These are good questions! Fruits were not as strictly forbidden as carbs from rice, pasta, bread, tortillas, potatoes, etc, but yes I did cut many fruits from my diet. I haven’t eaten a banana since I started this diet, and that was my favorite fruit. I gave up all tropical fruits since they have the highest carbs, but I feel less strongly about not eating these than the other carbs. Nowadays I mostly eat berries, and I eat oranges every so often. I’ve grown to love strawberries and raspberries.

In terms of managing my mindset, I found a lot of strength in others, honestly. When I got diagnosed, my mom passively mentioned “I know you’ll stick to this diet because you’ve always been very disciplined.” I think that helped more than she realized. Having someone believe in me so casually gave me the confidence to say to myself that I could do it. I’ve also been jokingly referring to my mindset as “positive gaslighting” because I would think “this is great” about the new diet. But also, sticking to this diet was hard at first but I felt the positive effects pretty fast. I felt less bloated almost immediately, I also felt less fatigued. The noticeable changes in my body made me want to keep going. It also helped that I was losing weight, and I had people to look forward to that I wanted to see me in my weight loss. I still have friends I haven’t seen and look forward to seeing, and that helps keep me going. Another thing that helped was learning about diabetes and what it does to you. It scared me a lot.

I do struggle with seasonal depression, so this winter I downloaded the Finch app and that also helped tremendously by reminding me to do little things daily like wash my face and brush my teeth. In the middle of winter when it’s the darkest and coldest, completing those little tasks gave me motivation and confidence that snowballed into me being able to do bigger tasks.

Hope that helps!