: Hi,

: I've just been diagnosed with type 2
: diabetes, and am kind of reeling
: because I've improved so much from
: the days when I'd have a large bag
: of M&Ms and a bottle of Coke for
: lunch (also all the talk of
: amputations and blindness they hit
: you with).

: But my program has been very loose
: this summer, so I'm trying to see
: it as the incentive I need to get
: back on track. After years of
: never being full in the morning, I
: finally got a decent blender,
: tried gluten-free oats in my shake
: and discovered it tastes pretty
: good and fills me up, who knew?

: I've been on the program for eight
: years now, but never made it past
: step 5 and have repeatedly
: backslid (because I didn't truly
: want to give up sugar, probably
: because step 1 was never truly
: stable).

: Now giving up sugar is a necessity,
: I'm wondering what sort of time
: frame I should be looking at
: without making it too hard for
: myself, or letting myself get
: sicker.

: If anyone has any experience of this
: and can share what they did, I'd
: love to hear it. I keep seeing
: articles about super low-calorie
: diets and how t2 diabetics need to
: do them and panicking, even though
: my doctor isn't encouraging me to
: do that at all -- just to
: dramatically cut down on sugar
: ASAP.

: I guess my question is, how soon is
: P?

I am glad you wrote and made a connection. I think it can be very unsettling to
get a new diagnosis. And O can't give you an across the board suggestion without
more data. It depends on the severity of what you are dealing with. If your A1c is 12, it is
different from an A1c of 6.0

And no, you do not need to panic. Put your energy into a solid step 1 and give me a little more info.

Kathleen