The Low Down

It all started with foot pain in 2005. I found out I had neuropathy in both my feet, caused by insulin resistance. In 2007 I was referred to Doctor Vance in Idaho Falls, a diabetic and osteoporosis specialist. He understood my frustration with being overweight, and he described perfectly to me the story of my life: "You are good all week long, then you go to a wedding reception and eat a piece of cake. By the next morning you have ganed 5 pounds." 

Bingo! 

The next thing he said I will never forget. He said, 

"It's not your fault." 

Dr. Vance is not really a warm and fuzzy, nurturing kind of doctor. He states things as they really are, even if it's not what you want to hear. To hear him tell me it was not my fault was life changing, because all these years I thought it was my fault. I thought I just lacked control. 

Dr. Vance promised me I would lose weight if I would follow his instructions exactly. I was actually pretty angry at him when I left my first appointment. I had already tried everything to lose weight, and here he was promising me that if I would follow his plan the pounds would magically melt away. I decided the moment I left his office I would try his stupid plan, and I would do it precisely, so that I could go back and show him that there was nothing that could save me. 

I ended up losing the weight. 

Here's his plan:

• 30 minutes exercise daily
• daily supplements: cinnamon and chromium picolinate
• 3 meals per day, 30 carbs or less per meal. 
• 3 snacks per day, 15 carbs per snack.
• For 6 weeks write down everything you put in your mouth, and how many carb grams each item has. After 6 weeks mail or email the log to Dr. Vance. (He said if I didn't receive it in six weeks he would be calling me.)

My husband also sees Dr. Vance and has insulin resistance. He followed this plan and lost over 50 pounds, too, except he was not required to write his food log. Doc told my husband he could even have his candy for snacks, "as long as you keep them below 15 carbs". This made my husband very happy, haha. For me, personally, I'd rather have something with real food quality for my snack. And eating sugar makes me want more sugar, so I avoid candy when I am following this plan.

Accountability plays a big part. In the plan above I was accountable to Dr. Vance. After 6 weeks I emailed him my food log, and thanked him for helping me. 

Now I am accountable to anyone who reads this blog, but you can be accountable to anyone; your spouse, a friend, one of your children. It's got to be someone who will not be soft. For me, I am too much a control freak, so being accountable to anyone close to me just won't work. That's why I blog it. 

So there you go. It's really pretty simple. Feel free to leave a comment if you have any questions.