How does one communicate the process of becoming and summarize it to fit into one blog post? They don’t. That is why I’m starting @thecptable. Hello! My name is Courtney Pickett and I am a 27 year old follower of Jesus Christ living in Atlanta, Georgia. I am a Registered Nurse with a background in Labor and Delivery and am a Certified Holistic Health Coach through the Institute of Integrative Nutrition. My concentration has been in women’s health and endocrinology as it resonates the most with my story and overall I think women’s bodies are bad ass. I have talked to most of the women in my inner circle as well as coworkers,patients, acquaintances and we all have one thing in common. Our experiences from our childhoods and adolescence are often associated with an unhealthy relationship to food, diet culture,and body image . A coincidence? I do not think so. I believe that revelation should be shared. If a deep wound that has been healed in my life could offer healing in another, then I feel compelled to share my story. 

My health journey began when I got diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes at the age of 5 years old. For those of you who don’t know, Type 1 Diabetes does not occur because my mom let me eat too many sour patch kids. Or chocolate. Or anything related to sugar at all. To simplify it, it is when your body destroys the beta cells in your pancreas.The beta cells in your pancreas produce insulin and if the pancreas isn’t producing insulin, then your blood sugar has no way of regulating itself. The lack of blood sugar regulation causes innumerable amounts of issues which affect organ function, hormones, mood, the brain, etc. It’s kind of a big deal. A statistic has come out recently that women with Type 1 Diabetes are 2.4 times more likely to develop an eating disorder than those who do not have diabetes. This is not including overall disordered eating or manipulating insulin delivery for a desired body weight. A relationship to food is easily distorted and adding in other layers such as diabetes makes it really difficult to navigate on your own. 

Growing up I had a very hard time accepting my body. I was told to analyze every piece of food put in my mouth, that carbs were the enemy, and I had to make sure my blood sugar was balanced at all times. All while going to doctor’s appointments every 3 months that reminded me of how I never measured up. Truthfully I did not manage my disease well through middle school, highschool, and college. I believe it was because I wasn’t taught a way to live that was SUSTAINABLE for me. I also wasn’t taught strategies or ways to work with my body to make it easier. Everything the doctors would tell me felt impossible and as far as my health was concerned, all I cared about was being thin enough to be socially accepted. Along with an unhealthy weight and a poor A1C (a test that measures blood sugar management over a 3 month time) I had issues with cystic acne and painful periods. My body was screaming *help me* and I just lacked the knowledge to see it. 

I hit a turning point my senior year of college when I was determined to look a certain way. Instead of flat out eating whatever I wanted, I started a binge-restrict cycle. My roommate and I would cook all of our meals during the week and I would eliminate as many carbs as humanly possible until the weekend hit and then had free reign. This lead to getting the results that I wanted which was great and got me the affirmation I was looking for, until I realized that this wasn’t sustainable. I graduated, moved home for the summer, and when my environment changed so did my control over my weight and my brain was consumed by my lack of control over my plate. Fast forward to 2019, I moved to start my first grown up job in a big new city and I was still struggling with the same problems. Hormonal acne, mood swings, weight management, body image, and to no surprise blood sugar imbalance. I hit rock bottom in 2020 along with the rest of the world. But this rock bottom is what I needed to prioritize my health and get the help I needed. I worked night shift delivering babies at the busiest hospital in the country. It was my first year as a nurse and it showed. Saying my body was stressed out was an understatement. 

I sought out help through a friend who was health coaching at the time and it was the first time I was introduced to the concept of holistic health. I spoke with someone who didn’t judge me for having trash blood sugars or for wanting to get Mexican food with friends. When I started viewing my health as not something to fix, but something to build upon I felt a shift. For the first time I was viewed as a whole person instead of a download of blood sugars that read out of control. When I allowed myself to take inventory of where I was honestly at, I was able to start building. I was able to find habits that felt doable for me. Because I was addressing the core why instead of just the symptoms, I actually began to heal my body instead of covering the symptoms with a band aid. 

Here is my point: when you address the deep wound, the rest settles. Now I have a health that is sustainable. I eat kale and carrots and acai but my favorite meal is tacos and a spicy margarita (with tajin duh). I am proud to say that in the last 6 years, my A1C has dropped from 8.0  to 5.6. To put that into perspective, an A1C of 5.6 is lower than the diagnostic for PRE DIABETES. I diagnostically am not categorized with a diabetic A1C. Once I worked on my health holistically, I was able to yield amazing results. There is so much more to food than caloric density and so much freedom to walk in when you approach your health through the lens of sustainability and WHOLENESS. 

Food is meant to be shared, I believe that a table is holy. If you boil a meal down to calories and macros then it removes a lot of the joy to be had. Health is more than food. I can’t put into words what a 3 hour dinner with my best friends over pasta, bread, and wine does for my soul. Everything I just described is the antithesis of what is recommended for a balanced blood sugar and yet I am able to do so with a great A1C? And drink spicy margs? I think I’m on to something. This is my revelation. Just as food is meant to be shared, revelation should be shared as well. If you are frustrated with your health or struggling to have a healthy relationship with food, please reach out, I would love to help build with you.