Last summer, at my sister’s wedding in NYC, I saw my Aunt and godmother Georgina after a few years of not seeing her. The first thing I noticed, that anyone would notice, is that she looked great and must have dropped about 100 pounds. At the time there was too much catching up to do to ask her how she lost the weight.

It’s not until recently when I called Georgina that she told me the story of her weight loss and how being diagnosed with Type II diabetes changed her life. After being diagnosed, Georgina was led to a room by her physician to watch a 4-hour film and it is from that film she learned about the life altering complications such as blindness, nerve damage and stroke that could occur if she wasn’t able to get diabetes under control. That day Georgina was terrified; walking out of the doctor’s office shaking, it was evident that Georgina was in a total state of panic.

However, the panic didn’t last long because Georgina knew she didn’t have the time to become paralyzed by fear. She made a decision to lose the weight but was worried as she had tried every diet under the sun and nothing seemed to help. Motivated by fear and determination, Georgina went on a strict, very low carb diet, counting every carb in everything she ate. Her diet usually consisted of salads, fish, chicken and a lot of yogurt.  She completely avoided red meat, bagels (which Geogina calls the “worst thing a diabetic can eat”), pasta, soda and watched her fruit. (I was floored by the idea of my Aunt cutting pasta completely out of her diet . Georgina is Italian-American and grew up with a mother from Italy who used to make rigatoni, lasagna, and gnocchi from scratch!) But Georgina thought of diabetes as the “silent killer” and was not going to take any chances.

After about 75 pounds came off quickly, Georgina found that she could get away with eating more carbs than she previously had been able to. At one time, eating two slices of bread would cause her sugar levels of skyrocket, but now, she could get away with it. In the next couple of months, Georgina lost 25 more pounds and was told by her doctor to "go easy on losing any more weight" - as someone who had struggled with her weight for years, Georgina was shocked that she had finally reached a point where she was healthy and in control of her now weight. Georgina still lives a low carb lifestyle, gets her blood tested regularly and takes medication but is in control and is successfully managing her diabetes.