How Shannon Reversed Prediabetes While Eating Carbs: A1C 6.1 to 5.2, Lost 18 Pounds, Regained Energy
How Shannon Reversed Prediabetes While Eating Carbs: Her A1C Dropped From 6.1 to 5.2
In this client case study, I will show you how our client Shannon reversed her prediabetes while eating carbs, lost 18 pounds, and regained her energy.
Shannon was one of those people who was doing everything right, yet her A1C, fasting blood sugar, weight, and post meal spikes still would not come down.
By the end of this post, you will see how she:
Dropped her A1C from 6.1 to 5.2
Lowered fasting blood sugar by 30 plus points
Stopped spiking her blood sugar after eating carbs
Lost 18 pounds after five years of no progress
Regained energy to exercise again
Started sleeping through the night
Got off hormonal medications
Normalized blood pressure
Got rid of seasonal allergies and low back pain
And she did it without relying on medications as the main solution and without cutting out carbs.
Who I Am And How We Help Clients Stabilize Blood Sugar
I’m Isaac Pohlman. I am a registered dietitian and a fellow person with type 1 diabetes.
I’m also the CEO of The Pohlman Institute, where we help clients stabilize blood sugar for good while eating carbs and without relying on medications to do so.
If you are ready to reverse high blood sugar while still eating carbs, you can apply here to get support, guidance, and accountability from a team that has both been where you are!
Shannon’s Starting Point: Prediabetes, High Fasting Blood Sugar, And No Results For Five Years
When Shannon came to us, she had prediabetes with an A1C of 6.1. Her numbers looked like this:
Fasting blood sugar readings in the 130s
Bigger spikes after meals into the 180s
Spikes were worse when she ate carbs
Spikes were especially noticeable when she was socializing
Here is what made her story so frustrating. She had not seen the progress she wanted in five years, despite doing a long list of healthy things consistently:
Pro metabolic style eating
Home cooked meals and very clean food
Daily sunlight
Breaks during the middle of the day
Walking after meals
Strength training
Mineral supplements
Hormonal medications
A regular sleep schedule
If you have ever felt that specific frustration of “I am doing everything right, why are my A1C and weight not budging” you get it.
Shannon didn’t believe she was broken. She believed she was missing a few key pieces. That mindset mattered more than most people realize.
How Shannon Started Working With Us
Shannon started with our one-off coaching program called The Pohlman Protocol, where she received a one-time consult with our team with a lab review.
For many clients, once we identify that ongoing coaching support is needed through this initial session and they want help with personalizing and implementing the recommendations to what works best for their body, we transition them into our 1:1 coaching program.
The really neat thing about this transition is that is that Shannon’s investment in the one-off program was simply credited towards her 1:1 program, so she didn’t lose anything by doing that first!
Once Shannon was in our 1:1 program, here’s what she did.
The Real Turning Point: It Was Not Just More Information
A lot of people assume they are missing the perfect method or the perfect steps. Sometimes you are missing steps, sure.
But in Shannon’s case, the big shift was this question:
“Who do I need to become to get the result I want”
This is NOT changing who you are at your core. But changing your environment, habits, behaviors, and the way you respond when things feel stressful.
Because some habits align with stable blood sugar and weight loss. And some habits look healthy on the surface, but still keep your body stressed, inconsistent, and reactive.
This is where coaching matters. It helps you identify the areas you cannot always see clearly when you are in it and so close to the problem.
The 3 Reasons Shannon Got Results When Nothing Else Worked
1. She Was Fully Coachable And Followed The Process
Shannon did not just implement the plan. She embodied it fully.
She followed the process exactly as we laid it out. She did not second guess everything or try to change anything.
She didn’t panic if she was hitting a rough spot. She simply voiced in, we addressed it together knowing this is a normal part of everyone’s journey, and she made it through.
That matters. Because many people are technically “doing the work” while mentally fighting it the entire time. They are second guessing, not acknowledging their small wins, fixating on what’s not going well, not getting support when it’s difficult, trying to coach themselves through feeling stuck, and are trying to figure out all on their own what they’re missing.
2. She Focused On What Was Going Well To Lower Stress And Improve Blood Sugar
Shannon had plenty of reasons to spiral:
A1C not where she wanted
Blood sugar spiking with carbs
Blood sugar spiking with stress
Fatigue
Family conflicts
Busy life as a mom with a big family and business
But every time she met with us, she had something positive to share, even without us prompting her. This is not just about being overly positive.
Your mindset directly impacts blood sugar. When you fixate on what is not working, your body experiences more stress.
More stress raises blood sugar, makes cravings worse, increases insulin resistance, and makes it harder to lose weight.
Shannon recognized that her mindset was not a “nice extra.” It was part of her blood sugar strategy.
3. She Stayed Consistent On Stressful, Busy Days
Shannon did not let busyness, weather, stress, or a chaotic week become a reason to stop supporting her body.
She decided: If I want to show up for everyone else, I need to be at my best. I need to take care of myself first.
So she did the small things consistently:
Checking in on time every week
Reaching out with questions when needed support
Keeping her habits consistent even when a week felt busy, stressful, or not leading to the blood sugar, symptom, or weight loss improvements that she wanted
This is a huge one. Because many people subconsciously back off when results are not immediate. Not because they are lazy, but because it feels discouraging to keep going.
Healing is not perfectly linear. You can have weeks where things regress a bit, but it doesn’t mean that you’re behind or failing. It’s a part of every client’s journey to get to where they want their health to be.
Shannon stayed in it.
Bonus Shift: She Trusted The Process Instead Of Chasing More
She did not try to stack a hundred extra “healthy” habits on top of the plan. In fact, we needed to slow her down from doing more.
She only focused on what we were covering each session. Because more is not better.
A massive to do list becomes its own form of stress. And stress is gasoline for blood sugar problems.
Our approach is simple:
Make the least amount of change possible while getting the most results possible.
That creates highly leveraged progress without making your health feel like a full time job or feeding into the reasons you have the blood sugar issues you’re coming to us for.
Shannon also stopped making blood sugar spikes mean something about her. Instead of cutting carbs out of fear or stewing in frustration, she brought it up, we worked through it, adjusted as needed, and moved forward.
That alone prevents so many people from staying in this negative mindset drain and stop spinning their wheels because they’ve released the stress of stagnant progress instead of stewing in it.
Shannon’s Results: A1C Down, Weight Loss, Stable Blood Sugar While Eating Carbs
As a result of working through the process with coaching support, Shannon:
Dropped her A1C from 6.1 to 5.2
Lowered her fasting blood sugar by 30 plus points
Stopped spiking her blood sugar after eating carbs
Lost 18 pounds after not being able to lose a pound for five years
Regained energy to exercise again
Started sleeping through the night
Got off hormonal medications
Normalized blood pressure
Got rid of seasonal allergies
Got rid of low back pain
Now that’s real progress. And it happened while eating carbs.
What To Take From Shannon’s Story If You Have Prediabetes
If you have prediabetes, high fasting blood sugar, stubborn weight gain, or blood sugar spikes after meals, Shannon’s story should be encouraging.
It’s not always that you need more discipline or doing more. It’s often that you need:
A clear process that addresses the root cause
The right sequence of changes for your body, outside of just food
Support through the mental side of the ups and downs of healing
An approach that reduces and builds resilience to stress instead of adding to it
Because when your approach is stressful, even healthy habits can backfire.
Want To Reverse Prediabetes While Eating Carbs Without Relying On Medications
If you want to reverse high blood sugar while eating carbs and without relying on medications, you can apply here to get support, guidance, and accountability from a team that has both been where you are!
FAQ: Prediabetes, A1C, And Blood Sugar Spikes
Can you lower A1C without cutting carbs
Yes, if you improve the way your body handles carbs. That usually requires lowering internal stress, improving consistency, and dialing in the most important lifestyle habits for you (think sunlight, movement, reducing artificial light, improving resilience to stress, etc) first so your body becomes more insulin sensitive.
Why do blood sugar spikes get worse when socializing
For many people, social settings increase stress simply because at baseline, it’s been difficult to handle your current environement without the second demand of socializing. When you add that in, especially when your stress tolerance is low, it makes sense why many see bigger spikes in blood sugar even if you’re eating the same foods. For many, they are thinking and worrying more about what’s being served, if their body is going to tolerate it, how their blood sugar will do, which often leads to more stress and higher blood sugar.
Why do I feel like I am doing everything right but my fasting blood sugar is still high
We hear this all of the time from clients. I know this feeling all too well and I know it’s not a great place to be. Despite it feeling this way, we’ve never seen anyone that has truly tried everything because if you have, you wouldn’t have blood sugar issues. Instead of buying into this belief, for clients, it’s important to find a way to shift this to “What if I haven’t tried everything?”
Our actions follow our beliefs and if we believe that we’re just going to be stuck no matter what we do, it doesn’t matter how great our plan is. Mentally, we’re taking that plan and going in the completely opposite direction. Both your belief and the plan have to be aligned together, which is why your mindset is one of the most important difference makers between staying stuck in a place of health you don’t want to be and having stable blood sugar, feeling great, and not worrying so much about your health. This is where clients find our 1:1 program to be so valuable.
