burned out on the gym, I decided to avail myself of my local pool, where I would swim laps daily. Swimming has long been touted as an excellent exercise, offering broad range of motion as well as resistance while you work out in the water. Still, swimming turned out to be little better than the gym for me, as swimming endless, boring laps by myself while I was cold and tired early in the morning was very difficult for me to stay motivated to do.

I realized the key to lasting changes would be finding an activity I really enjoyed. Eventually, I found my own motivation when I realized how much I truly enjoyed walking.

I made my discovery after I had explored some self hypnosis for weight loss techniques in my continuing quest to change my attitude and habits. I had bought several self hypnosis MP3 tracks, and in order to listen to them, I loaded them onto my player and listened while I walked around my neighborhood. Each MP3 was around 30 minutes long, so as I walked and listened, I was also getting a great amount of exercise I enjoyed more and more. Plus, the MP3s themselves were building confidence and exercise motivation for me, making me want to continue.

A lot of people find that while they have plenty of initial enthusiasm and motivation, before their new habits have become completely ingrained, they will backslide and find their interest waning. In my experience, hypnosis CDs and MP3s helped gradually change my entire perspective, so that now I am legitimately looking forward to my daily walks.

My six-month post-diagnosis check-up with my doctor was a good time. I had lost a full 30kg of excess weight, my blood sugar levels had decreased, and my doctor even let me know that with another six months of similar effort and results, he could remove me from the prescription medication I was taking. What an achievement, in just six short months!