Alice Vest has been a diabetic for eight years and faced serious trouble in controlling her blood sugar levels. As her blood sugar levels continued to rise, she decided a lifestyle change was necessary. She kept seeing the grave consequences that diabetes can have on your body, including limb amputations or organ failure. The number of diabetics impacted so heavily keeps rising, and Alice vowed to herself not to be one of those numbers. When her doctor suggested the BEATDiabetes program, she was skeptical at first. She had already tried all different methods of lowering her A1C yet still was facing rising blood sugar levels. Nevertheless, Alice decided to give BEATDiabetes a try. Her lifestyle has changed immensely since.
As an avid sweet-eater, one of the biggest problems for Alice was cutting out sodas like Dr. Pepper or Pepsi. With the gentle motivation and reminders from BEATDiabetes, Alice has been able to cut out soda altogether for the past three months. Additionally, she has started exercising and being more aware of her own eating habits. She jokes that she is not doing anything “100% perfect,” but that she is doing much better than she was before. These changes prove that a commitment to yourself is enough to make a difference, and there is no pressure to be perfect. Since gaining control of her blood sugar, Alice feels less sluggish and relieved by the improvement in her health status. Her high A1C numbers were something that constantly were in the back of her mind, creating feelings of anxiety. Lowering them gave her more freedom.
Alice shows us that making big lifestyle changes is an imperfect process, and at times setbacks can feel monumental. She urges others with diabetes not to give up. “At times I thought ‘forget this, it's not working either,’” she said, “but you have got to keep going.” She did, and she gained control of her blood sugar in a healthy, sustainable way because of it and also earned what turned out to be the winning entry in the $1000 BEATDiabetes Drawing. Alice plans to use the $1,000 for a weekend vacation as a well-deserved reward for her hard work.
Congratulations to Alice for improving her health, both now and for the future!
Work hard to make healthy choices, and the next drawing winner could be YOU!