Diabetes Health Type 2: Determined to Start Over

When Carolyn Hinkle was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes at age 66 her A1C was 9.3. She’d had gestational diabetes before her son was born and she was getting insulin shots for it so the doctors had told her to watch out for diabetes in the years ahead.

 

It’s been two years since her official diagnosis and Carolyn says, “Type 2 got my attention. I knew that I had to turn my life around. My children were in their 20s and I thought, ‘How do I tell them that sugar is more important to me than they are?’

 

“That day I went cold turkey off sugar, white/processed foods and lost about 40 lbs. in a short amount of time.”

 

Carolyn, an upstate New York resident, was taking 500 mg. of Metformin twice a day. After six months her A1C dropped to 5.6 and her Metformin was cut in half. She still had more weight to lose, and her goal was to get off the Metformin completely.

 

Last spring she started the keto diet and lost another 17 lbs. At that point her A1C was 5 and her physician she that she could stop taking the Metformin. Carolyn reports that her cholesterol is normal and her thyroid medication has been reduced.

 

Carolyn taught for a year in Australia on a teaching exchange – which she calls one of the best years of her life – then married Richard who is a Presbyterian minister. They have moved often due to his job and this has made her a “very flexible person.”

 

“We’ve lived all over the country and it’s been an adventure,” Carolyn says. “I have seen so much of the U.S. and experienced it in a way that you can’t when you just travel through a city.”

 

Carolyn and Rich are both originally from the Pacific Northwest so she enjoys the cool weather. She home schooled their four children and before retiring was a certified teacher.

 

In her leisure time Carolyn enjoys quilting and reading the Louise Penny Inspector Gamache murder mysteries.

 

She adds, “I have found so many amazing dessert recipes on keto such as the raspberry cheesecake coffee cake recipe that I simply don’t miss sugar. Replacement foods became a habit. My whole life was spent dieting, losing weight and gaining it back. This time I knew that finding a way that works for me was critical to my health and happiness.

 

“Diabetes is the best thing that’s ever happened to me. I never would have taken steps to get healthy otherwise.”