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  “ Stadiums are for spectators. We runners have Nature, and that is much better. ” -  Juha Väätäinen, Finnish former athlete   This morning, someone sent me this quote. A famous quote among runners. And I see the point: rather than being a spectator confined to a stadium, or to a spot on the sidewalk or a bleacher, runners are roaming around in Nature. Nature with a capital N. But then there is the rest of us. Too embarrassed to run outside, even in Nature. Weathering a storm, freezing, or sweltering heat. Or hindered by the kidnaps alerts multiplying on our security app, the shooting audibly approaching, and the unvaccinated dogs of those neighbors who already left the country on the lookout for some fun. Being in that last category, I did what many people do in this country: “degaje”: make do with what you have. And I am blessed with a wonderful husband who put the cherries on the cake. So, I bought a treadmill; and a few years later upgraded to a heavy ...

  September is “Healthy Aging Month” - remember? Did you do anything special yet? Or did you have good intentions but somewhat forgot and now figure that the month is almost over? Well, your life is not over yet: as the Chinese proverb says “The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is NOW.”  So even when you realize you should have started 20 years ago, take your chance today! Pick yourself up TODAY, NOW, and start doing something simple: walk around the block, drink an extra glass of water, skip the junk food and eat something healthy, and sit down with whatever you eat or drink and eat and drink mindfully rather than grazing mindlessly. Happy Healthy Aging!

The Guest Blog "Hi Evelien,  This is to invite you to contribute a guest blog for publication in the Healthie Yoo magazine". And so it started. Sharing my story of reversing type 2 Diabetes to a larger audience. Sharing my passion for the often forgotten group of missionaries and other global workers with type 2 Diabetes who keep helping others and keeping their mission alive while neglecting to take care of their physical needs so they can actually keep doing what they do so well.  Trying to reach "member care" groups, who will faithfully take up another offering or fundraiser to fly yet another missionary "back home" to be cared for - rather then helping that same missionary stay physically well right where he/she is and with whatever circumstances that may be. Just do the math: keeping a missionary healthy on the field, is less expensive than paying the regular shuttle service to the "back home" medical care - plus the costs of that same care....

The Missionary Once upon a time, you were called to this, “your” country. You came, saw and adjusted. While the strenuous life of “the field” came, saw and took over. Food was not like home, but this new country being your new home, you adjusted to the new food – while folks “back home” continued sending the old food. So, you had double. You somehow grew bigger, which by times made you feel uncomfortable as you were ministering to people who did not. You needed the “double” strength, as the demands of the field were more than your old frame could bear. And now you’re in the “squeaking and creaking” age, but you keep reassuring the congregation back home that you can just grin and bear it. But deep down, the cracks in your earthen vessel show up on the outside. And start bothering those who’ve sent and supported you throughout the years. “Shouldn’t you get back home now?”, they ask, unaware that “this” country is now your home. “Aren’t you becoming a risk?” the missionary hea...

Juice in a Ziploc - or "what's in your bag?" Juice carton, Ziploc against the leaking, adding a washcloth for when it did anyhow – and so my purse got bigger and bigger. The “load” of being diabetic. Hurray for tablets: no hassle with leaks, but a working a bit slower to get my blood sugar up. Oh, and then adding the insulin pens, for those occasions where my blood sugar went “up” a tad too enthusiastically. The hassle of trying to balance your blood sugar, the hassle of having type 2 Diabetes, the enormous hassle of being on insulin. You should see me now! Just my Phone and me, some plastic cards in the cover for unplanned expenses – and that’s all I carry…. If you are on diabetes medication and want to learn how to lower or even eliminate your diabetes medication, send me a message to healthylifestylehaiti@cheerful.com and I’ll gladly how you can enroll in my “Doable Diabetes mini class”. Healthily yours, Evelien

  “oh, I’ve tried that – but I just can’t plank”. Were you the one saying or thinking that? Could be, as I hear it often. I, too, couldn’t master the plank. Just getting on the floor on all fours is quite an issue when you’re overweight or have squeaky joints. So here’s my challenge: could you, just for one time, try this one: yes, get on the floor, on your elbows. Now up on your tiptoes, belly off the floor: YOU DO A PLANK! Just for 1 second. Now, plop down and let this sink in: you actually managed to do a plank for 1 second. Maybe not the best technique, maybe … whatever. You did it. For just 1 second. And you didn’t need to change clothes, or buy some special outfit. And you didn’t work a sweat – while you did work some major muscle groups. Could you try again tomorrow, adding 1 second: that would mean you can plank for TWO seconds. And then next day…. You get it. We have a planking challenge going on, which started on August 1 st with a one second plank. If you w...

 If only this  thing  is over ....  You used to live here. No, not “here”, but in your location at the time. That time when you could only think in terms of “if only I make it out of here”…. Your “here” being Nigeria, Rwanda, Haiti or similar place. Remember Haiti? By now, you most probably only remember her people, her beauty, her “there’s no other place like that”, the “only in Haiti!” Remember the Embargo? Or the burning barricades, the violence, the whatevers. You probably do, because you used to tell everyone that THAT was the cause for your unhealthy living. “If only this thing is over”, “if only I’m out of here” …. Well, we survived the embargo, and you moved on to other places: the new assignment, the new ministry, the new “home”, “back home”, “anywhere else than Haiti”, or whatever name you chose for your Neverland. Let’s fast forward. Oops, something seems off . What happened? Your waistline now larger than your new country’s GNP, the shelter-in-...

  Slow as molasses Slow as molasses. As crystallized honey through a tea strainer. Slow to get started, slow to move, slow to keep going or going to the right place. My body slow. My head slow. My emotions slow. Not as in laid-back, slowing down or “Slow Life”, but slow as in dull, drowsy, heavy, sluggish, blah and out of it. A lack of energy, as blood sugar levels get low. Welcome to Type 2 Diabetes. My low sugar making me feel as … molasses, or that thick crystallized honey. Standing knee deep in a river, dying of thirst. Talking about thirst, that’s what kicks in when blood sugar levels get too high. Body on high, running going nowhere. Head on high, starting and not finishing jobs. Emotions on high, playing roller coaster. I remember working with my doctor to get my glucose levels more balanced throughout the day. Small pills, larger pills, more pills, insulin shots in the evening, then before the meals. It worked! It worked so well, that I blamed her for not having s...

  What Insulin do you use? On a Sunday morning, two years ago, staying home to stay off the street. A WhatsApp message from our son, staying at a friend’s house:     “Which insulin do you use?”               Me: “Levemir and Novorapid”               He: “Apparently, the MD pharmacy has some”      Me: “thanks, but I have quite a stock already”      He: “I’m bombarded with help here for if you need insulin”.      (..)        He: “B.Supermarket carries it also quite often, but at $70 per pen –                       they tell me here that that’s   very expensive”. Oh, those sweet friends and parents of friends, sending messages from here to there, pointing each other to where insulin can be found, which pharmacy is functioning, what other places have started suppl...

  The Pill Caroussel “Can you do that when I’m not around?” he asked with an unusually small voice. “Why, you find it scary? It’s just pills”, I flipped back. My teenage son shrugged his shoulders and got himself out of the way. My counting out of pills apparently made him a little nervous. “Just pills”. A lot of pills. So many, that I needed a daily pill organizer; and then a carousel to organize those organizers into something reassuring me that I was all set for another month. And looking ahead: was there anything in the foreseeable future requiring additional reserves? Travel, shelter in place for either political or tropical storms, upcoming shortages of any kind or any reason? Pills in stock, pills in my purse and my car, pills for “just in case” and pills to counter the absence of other pills. And pills to counter the toll on my stomach. And then came the insulin pens – which needed to be transported from the supplier in a cooler and at home stocked in the fridge (not...

What’s in a Name – part 2 And the name of the program: “Healing Diabetes”? Even though that I no longer am insulin dependent, I am not truly healed from my Diabetes 2, however I no longer need medical intervention. Think of it as an allergy: if you are allergic to, say, Polar Bears, you can manage that allergy by moving to the Tropics: no Polar Bears, thus no allergic reaction, and no more allergy medication – but to consider yourself “healed” from your Polar Bear allergy would be too far-fetched. Get it? If you treat your Diabetes 2 as an allergy to certain food groups, you can live a very healthy life just like non-Diabetics by relocating from “What-Everyone-Is-Eating”-land to “What-Allows-Me-To-Live-Without-Medication”-land. And similar to the move from the Arctic to the Tropics, this will introduce you to new types of food, a different way of physically moving through life, sleep and relaxation. Exciting!   Hence, rather than suggesting this program will be heali...

What’s in a Name? - part 1 People often assume I am on a “Keto diet”. As much as they assume knowing what all that entails. Well, I am not on a diet, and do not follow the “Keto” rules, but at the same time I’ve learned that the easiest way to prevent a lengthy conversation is to simply nod “yeah” on the “you’re doing Keto, right?” remark and be over with it. Because in case someone is really interested, a whole series of questions will follow. And then you get me started because it’s worth the talking when ears are open wide. So what do I do? I follow the pillars of the Dutch “Reverse Diabetes 2 Now” program: ·       *    Nutrition ·       *   Exercise ·       *  Sleep ·       *  Relaxation ·       *  Medication decrease It is this cocktail that has brought me where I am today, and which I will be teaching. Not just a diet, as nutrition is only one p...

 In August 2017, in the middle of the night at the Mount Sinaï Hospital in NYC, the doctor finally came in with the results: “the good news is that it wasn’t a heart attack, but the not so good news is that we found a few other things; (…) you need to drastically change your life”, adding that as a first step I should earnestly exercise for an hour a day. I already had been diagnosed with Diabetes 2 for 8 years and injecting insulin for 5 years, gradually adding cardiovascular medication to my growing list of medications. Since this confronting conversation, I started a difficult and often confusing process to change from the always-tired grumpy old woman I had been for so long, into the energetic feeling-10-years-younger I am today, no longer using insulin while reducing all other medication. I count myself very fortunate and privileged to have been given this chance, and having received so much support from both my husband as...