Meet Susan. For about 15 years, she had been living with type 2 diabetes, but consistency was always a challenge.
She would try one program and then another. Sometimes her blood sugar was well controlled, and sometimes it wasn't. She knew nutrition mattered and believed she was following a reasonably healthy diabetes diet, but she never felt like she had a complete plan that explained what was happening inside her body and why certain changes would actually work.
Then someone close to Susan began losing their eyesight.
Seeing a friend face such a serious health problem made the potential complications of diabetes feel much more immediate. Susan became increasingly concerned about protecting her own vision and realized she needed to take her blood sugar management more seriously.
That search eventually led her to Mastering Diabetes.
Since then, Susan has lowered her A1c from 8.4% to 7.1%, substantially reduced her insulin requirements, regained her energy, and developed something that had been missing throughout much of her diabetes journey: a sustainable plan she actually understands.
And after navigating cancer treatment along the way, Susan has learned to measure her success by a principle she regularly hears in the Mastering Diabetes Coaching Program.
Progress, not perfection.
Searching for a Diabetes Approach That Made Sense
Susan wasn't new to trying to improve her blood sugar.
The problem was that her efforts often sent her in different directions. She would follow a program for a while, stop, and eventually try something else.
What she lacked wasn't necessarily motivation. It was consistency combined with an understanding of why a particular approach should work.
That began to change when Susan spotted the Mastering Diabetes book in a bookstore.
At first, what she read seemed to contradict much of what she had previously learned about diabetes and nutrition. Instead of dismissing it, Susan kept reading.
The more she learned about insulin resistance and the reasoning behind a low-fat, whole-food, plant-based approach, the more it made sense.
She bought the book, although she didn't immediately put everything into practice. Eventually, Susan decided she had nothing to lose by trying.
The response surprised her: “I could not believe the difference that it made.”
Watching Her Insulin Needs Fall
Within the first few weeks, Susan could already see changes.
Her insulin requirements began dropping quickly, and for the first time, she felt like she understood why.
The approach also challenged one of the most deeply ingrained ideas she had about diabetes: that eating more carbohydrate-rich foods would inevitably send her blood sugar higher.
Susan could eat a banana. She could consume significantly more carbohydrates than she had expected.
And instead of watching her glucose become increasingly difficult to manage, she saw her blood sugar improve as she consistently applied the Mastering Diabetes principles.
What initially seemed counterintuitive began making sense once she understood the physiology behind insulin resistance.
She wasn't following a restrictive diet built around a single food or short-term trick. She was eating an abundance of whole plant foods while learning how reducing dietary fat could support improved insulin sensitivity.
For Susan, understanding the “why” made it much easier to keep going.
Susan's Before and After Results
As Susan applied what she was learning, the changes became measurable.
Header | Before | After |
|---|---|---|
A1c (%) | 8.4 | 7.1 |
Long-Acting Insulin | Higher insulin requirements | 6–8 units of Lantus nightly |
Rapid-Acting Insulin | Higher insulin requirements | Less than 10 units total per day |
Energy | Needed a daily nap | Energized. Feels “20 years younger” |
Cravings | Strong sweet and salty cravings | Dramatically reduced |
Susan describes the reduction in her insulin requirements as significant. She was also able to switch from NPH insulin to Lantus and, at the time of her interview, was using approximately 6 to 8 units of Lantus at night and less than 10 total units of rapid-acting insulin throughout the day.
Her A1c decreased from 8.4% to 7.1%.
Those numbers matter to Susan, but they are only part of what has changed.
From Planning Her Daily Nap to Feeling 20 Years Younger
Before Mastering Diabetes, fatigue shaped Susan's entire day. She needed to nap every afternoon.
In fact, she would sometimes wake up in the morning already thinking about when she could fit in her nap later that day.
That is no longer her normal.
Susan says she now feels as though she is 20 years younger. She has considerably more energy and feels capable of participating more fully in her life.
Her relationship with food has changed too.
Susan had always struggled with cravings for sweet and salty foods. She joked that if she were stranded on a desert island, potato chips might have been one of the first things she wanted to bring.
As she changed the way she ate, those cravings diminished dramatically.
She also found that she wasn't constantly hungry throughout the day.
Rather than feeling deprived by a diabetes diet, Susan could eat satisfying whole plant foods, including carbohydrate-rich foods she once might have approached with caution.
Learning That Blood Sugar Is About More Than Food
Nutrition was central to Susan's transformation, but Coaching helped her see that managing blood sugar involves much more than what is on her plate.
During her weekly group meetings, Susan learned about the effects of exercise, sleep, and stress on blood glucose.
That holistic perspective was new for her.
In the past, when she tried to become strict about diabetes management, she tended to focus primarily on food. Mastering Diabetes helped her connect those other aspects of her lifestyle and understand how they could work together.
The result has been a life that Susan describes as less chaotic and more sane.
She feels more in control of her health, and that sense of control has extended into other areas of her life.
Continuing Through an Unexpected Cancer Diagnosis
Susan's journey has not been perfectly linear.
Last fall, while working toward her diabetes goals, she was diagnosed with cancer and underwent treatment.
She is doing well now, but the experience understandably disrupted her progress.
That context matters to Susan because she initially hesitated to share her story.
She had read other Mastering Diabetes success stories featuring people who had experienced larger changes in their A1c or lost substantial amounts of weight. Compared with those transformations, she worried that her own numbers didn't look impressive enough.
Then she remembered one of the mottos emphasized in her Coaching group: “Progress, not perfection.”
Susan's A1c may not have followed a perfectly uninterrupted path, but she had navigated cancer treatment while continuing to work on her metabolic health. Her A1c was down, her insulin requirements had fallen significantly, her energy had transformed, and she had developed habits and knowledge she could continue using.
Given everything she had experienced, Susan was happy with her progress.
Her story didn't need to look like anyone else's.
Coaching Helped Susan Turn the Method Into a Lifestyle
Susan initially started implementing Mastering Diabetes on her own after reading the book.
Once she saw that it was working, she wanted to commit fully.
That meant making a financial investment in Coaching, and Susan acknowledges that doing so required a sacrifice. She is glad she made it.
Her coach became an invaluable source of guidance. Susan also had opportunities to work with other coaches and appreciated hearing different perspectives.
The support extended far beyond her Coaching calls.
Susan regularly uses the online recipes, participates in the community chat, and explores the educational resources available through Mastering Diabetes. She especially enjoys experimenting with the recipes, tweaking ingredients and making them her own.
Together, those resources helped turn the information she originally encountered in a bookstore into something she could actually practice every day.
What Susan Wants Others to Know
After years of moving between different approaches, Susan finally feels like she has a path she understands.
Her A1c has fallen from 8.4% to 7.1%. Her insulin requirements have decreased significantly. Her cravings have diminished, and the woman who once woke up planning when she could take her daily nap now says she feels 20 years younger.
But Susan's experience also illustrates something important about improving metabolic health.
Progress doesn't always happen in a perfectly straight line.
Illness happens. Life changes. Some people see dramatic results quickly, while others progress at a different pace.
What matters to Susan is that she now has the education, support, and habits to continue moving forward.
Mastering Diabetes, she says, has given her more than improved health. It has helped restore her ability to live her life more fully.
Ready to See Results Like Susan?
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