My Story: Staci and Diabetes

Chef Staci got a very serious prognosis and had to make immediate changes to save her own life. Watch her diabetes story here.

Transcript

00:00

I was told that if I didn't get it together, rather quickly, that I was going to be leaving the earth within two months from that diagnosis,

00:11

My diabetes journey began in October of 2019. I wasn't feeling very well, so I went to the doctor,

00:19

and they performed standard labs. Within that day, they called me back and asked me to come in.

00:26

When I went in, I was met by a team of doctors who then told me that I was type 2 diabetic.

00:32

My fasting blood sugar was 559. The normal range is 80 to 100.

00:38

They gave me insulin injections. They said you can't leave our office without taking these injections. It's either take the injections, or we're

00:45

going to admit into the hospital because we can't let you leave with numbers like this. I am a personal chef by trade.

00:51

The first thing that I did was remove all of the carbohydrates, and I mean all of them, from my diet.

00:57

I kicked all the sugar on my diet-- all of it. Eating dark leafy greens and lots of good protein,

01:06

and I did a little bit of fasting as well. And then, I implemented exercise. I have a 16-year-old daughter.

01:12

She is a special needs child, and this situation, through my diet, I'm wondering what I was doing to her because what I eat, she eats.

01:19

She doesn't cook. I'm the cook in the house, and so I immediately, I focused on my nutrition as well as hers.

01:26

It was really time that it happened that way so now, perhaps, she won't have to have the same experience that I'm having.

01:33

After three months I went back to the doctor, and my doctor was shocked. She was stunned.

01:40

My numbers went from 559 to 81, was my fasting blood

01:46

sugar that morning. And my A1c percentage was 5.6, which

01:52

is the normal range, right? My numbers all went back to normal ranges. Collaborating-- I call it collaborating-- with my doctor

02:00

was critical for me because she gave me the information that I needed, but she also allowed me to make my own decisions.

02:06

It wasn't like I went in and she said this is what you have to do. And I think it's really critical that people partner

02:13

with their doctors and just create a plan that you can follow, and then allow them to help you when you need it.