Atkins

I am seeing a new endocrinologist who is helping me with my diabetes. He put me on an Atkins diet (I asked what I could do other than take more drugs), so I started yesterday.

The extreme phase of the Atkins diet (the first two weeks) is pretty simple. I can eat:

• Meats, fish, fowl.
• Eggs
• Vegetables (plus avocado)
• Cheese
• Not much else.

I also have to drink two liters of water each day, which is not very fun. Too much water.

My doctor said that some people choose to just stay on the extreme version, but I have already decided that I will opt for a less stringent version as soon as I get a chance. I like meat, but I need some variety, and I would like to eat fruit on occasion if I can. Right now all of my carbs (20 a day) are coming from cheese and vegetables, neither of which contain many carbs, so I have been eating a lot of tomatoes and avocado just to get 6-7 carbs per meal.

When I first saw this doctor 6 weeks ago, he gave me a few rules and asked me to record my blood sugar, and I started restricting carbs. My results have already been better (6.0 A1C), so I am hoping it will go down more now. It's a struggle though to keep my sugar down; I increased my Lantus (insulin) based on doctor's orders, restricted my diet, was careful to take all my meds, and I still had good readings only a little more than half the time. I think that as long as my weight is this high, I will have to work hard if I want to keep the diabetes under control.

Perhaps I will lose some weight with this diet. People do. For now I'm just happy if it gets my sugar to go down.