The Artificial Pancreas

As a Type-2 Diabetic (though my partner and parents keep on saying I'm not, just sugar-sensitive), this device is a welcome thing. Of course, I am sure that there will be an offshoot system that will work with Type-2, aside from Type-1. I'll wait for the iteration where there will be an automatic blood sugar level checker, though that may mean it will also have some sort of invasive "pricking" system.

http://futurism.com/a-cyborg-society-the-fda-has-approved-the-first-artificial-pancreas/

Getting off the Sugar High

Around August of last year, my vision started to blur on a regular basis, and I had started becoming more thirsty and more hungry. At first, I thought it was just me reacting to the humidity of the weather at the time (a protracted summer, with the incoming rainy season mixing it up with each other).

However, it was advice from a few friends that got me to go to a doctor, and to no one's surprise, it turned out I was sick – with diabetes.

When my doctor first told me, I was in a state of shock. After all, everyone who isn't sick with a perennial condition never thinks that it could happen to them, until it does. So this, I guess, is the start of my narrative about becoming a more fit person.

In the beginning, I thought I would be able to live with no medicines for diabetes, once I became more fit. However, I've had to adjust my expectations, since being that fit will take time – I may not be able to reach that goal, but it sure as hell won't be for a lack of trying.

Photograph a few weeks before I was diagnosed with diabetes, by Carlo Casas

Part 1: The Angry Coach

What made my diabetes diagnosis more dismaying was that for the past year before I was diagnosed, a good friend of mine, Jay Lopez (who is based in the Athlete's Lab gym, for his Rx Strength fitness brand), had already offered to get me fit again.

Since I didn't want to spend the rest of my life bingeing (practically) on meds, or worse, insulin shots, I decided to take the other prescription for diabetes: getting fit, and having an active lifestyle.

It was then that I approached Coach Jay, and the rest, they say, is history. After a rather spirited sermon about how I should have taken his offer before I was diagnosed with diabetes, he started me on a fitness and exercise odyssey that I am still on right now.

And with that, I end the first part of this long narrative. Stay tuned for the next!

After a few months of training with Coach Jay. Apparently, there were also musical benefits to losing weight and becoming more fit - more on that in the future! Original photo by Fade Longboy, cropped for this article.

Lead photo: "The Gift of Life," by Melissa Johnson, c/o Flickr.com

Getting back into shape - The beginning

Now, for the past few years, I hadn't really thought about my health. I figured, as long as I didn't feel anything too disturbing, that I was fine. The bad part was, I was still thinking this way even though I was already going around 200 to 2010 pounds in weight. I was on a stack of anti-hypertension meds, too.

And then it happened.