When Lele Jaro received a diagnosis of type 2 diabetes in 2006, she didn’t leave the doctor’s office with a complete understanding of how the condition would influence the rest of her life, or fully equipped with the tools she’d need to manage it. Health and wellness touch everyone’s life differently. This is one person’s story. "When I found out I had type 2, I didn’t really know how to feel about it. I was so young and, to put it bluntly, naïve about the whole diagnosis," she recalls. Her doctor told her that she’d probably been living with the condition since she was in her teens. "The symptoms of type 2 diabetes creep up slowly without you really knowing the damage that it’s already doing to your body," she says. "I thought it was something I could eventually overcome. It wasn’t until I got pregnant at 29 when I realized that type 2 diabetes is a serious, chronic disease," she says.

But when it came to actually managing her diabetes, relying on weight loss simply wasn’t cutting it. Though she followed her doctor’s advice, it became increasingly clear to Lele that she’d need to take matters into her own hands and develop a means by which to manage her diabetes that didn’t leave her reliant on medication. ’s easy to manage it by just losing weight," she says. "I knew how to lose weight. But managing my blood sugars were another issue," says Lele. "Even though I had lost weight, my blood sugars were very high. Eventually, she came to realize that when it comes to diabetes management, how much you eat is important, but what you’re eating is highly impactful as well. Realizing that her eating plan and medication weren’t enough to get her health to where it needed to be, Lele turned to the internet. On a Reddit channel, she learned all about the potential benefits of transitioning to a keto diet.

Though hesitant, her doctors allowed her to try the keto diet out - and Lele hasn’t looked back since. The keto diet is a low-carb, high-fat dietary regimen which has been linked to improvements in insulin sensitivity and higher rates of weight loss - both positive factors in managing type 2 diabetes. Lowering carb intake induces a metabolic state known as ketosis, through which the body produces ketones which burn fat - rather than carbohydrates - for energy. "The transition… to keto was difficult… But I wanted to really give keto a shot, especially if it helped with my type 2," Lele recalls. "After a month or two, my blood sugars improved. I cut my units down to 75 and that was a big deal for me. After showing my results to my doctors, they agreed that I should stick with keto," she says. When she started the keto diet, Supraketo Official Lele’s A1C levels were at 10 percent. Six months later, she had cut them down to 6 percent.

Now no longer needing to inject herself four times per day - and Supraketo.org deal with the resulting bruises - she says she feels liberated by the experience. "I’m no longer on insulin, and I have cut down my medications due to keto. I never had to deal with trying to find a spot to inject or having to deal with bruises on my belly," she says. "I know this may sound silly, but I have a picture of my old insulin syringes in my wallet. I look at it to remind me of what I had to do before keto. That said, it hasn’t been all easy. "The hardest part about living with type 2 is knowing that you have a serious chronic disease that’s always following you," says Lele. From monitoring symptoms of hyper- and hypoglycemia and dealing with a weakened immune system to trying to enjoy a regular meal, she says that there’s always a constant reminder: "When it comes to social gatherings, it’s almost depressing because you’re obsessing about what you should, and can, eat.

Lele’s relationship with food is also something that she’s had to reevaluate and learn to control in order to manage her diabetes. "I’ve suffered with binge eating for a long time - and I’m proud to say that I haven’t binged in more than a year. But sometimes bad food choices can lead into something bigger," she says. "I’ve gained some of my weight back due to letting myself have cheats here and there - especially during the holidays and being with friends and family! Right now, I’m going back to keto basics, and losing the weight that I had gained and, hopefully, I’ll be much more successful this time around," Lele explains. "Success doesn’t happen overnight, and I know that working hard will eventually get me to my goals," says Lele. And when it comes to finding motivation, being a mother certainly helps: "My son helps me stay on track.