Any kind of change, especially when you need to overhaul something you’ve been doing your entire life, is hard.
Lifestyle changes following your prediabetes diagnosis are not immune to this difficulty. Suddenly, there are food and drinks you can’t have. You need to be more active. You need to lose weight.
It can get disheartening, especially when you feel like you are not making any progress. Soon, you might find yourself breaking the rules and reverting to your old habits.
But before you fully give up on adjusting your lifestyle (and successfully reversing your prediabetes), take inspiration from the stories of those who have walked the road you are about to take:
1. Three Changes I Made That Reversed My Prediabetes (Huffington Post)
Living in her “admittedly slothful lifestyle,” Elizabeth Smith didn’t listen to her doctor’s constant advice: cut down on your sugar intake.
It was only when her prediabetes diagnosis came out that the fear of living with a chronic condition jolted her out of her denial phase. She began to research and talk to health professionals. She took down notes and started a detailed food diary. It wasn’t an easy journey for Elizabeth, but with perseverance, her blood test results went back to normal.
If you feel like this story is as much as you as the author, find out the three things she did to reverse her prediabetes by clicking here.
2. Preventing Diabetes: Small Changes Have Big Payoff (National Public Radio)
This is the story of the Daly brothers. Paul and Tim are twins who share the same lifestyle and the same diabetes-prone genes.
Paul first developed type 2 diabetes in 1996. Since diabetes runs in the family, Tim has a 95 percent chance of developing the disease as well. In the same year, Tim found out he’s prediabetic.
However, joining the Diabetes Prevention Program helped Tim lose 7 percent of his weight, which then reverted his blood sugar level to normal—further proof that eating better and being more active helps manage prediabetes.
However, diabetes is a hereditary disease. It remains a mystery if Tim will never develop the condition given his genes. But what stays true is that lifestyle changes can delay the onset of diabetes by more than a decade.
3. An Army Doc: The Paleo Diet and CrossFit Reversed My Pre-Diabetes (Yahoo)
U.S. Army Lt. Col. Robert Oh is as fit as can be expected for a man in the military. However, despite passing his fitness tests and being a CrossFit fanatic, he was still diagnosed of prediabetes.
As an Army physician, he jumped right into researching the probable cause of his diagnosis and what he can do to reverse it. Already physically fit; the next step is to move into practicing good nutrition, specifically following the low-carbohydrate Paleo diet.
To find out what caused his prediabetes and the lifestyle changes he adopted afterwards, click here.
4. “This is my story, my body, my journey”: A Stanford physician’s quest for better health (Stanford University)
This short article details the beginnings of a Stanford physician’s 90-day journey to being physically fit.
Dr. Larry Chu authors the website Precision:me, documenting real-time updates on his very low-calorie diet (VLCD) and exercise regimen to reverse his prediabetes. If you intend to start your own regimen, consult with your doctor first.
5. How One Woman With Prediabetes Uses Diet and Exercise to Prevent Diabetes (Health.com)
Kathy Lawrence, a 60-year-old woman living in Austin, knew she had signs of high blood sugar when cat scratches on her foot wouldn’t heal.
Her doctor then told her that has prediabetes shortly afterwards. Her fasting blood glucose level, however, was too close to full-blown diabetes that her doctor considered her to have the condition.
This prompted her to immediately watch her diet and do some exercises. Her motivation? To avoid being insulin-dependent, watch her daughter grow, and have grandchildren. Read her story here.
Be inspired and motivated
Diabetes is not inevitable. Even if your doctor diagnose you with prediabetes. With proper taking of medications and complementing a healthy lifestyle with trusted herbal supplements for diabetes, it can be reversed. These five different individuals prove that.
If you have prediabetes and find it disheartening to take that huge leap, find inspiration from these people who have successfully done it before.
