Our story…
Hi! My name is Diana Mester… I’m a pre-diabetic patient who’s been taking care of my diabetic mom. Unfortunately I lost her due to Alzheimer’s disease March 2024. We’ve been through a lot together therefore I also have a lot to share.
And that is my doggo, my therapist, my coach, the one who makes me laugh when I want to cry, the one who makes my world a colorful rainbow.
He has a very important role in our story…
The diagnosis…
My mom has been diagnosed back in 2016 when continuous and stressful tinglings in her legs and hands kept her awake throughout the nights. The doctor said it might be neuropathy that was most likely due to diabetes. So we visited an endocrinologist who confirmed the diabetes, gave us a proper medication and a list of foods that my mother could eat. That was it!
As we were living at 2000 km apart, I left my mom with her new diagnosis but kept on visiting every three months. She seemed okay until one day that I could not understand her over the phone. She was babbling, not remembering the prayers, I could not understand what she was saying… My mom just had a stroke! Of course, we had no idea what had happened! We did not know anything about strokes! My mom told me it was not the first time she was going through these sensations! I asked her to go to her family doctor, but she refused because she was feeling okay.
Two days later, I flew back home to hospitalize my mother! She received medical attention however, for a brain stroke, it was too late. So we went back to our routine, me visiting her every three months. In 2018, after another episode and two hospitalizations in the same month, I took her with me and since then we lived together until her last breath.
The old habits…
My own diet was, what I believed to be, a healthy diet. Never had sodas, only fresh fruit juices, water, coffee and tea, lots of fruits, veggies, enjoyed the home cooking, our fast-food choice was a kebab wrap every two months or so… Always paid attention to some of the artificial chemicals in the ingredients of some of the items we were consuming… I never thought that I had to pay much more attention to processed foods and grains. So from time to time, I had my chocolates and deserts, lots of sugar or honey in my coffee, cold cuts, pasta and risotto from time to time, pre-prepared frozen veggies (didn’t know they contained hidden sugars!!) just like most of us.
With my mom, I thought we only had to watch the actual sugar in the tea and coffee. No wonder her blood sugar was not going down! She loved candies, so I bought her sugar-free candies to calm the sweet tooth! One day someone told me to be careful as the sugar-substitutes can cause diarrhea! That’s when I understood why my mother had this problem! I thought sugar-free muffins and cookies were okay! I thought, sugar-free chocolate was okay!
Never paid much attention to my stress levels nor to my chaotic sleeping habits either.
The aha! moment…
Until one day in October 2022 when I decided to check my own blood sugar… It was well within the diabetic range!!! That was the moment when I realized there was something we were not doing right! It was the turning point that made me curious about diabetes, glucose, insulin, digestive system, diets and I started to read! One book after the other, about glucose, the first steps into the diabetic diet, another one about Glycemic Index (GI), one of low GI recipes and one of eating better up to 100 years of age… I was curious about diets and intermittent fasting, I joined a keto group on Facebook, other diabetes groups in several different languages. Early 2023, I attended a nutrition course with Stanford University as I wanted to know more!
The first changes…
The decision was to give up on the cold cuts except for a ham that was sulfate and nitrate free, no antibiotics, nor preservatives just a little bit of dextrose for the taste and one antioxidant… I kept one type of sugar-free candy for a rationalized treat once in a while. The sugar-free cookies were replaced with a higher quality, only natural ingredients, whole wheat, brown sugar, organic cookies. We kept the dark chocolate as well, 80% dark for my mom, 99% for me. And the potato chips! True, organic chips made of three ingredients: potatoes (not potato flakes!!), salt and oil. I stopped buying the pre-prepared frozen veggies because of the hidden sugars, and replaced them with simple frozen or fresh veggies. Rice was replaced by whole rice, normal pasta by lentil pasta, normal wheat flour was replaced by whole oats flour mixed with chickpea and buckwheat flour.
For about a month or so, we didn’t eat any sweets, later on we did not crave them anymore. My mom used to have about two candies as a dessert, a square of chocolate or two biscuits every few days. When asked if she wanted any, rarely she said yes. I didn’t crave for sugar at all, my only dessert was the 99% chocolate and that is super bitter! But I got used to it and really love it! If I tried my mom’s 80% chocolate and it was extremely sweet for me! We ate twice a day, at regular times, only home cooking, brunch and early dinner with a snack in between. We changed the eating order: fiber first, protein and fats second and carbs last. A good salad for entrée always made the trick especially if half of it accompanied the protein and the carbs.
Breakfast – brunch…
We never stopped eating fruits! Any fruits! Always for breakfast (brunch), five types of fruits of different colors, first thing in the morning! If the fruits were too big, like apples, pears, oranges, we used to split them half and half. Fruits were always followed by nuts (walnuts, almonds, hazelnuts), three mouthfuls.
Finally we had a toast with eggs or cheese, tuna, ham, sardines, humus or guacamole. Cottage cheese or Greek yogurt and skyr were also on the table if someone desired it. Or simply, we just ate a slice of whole grain bread with unrefined, cold-pressed olive oil, Celtic, some sesame seeds or crushed linen seeds…
Dinner…
For dinner, as I said, we always had veggies in some form: soup, steamed, boiled, baked or raw as salad. I found out that apple cider vinegar has miraculous effects on blood sugar, therefore I always used it on our salads. Always made my own dressing with salt, pepper, garlic, apple cider vinegar and unrefined, cold pressed olive oil. We reduced the meat portion and increased the veggie portion.
Carbs were always chosen to be as low GI as possible to avoid the spikes: whole rice (brown, red, black, wild or basmati), quinoa, mixed cereals, potatoes. Yes, potatoes! I found out that if you boil them with the skin, peel them, let them cool off for a few hours and then fry them for example, their starch becomes resistant and it won’t spike any longer!
The results…
Six months after my first check, I’ve done my blood tests and my A1cHb was 6.1 mmol/l which classified me as a pre-diabetic. One year later, in March 2024 my A1cHb was 5.2 mmol/l. I took a risk and reversed my diabetes without medication. Nevertheless, I DO NOT encourage you to do the same thing. Take your medication and work with your doctor to establish the right dosage every time according to your latest blood tests.
My mother used to have 50 units of slow acting insulin every day, injected it for 5 years in a row. She was also injecting Trulicity 4,5 mg, fast acting insulin from time to time, then she had metformin and gliclazide… Within 9 months she was completely off of insulin and Trulicity and 3 more months later she was only taking metformin! Within a few weeks, we both lost weight, my mom about 25 kgs (55 lbs) and me 12 kgs (26 lbs)! She had the best HbA1c ever, dropping from 11.8 to 6.0 November 2023! If she would have lived for another year, we would have reversed her diabetes 100% within a few months.
This is how we reversed diabetes! It took longer for my mom as she had been injecting insulin for five years, it took much lesser time for me as I was “brand new in the business” and I refused even to think about medication.
The idea of this blog came when I saw the distress of newly diagnosed people on social media! I realized how ignorant we were at the beginning and the issues that my mom had just because we thought medication was enough! So I wanted to conceive a kind of a guide, an easy going one, coming from a patient, who’s been in your situation, who already lived your struggles, who already walked your path. A guide where you can get all the information that you need to get started on this new journey! Share some tricks and hacks that might ease up your days. And most importantly, to fight this back together!
We did it! You can do it as well!!!