Healing Type 1 Diabetes

Probiotic Kefir

My blood sugar this morning was 123.

I have read many articles on the benefits of probiotic supplements. But, recently, I read one that was a little different. It still talked about the benefits but the writer believed that taking a supplement with specific probiotics in it was not the best way to do it. She believed that forced our intestines to adapt to probiotics that perhaps weren't natural for us. In essence, we were "re-mapping" our intestinal flora.

She believed the best way to ingest probiotics was by the way of fermented foods or drinks. That makes sense to me because many cultures include fermented foods in their diet.

A long time ago I bought the ingredients to make my own kefir and never got around to doing it. So this time I bought a probiotic kefir at Whole Foods made with coconut water - http://www.inner-eco.com/. It says to start with 1 T a day and work up to 8 T maximum. I am up to 3 T. I take it in the morning without any food. It tastes pretty good. I am using the original flavor.

So, hopefully, this will help to naturally rebuild my natural flora and boost my immune system.

What I Learned from my Sweet Transgressions

My blood sugar was 204 this morning. Not woo-hoo.

I skipped breakfast and with my boluses (fast acting insulin) it did get down to 179 by lunch. I didn't eat anything sweet yesterday, so it looks like it might be due to the quinoa. I ate 1/3 of a serving last night with chicken and veggies. I have one last serving to eat tonight and then I will probably give up this grain also.

One thing I learned from my recent sweet relapses is that my wheatgrass/l-glutamine powder helps - when I drink it! On the days that I remember to drink this in the afternoon my sweet cravings are lessened. I use a rounded teaspoon of wheatgrass powder & another rounded teaspoon of l-glutamine powder and mix them in 8 ounces of water.

Wheatgrass helps my body to become more alkaline and as it becomes more alkaline, I crave acidic foods like sugar less. An acid body craves acid foods, whereas an alkaline body craves alkaline foods. Anyway, this is what I was taught in my nutrition classes. It even gets to the point where sweet foods do not taste good anymore, when your body becomes alkaline balanced.

The supplement l-Glutamine helps reduce cravings also. This article on the BENEFITS OF THE AMINO ACID L-GLUTAMINE talks about all the benefits of l-Glutamine and if you scroll down to the section on STABILIZES BLOOD SUGAR & DECREASES ALCOHOL CRAVINGS you will discover how it helps reduce cravings.

The other thing I learned from Changing for Good is that I haven't changed my lifestyle; I've only changed one thing - my diet. Okay, I have changed one other thing - I am attending support group meetings.

But I started out exercising, walking 30 minutes 5 times a week, and I did not stick with it. I believe sticking with a healthy diet is much easier when you are exercising also. You just feel so good and proud that you hate to bring yourself down with junk food.

The reasons I stopped are many. I got sidetracked getting my daughter settled in at college and sending her care packages of stuff she needed. I got sidetracked helping my son build/assemble his new bed. I also got sidetracked cleaning house.

I had some livingsocial coupons that were going to expire. One for house cleaning and one for carpet cleaning. I swear most of the house cleaning happened because I had to pick up before they came. lol

The carpet cleaners are coming Saturday and I am busy getting things off the floor for their arrival. The good news is that I am getting some exercise, walking up and down the stairs, lifting heavy boxes, etc.

After the carpet cleaners come on Saturday, I am recommitting myself to walking! If anybody reads this and wants to share how exercise helps them, I would love to hear it.

Vitamin D May Deter Type 1 Diabetes

You may be wondering why I haven't posted lately. Laziness I guess. ;-)

I just can't seem to get back to "that place" of sticking to a very strict alkaline diet. My dog's cancer was in remission but has come back. She is back on prednisone and pepcid and has more energy now, but now has the side effects from the medicine - incontinence or drippiness, drinking lots of water, and maybe ear infections.

We also went on vacation as a family last week during Spring Break. It was fun, but there was also some stress and yelling - just like at home. I don't want to go into any details, but it's not fun sometimes.

Karen Knowler's latest email newsletter really hit home with me. Here is an excerpt "Also figuring into this equation should most definitely be "how stable do I feel in my life right now?" I have found that for most people, coming from a sound stable place on all levels is usually the best recipe for success when going raw, because all the other ducks are in a row, so to speak, and this means that addressing the food seems much less of a deal than it might if someone were busy dealing with other "stuff" such as family or relationship issues, work dilemmas or stresses etc. Bear this in mind when deciding your next step so that you don't feel overwhelmed and then underachieving. The two together can be a really bad combination and give you the whole project a negative flavour that really didn't have to be there."

Here is more information on Karen. Karen Knowler, The Raw Food Coach publishes "Successfully Raw" - a free weekly eZine for raw food lovers everywhere. If you're ready to look good, feel great and create a raw life you love get your FREE tips, tools and recipes now at www.TheRawFoodCoach.com

So, I need to get back to "that place". In pursuing that goal, I am now reading "The Power of Now" by Eckhart Tolle. I need to live in the Now more and be happy despite what is going on around me. I saw Eckhart Tolle on Oprah's show on youtube and it really impressed me. I need that inner peace and to let go of the past.

I also thought this article might be of interest to other Type 1s out there trying to heal. http://newsletter.vitalchoice.com/e_article001060544.cfm?x=bcqqsP1,b7B6BScW This article encourages me to keep taking my Vitamin D supplement, because I am not getting enough sunshine right now and my levels tested very low on my last blood test. I was given a prescription for ergocalciferol, which is the unnatural source of Vitamin D. I didn't fill the prescription and instead opted to buy cholecalciferol. I am taking 50,000 units a week right now and then I will be retested.

I also saw that I have a couple of emails about my blog that I need to respond to. I appreciate the emails and I will respond to them soon.

Friday - Supplements & Juicing

I take some supplements and I think Shazzie of www.shazzie.com sums it up succintly when she says:

Some people ask "What do you think of supplements?"

They definitely have their place. I didn't believe it when I first went raw, because I thought raw is the perfect diet. And it should be, but not as our planet has been stripped of minerals and other stuff. Also, my body had 30 years of bad nutrition (malnutrition), and I've still a lot of making up to do. And on top of that, I'm a vegan, and though raw food is natural, veganism isn't -- there are no tribes/societies that are naturally vegan. So I take a multivit/min and DHA most days. The vitamin tablet has B12 in it. I'm not a walking experiment and would rather supplement, at no expence to the raw vibrancy I feel, than risk possible irreversible nerve damage by not having any at all. As well as those supplements, I just have mega nutrition, which makes me feel totally fab. What about you?

All good points as to why we might need some supplements. I will sum them up and add a few more:

• The food, even organic produce, that we eat today isn't as nutritious as it used to be because of toxins in the environment, picking before ripe, long shipping & storage time, and minerals stripped from the earth they are grown in.
• We need to rebuild from the previous years of eating cooked, processed, & junk food.
• Raw veganism has never been found to be a natural diet for any human culture. In the early 1930s Price and his wife travelled more than 100,000 miles to study the diets and health of isolated primitive peoples in Africa, South America, Australia, Polynesia, Europe and northern Canada, at a time when such communities still existed. He did not find one raw vegan community. This doesn't mean they have never existed. But this is why raw foodists, such as Victoria Boutenko, often look to our nearest relatives the primates to figure out what we need in our diet. But most raw foodists don't want to eat bugs like primates and that may be where they get some essential nutrients such as Vitamin B-12.
• Humans used to live closer to nature, not wash everything, and be in contact with the soil more which may have also been a source of Vitamin B-12.
• Even medical books state that our intestines produce Vitamin B-12, but perhaps years of bad eating have damaged our intestines to where we can't produce this vitamin or assimilate all the other nutrients out of our food that we need as well.
• One good way to get some whole food supplements is to juice! Juicing bypasses 90% of digestion and goes straight to assimilation.

• 6:40 am - 225 - 1 1/2 units
• 10:00 am - 142
• 11:00 am - 156 - 2 1/2 bananas - 5 units
• 2:30 pm - 104
• 3:30 pm - large veggie salad - 2 units
• 4:00 pm - 56 - I guess that was too much insulin for that salad - 1 apple without insulin
• 5:30 pm - 295 - oops, overshot with the apple. - 2 units
• 7:00 pm - green smoothie, small piece of raw flax cracker with raw pecan butter, & 1 square raw chocolate - 2 units
• 10:35 pm - 205 - 1 unit - 10 units lantus