Beautifully Well Conversations with Nik
Curated conversations for women with National Board Certified Health & Wellness Coach Nik Sweeney. Transparency meets community with engaging topics surrounding self-care for busy women.
Beautifully Well Conversations with Nik
From Pre-Diabetes to Near-Death: Helen's Wake-Up Call
"Pre-diabetes doesn't mean you have time—it means you need to act now." These powerful words from Helen, a survivor of life-threatening diabetes complications, cut through the dangerous misconception that keeps many of us in denial about our health.
Helen's story begins like many others—a routine doctor's visit resulting in that seemingly innocuous diagnosis: pre-diabetes. "I thought that meant I had time," she recalls, a belief that nearly cost her life when her unmanaged condition spiraled into diabetic ketoacidosis and necrotizing fasciitis. Waking from a five-day coma with doctors expressing amazement at her survival (only 21% of people with her infection survive), Helen gained painful clarity about how quickly health can deteriorate when warning signs are ignored.
Through raw, honest dialogue, Helen and host Coach Nik unpack the cultural normalization of diabetes complications in communities of color—how we've come to accept amputations and chronic illness as inevitable rather than preventable outcomes. They challenge listeners to break these cycles by becoming fierce health advocates, carefully monitoring blood sugar responses to different foods, finding supportive healthcare providers, and recognizing that type 2 diabetes isn't a guaranteed inheritance from our families.
What makes this conversation particularly powerful is Helen's vulnerability in acknowledging the psychological components of health neglect—how we sometimes don't believe we deserve to prioritize our own wellbeing. Her journey from Air Force veteran to community outreach coordinator to patient and now health advocate offers a roadmap for anyone standing at that critical pre-diabetes crossroads.
Ready to rewrite your health story? Listen now and join our beautifully well tribe as we support each other in taking control of our health journeys before crisis strikes. Your future self will thank you.
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If you've ever wondered what is the timeframe from the moment I'm diagnosed with prediabetes to how much time do I have before a type two diabetes diagnosis can happen, maybe you've questioned that, or maybe you're that person who says-diabetes, oh, at least I'm okay. This sounds borderline to me. I won't worry that much about it. Well, I assure you, this conversation that we're about to have is for you, and welcome to the Beautifully Well Conversations with your girl, coach Nick, your National Board Certified Health Coach, curating these conversations for beautifuls like you to not only learn more, do better, but feel empowered on your journey to better health.
Speaker 1:And so today joining me is another beautiful, a new one to the tribe, ms Helen. Hello, hello, hello. Welcome to the Beautifully Well Tribe, helen. Your story is absolutely amazing and I know you're prepared to walk us through the incredible journey. First word comes to my mind is resilience, but let's tell our audience a little bit about you. If you could give us just a little bit about where you are professionally, just what you do and why you're here with us today on this podcast.
Speaker 2:Yes, thank you. Thank you, nick, for having me. I'm so excited to be here and be a part of this beautiful conversation. I am currently a community outreach coordinator for Infinite Legacy. I also work with homeless veterans helping them to get housed. I am an Air Force veteran myself, a mother, a proud grandmother and just another sister who wants to make sure that we're empowering other women with the information they need to make better choices, the best choices they can to maintain a beautiful life.
Speaker 1:I love it and you're centered around it already in your day-to-day work and your health. The journey that you've taken is interesting. I want to start at the beginning, though, because you know, helen and I just met a couple of weeks ago, working doing what we do best, and she was familiar with the Monte Nicole Wellness and what we do conversation, and when she said pre-diabetes.
Speaker 1:I said wait a minute, helen, I need to hear the story. So what was your response or reaction when you first got the news that you had pre-diabetes? Or maybe at that time they were still saying borderline Yep.
Speaker 2:So it was definitely pre-diabetes what they told me and for some reason although I have some history with my family members who have diabetes I thought that meant that I had time, that it wasn't going to happen to me, that there was no rush to make any changes in my diet, to do anything at first. And then when I started to realize okay, maybe I should, the numbers kept creeping up a little bit. I said let me just get on top of it. But the initial diagnosis was oh, I'm good, I have time, I have time to get it together, you know whatever. So I always think that prediabetes someone saying that someone's prediabetic is really just almost like a sentence to say I'm just going to sit here in this space with what's happening because I'm not all the way there, so what I'm doing isn't going to make me diabetic, I'm just going to stay in this space, and it can change very quickly, unfortunately.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. You hit it on the nose. We hear pre-diabetes and we go up. It's not type two, so I don't have to worry about this.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:Even though you may not be able to pinpoint a timeline and every woman's pre-diabetes journey and how long it takes to go from pre-diabetes to type two diabetes will vary by the person but if you could just put into context, maybe just thinking back to maybe around the time where pre-diabetes was talked about just briefly, and then that visit when you're now told you have type 2 diabetes so if I think back about it was a few years.
Speaker 2:It was several years in between that time and I don't I don't remember, though, anyone ever checking my a1c. I remember hearing one time I'm pre-diabetic. I don't remember hearing anything else about it until now the conversation is I'm diabetic. So you know, I wonder. I often wonder when did I actually change? When did it actually change? And the time between the date it actually changed and the date that it was said to me this is now what's happening with you, but it was several years later that I was told that I'm diabetic.
Speaker 1:And no prior help, support or conversations about prediabetes. And that's real important to note, because it's so common that it's one thing for us, because of lack of knowledge and maybe even culturally, that we hear pre-diabetes or borderline, that we say it's not a big deal. But look at why we're feeling that way Exactly we're not being told that it is a big deal and we're not being given access to things that can help us continue to slow it down. Right. But here you go, helen. You now get the diagnoses. I am now a type two diabetic. What do you do?
Speaker 2:So once I got the full diagnosis, I was now I'm active. I'm active on how I'm going to make this change, how I'm going to do better. So my A1C at the, I think at the time, was 13 at the time, which is very high, and I was very active with exercise and changing my diet, taking my the metformin, doing whatever you know. I felt that it would need to get my numbers down. When I went the next time, it was surprising that my numbers were. I was a seven point something.
Speaker 2:So the doctors were happy in the way that it was going, that it was getting better. And then they almost make it feel like it's okay and that's what I wish too. That wasn't said like, oh, that's a good range for somebody with diabetes. But what if I don't want to be someone with diabetes anymore? What if I want to work on changing it? But at the time I was feeling better, things were going better and um, it was said it was just the exercise, changing my diet, um, just, you know, paying attention to when I ate, checking my blood sugar to see how different foods affected you know my blood sugar, and um, I was doing great for for a while.
Speaker 1:after you know, after that, Wow, and probably even seeing weight loss as well.
Speaker 2:Weight loss? Definitely I've. I've lost total total since that day to today a hundred pounds. So yes, yes, I worked like I worked hard on that. It took a little while, but I definitely got the weight down for sure.
Speaker 1:But you know, initially in your journey with type two, it sounds like you mentioned an A1C at 13, and I'll just put this in the context for our listeners Elevated blood sugar, or A1C, in a pre-diabetic range pre-diabetes is 5.7 to 6.4. The moment a person jumps into that 6.5 and above now, based on blood sugar levels, they are now considered to have type 2 diabetes. So imagine if 6.5 is the starting point. Helen said girl. I met the doctors and they said my A1C is 13.
Speaker 2:Right, and you know, I don't know when. So I, when they said I was pre-diabetic, I I don't know what it is at that moment that they did to know that I was pre-diabetic. I had no clue that you know, and I didn't ask. I didn't. Sometimes, when you don't know, you don't even know the question to ask to get the answer you need. So I don't know that they're checking A1C and that I can come back in three months and get it, cause I didn't.
Speaker 2:Nobody said come back in three months or try this change. They just said be careful, what you eat. It's always. Don't eat the sweets. And I'm like, well, I don't even eat sweets like that. Now, some baked macaroni and cheese, I will tear up and I love rice and I love a good sandwich, and but I'm not realizing that that's a part of the problem and I'm a you know and I consider myself a fairly intelligent person. So I'm like I don't know this and no one, no one talked about it. They talked about cutting back on sweets and stuff. So I wish somebody would have said at the time okay, a1c is this, this is what this means. Let's work on your diet and come back in three months and let's check it again that never happened, never happened. That conversation I was never had.
Speaker 1:The power of just education, taking the time, building awareness. Now you go on this journey. You go hard. You go from an A1C of 13 all the way down to seven, which is great If you are diagnosed with type two diabetes. It is true, like Helen said, when they see you stretching to the sevens, when you hit that A1C of seven, they're like, oh you good girl, right, you're doing what you're doing, but you know, to your credit, to Helen, right, keep doing what you're doing, but you know, to your credit too, helen, you adhered to the medication. Metformin served a purpose for you and you put in the lifestyle change work. Yeah, yeah. But then life showed up.
Speaker 2:It showed up for sure. So I was down to seven. I was doing great. I had a lot of things going on positive things in my life that I was active in and I ran out of my medication. I couldn't believe it. I was like, oh shoot, I ran out of my medication. Well, I'm doing OK, I'm going to go get it. I'm going to go get it. And now I don't know why, it's 2022.
Speaker 2:I didn't just order it, you know, I don't know what that thought process was, but I went on and went on. So I didn't go get it until one day I was traveling and I was planning some things, I was pledging a sorority, I had all this stuff going on and I was just exhausted. So, in my mind, I think a lot of times, as women, we just think I'm just tired, I'm doing too much, and I was like I just need a break. And the next morning I woke up coughing, sneezing, hot cold, sweating and confused. And I'm trying to take this test because I'm pledging into the sorority and it was a video test. So they're looking at me like something's not right. Sis, I'm going to need you to do it. How about? Let's stop this? Let's stop this and you need to take care of yourself. I was going to tell my son hey, you know, call my older son, I don't know if I can drive, I don't feel good and he had already called and I guess he said something doesn't, mommy, doesn't look right, it doesn't look okay. And my son took me to the hospital and took me to urgent care and I could see everybody looking at me in a way that felt concerning to me because I was like okay, what's happening? But this whole time I have this bump on my leg, which several was like oh girl, it's probably just a boil, and I've never had a boil before. And no one never said to me be mindful, be careful if you see this, because diabetics are prone to get boils. No one never said that to me. So I don't know that it's an issue. You know I'm saying like that, you know so, um, they do a CT scan and they just said you know she needs to go to surgery right now.
Speaker 2:So when they pricked my finger that day, my blood sugar was 548 and my A1C was between 18 and 19. And they're looking at me like well, how do you feel? And I feel normal because now this is my norm. This is just is what it is. And so my body just adjusted to it and I'm looking around like what's so serious? Like I don't understand what's so serious.
Speaker 2:And then they started talking about diabetic ketoacidosis and necrotizing fasciitis and I don't know what any of these words mean, and you know, I know, you know. So they put me in an ambulance, rushed me to the hospital and, um, and next thing you know, my son is standing there with me and they're talking about who's your next of kin? We need emergency surgery. Um, your body is septic. I'm like, wait a minute now. I thought I just had a little boil, I'm going to get a little bit of medication and I'm going to go home.
Speaker 2:And just that quick, from I ran out of my medication to that day, now I'm in this state where I'm dying and I can feel, as I'm laying there and everybody's looking at me, my breath, and it was like. I was like, and I can feel the life leaving my body, and I was like, okay, now this is scary. And I asked the doctor. I said, am I going to die? You know, and I'm the son and I'm now I'm looking at my son watching me die. Basically, you know, basically, and they're just nobody would answer me and the next thing I hear is all these little beads. They cut off my waist beads and I can hear the beads dropping on the floor and I wake up five days later out of a coma at the university of Maryland shock trauma. So yeah, I'm like well, wait a minute, I thought I was and I don't remember I did, I, I, I.
Speaker 2:There's so much of that I just don't remember. Like, I remember being at the urgent care. I really don't remember getting to the hospital, but I remember being there and asking these questions and hearing those beads and then after that, you know, I'm waking up, you know, and I feel so much better at this point because they did a surgery to get rid of a lot of the infection, and so they're explaining to me now what all of this means, like what you know, diabetic ketoacidosis and what the necrotizing fasciitis. And I'm like, oh, not the flesh eating bacteria. Cause in my mind you just get that when you're in the, you know you go swimming in the river and something, get your leg or get your body part, but so at this point I'm in the hospital. They can't get my blood pressure back up. My family's all coming in because, you know, I'm basically dying at this point but I feel so much better because the infection is gone that I don't realize that this my blood pressure is, you know, is having an issue.
Speaker 2:And it was just the hardest like moment because I don't understand what's happening. I'm just coming out of this coma and then I'm having surgeries every four days to get rid of more infection and to make sure it's okay, to make sure it's not getting to the main artery in my my leg, so I don't lose my leg and whatever, but the whole time I'm just feeling better. So I, you know, I don't know, and my you know, it's just very hard place to put yourself in because now your family is watching this, you know your children are watching this, your flies in, that flies in, comes in and she's watching this, and so I said I don't know, this is what's happening, so I'm just happy to see everyone. And, um, you know the doctors, every time they would come in and they would tell me like I just remember them looking like, okay, she made it overnight, like that's the type of look they would give me and the one you know. I finally told like you can't believe.
Speaker 2:You did it because I was told by one of the doctors that between 21 and 22% of the people with this size of infection make it and only 3% keep their limb. So I was in like not realizing that I was in that state, but it was a. It was a rough space, but it happened so fast and I think that's what's important to learn from pre-diabetic. I'm diabetic and now I'm in here in this situation and I just want us to realize that that space is a space for us to heal, to take care of ourselves, to make sure you don't have to end up in this situation. I think we normalize losing limbs when you have diabetes. I think we normalize losing limbs when you have diabetes. Like you know, big mama lost her leg and Uncle Joe lost his toe and that it has to happen that way, that if our parents have diabetes, that we have to have diabetes.
Speaker 1:But it doesn't have to be that way, that we don't have to fall into that space just because it happened to someone before us. Okay, let me tell you so you all know. I've heard this story before, when Helen and I met a few weeks ago, and I'm experiencing the same emotions as she talks through this, because there are so many points on so many levels, so many levels, these pauses. This is what happens when you decide to record a podcast at work. But just you know that was a lot and I hope that listeners, when you put this on replay, that you listen to it over and over and over again, because I know you're going to catch some of the gems that will resonate with you.
Speaker 1:I want to go back just a little bit and summarize this very eventful, emotional, highly serious situation and you know, so often when we think about our lives as women, one of the things you know, helen, at one point you were managing type two diabetes. Well, it was going well. Weight was coming off, a1c down to a seven. You feel great, and so now a lot of your pursuits and your professional life is taken off. You're about to pledge in the sorority. You are at the final stages you are on your way in and things are happening so much that your focus is everywhere else. And nonjudgmental, right, because this is the picture of life for a lot of us as women. We are working, our bodies are assimilating to the new process. Medication is a forethought, it's not even top of mind, because one day you'll get there and then the bubble burst literally and it means your life.
Speaker 2:Because I didn't know that it can go that fast. It took me in my mind because there was so much time in between the pre-diabetic diagnosis to when I know now that I am diabetic. But I'm sure it happened way before then because my A1C wasn't getting checked. But it went so fast, from seven to 19, 18, 19,. So fast that you don't, I just don't think you think it's going to happen that fast, that it's going to happen that where those things turn around that fast and it's just it is you think about everything that you're doing every day in life, that you become a non-priority and that's a concern or something else. I thought what is going on mentally and emotionally that I would allow myself to be in that space and I don't want myself to be hard on me, but I want me to be real with me Like there has to be something going on that would allow you to be in a space where you are going to allow yourself to like to be dying. There's just, there's just so I you know, worrying about that, getting to that point where realizing it has so much more than just to do with just the medication or not taking it. There's a lot of other things that are happening that we're not addressing and that we need to address those things so that we are one of the most important things in our lives. If we're not taking care of us, how do we take care of the people around us? And then how.
Speaker 2:This not only affected me, but how it affected my children. My children had a very hard time and even now, if anything happens, one little thing well, I'm at the doctor, what's going on? Did you take your medicine? This and the third then they're calling and they're texting because they're worried that this might happen again, and it's just an unfair thing to do to yourself and to someone else. And sometimes it's not easy and I'm not saying making it like it's light, let's just everybody, because if that's the case, it wouldn't happen to me. But now that I was there, I would want to make sure that I can share the story so that someone else, if one other person, doesn't have to experience this because I didn't have to make it. If you think of 21% of the people, then you realize if it happens to me, I'm probably not going to make it.
Speaker 2:You know what I'm saying, and so you have to be, you know, proactive with just taking care of yourself, be okay with. You know, speaking for yourself and I think that's the important part of the conversation is a lot of times like so we don't know what to ask. We don't know that. You know, there's a lot of information that we just don't know, so there's no way that we can really advocate for ourselves fully because we don't know.
Speaker 2:And there's nothing like laying in University of Maryland shock trauma for six weeks. You know surgeries every so often and going through all these different changes, having to learn to walk again, and you know being able to feed yourself again because you're so weak, or you know just, it's just a lot mentally and emotionally, let alone the physical healing. Once that's done, you still have the emotional, the mental, your family, financially, how it you know it affects you because now you're in the hospital for so long and now you're getting short-term disability. You can't pay that. Now you're stressed out, which doesn't help either. So is there so many things that you have to think about? If this one thing happens, how it can affect your whole life.
Speaker 1:You hit that? Oh, you hit the nail in the head. Yeah, that uh. Surgery, a coma for five days, hospitalized for six weeks, on the verge of losing a limb, physical therapy, because now I have to learn how to walk again.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:And then the recovery and what I love to call the aftershocks that affect, as you brought out, not just you but family who had to be there to eyewitness it. And then the later mom is well, mom is doing great, but there is always on our shoulder an expectation that something could go wrong. Yes, type two diabetes affects our community at an enormous, alarming rate, but we are not uh, let me rephrase this we are resilient community.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:And because we are impacted and at a high risk for it. Like you said, there are some norms that we want to break and you joining us on this podcast. You already know, yes, that somebody is going to do something a little bit different.
Speaker 2:Yes, I hope so. Yes, that's the hopes.
Speaker 1:Yes, Because they have learned from you, but I want you to, to put it in context, we're going to break it down and you know, men, you can benefit from this conversation, but at this moment, I'm going to focus on the beautifuls okay if a woman comes to you and she is pre-diabetic? She just got the news Her A1C is elevated 5.7 to 6.4. What would you tell her?
Speaker 2:Let's get on it right now, sis, right now. Let's get on it right now. I think just change your diet, to start the exercise, to be mindful of who and what you are, what it is that you deserve out of your life. Because if somebody would have said, then, girl, if you just do this, if you just lose 20, 30 pounds, or if you just do whatever, it would have been made so much more sense. There's a lot. Ask questions, ask questions. Make sure that you're advocating for yourself, make sure that you're advocating for yourself what it is that you need. Like I said, just please ask questions, please take it serious, because it can happen so fast that it changes and it's not a space, it's not a safe space to be in. It's not like a buffer to diabetes, it's a step to diabetes. So let's think of it that way. Let's not think of it as, oh, it's not happening. It's not step to diabetes. So let's think of it that way. Let's not think of it as, oh, it's not happening, it's not going to happen. Because, like I said, just that quick it could be that space. So please, as soon as you hear it, ask your doctor about seeing a nutritionist. Let's find out what exercises we can do. Let's find it. There's so many. It's a beautiful thing is. There's so many support groups, you know you can join, or just amazing other people like Facebook groups or whatever that you can join just to get the support.
Speaker 2:Because I think what's difficult is it's such a normal thing in our community that I don't know if we're taking it serious enough. You know, I just don't know that I don't know if we're taking it serious enough. You know, I just don't know. And it's you know. You think you can have that one chip, you can have that birthday cake, you can have whatever that one time, but if we all only ate one bag of chips you know a little then we wouldn't be here, or if we had just the one cake, or if we just did this one thing, or if we just didn't exercise this one day, you, or if we just didn't exercise this one day, you have to realize you are worth it. I think the most important thing is realize you are worth it, whatever it takes. You know, and it's eating and certain things that we do socially.
Speaker 2:It's hard when you're in those spaces. I know it is to say no to whatever, or I had to stop going out. You know, like after the fact, after I came home from the hospital and stuff, I stopped doing certain things. I stopped going certain places because I wasn't ready. I had to be honest with myself. I wasn't ready to be in those spaces and not do the things that I know that are going to spike my blood sugar or whatever. So I just stopped.
Speaker 2:But to get back. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to get off, but the idea is, if someone says you're pre-diabetic, take it serious. Don't look at it as a buffer or space. Ask questions, ask to see a nutritionist what can you do to exercise and then make sure you go back and do those things and go back and get checked again 90 days later. You know, can you check my A1C? I didn't realize that. I think somebody told me I don't know if it's real that don't, you're not, a1c is just not naturally just getting checked. I don't think that they're. Maybe that was years ago when it said so. Maybe it could have changed since then. I don't, you know, I don't want to put that out there if it's not true, but I know then it was like. You know you have to add now we're more, access is opening up but at the same time, guess what?
Speaker 1:Like we know, helen, it doesn't matter if health care providers and health insurers are covering these tests if we are still not aware that we need them. Now let's segue to our lady who is aiming to manage type 2 diabetes beautifully. Her diagnosis does not define her, but she is also in a space where she wants support, or she needs to recognize that the same things that happen to family members or what's culturally normal in our space if you are diagnosed with type two diabetes does not have to be the sentence.
Speaker 1:So, what would you tell her?
Speaker 2:I think one of the things that's really important, that really helps me, is to and it's so tedious sometimes, I know it is and it's a lot but to keep a journal of what I'm eating, what time of day, and then checking my blood sugar to see how it affects it, Like one thing I know is I love pizza. It's so hard to give it up. So I realized if I eat a slice of pizza and a salad with some healthy fats, maybe some avocado, and maybe some chicken or some protein, whatever on this, then my blood sugar doesn't spike the two slices of pizza. Now I'm in trouble. But until and if you're not keeping record of those things, then you're not going to know. So that's very important to like, I think, to really know what affects you. Because, for you know, I know I have a friend who's diabetic and honey just spiked his blood sugar like crazy, but it didn't affect me as much, and so I think sometimes we're like, well, you know, someone's so diabetic and they eat whatever, but some people are okay with that. They're okay with I'm going to eat this food and just take my insulin and my metformin or whatever, and it's all good, I'll stay at a seven, you know, but they don't, they're not, they're not looking to to maybe try to reverse it or, you know, get off of certain medications. That's not their plan. Their plan is just to maintain this seven. So just realizing that one you have to. It's an individual journey, so you have to figure out how this works for you.
Speaker 2:I said ask questions, try to seek a nutritionist if you can to, you know to to really have that conversation. Um, another important thing is I had to fire my doctor, unfortunately. I was like you know she, you know, after this incident it was the push for certain things but no talk about healing, no talk about. Um, let's get down that. What was said to me when I asked to see an endocrinologist was basically no, you know, and I know some insurances are different, so sometimes that's that's difficult. You have to have the referrals. But I was like well, no cause, I just almost died and y'all saw that. So I would like, I just want additional support. But it almost like she was offended, as if I was questioning her, her medical expertise, and I'm like it's not about you. I made an appointment to sit down and have the conversation. I said we have to break up because I don't trust you and you don't trust me. So, finding those safe spaces, make sure you find that.
Speaker 2:Checking your blood sugars and relation with the food Um see, maybe I I really do believe that if you're allowing yourself to continuously be in a certain cycle, that there's something else that may be happening. You know it's mentally or emotionally that you don't feel that you, you deserve to be taken care of and you're not even by yourself. So let's check into that too. It's okay, you know it's okay to seek that type of help. I know it's hard in certain communities. We don't, we don't. Certain communities just don't do that. They just don't go seek that help. That would be helpful. I just think that's important.
Speaker 2:Having a support group explaining to your family listen, this is what I'm going through, this is how I want to heal. I think them understanding that you're on that journey will help them to support you as well. So it's not that girl, you can go ahead and have that little macaroni cheese right quick. It won't be that if they understand that you're serious about your journey. Exercise is so important and it doesn't have to be expensive. We don't have to join a gym. Simple walks will help to help with your blood sugar numbers, Just really educating yourself. And if you don't know the questions asked, reach out to someone like Nick who can help give you some of those answers of help, to support you, help for you to understand what is happening and how is the best way to go about it. It's okay that we don't know and, like you said, the norms that have it doesn't have to happen, you don't have to get diabetes.
Speaker 2:I went, the doctor told me one good thing. The doctor told me when I was pre-diabetic and I said I was pre-diabetic and I was like, wow, I was like you know, I'm just like, well, that's when mom had diabetes and my dad, you know. So I'm just thinking it's whatever. But the reality is my mother has you know what I'm saying Like it doesn't have to be that thing. And he was like, well, if that's what you feel, if you feel like, well, your mom has it and it's going to happen to you. Then I said, well, sometimes I have cookies in the house for the kids and I might eat a couple. He said, then why feed it to your children? If you think that's what it is, then why are you doing this? And that's not registering that you know that would say yeah, yeah, let me change this. So I think it's just a lot of those things that we have to really be mindful of and think about and love on ourselves, be graceful with ourselves, but don't don't be giving yourself too much space.
Speaker 2:Sometimes we want to be too laid back in it and it's not. That's not. Yeah, exactly yeah.
Speaker 1:It is so powerful to the point, pre-diabetes or type 2 diabetes. I would say, helen, in your recommendations or advice to our listeners, that number one, the number one, the number one thing is to honor yourself, become an advocate for your health. Do not take any diagnoses lightly. And we do know that, for some reason, for some of us, we struggle with taking care of ourselves, and it's subconscious.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:We struggle with taking care of ourselves and it's subconscious yes, we do not even realize that we're putting everything and everything else ahead of us. And that is the interesting thing about type two diabetes. We know it is not hereditary. Your mom had seven children. One out of seven has type two diabetes. So there are a lot of other external and internal factors associated with this. We have to look at stress. We have to look at our entire wellbeing. When we're, you know, really advocating for our health and recognizing that there is a connection to just to life as a whole, and the need for us at times to be able to pause and stop and give ourselves grace, as you've mentioned, can really make the difference between turning a light switch on and off when it comes to our health.
Speaker 2:Yes, just that simple.
Speaker 1:You survived, you are a survivor. You are a survivor, you are a thriver, you're a community champion because you are out there living life and helping others to enjoy theirs, and we appreciate you coming in supporting our tribe being 100% you, thank you, thank you, willing to share, and you know I will throw in that plug Community is everything, definitely, and that is what we're aiming to build, not what we're aiming to build. We have built it, yes, but we need to strengthen it and we need to be able to create these spaces for bigger conversations, more conversations, because we're still a part of a generation that's not sharing conversations like this.
Speaker 1:Exactly we need safer spaces and resources to people who care, not those who are not going to help us progress to the next level without health. If I want to put my type two diabetes in remission, tell me how, because it exists, tell me how?
Speaker 2:And one of the things that was said to me when I asked about about that, just about that, like how do I do that? And um, the nutritionist that this was what I was still in the hospital said to me well, you know, y'all don't listen, no way. And she was just like me and I was like, wow, that's that's. That's an interesting thing and I understand with it. With that it probably does happen often. I understand that there is a mistrust that I probably have for myself. That's another thing too. Once you go into this type of situation or you let things get out of control, you start to not trust yourself as much and that creates a space that's hard for healing. But there's not a lot of thought or trust put into the process that we can do this. We can go into mission, reverse it, or you know all of those things. It's just not talked about enough that there's things that we can do to.
Speaker 2:There's always like I don't like managing it, like how do we manage this? You know that'd be somebody saying my leg is broken. Well, how do you manage this broken leg? Instead of how do I heal it? How do I? And I'm like, so why I don't understand it. Why would I want the blade to continue to be broke if I can, if we can heal it. So I think that's the same way. You know that we can fix our diabetes and get to the point where we're just has everything under control. And one thing I stopped trying to say is my diabetes. I don't want to take that, I don't want to own it in that type of way. You have to care for our. Words are powerful, so being mindful how we speak to ourselves.
Speaker 1:And that it does not define us.
Speaker 2:No.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it doesn't define us and we're changing the trajectory because we're doing the best that we can, and it's one conversation at a time.
Speaker 2:One conversation at a time. One conversation at a time.
Speaker 1:Well, thank you again for joining us. We appreciate you. We have officially adopted you into the tribe.
Speaker 2:I'm here for it all and thank you for creating this space. You know, I don't know how powerful this space is. I mean, just in the couple of times we met and in this conversation today I feel empowered just because the space exists. I really appreciate it.
Speaker 1:I love it and we wish the same for our listeners. Ladies, when you are tuning in, if you are listening, we encourage you to tell a friend, tell a loved one. Let's make this conversation spread like wild wild fires. Let's keep that conversation going. Let's keep Helen and her story and her journey in in our hearts and, as you know, any beautiful that joins the podcast, that means you're going to hear from them and you're going to see them again, because we're going to continue with that conversation. So stay tuned for the next episode, but in the meantime, continue to live beautifully well.