Vince’s Story: Living with Type II Diabetes

If you’ve read my previous blogs, you know that Vince and I started on the Arbonne “30 Days to Healthy Living” program back in February and we’ve both lost over 30 pounds.

Are we finished? I mean, do we look all svelte and beach-body ready? Wellll, not so much. We’re looking much better, but as I’ve said – we’re still a work in progress.

And we’re also realistic. We are quickly approaching the Medicare/AARP years and – trust me – we’re never going to grease up our abs and enter a bodybuilding competition. 

Notice I didn’t say “grease up our six-packs”? We don’t have no stinkin’ six-packs. Heck, we’re still working on eliminating our kegs!

But I digress.

Anyway, for Vince – losing weight was a secondary purpose in starting the program.

His first priority was managing his diabetic condition.

Vince was diagnosed as a Type II diabetic in 2006, which was before I met him. After he was first diagnosed, he was on a mission to reverse that diagnosis. He lost weight. He ate the proper foods. And he exercised.

But he was still taking Metformin every day, which is a medication to control diabetes.

I didn’t have any experience with diabetes, and I now realize I was not very helpful to Vince since I craved pasta and crusty French bread and chocolatey sweet treats – all those things a diabetic should steer clear of and avoid.

And, so, after years of not paying attention to our diets, Vince’s A1C tests, which measure a person’s blood glucose over a 3-month period, were pretty high. I’ll explain more about the A1C test in a bit. But the bottom line was that Vince’s doctor was threatening to put him on insulin if he didn’t make some drastic changes to his diet and lifestyle.

While I should mention that anyone starting on any diet program should get his or her doctor’s approval, Vince just jumped in head first.

On the other hand, there was nothing in the Arbonne program that was really radical. It sounded like it – I mean, we had to eliminate coffee/caffeine, sugar, dairy, gluten, artificial sweeteners, alcohol, soy, and a whole list of other foods. We were to go free range, cage-free, grass-fed. No corn. No white potatoes or rice.

No bread. No pasta. No pizza. Oh my!

But we did it. Our mantra was the same as everyone who starts this program: We can do anything for 30 days!

And it was amazing how much better we felt. But what was even more amazing were the results Vince was getting. His glucose readings every day began to inch down toward the normal range.

After the first thirty days was up, we allowed some of those “avoid” foods back into our diet. But we wanted to keep going with the program, so we switched to a more careful “80/20” program. So we only occasionally allowed ourselves a treat such as a glass of wine or a plate of pasta.

But you know what we discovered? We didn’t enjoy that pasta quite as much as we had previously. And trust me – I was the pasta queen. I used to have it weekly. Now I indulge maybe quarterly – if that.

And, okay, so I still enjoy wine just as much as I ever did. But I stick to one glass only every so often.

We continued to have our Arbonne shakes every morning and I prepared a healthy green salad with organic grilled chicken or maybe some wild-caught salmon (for Vince) for lunch. Dinners were either another shake or some organic veggies and a little protein cooked in healthy fats such as avocado or coconut oil.

After several months on the program, Vince had his regularly scheduled doctor’s appointment.

His doctor was thrilled. Vince’s A1C was in the normal range. Plus, his doctor could see all the daily readings on Vince’s glucose monitor that were well within the normal limits.

Again, for those unfamiliar with diabetes, there is an end-all/be-all test that diabetics live by. And that is the A1C test.

According to the US Department of Health and Human Services, “the A1C test is a blood test that provides information about your average levels of blood glucose, also called blood sugar, over the past 3 months. The A1C test can be used to diagnose type 2 diabetes and prediabetes. The A1C test is also the primary test used for diabetes management.”

A1C Results and what the numbers mean:

Diagnosis                            A1C Level

Normal                                 Below 5.7 Percent

Prediabetes                          5.7-6.4 Percent

Diabetes                              6.5 Percent or Above

Now, clearly, I’m not a doctor nor do I play one on TV (I think that line was from a commercial…), so the information above is very simplistic and abbreviated. Your doctor can explain it to you much better than I can. But what I do know is that you can’t “fake” the A1C. Since it measures over a three-month period, you can’t eat well for a couple days and hope to have a good reading.

So Vince’s medication has been cut in half. And he’s working with his physician on cutting it back even more. He would love to eliminate his medication altogether, but this is a decision he and his doctor have to work on together.

As Vince and I both say – there are MANY programs out there that can work for a person who is trying to eat healthier or lose weight – or even manage a health condition.

But what we know for sure is that Arbonne’s 30 Days to Healthy Living program has worked for us. And it has worked especially well for Vince. (Since this IS his story, after all!)

If you’re interested in learning more about the program, we’d be happy to share some information with you.

And while I never want you to think my blogs are a big ol’ advertisement for our business, you can access our website to learn more here: vincentncordova.arbonne.com.

Thanks for reading. I’ll be back with more later!