While diabetes is a huge issue for the diabetic, it’s not their only health issue in the vast majority of cases. Besides the actual diabetes, frequently they also have hypertension (high blood pressure) and hyperlipidemia (high cholesterol), as well as obesity. In my case, I had all three. Only the first two were treated with […]

One of my in-real-life friends, Ashlyn, has now lost over 100 pounds twice. She’s done it without surgery either time, just through good old hard work with exercise and diet. You can see her story–the second time around–in this video hosted over at Bill Phillips Transformation. Ashlyn’s struggle highlights a few things, one being that […]

Creaky. That’s how I feel when I’m rolling out of bed. I would like to say that things were better when I was younger, but realistically, I don’t remember ever not being creaky, back to high school. I’m sure it had everything to do with being heavy. I was far from the most athletic kid. […]

If job one of a newly diagnosed Type II diabetic is to lose weight, fixing your diet needs to be job two or three, in other words, way, way up there in terms of what you do. Unfortunately, improving your diet is not quite like improving your lungs if you’re a smoker–if you smoke, you […]

I was a cyclist in college, mostly as a way to get around. The University of Hawai’i has awful parking in the area, and I had a part time job off campus a few miles away. The only way to get to and from quickly was on a bike. For whatever reason, I had gotten […]

While I’m not a copious journal keeper, I have, for years, written down every penny I spent (see my personal finance blog if you want to know why). When I started my diabetes journey, I started doing something similar. I would write down everything I would eat. I was also hoping to manage my diabetes […]

I’m a social worker. More specifically, I’m a social worker who works in health care. Many of my clients over the years have been diabetic, lots of whom are what the medical world calls “non-compliant“; basically, folks who aren’t doing what their physician instructs them to do. I’ve seen the consequences of non-compliance, what Type […]

Hi. My name is Ryan and I’m a diabetic. This is not a twelve step program, but in some ways it feels like one. Diabetes is not a disease in quite the same way alcohol is, but like any chronic disease, managing it on an ongoing basis is a huge challenge. I learned I had […]