It is the courage to continue that counts
Time went on after the hypo incident, and a meeker, more cautious Juliet continued offering low carb support to a small handful of carefully selected patients. They say that time heals all wounds, and sure enough, after a while I was ready to facilitate a short low carb course again (we had run two courses previously, but the setback had led me to stop and regroup for a while). My courage returning, I even rewrote the course booklet, producing what I thought was an awesome resource full of all the most important information I wanted to share with our patients.
But right before launch of the third course, a curve ball came out of nowhere... The clinic's indemnity insurer said no - they weren't happy for anyone except a registered dietitian to provide education that differed from the Australian Dietary Guidelines. And not just no - it was HELL NO. We tried all the avenues we could think of - I sent through a record of all the extra training I'd done on the subject (I was already a qualified health coach and a registered nurse, and had done lots of extra learning on the topic of low carb and chronic diseases), but the insurer would not budge. My own indemnity insurer, on the other hand, looked at all my training and said "No problem, we'll add it onto your policy".
So what this meant was; although I was personally free to provide low carb advice to people under my own indemnity policy, I was no longer able to speak about it AT ALL in my workplace. Ooh I think I just got suckerpunched! Yes it hurt alright. I became like a bit of a mouse (albeit a frustrated, internally roaring one)... still believing what I believed, but having absolutely no ability to help people other than the conventional ways - which we've already established, are not very effective at addressing the root causes and turning the problem around!
Several years have gone by since then. Having my hands tied there, I went into research training - at least I could be making some progress forward with helping people in a roundabout way. It seems so quick and easy now, but I really did need to process and heal from this, and that took a lot of time. Only recently I have begun to come out the other side and maybe, just maybe, begun to roar on the outside! Now my desire is to give people HOPE. Type 2 diabetes DOES NOT HAVE TO BE a chronic, progressive illness that gets worse over time - that's what conventional wisdom says it is. But now we have the evidence showing that Type 2 diabetes gets better when we consume a diet low in processed foods and carbohydrates. Diabetes medications can, with medical support, be reduced and even stopped for many people eating this way. Don't you think that news should be offered to all people with diabetes, everywhere?
I do.
- Juliet.
But right before launch of the third course, a curve ball came out of nowhere... The clinic's indemnity insurer said no - they weren't happy for anyone except a registered dietitian to provide education that differed from the Australian Dietary Guidelines. And not just no - it was HELL NO. We tried all the avenues we could think of - I sent through a record of all the extra training I'd done on the subject (I was already a qualified health coach and a registered nurse, and had done lots of extra learning on the topic of low carb and chronic diseases), but the insurer would not budge. My own indemnity insurer, on the other hand, looked at all my training and said "No problem, we'll add it onto your policy".
So what this meant was; although I was personally free to provide low carb advice to people under my own indemnity policy, I was no longer able to speak about it AT ALL in my workplace. Ooh I think I just got suckerpunched! Yes it hurt alright. I became like a bit of a mouse (albeit a frustrated, internally roaring one)... still believing what I believed, but having absolutely no ability to help people other than the conventional ways - which we've already established, are not very effective at addressing the root causes and turning the problem around!
Several years have gone by since then. Having my hands tied there, I went into research training - at least I could be making some progress forward with helping people in a roundabout way. It seems so quick and easy now, but I really did need to process and heal from this, and that took a lot of time. Only recently I have begun to come out the other side and maybe, just maybe, begun to roar on the outside! Now my desire is to give people HOPE. Type 2 diabetes DOES NOT HAVE TO BE a chronic, progressive illness that gets worse over time - that's what conventional wisdom says it is. But now we have the evidence showing that Type 2 diabetes gets better when we consume a diet low in processed foods and carbohydrates. Diabetes medications can, with medical support, be reduced and even stopped for many people eating this way. Don't you think that news should be offered to all people with diabetes, everywhere?
I do.
Don’t be intimidated.
Eventually everything is going to be out in the open,
and everyone will know how things really are.
So don’t hesitate to go public now.
~ Matthew 10:26-27 (The Message Bible).
- Juliet.
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