This has been an extremely tough post to write, but at the same time its a blessing. Our diabetic food journey is a recent discovery, and I hope our story will help others. We started our Young Living Essential Oil journey in 2014, and shortly after we realized that this was the business we needed, my husband and I both started focusing on our health. We took baby steps, and started by exercising again. We both had health issues, and I started with mine this summer by getting a physical, and getting iron infusions for anemia for a month.
With our son’s burn accident in the fall, we were sidelined for awhile, and my husband was struggling with a terrible cough for about the last two years and was diagnosed with asthma over a year ago. Read our story about Why My Husband Will Never Wear a Beard Again for that full story. Dealing with all of those issues, hubby never took the time to get a physical. So over Christmas we both had off from school and we scheduled his physical and blood work. We knew that our health insurance would not cover the blood work because it was considered preventative, so we were grateful for our Flexible Spending Account. Since we went out of network for cheaper prices, we received his blood work in the mail before we went to the doctor’s office.
Hubby is a nurse, so he knew immediately that he had undiagnosed Type 2 diabetes when he saw his sugars were in the 280’s and all the other tests came back conclusive for diabetes. After the whirlwind of the doctor’s visit, he was put on Metformin to bring it down, and we made some lifestyle changes so he could go to the gym six days per week. His goal is to have it completely 100% diet controlled, but we know that sometimes no matter how much weight you lose and how low-carb you eat, you may still need medication. However, we want to share with you how he has made enough changes that his sugars were lowered by 100 points in two weeks, before he even started taking his medication.
Diabetic Food Journey
- Food. The first obvious change that we made was that he started eating a low carbohydrate diet. Our physician informed him that he would need to lose about 100 pounds, and he didn’t care which diet Adam used, but he wanted him to do whatever worked best for him. Adam had lost 100+ pounds on the Atkins diet before, so we knew this would be the best way for him to start losing weight. However, we had already started eating organic foods, and we had already purchase our first grass fed cow. I really feel we were already on our way towards health, but this catapulted us into overdrive with Adam’s health & weight loss goals.
- Exercise. He started going to the gym everyday, and working towards his weight loss and exercise goals. He had started by working with a trainer several months ago and dropped about ten pounds, but had plateaued. This was the motivation he needed, and now he goes six days a week without a trainer.
- Essential Oils. We started using Young Living’s Cinnamon Bark oil and Ocotea rubbed on topically.
- Stress Reduction. Our post on 20 Ways to Eliminate Stress shows how we reduce stress on a daily basis. We are still giving weekly massages, and implementing stretching and yoga in addition to exercise.
- Moral Support. Our entire family has committed to making this lifestyle change with him, and we are all eating less sugary items and processed foods, and had already started that journey with organic food.
By the end of the first week his fasting morning numbers were running in the 180’s, and he hadn’t even started taking his medication yet. It was amazing how small changes made such a big difference in his health. We will be doing a blog post series covering his weight loss, diabetic journey, and we will be including some healthy, low cost recipes as well. Just like our Debt Free Journey, this is one more step toward the overall health of our family.
Comment below and let us know about your own health & wellness journey.
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