Life is full of experiences. Breathtaking highs and monumentous lows scatter themselves through the steady flow of our day-to-day lives. Sometimes it is only through our toughest struggles that we find our deepest strengths. Like the old adage says “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger”. Some moments colour our lives more than others. And there is one particular moment in time where that rings true for me. In hindsight, it was a blessing, but in the moment it felt like a curse. Let me share with you our story…
Sometimes it is only through our toughest struggles that we find our deepest strengths.
SHE’S NATURALLY SWEET
As a family, we have always tried to be active and well, and I, like a lot of girls and women, have forever been health and body-conscious. I often suffered from uncomfortable bloating and digestive issues, frustrated by not knowing the underlying cause, I was frequently on the lookout for the latest product or information to help bring me some relief. Growing up in the 90s, we ate a standard British diet, rich in carbohydrates and whole-grains. High-bran cereals soaked with skimmed-milk or thick granary bread slathered with margarine were familiar go-tos. We, like most, thought that low fat was healthy! Little did we know the damage it was causing.
Halt + Heal | Prevent Dis–ease
New Year 2014 began with a bang. Dad had started to see double. This had been bothering him for a few days, but being a ‘typical man’ and not wanting to “make a fuss”, he ignored it, hoping that it would go away. Unfond of medical surgeries, my Mum and I eventually persuaded him to visit an eye specialist. The optometrist explained that Dad’s double-vision was due to a damaged muscle, which meant that one eye simply could not keep up with the other. But how had this happened? The Optometrist took Dad’s blood pressure, and couldn’t believe his own eyes! So triple checked his findings and confirmed that his blood pressure was a shocking 240/180…
A HEALTHY RANGE: Pre-2014 I never knew that a normal blood pressure range was 90/60 – 140/90 or that stable blood glucose was between 4-7. Nor did I know that if these levels were out of control, there could be serious complications. That, for one, it could affect your sight.
…This was literally off the chart! He was quickly referred to his GP, who discovered an equally alarming blood-glucose reading of 22.7. Dad certainly doesn’t do anything by halves! These readings were some of the highest they had ever seen. Anyone who has met my Dad will tell you that he is one of the happiest, funny and chatty people that you are ever likely to meet. However all this bad news hit him hard, his own Dad died of a heart attack in his 60s, so I guess he thought, was his time nearly up?
How we reversed type 2 diabetes
Diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, hypertension and high cholesterol, Dad was prescribed with bags full of pharmaceutical drugs, along with a pirate-like eye-patch to re-strengthen his vision. Additionally, Dad recorded his blood-pressure and took finger-prick tests 3 times a day to monitor his blood sugar. It was a scary time. Our family home had turned into a doctor’s office.
At the time most professionals told you that once you’ve got type 2 diabetes, that’s it, you’ve got it for life, so “just keep taking the pills, and hopefully you won’t lose your sight or need a foot amputated.” Although Dad fell into the slightly overweight category, he already followed the UK guidelines for diet and exercise. So, unwilling to settle for a life-sentence of pills and side-effects, and unsatisfied with the medical advice of a “balanced diet”, we dove deep into our own research.
Treating the Root Cause
This is when we discovered alternative doctors who quite literally practised ‘against the grain’. Our new findings claimed that it was possible to halt and even reverse the disease by losing excess weight quickly and changing your diet and lifestyle. This holistic approach was successfully addressing and treating the root cause, something mainstream medicine was failing to do. So we swung nature’s medical cabinet wide open and put their theory into practice: we kept a food diary alongside Dad’s blood-sugar readings to discover first-hand what caused his blood sugar to spike and what kept it stable. This is when we first started to understand the direct effect of food on the body, and the only way we could monitor and prove our research. By slowly eliminating the main offenders and allowing more nourishment to creep in, we started to see definite and steady improvements – Dad even called me late one night excited with a blood glucose reading of 4.7, the lowest yet! Our experiments were working, and it was contrary to the UK diabetes dietary advice.
Through knowledge, perseverance and determination, Dad was overcoming the challenges he faced. After 6 weeks of wearing an eye-patch, his vision thankfully returned to normal. However, many “normal” foods were now off-limits if he wanted to maintain his new health. I didn’t want him to feel deprived from enjoying food, so I started to create nutritious alternatives to family favourite dishes. I wanted Dad to, quite literally, have his cake and eat it too!
Let food by thy medicine and medicine be thy food
HIPPOCRATES
Dad continued to make a miraculous recovery, he steadied his weight to a healthy BMI, weaned off his medications and now controls his blood pressure and blood sugar through diet, exercise and lifestyle alone – totally drug-free! He is a “new man!” who looks 10 years younger, is fitter than some half his age and feels better than ever. He now loves looking in the mirror, flexing his muscles and admiring his new body – which he can’t quite believe is his!
An Infectious Cure
And it was infectious! I too changed my diet. And my side-effects? My common bloating flare-ups and stomach complaints became a thing of the past and my digestive system now functions better than ever before. I now feel so much more comfortable in my own body, but most importantly we ALL feel healthier than ever. The curse had been lifted – revealing a blessing in disguise.
I share our experience with you in the hope that it may inspire and motivate you. Our focus on well-being began to open our eyes to what we believe to be true. We were told that smoking was once good for you, that the world was once flat. Could it be possible that our nation’s current advice of a “balanced diet” is actually causing an imbalance? Just imagine, if we all made our health our priority, if we focused more energy into truly nourishing ourselves, our communities and our planet – we would soon be spreading a wellness pandemic! Because feeling good is contagious…
Join us as we explore a world of health and happiness.
