“Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.” Hebrews 12:1
A few people know that, after 7 pregnancies during which I struggled with gestational diabetes, I was diagnosed with Type II diabetes just a few weeks before finding out that I was pregnant with the baby I am now carrying. Because I had not yet had time after the diagnosis to get my blood sugars under control, there was concern about how the high blood sugars would affect the newly developing baby.
When I was merely 6 weeks along, I was put onto a rather high amount of insulin taken in 4 daily doses in order to get my blood sugars down as quickly as possible. That high amount was still not enough, and the dosages were raised the following week. However, I had come across the book Eat for Health written by a family practice physician ( Dr. Joel Fuhrman ) in New Jersey that detailed an eating plan that had reversed diabetes in thousands of patients. The basis of this eating plan is the formula “Health=Nutrients/Calorie”. In other words, you focus on eating the foods that have the highest number of nutrients per calorie (green veggies!) to build/rebuild your health. I got my doctor’s permission to follow the diet, although he told me that it wouldn’t make any difference in my blood sugar levels.
Dr. Fuhrman has a member site with an “Ask the doctor” forum, so I joined and asked him what I needed to know before starting the diet. He told me that I needed to immediately cut my insulin levels in half, because my blood sugars would drop rapidly when I started eating as he recommended. Sure enough, after one week, my blood sugars were lower on half of the prescribed insulin than they had been with the higher dose. Within just a few weeks, I was only needing to take one dose of insulin per day to manage my fasting blood sugar levels.
While my levels continued to be good during the day, I have had to continue taking the insulin at night, and it has even increased some as my pregnancy has progressed. To be honest, I was getting discouraged. Even though I’m still taking far less insulin than I was originally prescribed, I stopped seeing the tremendous results that I was getting in the first few weeks. It’s true that I can’t follow the aggressive eating plan that would likely help me get quicker results, because I do need to consider the fact that I am building a baby! However, my discouragement was causing me to get a little more and more lax in what I was eating.
Well, I think that the Lord has given me the encouragement I need to press on. I got a call from my doctor this morning with the results of my latest blood test. This test was a hemoglobin A1C test, which basically gives a snapshot of how my blood sugar levels have averaged over the last 2-3 months. The way I have been eating has brought my average levels down to non-diabetic levels! (For those who understand the numbers, I started out with a level of 7.1 last fall, went down to 6.1 after just 1 month on the eating plan, and am now down to a very normal 5.4. My O.B. had wanted me down below 6, and I’m well below that!)
I am thankful that the Lord understands my need for encouragement. Yes, I should have just kept my eye on the goal of health for the baby and for me, but I felt like I wasn’t seeing the results that I wanted. I continued to eat right about 95% of the time, but I had started to allow little “extras” here and there – and those extras were increasing. Now that I have seen concrete evidence that I am on the right path, I feel like I have the boost needed to keep running the race.
How many other areas of my life are there where I have started to allow “extras” to creep in? In how many other areas have I gotten discouraged that I am not seeing the results that I think I should be seeing? Am I tempted to let things slide in my training of the children? Am I tempted to not try as hard in homeschooling? Unfortunately, the answer to those questions is often “yes”.
Thankfully, the Lord often sends along encouragement in those areas, as well. Yet, just as I wonder how much better my results would be right now if I hadn’t allowed those extras into my diet, I also have to wonder how much better my results would be now in other areas of my life where I have let things slide. Furthermore, how will I ever hear “Well done, thou good and faithful servant” if I take my eyes off the goal to look at my discouragement? I guess that I can take heart from the Lord’s response to Peter when Peter was walking on the water and took his eyes of the Lord to notice the storm around him. As the Lord reached down to pull Peter out of the water, He said, “Oh you of little faith, why did you doubt?” But the Lord didn’t give up on Peter, who grew to be used mightily of the Lord. Hopefully, I will also grow in my usefulness to the Lord with fewer stops to focus on my circumstance.
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Good topic for all of us Ü
I worked a short while in the Diabetes and Nutrition Clinic at the hospital for awhile this last year and they actually gave out that book to all of their new patients and those that followed also had huge success rates!
I love that illustration from the life of Peter – don’t take your eyes off the Lord Ü
Glenda, they actually gave out that book? That’s terrific. When I attended the required diabetes education class, I was told that it didn’t matter if I had a piece of cake or a slice of sprouted grain bread, as long as I counted carbs!!! The idea of focusing on nutrition was actually discouraged. Thankfully, my endocrinologist told me on the first visit to eat lots of greens and beans – just the foods Dr. Fuhrman recommends.
What a lovely post! Thank you so much for it. I very much needed the wisdom that it holds. I’m glad that things are going so well for you.
Thank you so much for posting your story! It is an encouragement. I will look into that book.
What a beautiful post. What seems to be key for you (and all of us) is that you “listen to” those signs; you don’t make excuses or rationalizations. You did it and it worked just like it’s supposed to. Funny how that works, isn’t it? :^)
Congratulations to you and your family and the new little angel who will be gracing his healthy mom with a grand entrance soon.
I am glad you kept on keeping on. You kept me on the path of keeping on in other areas of my life so many times. Thank you so much! Discouragement doesn’t bring peace, does it? But doing the right thing in spite of not seeing results though hard at the beginning, brings such rewards later! Love you!
Thank you so much for recommending Eat for Health. I was just diagnosed last week with Type 2 diabetes and I am 12 weeks pregnant with my 5th child. I had gestational diabetes with my last pregnancy but sometime in the 2 years since then it’s turned into Type 2. I was actually really worried because I was told that my insurance wouldn’t cover the cost of the diabetic nutrition classes that they covered for my last pregnancy. This book is literally a gift from God to a very worried mom! I’ve already ordered mine and it should be here in two days. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Congratulations on your pregnancy! I recommend signing up for Dr. Fuhrman’s membership site, as well, so that you have access to asking him questions directly. It was a huge help to me to be able to get guidance from him when my local doctors didn’t think that a change in my diet would make any difference. $7.95 per month is well worthwhile for the ability to get personalized answers from Dr. Fuhrman!
I pray that you have a great pregnancy and a healthy baby!