When I found out I had developed type II diabetes, my doctor said that
main cause of my high blood sugar was my weight.  Then I weighed about
365 pounds.  Yikes.  I know, but I just could not take it off.  I had
been sick with another ailment for almost three years.  I was bed
ridden and nearly died.  During that time my muscles became so weak I
could barely walk.  With no  muscle to burn fat, I just got fatter and
fatter.

Fortunately around that time I read Covert Bailey's Fit or Fat, a book
that explains the biochemistry of how your body uses food and how it
works with exercise.  He says in this book that obese people should
start by building muscle, that they should engage in long, slow
exercise, like walking as much of the day as they can.

I didn't know if I could ever walk that much, but I wanted to live.  I
had survived a life-threatening illness, hernia surgery, and a breast
cancer scare that turned out to be just a cyst.  I wasn't going to let
diabetes finally be the thing to get me.

So, I started walking.  At first I could only get to the end of the
block, rest on the bus bench, then practically crawl back home.  Slowly
I got better and better until I could walk the six blocks to the park
by the beach, go twice around the park, and walk back.  Three months
later at my check up, my blood sugar was so much lower I was barely
diabetic at all. I had gone from 209 to 103.  My doctor was delighted.

The other thing I did was become mostly vegetarian.  I still eat fish
and very lean meat on some occasions, but very rarely.   I eat mostly
whole grains, vegetables, some fruit, nuts, beans, and low fat dairy
products.   At my last visit to the doctor, my cholesterol and
tryglycerides, were, in her words, surprisingly low.

I just wanted to share this with all of you in case it might help
someone going through the same struggle.  i still have a lot of weight
to lose, but I'm getting there.

Guinevere
http://www.writingup.com/blog/Guinevere