Diabetes, the Doc can't be right, I don't have any symptoms. That was what my first reaction was when they found sugar in my urine during a DOT physical for my CDL ( Department of Transportion and Commercial Drivers License ). They did to a quick finger check blood glucose reading as well. I don't remember what that number was now. I set up an appointment to do a blood fasting lab drawn the next day. That came back with a reading of 200 mg/dL.  Ok, maybe I did have a little bit of a problem.  The A1c was also above normal, but I don't remember that number now. I'd have to back and look up that lab report.

Luckily for me the Doctor let me try diet and exercise to see if I could make things work better. First thing that I did was quit drinking soda pop. I was drinking 2- cans of Mountain Dew a day. I had also gotten into the habit of eating one big meal a day, and maybe a snack or two.

I went to the diabetes education appointment set up by the Doctor and the hospital. Started counting carbs, and eating 3 meals with snacks in between. The amazing thing about the diet, it was actually good food and tasty. I could eat pretty much anything I wanted, I just had to watch serving size and time. I ate it ( two Krispy Kremes for a morning snack and coffee wouldn't work ). But maybe a small apple would be better any way. But I could still eat 2 oreo cookies if I wanted as well. I would have to forget the milk with the oreoes though, that would be two many carbs.

 
After a couple weeks, I went back to the doctor and the levels were coming down. The doc said to keep it up, and come back in September to do another A1c test and go from there. I've been sending Blood Glucose readings to the nurse at the hospital that gave me the meter and showed me how to use it. I think she was even surprised at how good I've been doing.

I had gotten a little bit too heavy, but just by changing my eating times, I got my metabolism up, ate almost the same amout of calories, and lost 20 lbs in about 2 months. While I haven't been on a real exercise program, I've been more physically active on the farm the last couple months. I have noticed that if I don't do much activity for a couple days, it is harder to keep the sugar levels down. I also noticed that if I exercise quite a bit, sometimes the sugar level is a little higher for a brief period of time.

So far, diet and exercise have got my morning fasting levels between 100 and 110, with a few reading 95-100.  Most of the time when I do testing 2 hours after meals readings are 120-140.

The challenge now is to try and find vitamin supplements that will help me out. The quality of foods and nutritional levels vary. Take carrots, depending on where they are grown, and the fertility of the soil, as well as temperatures during the growing season can change the nutrients in the carrot. ( I farm and also used to feed cattle and hogs and balance their rations )  Well balanced is the key, and it is hard to find a good multi-vitamin to help a person make sure they have right nutrients. Also, eating a lot of fish is hard in Nebraska, beef and pork is easy, along with chicken and turkey once in a while. So getting a good fish oil supplement in capsule form would be the easiest, since I sometimes drive truck and taking some pills on the road is easier than liquids.