![\"Maura](\"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/Weight-Loss-type-2-diabetes-diagnosis.jpg\" "\\"Weight")
<\/a>In retrospect, there were earlier signs that diabetes was in her profile. \u201cMy father had Type 2 diabetes, and he died from a heart attack, which, I believe, even on his death certificate it says diabetes was a contributing factor in his death.\u201d Although the diagnosis had an underlying logic to it, Maura\u2019s feelings were still vivid and intense:<\/p>\n
“I started to beat up on myself. Type 2, you think that’s a lifestyle issue. I caused this. I made it happen to me. I should have known better. This runs in my family. Why didn’t I take better care of myself? I spent a lot of time feeling stupid for not seeing this coming. Also, there was a sense of unfairness. Not every overweight person I knew had diabetes so I felt, “Why is this happening to me?” Of course, an endocrinologist explained to me that it has to do with family history. People can get Type 2 diabetes if they’re just a little bit overweight if that’s the way things are in their family. Some people can become quite overweight and they will never have a high blood sugar level. Luck of the genetic draw.”<\/p>\n
Maura told me that she cycled through her own thoughts for a while before realizing \u201cIt was unproductive thinking, that I just had to move on and address the issues in front of me.\u201d For some health problems, medication was necessary. For others, she realized that she could improve them through behavior changes she could make. \u201cI decided I would take a chance and see if I could reverse some of the damage to my body through weight loss.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Commitment to a Clinic-Based Program<\/h2>\n
Maura had previously heard about a weight loss clinic at George Washington University<\/a> in Washington, DC where she lives.\u00a0\u201cI think a lot of people do this. I heard about it, and I checked out their website every once in a while.\u201d\u00a0 Before the diagnosis of Type 2 diabetes and neuropathy, however, Maura explains that she had done no more than browse. The program \u201csounded extreme,\u201d and she wasn\u2019t ready to \u201cpursue\u201d it.<\/p>\n By October 2005, she was finally ready, and she joined. The diet, which is high in protein and vegetables, was prescribed. \u00a0It began with a liquid fast \u2013 mainly a diet of protein shakes — for 16 weeks. Then she transitioned to another 16 weeks, which added some food to the protein-shake regimen. After eight months, by June 2006, Maura had lost about 91 pounds total.<\/p>\n The GWU program is medically supervised, and in the first 16 weeks of the program, Maura saw a doctor every week. Once she added food back in, the visits alternated between a doctor and a dietician. The visits monitored her health and progress, and supported her in the dietary changes she was making.<\/p>\n Paradoxically, Maura found the narrowness of the food plan and the emphasis on protein shakes to be \u201cliberating.\u201d In the pre-weight-loss part of her life, she had often made \u201cpoor decisions about food choices.\u201d She explains that by \u201ctaking food off the table,\u201d so to speak, the structured diet \u201cwas enlightening\u201d to her.<\/p>\n “Previously, food was something I didn’t think too much about at all. Like a lot of people who have problems with their weight, I tended to pick up whatever was handy\u2026 and that would make me feel full. I would just go out and grab a sandwich at lunchtime and then just have something out of the freezer at dinnertime. I enjoyed everything that I had for meals, but I didn’t really have any sense of proper portion control.”<\/p>\n After she started eating \u201creal food\u201d again, Maura relied on Calorie King<\/a>, recommended by the clinic, for nutritional information on food she ate at home and food she ate in restaurants. She reports that, when she started to look up foods on the website, \u201cI was really shocked.\u201d Her eyes were opened to the calorie counts of favorite meals and sandwiches she had been eating at her go-to restaurants and fast food lunch places. \u201cWithout being aware of it,\u201d Maura recounted, \u201cI was very attracted to that type of calorie-heavy food. Whenever I made food choices, I’d just go after taste.\u201d She also realized that foods billed as \u201chealthy,\u201d like salads, are often problematic. Maura has learned that the benefits of greens and vegetables are \u201coffset\u201d by \u201call the dressing, croutons, and cheese.\u201d She now avoids the extras, and sticks to balsamic vinegar in place of fat- or oil-based dressings.<\/p>\n After Maura completed the weight-loss portion of the program, she \u201cwent on maintenance,\u201d and adjusted back to eating regular food full time. She lost another nine pounds at the beginning maintenance, which lasted two years.<\/p>\n Maura stays in touch with the GWU program, which is now the National Center for Weight and Wellness<\/a>, run by Dr. Scott Kahan, and checks in weekly. She still sees a dietician there and belongs to a support group that works on the issue of emotional eating. She explains that the frequent contact with the clinic staff, who have treated her with great understanding and compassion, has been essential to the effectiveness of the program and her new knowledge about nutrition.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n After she lost weight, Maura realized she needed new sources of motivation in her life. In an exploration of new activities, she went to an introduction to meditation that was sponsored by the Smithsonian Associates<\/a> program and conducted by a doctor from the Benson-Henry Institute at Massachusetts General Hospital<\/a> in Boston. The program was in a huge auditorium, filled with people, and Maura doubted she would be able to meditate for even a few minutes in such an environment. But, \u201clo and behold,\u201d she says, \u201cI was really able to relax even though I was in a room full of people.\u201d Maura bought the doctor\u2019s CD at the end of the session, started to use it on what she calls \u201ca semi-regular basis,\u201d and her practice of mindfulness began.<\/p>\n The method that she learned and continually returns to involves a basic body scan and body visualization. In her own practice, Maura emphasizes the body scan: \u201cYou concentrate on the various parts of your body. You think about them, try to identify tension, and then release tension in that spot.\u201d Sometimes she accomplishes this by \u201cbreathing into\u201d the muscle tension, in her lower back for example, and then breathe out to release it.<\/p>\n The meditation techniques have been particularly helpful in coping with the discomfort of neuropathy in her feet, which was diagnosed when she began the GWU program.<\/p>\n “There was a time when I was waking up a lot in the middle of the night from bad cramping in my feet, to the point where my toes would almost lean back. It almost looked like I had an elf shoe on, you know what I mean? I was pretty miserable, and I thought, “I don’t know if I can stand this anymore.” I wondered if I needed medication for neuropathy, which I wasn\u2019t thrilled about, because I know they’re antidepressants. I’m not actually depressed, so I’d prefer not to try them. I started to meditate again. For whatever reason, it loosened my legs up a bit, and I don’t have the cramping at night like I used to. When it does happen, on rare occasions, I know how to concentrate on the muscles in my feet and legs, and I can actually relieve some of that tension that builds up there. I can go back to sleep.”<\/p>\n Meditation and mindfulness have been helpful in her work life, too.\u00a0 During her bus commute, she listens to a meditation app called Headspace<\/a>, and it has taken the stress out of commuting both to an from the office. At work, she has occasionally brought her portable stereo to work and invited anyone in her office to meditate with her at lunch in a conference room. On Sundays, she often makes time to go to a two-hour meditation group at Insight Meditation<\/a> in DC.<\/p>\n Mindfulness has also helped Maura be more in tune with her physical self. The diagnosis of Type 2 diabetes itself, and the necessity for ongoing care, also prompted her attentiveness.<\/p>\n “It’s really important to get a lot of feedback, to see how you’re doing, and diabetes involves regular checkups. Having feedback from medical professionals on a regular basis becomes really important, and this makes it important for me to get more in touch with how I feel. For example, if I had a meal and then a few hours later I start to feel some pain in my hands or my feet, I have to really notice that and perhaps think about, “What did I eat?” Maybe I shouldn’t have eaten quite so much or that combination of foods? It makes me consider much more the signals that my body is giving me.”<\/p>\n Those of who live with either Type 1 or Type 2 diabetes know the burden that the illness may present to us. Maura remarks, with wry humor, that \u201cBefore I was diagnosed, I felt that I lived my life from the neck up, in a sense.\u201d Diabetes, and her approach to it, have helped her notice, accept, and take care of her body more actively than she did before.<\/p>\nThe Place of Mindfulness in Lasting Health Changes<\/h2>\n