Free guide · type 2 diabetes and prediabetes
5 things I wish I had heard the day before my type 2 diabetes diagnosisI wish I had heard the day before my diagnosis
When I was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, the nurse reassured me that I did not need to change anything. I felt relieved. Only much later did I understand what I needed to hear instead.
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Why I wrote this guide
If I could go back to the day before my diagnosis, I would not try to explain everything about diabetes to myself.
I would send five short messages. This guide is those messages.
I wrote them because the relief I felt in the nurse's office was really a trap. I did not see that then.
Who it is for
- You have already been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes – no matter when.
- You have been told your numbers are borderline, or that you have prediabetes.
- You are trying to understand what this means for the years ahead.
I wrote it as much for someone still headed toward a diagnosis as for someone who already has one.
Questions the guide answers
This is not a list of foods to eat or avoid. It is five messages from me to myself. They answer questions I asked myself after my diagnosis:
- What have I been eating? Why did I let my weight go up? Why didn't I do something sooner?
- What does a diagnosis actually say about where I am headed?
- Why hasn't knowing what to eat changed anything?
- Whose fault is this?
- What really drives my eating?
The answers are in the guide. They are my answers, from my own experience.
Why read it now
After my diagnosis I was left thinking that diabetes was now part of my life and would be handled with medication.
Only much later did I understand what I wish I had heard that day.
That is why it is worth reading now, while this is still new.
Why this is personal for me
After my diagnosis, the turning point came through my father. He had a medical emergency in the hospital, right in front of me. I was sent out of the room, and I went straight from there to a gig to entertain an audience of a hundred people. I am a comedy magician. The gig went well.
On the drive home I started counting.
- My father's first heart surgery at 48.
- The second at 50.
- At 72, in round-the-clock care.
I realised the same road was waiting for me. Not twenty years away. A few.
I decided to do it differently. When I changed what and how I ate, things started to happen in my body quickly. For me, it led to losing 45 kilos and to type 2 diabetes remission. My diabetes medication was dropped. Decisions about medication are always made with your own doctor.
That does not mean the same would happen to everyone, or that anyone should stop medication on their own.
In the guide I tell you what happened to me. Not what will happen to you.
Read the five messages yourself
Free guide, 9 pages. It comes to your inbox.
You'll get the guide straight to your inbox. You'll also join my list, where I share tips about your relationship with food now and then. One click to leave.
This guide is about my own experience. It is not medical advice and does not replace your doctor's assessment. Decisions about medication are always made with your own doctor.