SUMMER 2019 / DI ABETIC LI VING 39
W
hen Kristen Canfield’s parents split when
she was young, she began spending sum-
mers with her mother and grandmother,
a Southern cook with an affinity for lard
and butter. The rest of the year, she lived with her father and
stepmother.
“My father was always away for work. My stepmom
cooked, but she fried everything, covered it in gravy, or
served up hot dogs and pizza,” says Canfield, now 43, a pa-
tient counselor and grocery store clerk in New Bern, North
Carolina. “When we ate fruits and vegetables, they were usu-
ally canned, not fresh. My favorite fruit was applesauce,” she
adds with a laugh.
That style of eating continued through her 20s, and in-
cluded drinking 40 ounces of soda a day. When she was in
her early 30s, though, she became frustrated because she
couldn’t find clothes that fit—she found herself sitting at the
beach in shorts and an oversized tank top, instead of a bikini
like her friends. “I was almost 250 pounds,” says Canfield.
“I felt like a beached whale and decided ‘I need to do some-
thing about this.’”
She boosted her fruit and vegetable intake and squeezed
in some exercise, but in April 2012, when she was 36, she re-
ceived unexpected news. Her OB-GYN ran a battery of tests
during an annual exam, including a glucose stress test, and
diagnosed her with type 2 diabetes.
“When I first got diagnosed, it scared me,” she says. “I
kept thinking, ‘This can’t be happening—I’m too young.’”
Canfield’s OB-GYN referred her to her primary care doc-
tor to manage the condition, but her PCP didn’t agree with
the diagnosis. “He knew I had a family history of diabetes.
He had my test results. But he didn’t think I had diabetes,”
says Canfield. So, she found a new primary care physician to
help her manage the disease—and that’s when she began to
regain control of her life.
“I hate taking pills and I didn’t want to be on medicine
for the rest of my life,” says Canfield. So, she worked with her
new doctor and began taking the lowest possible dose
of metformin to help keep her blood sugar levels
steady. She started working out at the gym,
meeting with friends to walk on weekends,
and searching for healthful recipes online.
And it worked ... for a while.
In December 2015, Canfield con-
tracted a virus she couldn’t kick: she
was sick for 18 months. She started
comforting herself with food while she
suffered through five rounds of antibi-
otics and steroids during her recovery.
The medication made her gain weight,
and debilitating viral symptoms, such asfatigue, sinus pressure, and pain, stood in the way of exercise.
The result: her blood sugar skyrocketed to more than 400
mg/dL and her weight started inching toward 300 pounds.
Her doctor increased her metformin dose and added
another medication, Invocana, which helped Canfield bet-
ter manage her blood sugar. But she struggled to drop the
weight. By the end of 2017, she was anxious, tired, and de-
pressed. “I was embarrassed by the way I looked, and I was
scared because my blood sugar levels were unsteady,” she
says. “I knew it was time to change things or I was looking to
go to an early grave.”
She decided to attend classes through a diabetes pro-
gram at CarolinaEast Medical Center, the hospital where
she works. That’s where she learned that her soda fix was
sabotaging her efforts. “The first thing my doctor said was,
‘Get off the sodas,’” says Canfield. “It turned out regular soda
wasn’t the only culprit. Diet drinks were actually worse for
my blood sugar.”
Over the course of three months, she weaned herself off
both naturally and artificially sweetened beverages—first by
going from three sodas a day to one. Over time, she gradu-
ated to drinking only two sodas a week. By June 2018, she
was no longer drinking soda. Next, she gave up sweet tea,
replacing it with green tea that’s only half sweet. Finally,
she cleaned up her coffee, which she previously had spiked
with 5 teaspoons of sugar. Now, she adds just a splash of
sugar-free creamer.
“I noticed my clothes were getting bigger just from cut-
ting out certain beverages,” she says. “That made me think, ‘I
can do this,’ and I started paying attention to the eating plan
my doctor laid out for me.”
Canfield realized many of the foods she thought were
healthy were compromising her blood sugar. She began mak-
ing small changes, such as searching for lower-carb recipes
online and making swaps like cauliflower for potatoes and
spaghetti squash for pasta (shh, don’t tell her husband!).
She started visiting the farmers’ market each week for more
appealing fresh produce instead of buying canned. She
also started making time for exercise.
“I’ll close my door at the office and do
some squats or I’ll take a 10-minute break
and walk the halls,” says Canfield. “I have
six acres of land, so after work, I get out-
side with my dogs and run.”
Just seven months after cutting out
soda, Canfield had shed nearly 100
pounds. Her next goal: to be able to
manage her diabetes without medica-
tion. “I’m not where I want to be. It’s
still a long journey. But I’m going to keep
doing it,” she says, “one step at a time.”QUIT SODA “I knew soda wasn’t good
for me, but I never realized how much it
was impacting my blood sugar—or my
weight. Now, when I drink soda, it makes
me sick.” Instead, she sips on lightly
sweetened green tea and water.
PLAY WITH FOOD “I go to the farm-
ers’ market each week and buy fresh
produce. I’ll go online for inspiration and
then take healthy ingredients like cauli-
flower and spaghetti squash and make
something tasty with them.”BE PATIENT “When I first started this
journey, I failed a lot. I felt like I was tak-
ing three steps back instead of one step
forward. But if something didn’t work, I
tried something else. I learned I can do it.
I just have to believe in myself.”What Worked for Kristen