To help keep all of you inspired, we ve asked some

remarkable individuals to share their raw food stories with you. Enjoy!

(Today s ?My Raw Story? is also a special installment for our

Diabetes Awareness Week!)

[Editor's Note: The following My Raw Story is made up of excerpts from Nancy's blog she has kept at the Reversing Diabetes Naturally community site.]

February 2009: I was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes 10 years ago. Diabetes is prevalent in my family; I have two brothers with Type 1, childhood onset & young adult onset. My grandmother, uncle & several aunts have/had it. For the past few years I was fortunate to participate in a study med trial & received great support from a Regional Diabetes Center located in my town. I saw the documentary Simply Raw in early January 2009 & totally changed my diet after I saw it. I had a really good diet in terms of whole fresh organic foods, freshly prepared, just not all raw! And I always had to worry about how much I could eat, & how what I ate would affect my blood sugar levels. There was alot of guilt & shouldn'ts about what I put into my body.

I am now reading, researching & learning so much every day. As a participant of a study med at my regional diabetes research center I have been the "star" student in the group, having had the best "control" over the last few years. BUT my A1C in 12/08 showed an increase to 7.3% {my lowest ever was 2 yrs ago @ 6.2%} so I felt an obligation to myself after viewing this very exciting film, to embark on a raw foods diet. I've been going slowly, but my numbers have dropped so dramatically that I've discontinued my 1500 mg metformin daily. They are practically normal, & I am able to eat pretty much as much as I want, all my old cravings have disappeared. I attribute this in part to green smoothies twice daily for the last few weeks...I find I now crave them! The more I read, the more I realize I have so much to learn! I would be the first to volunteer to attend Tree of Life. I feel so strongly about all this that I think I'll somehow be involved in bringing awareness here locally, once I am a bit more knowledgeable. Thanks to Alex Ortner & crew for your efforts & starting this movement~ I'm excited to join [the RDN community].

I received my much anticipated order of books including Rainbow Green Live-Food Cuisine & There is a Cure for Diabetes: The Tree of Life 21-Day+ Program. They all look awesome!! Starting skimming There is a Cure and am learning there is so much more to learn....and feeling a little intimidated by reading it, though I know it is important to start at the beginning & keep on til the end. Am feeling very much "doing this on my own" which is why I am so grateful to have found [the RDN community] & the sharing & support of other folks on a similar journey.

In my skimming over it I've already found out one crucial piece of information I hadn't gleaned from all my own reading & research the last month since I was first introduced to this whole concept by that amazing film Simply Raw and that is there is no fruit consumed {initially} until the body returns to a state of health & diabetes is reversed....RATS, I love my very green smoothies but they always have a mango or banana or apple in them...but I know I have to be better informed before I am able to embark upon his suggestions & fully reverse the diabetes.

But I AM SOOOO EXCITED, because if I was on the edge the last few years with my whole foods diet {healthy, but mostly cooked, & full of problems w/ certain foods causing high readings, cravings, etc etc etc} I am REALLY on the edge now, because I have dropped 1500 mg of metformin within a week of eating totally raw, I have greatly reduced blood sugar readings~this week's average was 97~since I started, I eat enough til I feel full & never feel deprived!! ~ and cravings I used to have {for bread or baked goods, chocolate & peanut butter combinations, for ex.} Hmmmm, maybe I'm not on the edge anymore, maybe I'm already falling :) into a whole new world....I certainly feel in my gut that I can never go back!

March 2009: I just found out my A1C is now 6.3% after about six weeks of eating almost 100% raw & alive foods & also discontinuing 1500mg metformin daily! My A1C in mid-January was 7.3%. So that means the 6.3 level reflects the six weeks of eating raw plus two weeks of my old dietary intake {which was healthful but alot of cooked food} I have also lost about 12 pounds! All that with not even being on the Phase I foods which Dr Cousens recommends!!

My next step is to finish reading There Is A Cure for Diabetes & then embark on the stricter diet until the diabetes is actually reversed...I know it can be done. This is so amazing--THANK YOU to everyone in the world who is bringing the knowledge & information to all of us. Please celebrate with me!

The doctor who heads the regional Diabetes Research Center where I have been participating in a study was TOTALLY SURPRISED at my blood sugar readings & weight loss when I had my appointment on Monday (3/9/09). I would almost say flabbergasted! He kept flipping through my little booklet of finger prick results & saying "These are normal, these are almost normal" with a sense of disbelief. I think it was cosmic intervention that the nurse practitioner I usually see was out that day, so I saw the doctor instead, which is rare. I give him a lot of credit because he wanted to know what I was doing differently and was truly interested. He had never heard of Gabriel Cousens and his work, & asked me to email him with the information...he said "I am open to learning about this." YEA!!! He also remarked that often people come in & tell him they're doing this or that "diet" or whatever, but their blood sugars are all over the place. He said "I can't refute these results~ you are proof of it working."

April 21, 2009: I dropped the study med I was taking in the beginning of March after my check-in w/ the DRC. Decided to see what would happen since I'd been having such good results. Since then my weekly averages of finger sticks have been between 88 and 93. It's been challenging sometimes, but to think that all this has happened within a period of three months is pretty amazing, I think! I feel good & continue to lose weight. I go back to the DRC in June for a check-in, & will have another A1C test done. Keeping my fingers crossed for the lowest number ever in 10 years!

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You can find out more about Nancy Osborne by visiting the following link:

WEB SITE: http://rdnmovement.ning.com/profile/nancyosborne

EMAIL: vermontgang [at] comcast.net