I am a certified personal trainer and nutritionist, author and speaker. None of these things would have ever been possible without type 1 diabetes, which has allowed me to see the silver lining in some of life’s most difficult times and remain grateful.
plant based
I’m Mexican, first generation American and type one diabetic for 19 years. I love the outdoors and working out. My best friends is my Diabetic Alert Dog, Lady Bear 🙂 I got diagnosed at the age of 12! I didn’t mangage it at all. I kept living my life as if I didn’t have it diabetes. I was ashamed of it. I didn’t want to be different as I already was different as a Mexican. Cultural assimilation was the name of the game and I planned to play it. Emotionally and financially was hard. We didn’t know what diabetes was when I got diagnosed. My dad was a school janitor (he did have his BA degree but from Mexico) and my mom just had her General Educational Diploma (GED) working a minimum wage job at a company that refused to pay her more.
This is my tenth year of diabetes but for many of those, I was in complete denial about my diagnosis. No one in my family has diabetes and nor did my friends at the time, which left me feeling quite alone and like I didn’t have anyone who understood what I was going through. After much self discovery, trial and error with different diets and daily life practices, I made the decision to shift to a mostly plant based and whole foods diet.