Introducing Hayden Price, a personal trainer at Rampage Fitness gym, a 4th degree black belt in TaeKwondo, an impressive personal best 230kg deadlift as well as having an amazing story of managing and thriving on a wholefood high protein and fat diet to treat Type 1 diabetes.
This is another encouraging story of how food can play a significant role in our fight against disease!
Life in your mid 30s seems pretty grand. You feel powerful, youthful and energized. Dreams seem within your reach and challenges seem conquerable. Then out of the blue, you start to loose weight rapidly (in Hayden's case went from 92-84kg in a matter of 2wks), felt unquenchable thirst constantly and instead of getting stronger doing Crossfit training, felt weaker and weaker. After almost collapsing at work a rushed doctors visit and multiple tests came back with blood sugar levels at 48 (normal is under 6) and a diagnosis of Type 1 Diabetes.
After the initial shock settled (Hayden had always been active, eaten a reasonably healthy diet and had no family history of autoimmnue diet or gut issues) never being one to just give in or take no for an answer and refusing to be another statistic in the diabetic charts, Hayden took matters into his own hands. He did not want to be bound to injecting insulin for the rest of his life!
He researched and read everything he could — from nutrition books to scientific studies. He discovered that the more carbohydrates he consumed, the more insulin he would need and after trail and error watching his blood sugar levels closely after every meal cut out all sugars, grains, gluten and most carbohydrates.
Four year on after that initial diagnoses Hayden has committed to strictly eating quality fats, proteins and vegetables and has never had to have any insulin injections (a fact that still boogles the minds of the doctor and nurse that Hayden is under at the hospital)
So the big question; just what is Hayden eating on a day to day bases...
Here's Hayden's Day on a Plate as well as his Training Regime
2 glasses of water after waking (just before 5am)
Breakfast:
Either 10 eggs white scrambled with a handful of grated cheese and half a chopped tomato or 2 eggs and bacon. Both with a handful of almonds
Training session:
Off to Rampage gym to do an hour of weight training (not for the light hearted - Hayden deadlifted 230kg this week)
Protein powder with water as a recovery drink.
Lunch:
One can of garlic and olive oil tuna, a handful of almonds, a quest protein bar or 2 pieces 90% dark chocolate
Mid afternoon:
Protein powder with water or salami pieces
Training session:
1/2hr hard cardio
Dinner:
Chicken or Fish or Red Meat with broccoli, cabbage, beans, mushrooms, olives
Drinks:
Water
Green tea multiple times a day
A coffee
A couple of times per day Hayden drinks an apple cider, cinnamon, ginger, turmeric powder and a pinch of cayenne pepper mixed with water.
Hayden also meditates everyday focusing on diaphragmatic breathing as it came to his attention when under stress his blood sugar levels were also higher even if he was eating the same diet.
Hayden realizes that there is no cure for this disease, but he does believe that eating a real food diet and exercise and active stress management can greatly influence his daily life!
Hayden hasn't let circumstances or a health condition define him, but rather used it to develop new passions and encourage others to embrace a healthy lifestyle. This has lead him to his dream job as a personal trainer and Hayden's goal for the year coming is to be the Mr Taranaki champion (that's bodybuilding for those that don't know).
Hayden's ongoing search for knowledge and commitment to managing his condition is testament to an incredible character.
When we looked at Hayden's diet a few ideas that he is going to implement are:
Drinking bone broth everyday for gut health (With any autoimmune disease, gut health is super important as it is always implicated with a state of inflammation before the autoimmune disease develops i.e. inflammation - gut health impacted negatively - autoimmune disease
Increasing the amount of leafy green vegetables in the day. This is going to be easy for him to do at breakfast - change the 10 egg whites for 3-4eggs made into a omelet filled with mushrooms, parsley, spinach and/or kale)
Take a leafy green salad with olives and olive oil to have alongside the can of tuna. Include coriander as tuna can have a high mercury content and coriander is a heavy metal chelator which helps it get removed from the body.
Fermented vegetables like sauerkraut will be a great addition to breakfast, lunch and dinner for added vitamins and enzymes that are beneficial for digestion
Using an option like Clean Energy instead of coffee gives an alkalizing energy and that is stable and doesn't upset blood sugar levels as it wears off.
Super grateful to Hayden sharing what he has been through, he is the first to acknowledge that is hasn't been a easy road but persistence and commitment to living life to the full has been the best decision he could have made. I say Mr Taranaki championship better look out!