The map of Cindy K.’s future seemed to lay out very clearly.
“I thought, ‘Okay, this is what’s going to happen: Eventually I’m probably going to have to take insulin like everyone else in my family,” she says.
Diabetes runs in Cindy’s family, and she was traveling the same path. Her doctor had already put Cindy on Metformin—a common medication to help fight the battle for blood-sugar control. She only saw one possible exit.
“I kept thinking if I lose a bunch of weight, all these problems would go away,” Cindy says.
She cycled through several diets trying to get her A1C levels down. She exercised and tried to eat right, but nothing stuck. Though Cindy was frustrated, she didn’t give up. She knew there had to be something to help her.
“I was determined to stop [my family’s diabetes] with my generation,” Cindy says. “I didn’t want to get on any kind of insulin… That’s why I did the Google search thing.”
That’s where she found Whole30.
Cindy took the idea to her physician, who had done the Whole30 before, and encouraged her to do it. The reassurance of Cindy’s physician reinforced that the program was something healthy she could do for herself. And it wasn’t even permanent—just 30 days.
That month changed everything.
“When I discovered Whole30, it was a light bulb,” Cindy says. “…It’s not the weight—it’s what I was putting into my body.”
Cindy learned she could drive her wellness journey in a different direction by being aware of what she ate. The path of her health—and her life—weren’t set. Her destination wasn’t a fixed point.
“I knew it wasn’t like I needed a new diet plan,” she says. “I needed a new way of eating.”
A little reintroduction help from her friends
Cindy’s fateful Google search and her discovery of Whole30 happened in 2018. She used Melissa Urban’s original program guide—The Whole30—as her roadmap.
Cindy says she did really well for her 30 days. Everything was great—and then reintroduction came.
“I was like, ‘You know what? I did this for 30 days straight, so I’m going to eat everything in sight,” she says. “And as a result, I just felt like crap because I didn’t do the [reintroduction]. So I never figured out what was bothering me.”
A couple of years passed before Cindy decided to try it again. But this time would be different, because she had a new resource to help her—the Whole30 Community Cohort.
“Having this cohort was like a game changer,” she says. “Everything that I had done in the past finally made sense. I finally had people who were just like me going through this trying to figure out what works and then what doesn’t. I wasn’t alone anymore.”
With the support of the Cohort, Cindy did the full reintroduction and learned so much. She found out alcohol, sugar, and gluten are her triggers. Having that information has made a huge difference for her health. Keeping all of it in check helps Cindy manage the arthritis in both of her knees and the inflammation brought on by gluten.
“If I hadn’t done the Cohort and hadn’t done the reduction instruction properly, I would have never found that stuff out,” Cindy says.
Her cohort experience was even responsible for two new friends in Cindy’s life. One lives in Australia, and the other lives in Pennsylvania—close enough to make a meet-up possible.
“We went out and had coffee one day,” Cindy says. “It was great. And we were sitting in this coffee shop, giggling like two little girls talking about Whole30. And we were loud. I knew we were because this lady at another table looked at us, and we just started grinning and smiling.”
Destination: health and happiness
There’s been a lot bringing a smile to Cindy’s face lately. One of the biggest is the visit she made to her doctor after the Cohort. Cindy’s blood work came back and her doctor was amazed by what she saw.
“The doctor said, ‘If you can still keep some of that stuff that you learned, and what you’ve been doing, you will never be put on insulin, and eventually I’ll take you off Metformin,’” Cindy says. “I was like, ‘Deal. Let’s do it.’”
She didn’t want to be the next family member who had to take insulin. Now Cindy hasn’t just altered the map of her future—she wants to help others in her family change their health journeys.
And Cindy says she’s going to start with her mom.
“I would love to try to get my mother on Whole30,” she says. “It’s going to be tough, but I think if I show myself as a role model for her, she’ll see what I’m doing and she’ll realize, ‘Oh wait, you’re not on insulin yet? Whoa. Your skin is clear. You look good. What are you doing?’”
Cindy K.’s answer—and her path to a healthy, happy future—is now very clear.
Want to read Cohort success stories? Check these out. You can also find inspirational Whole30 success stories in our Testimonials section. If you want to change the path of your health journey like Cindy K., sign up for Whole30 emails to learn more about the Whole30 Community Cohort.
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