How to Avoid Burnout In Your Health Journey with Kristen Acosta

Today’s guest is someone SUPER special. She has not only been a Type I diabetic for over 30 years, but she’s been in the traditional healthcare system and was running into roadblocks with her health, body, and nutrition. Kristen was in my last Total Body Thrive in Midlife and showed up as the TOP student – coming out on the other side with an incredible transformation, not only in her body, but in her mindset, her epiphanies, her awareness, and her overall health. 

Type I Diabetes

At the age of 12 Kristen was diagnosed with Type I diabetes – the autoimmune insulin dependent diabetes where your pancreas really doesn’t function properly and stops producing insulin as normal (NOT the type that is caused from overeating sugars). Our bodies normally secrete insulin to help control our blood sugars. Without that function, you can have severely high blood sugar that comes with a whole host of other symptoms. 

When you have Type I diabetes you have to get really clear on how many units of insulin you need per how many carbs you are consuming. The trick is, not all carbs are created equal and not all bodies react the same way. It can become really frustrating. The good news is that the pumps that are relatively new to the market have made managing Type I diabetes a lot easier to manage. 

Chronically High Blood Sugar 

High blood sugar can come with a lot of emotional symptoms (easily agitated, irritable, etc.) but it is also physically wrecking havoc on your body internally that you can’t always feel or tell is happening (like slower healing, inflammation, degraded eye vision, weight loss, along a long list of other things). 

Low Blood Sugar 

With low blood sugar, on the other hand, you get really tired, shaky, occasionally experience numbness, and can exhibit signs of extreme intoxication (even if sober). In fact, low blood sugar can be deadly and if you’re Type I diabetic it’s highly recommended you wear a medical bracelet so people will know what could possibly be wrong with you in the event that happens. 

Navigating Type I Diabetes 

Kristens experiencing navigating Type I diabetes has been a roller coaster. For example, doctors would tell her she can’t have rice and bread while others said yes you can have rice and bread, while others said you can have it if xyz. Doctors made her feel like her best option was only vegetables and to stay away from meat. She happened to love corn – that was a vegetable after all – but little did she know, it was awful for her blood sugar. 

She got to the point where most days she wouldn’t eat balanced meals during the days to avoid having to check her blood sugars (until she started feeling really bad). Then there were days she was eating her 3 meals and thought she was making the right decisions by choosing whole wheat breads, etc. And she also had the belief that if she were eating regularly, and then needing to take insulin as a result, that she was going to get fat – so sugar free foods were a god-send to diabetics. 

She was soooo overwhelmed with all of the contradicting information. She had hit her heaviest weight, had gotten news that her arteries were calcifying, her A1C was over 10, she was on cholesterol medicine, and then she came across the story of my dad dying from a heart attack just two years older (49) than Kristen was at the time (47). She decided shortly after that to join Total Body Thrive. 

Total Body Thrive Method

Enter the Total Body Thrive method. In Thrive, Kristen learned not only how to be a health detective, but how to optimize her nutrition to better manage and control her Type I diabetes. She learned the CORRECT, balanced way to eat to help shift her disease. 

Within just those 8 weeks she was able to lower her A1C by 4-5 points, get her cholesterol fully under control without medication, AND she was able to release 33 lbs! 

Some of her Kristen’s favorite takeaways from what she learned in Thrive were: 

• She was put on the WRONG medications for her Hashimoto’s 
• She doesn’t need to give up fruit. If she eats it balanced with fat, her body and blood sugar are stable
• How simple it can be to eat a balanced meal once you learn how to properly build the balance
• Eating balanced doesn’t have to be boring or tasteless or leave you feeling starving 
• Having no energy doesn’t HAVE to be a side effect of aging AND she doesn’t need 4 cups of coffee a day to have energy 
• Sugar free foods and artificial sweeteners are NOT a god-send to diabetics (or anyone!) 

Kristen’s FULL transformation was a result of her making a DECISION that she was ready to take her health into her own hands, and Total Body Thrive was the TOOL that helped her make this her new reality. 

The Next Thrive Live goes live at the end of January! You can learn more HERE

Want to start your own transformation? Join our FREE interactive workshop at www.NatalieJillClass.com