AJ's Amazing Story: Diabetic Gone Paleo

Aaron (AJ) just completed Fuel-21 in January.  His story is pretty amazing to say the least.  From diabetes as a kid, to losing his eyesight in college, to gaining eyesight back and starting CrossFit, to finally diving into a real food, nourishing diet and seeing even more positive results, to the onward quest to meet Anne Hathoway, his story is impressive.  He lost 4% body fat during the 21 days, learned how to cook for himself (and grocery shop), and also inspired his family and friends to change their way of eating and see phenomenal results as well.  You've got to read all of this!  Also, he has a blog where he wrote about his experience throughout the 21 day and it will make you cry it's so funny!!  Check that out at www.lifeinthestupidlane.com.  This is just one story of many where changing what you eat changes your life in more ways than one.  I couldn't be happier for him!  

My name is Aaron, though most people call me AJ these days.  Coach Crystal asked me to talk about my experiences in her Fuel 21 program I just went through and the results I saw.  But to do that effectively, you probably need to know a little bit about me prior to me ever meeting Coach Crystal.

I am 31 years old and I have been a type one diabetic since the age of seven.  Growing up with diabetes was pretty much the worst thing I could imagine as a kid.  I craved sugar and junk food so badly, that I would do just about anything to get my hands on it.  I made my Mom’s life miserable when it came to feeding me.  She did her best to get me to eat healthy and I did my best to do the exact opposite.

Fast forward a decade or so and I am a freshman in college, where I decided, that because I was skinny, athletic, and active, I could eat whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted, and I wouldn’t have any problems with my diabetes.  Turns out, my diet consisted mainly of Burger King, Sixth Street bar drinks, Diet Coke, and convenient store junk food. It proved to be idiocy to believe that living and dieting the way I was would be good for my diabetes. A fact that was proven true shortly after college—shocking I know--when diabetes robbed me of my eye sight and the subsequent three years of my life it took doctors to fix the issues as well as could be.

Once my sight was returned to me—there is a good story here that would take way too long to write—I made some changes to my diet and lifestyle that my endocrinologists—fancy word for diabetes doctor among other things—told me would keep my diabetes in good control.  So I played basketball and ran a little more than I use to, ate a little less fast food than I use to, and was told by my endocrinologist that I was doing well enough to avoid further problems with my diabetes.

Again, fast forward a couple more years and I move into the neighborhood behind Crossfit Central.  It didn’t take long to notice the large groups of fit, tan, cute girls working out at all hours of the day and before I knew it I was enrolled in a Crossfit class.  I am pretty sure Gilly “prettied” me into signing up, that or she used some type of voodoo.  Whatever it was, I am thankfull that she did, but I am also pretty sure Life Time Fitness and P90X blame her for me quitting on them.

After a few months at Crossfit, one of the coaches suggested that if I wanted to reach my goals, I should come to one of their nutritional meetings and consider changing my diet.  I agreed and went and listened to Carey Kepler tell me about the Paloe diet and how I needed to stop eating grains, diary, legumes, sugar, and Diet Coke.  At the time, I thought Carey was completely insane and I spent the remainder of my first nutrition meeting thinking about going to Sonic for dinner.  Sorry Carey….

As the weeks went on though, I still couldn’t reach my goals and I reluctantly gave up some dairy, grains, beans, and sugar (no way in hell I was giving up Diet Coke!) and saw immediate results.  My body fat went down a little, my insulin intake dropped from 12 units a meal which I had taken with every meal for the last 10 years of my life, down to 6 units, and I had a better control of my diabetes than I had ever had before.  I figured I was doing as well as I possibly could be doing.  Then I met Coach Crystal…

I started Fuel 21 under Coach Crystal’s guidance at the beginning of this year.  I was 201 pounds, 18 percent body fat, and was taking roughly 5 to 6 units of insulin a meal which is very low for someone my size.  I was pretty proud of where I was at and wasn’t honestly sure what Fuel 21 would be able to offer me, but gave it a try anyway.

Coach Crystal had asked me to set some goals I wanted to achieve when I had finished going through her program.  I really had trouble with this at first.  My first set of goals were things like: get a date with Anne Hathaway, dunk a basketball over Dwight Howard, win a Golden Globe for Best Female Lead in a movie (yeah, you read that right), and invent Diet Coke that would be considered healthy by Coach Crystal.  She looked these over and told me I needed to have real goals, so I came up with: lose enough body fat to look good in a swim suit and control my diabetes even better, if possible.

The first thing Coach Crystal made me change was drinking Diet Coke, which I only did because even though Coach Crystal is 98% rainbows, smiley faces, and puppies, I wasn’t sure about what that last 2% was made of. So decided it was better to listen to what she said, than argue with her.  I drank roughly 120 ounces of Diet Coke a day prior to starting Fuel 21. I cut it out immediately, had a caffeine withdrawal headache from hell, and then never looked back.
Two days after given up Diet Coke, some odd things started happening.  I had more energy, I seemed to be able to focus on tasks better, my skin looked better some how, and I had an odd clarity of mind I can’t recall ever having before.  After that all happened, I decided it was best to stopped doubting anything Coach Crystal told me to do….with the exception of eating eggs. They have a nasty texture.

I did have some problems while going through Fuel 21 though.  Giving up sweets and grains wasn’t all that hard.  I liked vegetables already and steak, fish, turkey, chicken, and bacon were staples of my diet. Granted most of that meat came from places like Torchy’s, Subway, McAllister’s Deli, Chipotle, and Jason’s Deli, so I needed to learn to cook at home.  However, cooking was more difficult for me than winning that elusive Golden Globe will be.

I just couldn’t cook very well. Everything about cooking seemed harder than it should have been for me. I ruined my first few meals pretty badly.  Which is amazing, because all I ate was meat and it isn’t really that hard to cook baked fish, steak or sausage, but I burned, over salted, over/under seasoned, or made them all taste like card board.  Eventually, with some help from Coach Crystal and some friends from Crossfit, I got marginally better.  Now I can at least make a decent steak or piece of fish. But if a recipe calls for more than 6 ingredients, has more than 12 steps, or has 5 different types of measurement, I am pretty much certain to make something that looks or tastes like sin.  I’ll get it sooner or later though. Its like hand stand walks I am told.  You try, fail, and try again till you get it figured out.

By about day 10 I had gotten past most of my issues with the program and started seeing results I honestly didn’t expect.  I looked leaner, my skin looked better, I was sweating less, and I had way more energy than I thought I could have just from eating better. Prior to starting Fuel 21, I was ok at my WODs but everytime I finished, I looked like I had just  climbed out of a swimming pool and often laid on the floor of Central’s gym, wondering if I’d be needing a defibrillator to live.  Now, while I still struggle, I finish WODs easier, have more energy during them, and am fairly sure I won’t die anytime soon from a WOD.

By the end of Coach Crystal’s program, I didn’t get a date with Anne Hathaway or win a Golden Globe which is a little disappointing.  However, I did lose 6 pounds, 4 percent body fat, and reduce my insulin intake from 6 units per meal to 2 units per meal.  That saves me about $4,000 a year.  My A1C level, which is a rough 3 month reading of your blood sugar levels, also dropped from a 6.1 to a 5.8. (A 6.1 is considered great for a diabetic and even for someone without diabetes) My doctors didn’t believe me at all that I was accomplishing all of this with a new diet and more exercise. In fact they were certain that I was doing something else and just not telling them. These are pretty amazing results for someone who had already been taking pretty good care of themselves and I think I’d take them over anything other than that date with Anne Hathaway.

The best results I achieved though have nothing to do with me.  My little brother is a diabetic as well, though he contracted the disease much later in his life and has struggled with weight issues and control for a while.  I often worry that he would soon run into the same types of medical problems I did after college, if he didn’t make some changes in his life.
Over the holidays as I talked about how I was starting Fuel 21 and the results (the real ones) I was hoping to achieve. I convinced him to try the diet with me to a degree he could handle, as a Christmas present to me. In order to help him with his new found diet plan, my mom decided she would eat Paleo as well.  The two of them began right away and with a determination that surprised me.

Both of them are overweight, so I was excited to see what results they might see in themselves.  To my utter shock, my little brother lost 20 pounds in 25 days and reduced the amount of insulin he takes by almost half.  My mom, who doesn’t exercise much, lost 10 pounds in 21 days and has seen a reduction in her rumatory arthritis which has bothered her badly for the last 10 years.  Doctors had told her for years that there wasn’t much they could do for her to alleviate the pain. Now though, she has felt so well, that she started taking a spinning class at her local YMCA…at the age of 65 this is her first exercise class.
I figured that would be about as good of a result as I would see, however I was wrong.  I also have an older brother who is a doctor of genetics at Emory University in Atlanta.  While he was supportive of my decision to eat this way, he wasn’t completely sold on the effectiveness of a Paleo diet.  He is the type of person who needs a lot of empirical proof before he is willing to believe something.  It is just the nerdy scientist in him coming out. But, after I talked about the program so enthusiastically for so long and then seeing my mom and little brother get on board too, he decided to try it himself.

He didn’t want to tell me he had started the diet, because if he tried and failed or hated it, he didn’t want anyone to see him as a quitter or a failure.  But after about 2 weeks on a program similar to Fuel 21, I got a call from him telling me he had lost 8 pounds in two weeks and had more energy than he had had while in college.  With two small daughters under the age of 3 to take care of, that was pretty amazing.  I had always been worried about my older brother’s weight, but couldn’t get him to do anything major about it.  Turns out, all it took was Coach Crystal’s Fuel 21 program and a little enthusiasm from me.

Had I met Coach Crystal during college, it is pretty likely that I never would have lost my eye sight. Since I can’t do anything about that now though, I’ll happily settle for the fact that her program has helped change not only my life, but that of those I love most.
 Thanks Crystal!
Sincerely,
Aaron Johnson
 P.S. If you know Anne Hathaway, can you hook me up?