About Me
Welcome to my blog page! In June of 2013 I spent the night in the ER, expecting to go home with a simple drug for a simple problem. Imagine my shock, however, when the doctor told me I have diabetes…my blood sugar was almost 400! I spent the next couple days trying to adjust to the news and the medicine (metformin), and I felt really awful! In my follow up appointment I saw a doctor who is not my regular physician, and he doubled my medicine, because my blood sugar was still hanging out in the mid 200s (it’s supposed to be 80 to 100 fasting, and not get higher than around 150 after eating). Apparently he forgot that metformin takes a couple weeks to kick in. My regular doctor, who is a really great doctor, later told me that he would have started me on about an 8th of the amount the other guy did. Well, when I started to take the higher amount of medicine my system totally freaked out. Everything I ate went right through me and I felt even worse. I also became dehydrated, which made the blood sugar go up! At this point I started to wonder if I could manage my disease with a drug free diabetes diet. As it turns out, you can actually reverse type 2 diabetes, but more on that later.
The extreme discomfort I felt with the drugs drove me to check in with my chiropractor, Dr. Shaffer, and my therapist/nutritionist, Eric Burlingame. They’ve helped me a lot in the past, and I figured it would be worth a try. When I met with Dr. Shaffer he placed me on a very strict drug free diabetes diet, by Dr. Page, which is designed to detoxify your system and balance body chemistry. Click here to see his plan (I started in phase 2). The diet worked! My sugars are down and I feel really great! I also dropped 8 sizes! For a while I had a bit of a detox crisis (headaches, exhaustion), but that’s part of the process. I went on this diet with the approval of my regular physician, FYI. Click here to see Dr. Shaffer’s website and contact information. He’s helped our whole family with quite a few different health issues! Eric helped me process through a lot of the stress and anxiety that had played a huge factor in developing diabetes.
For the first few months I had to follow the Dr. Page diet very closely. In that time I also educated myself on diabetes and nutrition. If you only read one book on diabetes, I highly recommend Dr. Fuhrman’s The End of Diabetes: The Eat to Live Plan to Prevent and Reverse Diabetes
Now that my diet isn’t so strict I’ve been having fun experimenting with healthy foods and flavors. My family eats gluten free, low dairy, low glycemic whole foods, with lots of veggies and fruit. Emily has to be completely dairy-free, so my baked goods usually are. Some of the earlier recipes had butter in them, but since we found out she’s allergic to it I’ve substituted that with coconut oil. Another change I’ve made in the more recent recipes is that I don’t use agave anymore. Research is showing that it is actually worse than sugar! The kids love our new diet (if you check out the recipes you’ll see that I haven’t asked them to stop eating dessert…I’ve just found healthy ways to make it), and I’ve seen a dramatic improvement in their immune systems and overall health! They’ve continued to get colds, but very rarely have fevers with them. In past years I remember feeling like someone always had a fever.
The reason I started this blog is because I think there are a lot of people out there who would love to hear that drugs may not be the only answer for whatever ails them. Many friends have asked for the recipes I’ve been working on, so I thought this would be a good way to share them. After about 6 weeks on the Page diabetes diet my old food addictions were mostly gone and I had learned to really enjoy my food. My taste buds changed and I feel full on way less calories than before. I hope I can share some of that with you all, and I would encourage you to stick with it long enough to get past your addictions. Yes, food is very addicting!
I plan on posting recipes, healthy ideas, and nutrition facts/philosophies on here, but I really believe that food, physical health, and nutrition are not the way to fill the soul. This process has shown me how hard I was trying to fill my soul with more and more food. No matter how full my stomach was, though, it never helped my heart. I am a Christian, so I will be sharing some of my perspective on faith and food here, as well. My theme passage for the lifestyle change I’ve been pursuing is Isaiah 55:1-2. Here it is in the NIV: “Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost. Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and you will delight in the richest of fare.” This passage is telling us that God is the one who fills our soul and truly satisfies. I believe that “the richest of fare” is available to every heart, and it is found in relationship with him. Through his son, Jesus, God made himself available to us, because Jesus loved us enough to die for the bad things we’ve done. By his death and resurrection we are reunited with the One who made us to love Him…we can fulfill our purpose and live a truly full, free life. Our souls were not made to be satisfied by food, but in God. That is where true freedom lies! Not being addicted to food has helped me to be able to live more fully in that relationship! Food does not control me anymore! Whether or not you share in my faith I hope this blog will be helpful for you!
If you are interested in making some changes in your diet, but don’t know where to start, check out my post on pantry items. Here it is: Example of a Healthy Pantry. Please feel free to ask questions! You can fill out the form on my Questions and Comments page, or email me directly at Tiffany@GreatFoodLifestyle.com. I’ll do my best to answer them, and hopefully offer you a word of encouragement. It can feel kind of lonely to choose food that goes against the cultural norms!
Blessings!
P.S. PLEASE make sure to talk to your doctor if you have diabetes or another illness and you decide to make some of these changes. Especially if you are taking insulin it can be dangerous to suddenly decrease your sugar intake, without lowering medicine. Your doctor will probably be thrilled to hear that you want to make changes!
Before I get into the good stuff, I’d like to invite you to sign up for this blog. Let me walk alongside you on your journey towards health and wholeness!
Click on the picture below to see the recipe for that yummy bean salsa!
Check out my story on Further Food, a website dedicated to using food as medicine. Here’s the link.
