Consistency Brings Success

Regular exercise is important in the battle against diabetes.

Written by Vera Tweed

You don’t have to join a gym to get the regular exercise that can reverse diabetes.

Five years ago, when Marianne Phoenix discovered that her fasting blood sugar ranged between 145 and 185, she had no doubts that she was diabetic. The disease runs in her family, and she knows what it can do. She filled her prescription just in case, but she never took it.

“I decided to take charge of my own health,” she recalls. And that’s exactly what she did, bringing her blood sugar down to normal levels and keeping it there.

Having taken care of ill family members in the past, Marianne knew what types of changes needed to be made, so she embarked on a whole new way of living. “I know I’m preventing myself from becoming a full-blown type 2 diabetic,” she says. And she knows that it’s possible for anyone in similar circumstances to make the right changes.

“Doctors will tell you, you need to lose 30 pounds yesterday,” she says. “And here are some pills.” It’s easy to get overwhelmed and give up before you start, she points out, and preconceived ideas can be roadblocks.

When she started to make changes, she recalls, “People kept telling me, you need to go to the gym.” She didn’t want to, and still doesn’t. “I just needed to get up and move,” she admits. After observing that walking around the block five times significantly reduced her blood sugar, she started adding more physical activity to her life.

“You need to exercise moderately, but the operative word is consistency,” she says. “You can’t just go for a walk on a Sunday and then two Sundays later.” She’s right, you need to do it daily.

To change her eating habits, Marianne began by eating half her usual quantity of food, and eating every three hours. She eliminated fried foods, skin on poultry, and fatty meats. For her favorite, cheeseburgers and fries, she’s eliminated the fries, drinks water, and eats her burger open-faced.

It’s all paying off: At 5’ 5”, Marianne now weighs 186 lb, 32 lb lighter than when she was diagnosed.

Marianne admits that she’s fallen off the wagon a few times, but this hasn’t happened for at least a year. Bad food just does not agree with her anymore.