Arjun had been a type-2 diabetic for six years. His HbA1c hovered around 8.4. His doctor had begun to discuss starting him on insulin. He was forty-eight.
He came to us not because he was afraid of insulin, but because his daughter had asked him to try.
Food, reconsidered
We did not put Arjun on a restricted diet. We put him on a curious one. We taught him to measure his glucose response to different foods - a few, each week - and to keep what worked, set aside what did not.
He found that brown rice was fine, but only in the morning. That oats spiked him. That walking after dinner halved his evening reading.
A new relationship with the meal
By month seven his HbA1c was 6.1. His fatty liver had begun to reverse. His doctor cancelled the insulin conversation.
But the thing Arjun talks about most is not the numbers. It is that he has begun to enjoy cooking. He had not, before.
"I came in afraid of food. I came out fascinated by it."
Arjun Desai continues to work with us, in lighter and lighter rhythms. Their story, like all stories worth telling, is still unfolding.