"As an active person in my thirties, one of the things I did as a male was to see the doctor for checkups at least twice a year. I have a lot of male friends with insurance who never go to a doctor, one who has never been to a doctor in his adult life because he was afraid of what the doctor might tell him. The point I am trying to make is that us men do not like to go to doctors. On my checkups in my thirties, I had been told that I was a border line diabetic and the usual prudent advice was given; watch my diet, eat more vegetables and fruits, drinks lots of water, stay off the sweets, check your blood sugar, etc. As I moved through my thirties into my forties I was on and off medications, always felt fine even though I was told my cholesterol, blood sugar and blood pressure were going up. Somewhere in my later thirties into my early forties I became consistent on medications for all three. Still my numbers kept creeping up but I was always at maintenance levels, never to the point where measures needed to become drastic and I always felt fine until I went to the doctor, and they gave me my numbers and advice for the prudent measures I should take. I entered Adventism and my awareness of health message brought a better overview and the effectiveness of a plant-based diet. I am married to a vegan, and I mostly ate what she ate but I was not a die-hard vegan. I attended diabetes reversal conferences and got some good information. My doctor, a vegan, at every checkup always advocated but never insisted on a plant-based diet and with his advice my numbers got slightly better but not to earthshaking results. Things never got to the point of crisis, various diabetes controlling methods were tried, Trulicity, Mounjaro, the ever-present Metformin. I was ‘maintaining ‘ but I was not really improving, was I? The ‘aha’ moment came when I decided time to take it to the next level. My doctor is great but I usually get a max of 15 minutes with him. It was now time for ME to take it to the next level. I needed to reverse this diabetes thing and get off my meds. After many years of life/diet habits it wasn’t gonna be an overnight thing but it was time to START! Enter Mrs. Pauline Maddox, Nurse Practitioner, AGNP-C, MSN, RN. Parts of that title is French to me, but I know she is a passionate health professional and advocate and particularly passionate about diabetes reversal. Apart from being passionate she is scientist in her approach because numbers do not lie. A metric of documentation was established for a health history through eating, sleeping, exercise, daily stressors, resting and mental attitude. Blood and stool tests administered for deeper diagnostics and analysis of my body chemistries and type. What was lacking, what needed to go, what could be improved. This regimen was facilitated through a change in my eating habits and exercise, and I committed to it. It’s not easy when we are used to doing things another way, but if I wanted change then I had to make that commitment for improving my health. Like I said before, in spite of the silent killers, stroke, heart attack, etc., I have always felt fine 95 percent of the time, but my blood sugar and cholesterol numbers were saying something else. On this new regimen with Mrs. Maddox, surprisingly, I have to say I started to see immediate changes. Since this was new, if I sometimes slipped into old habits dietary wise, it was also reflected in my numbers. Overall, this is the first time in my life I’ve ever had an incisive, in depth look at my body chemistry and that gave me a better understanding of my body and its regulations, how things affected it, what to do and what not to do. It’s a process and it’s not easy but in my third week I am and also from my Coach, seeing steadily improving numbers. My blood pressure and weight are also going down, my eating habits are changing, I am not missing meat even though I still like it (the Jamaican foods that my tastebuds first tasted will always be there), but I do not have ‘cravings’. I have always wanted to know and understand my body type, and this is a step in the right direction. If we want results on something, it is never easy at first but as you practice and knowledge is gained, it becomes easier until it eventually becomes a habit. The journey is not over yet but due to Nurse Pauline I can now control and direct my health destiny in a comprehensive and much much better fashion …for better and optimal results. As they say, “do not knock something until you try it.”