Hi, everyone. I’m Don. Currently a grounded flight attendant due to the pandemic, working as a COVID-19 contact tracer to help out my community and get paid for it while I wait to return to the air and a hobbyist web developer as a side hustle–though more ‘hobby’ than ‘side hustle’ at the moment. Nice to be here.
I was recently diagnosed with T2DM three months ago with an A1C of 12.8% (321 mg/dl eAG) and a glucose reading of 390 mg/dl (Comp Metabolic Panel). With the stress of my current job, the knowledge that now I needed to make my life a job–especially with those initial numbers–was incredibly overwhelming. I was able to get everything back down to ADA normal ranges with a fairly controlled diet and got my home glucose averages below 120 mg/dl (estimated A1C of 5.9%) in about a month and a half’s time, but while I felt good and healthy it was mentally straining to add on managing my life when I spend 09:00-20:00 local time in my life managing other people’s lives.
Enter Huel. I bought a one-time order of the first three Hot and Savory flavors to see how it could fit into my management. After it looked like everything would fit, I made the Hot and Savory a subscription and added one bag of Huel Black Edition (Coffee Caramel) to see how it fits.
Data from my food logs
Hot and Savory - Mexican Chilli
Before Meal: 98 mg/dl
After Meal: 116 mg/dl (After exercise; with metFORMIN 250mg)
Hot and Savory - Spicy Indian Curry
Before Meal: 87 mg/dl
After Meal: 117 mg/dl
Hot and Savory - Tomato and Herb
Before Meal: 102 mg/dl
After Meal: 122 mg/dl
Hot and Savory - Sweet and Sour
Before Meal: 110 mg/dl
After Meal: 110 mg/dl
Hot and Savory - Thai Green Curry
Before Meal: 102 mg/dl
After Meal: 93 mg/dl (After exercise; with metFORMIN 250mg)
Black Edition - Coffee Caramel
Before Meal: 104 mg/dl
After Meal: 149 mg/dl (With metFORMIN 250mg)
Black Edition - Coffee Caramel
Before Meal: 95 mg/dl
After Meal: 111 mg/dl (After exercise; with metFORMIN 250mg)
A godsend for my life thus far
Overall, it’s been a godsend for me that Huel has worked well with my meal plans. During a stressful day between calls it made it easy to make sure I reached for a healthy option instead of going for either a bad food option or an overpriced salad. It’s given me more time to just focus on stress-reducing activities during my breaks and lunch and significantly reduced the time I spent each day and each week planning out my meals. All in all, it made things simple, and I need that in my life because the stuff I manage outside of life is Really Complicated.
While I have some friends and family that feel the cost is high for an instant meal, and my dietician shows “some concern” (air quotes because it’s via messaging and not a face to face conversation so no explicitly-said concern) by reminding me to assemble meals with the plate method in mind and giving me praise whenever I eat an actual meal, Huel has given me a sense of peace in my day-to-day–especially since I’m not limited to just drinking shakes!
The price-per-meal isn’t really that much, and even if it was the amount of time and stress I save myself is worth it. I’m also hoping that, when I start flying again, this will help my meal plans when I’m on the go: prepackaged, so potentially easier to go through customs and immigration without losing food; no refrigeration needed so no more packing ice in my crew cooler; and a food option to use when the only thing open serves nothing but fast food.
I’ll be taking my next A1C in two days. My meter tells me that my 30/90-day average is 110 mg/dl, so I’m hoping that’ll translate to an actual A1C of 5.5% (110 mg/dl eAG). I’m looking forward to see what it’ll be!
