Diabetes: Start a weight loss program

If you want to make a fortune, start a weight loss program. None of them work long term for the vast majority of the people who attempt to follow them, so people keep coming back to lose the same weight over and over.

Everyone in the focus groups and HOWL groups have been to multiple weight loss programs, self-help groups, etc. and most have lost weight for a time, then gained part or all of it back.

I do think the support group aspect is good, but it is all too easy to have a pity party without a trained facilitator or some structural aspect such as a 12 step program. I actually think the 12 step program has a lot to offer. I was a strong al-anon member for 15 years and the structure such a program can bring is not inconsiderable.

OA, whether one likes the format or not, deals with the food addiction issues (the head issues) faced by many (not all) people who need to lose a lot of weight. They also deal with bulimia and anorexia. I suppose I am close to the OA model as I view food as something I need to live as well as something that has given me no end of grief in this life what with a history of hypoglycemia and then diabetes. I view food as a resource I MUST have to live and without which I will die, but it is a double-edged sword that cuts a broad and bloody furrow as well. I suppose having almost died as an 18 year old when I had an extreme hypo took a great deal of the pleasure out of food.

The greatest pleasure I have is a normal BG level. Nothing can match that. Different strokes, different folks. (shrug)