Julia, 60
Who:
Julia, 60, Calgary
Age diagnosed with type 2 diabetes
55
Number of years in remission
4 years
Life Before Diagnosis
I think I was dancing around prediabetes, and then type 2 diabetes, for many years. I feel like I spent my entire adult life, from my late teens, either overweight or dieting, counting calories and starving all the time. I am 5’7” and my highest weight was 248 pounds. I was always so conscious of what I was eating. I would look at other people’s shopping baskets in the grocery store and be so puzzled how they could eat what they were buying and not get fat. Even though I was shopping the rim of the store and cooking from scratch I would gain weight. But I think I was cooking the wrong food (low fat, higher carb) on poor advice. My 20s and 30s were almost entirely focused on my reproductive and gynecologic health. I had endometriosis, which I now know is a whole-body inflammatory condition. My 30s were focused on overcoming infertility and I was so fortunate to have my son, and then, by IVF, my twin girls but both pregnancies were complicated. Fortunately I did not have gestational diabetes, I had normal weight gain and I returned to my pre-pregnancy weight. But by 2006 my blood sugar was rising and I was told by my doctor that I would have to watch it or I would have type 2 diabetes in 10 years. I think I was able to stave it off by using a pedometer to count my steps and by calorie counting. I love measuring and tracking things, so I was great with the pedometer. I seemed to recover my health until 2019.
Symptoms
In fall of 2019, I was feeling terrible. I wasn’t thriving. I was exhausted and depleted. My children had gone away to university. I had successfully started and run a multi-million dollar business – play-based childcare centres – and had opened 20 centres, but that had been very stressful. I was at the tail end of menopause. And I was thinking I can’t keep up this pace. My blood sugar had been bobbling around for years and I even had one HbA1c that was 7.5% in 2016 so officially type 2 diabetes, but I was able to get that back down. But still I was very insulin resistant.
Diagnosis
In the fall of 2019 my A1C was 6.5% and I was put on metformin, so that brought my blood sugar down.But the drug was hard to tolerate. And another blood test in winter of 2020, despite the drug, my blood work was still not great and it was time I focused on myself.
What did you do?
I love researching things; my undergrad was in research methods. Before the COVID shut down I attend a Calgary Women’s Health and Alzheimer's Prevention presentation on the Mediterranean diet and brain health. I also found that I had on my shelf the Dr. Michael Mosley’s 2016 book Fast 800, which is a 12 week program of time restricted eating and 800 calories a day. I read around a lot, and actually found the IPTN [institute for Personalized Therapeutic Nutrition which sponsors this remission site] and attended their online webinars and conferences. I started testing my blood sugar daily in January 2020. I made a plan of a low-carbohydrate Mediterranean diet with time restricted eating, which means only eating in a 9 to 10 hours window each day to keep your insulin down. COVID was hard on a lot of people but it was actually very helpful for me to focus on myself and my health. We were sequestered, all the family was home and we had a family meeting and I told them “I am going to do this plan” and they all supported me and even did it themselves. The biggest change for us as a family was having a greater focus on plant-based foods that were more nutrient dense and lower calorie, and narrowing the eating window, with time restricted eating, pushing breakfast later, and stopping all eating by 7pm. And we didn’t drink alcohol. I wasn’t going to waste calories on alcohol. During the time of COVID this was our family team-building exercise.
What happened?
By July of 2020 my blood sugar was back in normal ranges. Everyone’s health improved. One of my daughters, who had acne, had her acne completely clear up. Her skin is flawless now. My husband started making sourdough bread with ancient grains. And I limited myself to one piece of toast every day. I stopped eating sandwiches. I have now lost 48 pounds and my blood sugar remains in normal ranges and my fasting insulin came down. I was able to stop the metformin. I regained my energy.
What are you doing now?
I track everything. I really like doing that. I use a continuous glucose monitor, off and on, to help keep me on track and it was a game changer to figure out which foods raised my blood sugar. I used to love oats, but I discovered oats really make my blood sugar spike high. I make a meal plan every week and share it with the family. For me planning meals is really helpful. Our main proteins are chicken, eggs, fish, tofu, beans. We have lots of vegetables. We would never leave a leaf of spinach in a salad bowl! We signed up for the Community Veggie box which has local vegetables delivered to your door.
What is your favourite go-to meal?
I have a recipe I call my “Fridge Emptying Soup” and basically every ten days I take all the vegetables left over in the fridge and make a soup using my own bone broth. It usually has at least 10 vegetables. There is no recipe as I just throw everything into it. Sometimes I add barley. I regularly make bone broth with a chicken carcass. We eat about 30 different vegetables a week. The other week for a potluck I made what I call a “Three Sisters Chili” which was corn, squash and beans but I added elk meat to it and chili spices. It was delicious. It served about 12 people. We are not having no meat, but we are having high quality meat, like grass-fed meat or game, in smaller amounts.
What do you want others to know?
I am not big on prohibition — about saying you can never have something. You have to listen to your body and enjoy what you are eating. I have discovered that I can have a piece of my husband’s sourdough bread and I really enjoy that. It is delightful and delicious but it is so dense that one piece completely satisfies me. Not much is on my banned list, but I do try to minimize ultra-processed foods. I stay on the lower end of carbs, on the lower end of any sugar, and have lot and lots of vegetables. I no longer feel afraid of hunger or carry many snacks -- just a few nuts. And I think getting off of the blood sugar swings, of highs and lows, has made me braver as I no longer worry about feeling unwell. I have taken up sailing and I have taken up line dancing. I spend a lot of time in nature.
Top Tips
For me, what really helps is using the CGM, logging and tracking all my food, so I really am aware of what I am eating and how it impacts my blood sugar. I focus on a plant-heavy Mediterranean diet. You have to find what works for you, that you find enjoyable and sustainable. I buy the best quality chicken I can get a hold of and I use every bit of it, making a bone broth. We don’t waste anything.