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Fitness and Photography for Fun - A blog on staying fit by hiking and doing photography by David Mendosa

About me

After earning a B.A. with honors from the University of California, Riverside, and an M.A. from Claremont Graduate University, I became a Foreign Service Officer, working 11 years in Washington and four years in Africa for the U.S. foreign aid program.

Subsequently, I became a journalist, initially specializing in writing about small business. I was an editor of Hispanic Business magazine for about four years.

However, when I was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes in February 1994, I began to write entirely about that condition. My articles and columns have appeared in many of the major diabetes magazines and Web sites.

My Web site, David Mendosa’s Diabetes Directory, was one of the first and is now one of the largest Web sites focusing on diabetes. The Web site includes about 1,000 of my articles about diabetes and an annotated directory to more than 1,400 Web sites about diabetes, which are described and linked in the Online Diabetes Resources area.

Every month I also publish an online newsletter called “Diabetes Update”. I am co-author of What Makes My Blood Glucose Go Up … And Down? (New York: Marlowe & Co., first edition in 2003, second American edition in July 2006, and other publishers in the U.K., Australia, Italy, and Taiwan). I am the author of Losing Weight with Your Diabetes Medication: How Byetta and Other Drugs Can Help You Lose More Weight than You Ever Thought Possible (New York: Perseus Books, February 2008).

My keynote address to the Institute for the Future’s Health Horizons Program on November 3, 2004, tells how and why I focus on writing about diabetes. A transcript of the address is available on my Web site.

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34 Comments

34 responses so far ↓

  • 1 bill murphy // Mar 22, 2009 at 7:34 pm

    David: Thank you for all the help you are doing for individuals like me who have type 2 diabedes. I enjoy your newsletters and blogs very much. You provide us with important information to help control this devestating disease. Keep up the good work.

  • 2 diane ram // Jul 21, 2009 at 12:43 pm

    Hi David,
    I started a weekly womens meeting with my friend based on the low GI pricipals. It’s going well and were learning alot. Our numbers are increasing because they are concerned about diabetes. You have a lot to share on this website and I wanted to know if you have anything to share on Chronn’s disease. My son was diagnosed a year ago and struggle with this illness.

  • 3 David Mendosa // Jul 21, 2009 at 3:13 pm

    Dear Diane,

    I am sorry to hear that your son has Crohn’s disease. I do know that millions more Americans, like your son, cannot tolerate gluten. I learned that I can’t either. While I don’t eat any grains, I was eating seitan, which is made from wheat gluten. Doing without any grains and without any gluten, like from seitan, has been very good for my body, however. It has finally made it possible for me to stay at a low normal weight and have a low normal blood glucose level. So I know that your son can manage his Crohn’s disease very well.

    Best regards,

    David

  • 4 Valerie // Aug 29, 2009 at 7:58 am

    Dear David,

    You make this world a better place. I enjoy reading about your adventures, love the pictures and most of all admire your ability to serve as a role model while spreading the word about managing diabetes!

  • 5 David Mendosa // Aug 29, 2009 at 9:26 am

    Dear Valerie,

    You make me blush. Thank you for affirming what I seek to accomplish in my life.

    Best regards,

    David

  • 6 Éva Dakó // Aug 31, 2009 at 11:43 pm

    Dear David,

    Since I’m writing from Hungary, I apologize in the beginning for the eventually mistakes in my english. I learnt the language by self education and in 1995 I had the opportunity to visit US for 9 month on a farm as a student. You are special for me for two reasons: since that time you are my only connection to US (for me being very different from Europe and challenging) and in 2003 during my pregnancy I was diagnotised with diabetes adn since then I’m reading your updates. I enjoy your adventures a lot, I used to hike and I love it, but now that I have small children, the opportunities are less for it at the moment, but by your writings I feel as I’m there also. Anyway hopefully in my life I will have the chance to visit those places.
    Thank you again and take care.

    Éva

  • 7 David Mendosa // Sep 1, 2009 at 9:05 am

    Dear Éva,

    Thanks for writing me — in your excellent English! I hope to inspire you to visit beautiful places here and in Hungary.

    Best regards,

    David

  • 8 Nike // Nov 8, 2009 at 6:09 pm

    Hi David,

    I like your pic of the deer climbing the rocks, brought me here.
    Thank you for what you are doing. God bless and keep you.

    Nike

  • 9 Nancy // May 1, 2010 at 1:49 pm

    Just found your web page searching on type 2 d.
    Love your photos. Wish you could of come over to Naturita, Co and stay at the Ray Motel. There is some nice places around here. I get my new camera on Monday. Hope to learn to take wonderful pics like you. Going to put this site in my favorites.

  • 10 David Mendosa // May 1, 2010 at 4:53 pm

    Dear Nancy,

    Thank you. I am sure that you will enjoy your new camera. I have some tips on photography at http://www.mendosa.com/fitnessblog/?p=3876 but I will be revising it — hopefully improving it — in a couple of weeks before I get another photo seminar. And when I get back to SW Colorado I will look you up!

    Best regards,

    David

  • 11 Kathy Grubbs // Jul 28, 2010 at 8:40 am

    Enjoyed finding your comments under Monument Plant, which I found on top of Clay Butte – just off the Beartooth Highway in Wyoming. Enjoy Life!

  • 12 Hugh B. // Aug 30, 2010 at 12:23 pm

    I appreciate finding your website. I am BOTH an avid photographer and a Type 2. I am currently 80 lbs. overweight and have converted to a vegetarian diet. Recently I learned that my large and frequent consumption of unbuttered potatoes was not good for me. So that’s going to be changed to small and infrequent consumption.

    I feel lucky to have found your.

    Hugh

  • 13 Madi Creekmore // May 22, 2011 at 6:05 pm

    Am here because of a phone call I got today from Alaska. There was supposed to be a blog about this afternoon and the kayak ride. Am I at the wrong site? Madi

  • 14 David Mendosa // May 26, 2011 at 6:59 pm

    Dear Madi,

    You are on the right site! I am still in Alaska and am having a wonderful time. I made two kayak rides and did much else. But my programmer has been sick and is slow to post my photo essays of this trip. Please do keep watching http://www.mendosa.com/fitnessblog/ where as I write my posts only to Portland, Oregon, are yet online.

    David

  • 15 Pat Starr // Jun 1, 2011 at 10:11 am

    Have you read about the dogs (in Portland) that are able to sniff out a diabetic attack coming on and will give an alert. I wonder what they are smelling that is specific to diabetes?

  • 16 David Mendosa // Jun 2, 2011 at 6:30 am

    Dear Pat,

    Could be. People who have uncontrolled diabetes might well smell too sweet because of all the sugar in their blood.

    David

  • 17 Carolyn // Aug 2, 2011 at 6:58 am

    I am really enjoying your photography.What gorgeous wonders of nature you have captured. My husband just bought me a camera for my upcoming birthday,and I am looking forward to this new world(if I can ever figure out what all of the buttons are for, LOL).Thanks for the inspiration!
    Carolyn

  • 18 David Mendosa // Aug 2, 2011 at 7:40 am

    Dear Carolyn,

    Thank you! Photography can be a wonderful avocation and encouragement to get out in nature for the activity that we all need. Now, here’s my tip with your new camera: go back and forth from playing with the camera to studying the owner’s manual. Just studying the owner’s manual all at once will not work. Neither will using the camera without any study. Bit by bit you will begin to understand all those wonderful buttons!

    David

  • 19 Steve Solomon // Oct 19, 2011 at 1:57 pm

    Hello David.
    Thank you once again for being an inspiration to me (and millions more) with Type 2 Diabetes. Also, your photography is quite impressive and beautiful as well!
    I look forward to seeing more images, and to reading your excellent articles and books!
    Best Regards,
    Steve

  • 20 Shelley // Jan 1, 2012 at 1:35 pm

    David, thank you from the bottom of my heart for who you are and for all you do.

    Shelley

  • 21 Andy // Feb 3, 2012 at 11:33 am

    Hello David,
    I have been reading your posts for years and have your last book. Would you consider writing about what you eat and what carbs not to eat? I am finding it hard to do and you are an inspiration. Just wondering. Thanks for everything you do to help us.

  • 22 David Mendosa // Feb 3, 2012 at 11:44 am

    Dear Andy,

    Thanks for asking!

    I eat eggs, fish, and salad the most. My salad varies considerably and has lots of great ingredients.

    The foods I completely avoid are the starches, which include wheat (especially), rice, corn, and potatoes. I also avoid sucrose and fructose. As to the oils, I avoid those that are high in omega 6, soybean, sunflower, safflower, corn, and canola oils.

    Best regards,

    David

  • 23 Andy // Feb 5, 2012 at 10:12 am

    Thanks for the information David and I will give it a try. You’re the best! I am female by the way and boy do I have trouble with the belly fat! Getting rid of those starches will help I should think.

  • 24 Suzanne // Sep 1, 2012 at 1:19 am

    Aloha & a Belated Happy Birthday to you, David! I just read all of the entries for your trip to the Galapagos Islands. Wonderful photos and stories! It is especially great to see that you are doing so well at 77. I have followed your writings for several years (I am 64, 12 years a diabetic). You really got yourself moving, and that has enabled you to do so much more in recent years. Kudos to you! malama pono (take care of yourself, or to put right), Suzanne

  • 25 chris // Sep 2, 2012 at 1:14 pm

    Hi David, thanks for your newsletter I receive monthly and with all its usual helpful bits and pieces. I’ve been an insulin dependant diabetic for 36years and i’m 51. I do believe exercise is vital for good diabetes and I’m a location tv cameraman and this job is physically demanding; I’m still doing it, albeit a few issues I have, but keep focused and channel positive attitude is the recipe that works for me.
    Many Thanks
    Chris James, London UK

  • 26 Brian Nelson Youngberg // Dec 28, 2012 at 8:32 pm

    Thanks for making a great site and newsletters.

  • 27 howard zugman // Aug 20, 2013 at 9:45 am

    Hi David,

    If you haven’t already seen this report, you might find it interesting.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=r13uYs7jglg

  • 28 David Mendosa // Aug 21, 2013 at 10:41 am

    Dear Howard,

    Thank you. That’s fascinating and so positive!

    Namaste,

    David

  • 29 Michelle Smith // Nov 24, 2013 at 11:15 am

    Hi David–I am a painter and equestrian and love your horse images. I’m always searching for good images to paint from. Can I use a few of yours? I am willing to pay for them…..they will also look pretty different once I’m done. Please let me know. Thanks!

  • 30 David Mendosa // Nov 24, 2013 at 2:12 pm

    Dear Michelle,

    I am honored. They are yours for the taking. But thanks for asking.

    Namaste,

    David

  • 31 julie weiss // Jul 30, 2014 at 8:33 pm

    Hi David. I am a horse artist and was wondering if I could draw some of your beautiful photos of these wild horses. I will mention your name as the photographer as my photo reference in my artwork. please let me know. cheers. Julie

  • 32 David Mendosa // Jul 31, 2014 at 6:30 am

    Dear Julie,

    Thanks for asking! Absolutely yes. I would be delighted.

    Namaste,

    David

  • 33 George Victor // Nov 19, 2014 at 2:06 am

    Dear David,

    Hi. I enjoyed reading all of these positive responses about your articles you have written in your webpage.

    Keep up this excellent work.

    George James Victor, III
    Harrison Twp, MI

  • 34 David Mendosa // Nov 19, 2014 at 10:37 am

    Dear George,

    I’m glad that you have looked at my blog!

    With metta,
    David