Fast to Faith: Weight Loss & Hormone Support for Women Over 35

#263 Healing Through Faith: Beverly's Journey with Migraines, Diabetes, and Divine Guidance

• Dr. Tabatha

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Beverly Spring shares her powerful journey from chronic migraines and type 2 diabetes to improved health through faith-centered wellness. She discovers how integrating spiritual practices with nutrition and movement transformed her life despite multiple health challenges and family caregiving responsibilities.

• Beverly suffered from chronic migraines since childhood but went "chronic" in the early 2000s
• She discovered many of her migraine triggers were foods she naturally disliked—her body's innate intelligence protecting her
• Medication for high cholesterol likely contributed to her type 2 diabetes diagnosis
• Through Fast to Faith, Beverly reduced her A1C from 6.4 to 6.0, moving from diabetes to pre-diabetes range
• She developed flashcards with scripture to replace negative self-talk with biblical truth
• Simple stretching routines have significantly improved her neck and shoulder pain
• Beverly completed the Fast to Faith coaching program despite undergoing shoulder surgery and caring for her husband after his double bypass
• God's perfect timing allowed her own healing to progress enough to help her husband through his recovery

Never give up on your health journey—start where you are, even when circumstances aren't perfect. God cannot steer a parked car, so get into "messy action" and let Him direct your path.


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Speaker 1:

When I was first being diagnosed, I was at the library. God put this book into my hand. I honestly feel like the foods I didn't like were God's way of protecting me from foods that were not good for me.

Speaker 2:

Oh, that's so powerful. I love that. Welcome back to the Fast to Faith podcast. I am so excited that you are with us for another conversation with one of my amazing coaches one of my Fast to Faith coaches. I just want to say that it is an honor to have you here right now, because I know how precious time is in a day, and a lot of times I'll listen to podcasts on one and a half speed, or even two if they talk slow, kind of like I do, but like our time is valuable. So I just wanted to thank you and honor you for the fact that you are taking the time to listen to this and I know that you're going to find some value out of it.

Speaker 2:

There's going to be some aha, something that clicks that really changes your life going forward, and it might be one little comment that you hear, or one tool or tactic, or maybe it's not even what we say. This is the cool thing Oftentimes the Holy Spirit is just talking through these conversations and telling you what you need to hear. I know for me, I've listened to podcasts and gotten such incredible downloads from God and I go back and listen to it again because I want to hear that message again and I'm like man, they weren't even talking about that. God, you're so good. That was all you just talking through the podcast. So I'm hoping for that for you today as a listener, and I'm excited to introduce to you Beverly Spring. So welcome Beverly to the podcast.

Speaker 1:

Thank you very much, Dr Tabitha. I appreciate you asking me to be here.

Speaker 2:

Oh, my goodness, you are going to bless a lot of women today. I just know it because your story, unfortunately, is all too common. There's a lot of women suffering in midlife and beyond and it's kind of the culmination of a lot of things that happened to them over a time period. So I know, when you found me, you came to me with some diagnoses. You're like I'm already on four or five different meds, I'm already dealing with this. Is there hope for me? And of course there was. So I would love for you to share with the listeners, like what did that journey look like and how did you find me? And let's just get to know you a little bit, because I know women are going to resonate with your story.

Speaker 1:

I am. I have chronic migraine. I have chronic migraine. I was going to say I am a migraineur, but we don't want to say what that. We want to say that we have an issue, but we are not the issue.

Speaker 1:

And I've suffered from headaches most of my life but went chronic in the early 2000s and when I was first being diagnosed, I was at the library with my kids and I was looking through the books and God put this book into my hand and it was my first step to trying to use diet and nutrition to solve my problems or to help with my problems. And I did that for a. I heard this chiropractor on the radio and he had a wellness health coach and so I started going to her and she started to work with me. And then she went out and hung up her shingle and I worked with her when she was independent. But my chiropractor pointed me to JJ Virgin, so I tried GAG Virgin's program for a while and then JJ Virgin introduced me to Dr Anna Kabeca on her podcast and so I followed Dr Anna Kabeca for a long time and then you were on Dr Anna Kabeca's program and you were introducing your book, your book Fast to Faith, and I said, oh, this is what I'm going to do for Lent this year, because it was coming out just in time for Lent and I'm always looking for something to do during Lent.

Speaker 1:

And I wasn't able to get through the program because it was in a book and my migraine has made it difficult for me to read. So I thought, well, if it ever comes out on Audible, I'll listen to it, and then I'll do it. And so that's what I did this last year. And I found out about the coaching program and joined that to kind of replace the health coach I lost when she retired. And so here I am.

Speaker 2:

Oh, my goodness, I love that so much. And I just want to point out that at the beginning you said you checked yourself, you caught yourself with your language and said I'm not a migrainer, I have migraines. And I think that is a really important point to point out, because so much of what we're saying, the words that we're using, they're defining us and they're defining our life, and so that is something you've obviously learned through the coaching academy is language matters. I was reading the gospel of John last night and the first sentence is the word was God, the word was with God. Like words matter, god created our earth by his words, his spoken words. Jesus defeated the devil and temptation when he fasted for 40 days by speaking scripture, speaking those words.

Speaker 2:

So I just I'm so proud of you, like you pointed, like you went right for it and you corrected that I love that so much and I love that you pointed out like hey, I've seen a few people, I follow different people and it just takes me to the next person, because I truly believe like this is a journey with multiple paths and multiple opportunities and we get to choose like who are we going to listen to, who are we going to ask for advice along the way and you grow out of it or you get what you need and you go on to the next thing and God is just like hey, here's who you need next. And you were determined you were going to figure it out. And it just makes me feel good because that audible took me a long time to record. My house is never quiet. The publishers were never happy with the recordings I sent in. They're like nope, too much background noise, nope too many things. And I'm like, oh my gosh. So it took me over twice as long as it takes most people.

Speaker 2:

So I'm glad that you listened to it. It feels my heart. But were there any things in Fast to Faith that were a new concept for you or a new idea? Or like what was it that really made you decide? Yes, I want to like dive in full on, because signing up to be a coach, that's a big deal. It's one thing to do a program, but to like do the whole thing, which I love. I'm a quick start, like you, but what was like feeding your soul that made you want to do that?

Speaker 1:

Well, for me it was the faith portion of the program. I yeah, that's really what it was the faith portion of the program. Dr Anna and JJ Virgin had really great ideas and they helped. Like you said, they helped me and I was free in their community to talk about my faith, but it was not ingrained in the program like yours is, and that is what has made the difference for me.

Speaker 2:

I love it, so something was feeding your soul. Finally.

Speaker 1:

Yes.

Speaker 2:

Yes, that is correct. That's so good. So do you mind sharing what are some of the diagnoses that you came to me with? And you know you mentioned the migraine struggle like that's a huge deal and hopefully we're getting over this hurdle and you've figured out like part of your triggers for your migraine.

Speaker 1:

Share that with us. Well, as far as triggers are concerned, I kind of knew what they were before I ever picked up my first book. I just didn't know how to define them. For example, I knew that if I ate too much ham, I would get a headache. I knew that if I drank a diet soda I would get a headache. Oh, and I really didn't like bacon and I really didn't like hot dogs. And so I found out that it was the artificial sweetener in the diet soda that was giving me a headache, and that it was the nitrates in the bacon and the hot dogs that gave me headaches. And the ham. And so I didn't like Kentucky Fried Chicken. I have no idea why. Why would I not like Kentucky Fried Chicken, but like other fast food chickens? I found out that Kentucky Fried Chicken injects MSG into their meat, so I thought, well, if I take off the skin and just eat the meat, I'll be fine. And no, that was not the case. So that was what was helpful for me as far as finding out what the trigger was.

Speaker 1:

My most recent discovery, though, of the trigger was of triggers was beets, and I found that out in a really weird way. I've had one of my medications compounded for many years because I had tested sensitive to corn and there was corn in the tablets and the compounding chemist. I lived in England too long. I never can remember pharmacist. The compounding pharmacist put beet powder in the capsules as a filler and I hate beets. I won't even have them in my house. Hate is not a strong enough word about how I feel about beets. My mom learned that there are just some things you cannot force a child to eat because she tried to do that with me and beets.

Speaker 2:

I actually remember that on your intake form you wrote that because it's like do you have food issues, food sensitivities?

Speaker 1:

You're like I hate beets and I thought I wonder if that's a soil thing or you know my mind was going all over the place, so keep going Well one time he ran out of beets as the beet powder as the filler and he used lactose instead, lactose instead. And then the next time he put it in he had the beet powder back and put the beet powder back in and, oh, my headaches just got so bad when that happened and that's how I knew that beets were a trigger. So I had to get rid of a whole lot of stuff that had beets in it because I figure, as long as I don't taste it, you know I'm fine If I can't taste it, if I can't smell it, okay, you know I can tolerate it, but no, they are a migraine trigger. Honestly feel like a lot of those food things I, the foods I didn't like, were God's way, my body's way, of protecting me from foods that were not good for me oh, that's so powerful.

Speaker 2:

I love that. Yeah, we have innate intelligence in ourselves downloaded into us. Our body does know best. So I love hearing that you have figured all of that out. That's really powerful. And you know, if you're listening, obviously it's very individualized, because I love beets and they make me feel really good, because I love beets and they make me feel really good. But I do personally have foods like that as well that they will just like take me out for the day. You know, headache, nausea, depression, all the things, and so it's really powerful when you can figure that out and get some freedom from all those headaches and migraines and all the other things. And you know, I'm assuming that because you were so limited in what you liked to eat and you were struggling with the pain and all of the things that you kind of just ate, you kind of just ate what comforted you and what was easy and what was quick, and so that led you down the path to diabetes and all of that stuff.

Speaker 1:

Right, yeah, I think so. I was diagnosed with high cholesterol and I'd been struggling with high triglycerides for some time. When I got the diagnosis for the high cholesterol, my primary care looked at me and she said let me see, you have blonde eyes and blue hair, blue hair. Nope, blonde hair and blue eyes. There we go. Are you Scandinavian Going? Yeah, she said okay, well, that's it then. You're Scandinavian. You have high cholesterol because you're Scandinavian. And because you're Scandinavian, you have to be on cholesterol lowering drugs.

Speaker 1:

And I took it for a month. She didn't give me a refill. So I took it for a month and a year later I came back and she said have you been taking that? I said you didn't give me a refill. I went in for a blood test. I never heard back for you, so I thought I was fine and she said oh no, it's way worse than it was. So she put me on double the dose that she had originally prescribed for me and in my research from that I discovered that a side effect of cholesterol lowering drugs, particularly the one I was on I am on, is type 2 diabetes, and I honestly think that that is where my type 2 diabetes came from. Was taking the cholesterol-lowering drug, but I was also about within six months of starting that drug I got my type 2 diabetes diagnosis to diabetes diagnosis.

Speaker 2:

That's so heartbreaking. But I'm really glad that you pointed that out because that is a real risk factor that legitimately is a cause. That medication, those statins, and so anybody listening, think about that. You know, if you are on this medication it could be causing you to have chronically elevated blood sugars and tip you over to diabetes. So we have to be careful what we're signing up for, because the treatment for one thing might be the cause of another, and you know that. That, ultimately, is why I left conventional medicine, because so much of it was band-aid medicine. It was like, well, I can take care of this thing. I can't promise it's not gonna affect this over here and we'll deal with that.

Speaker 1:

At that point, and to me it's like playing a game of whack-a-mole, like you just keep whacking a different mole and another one pops up it's madness, but the one thing that I have found since I started this program is that I have brought down my a1c, which is an indicator of uh, where where your blood sugar has been in the last three months. I've brought it down from a 6.4 to a 6, which makes me in the pre-diabetes area, but the trend is that it's going down, which is very good news. Yes, my cholesterol is also down and my triglycerides are also down. There's like triglycerides are elevated, but they are much lower than they were when I started the program, and so that those were very, very good news for me.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, that is probably the most common thing I hear when women go through fast of faith is my blood sugar is trending down, my bad cholesterol is trending down, all those things. So I love that, but I want to hear about like some spiritual breakthroughs. Like some spiritual breakthroughs. What else do you?

Speaker 1:

feel like was holding you in bondage that you're breaking free from. Finally, Well, a lot of it has to do with my self-talk and my mindset self-talk and my mindset and I really didn't understand how to do it without while still acknowledging the truth. For example, I am obese. I am in the obese range when I stand on the scale and it goes to my app and it shows me where I am. I am obese, but I never thought of myself as a fat person. I've always thought of myself as a thin person.

Speaker 1:

So how do I acknowledge the truth that I am obese while still changing my mindset about where I want to be in the future?

Speaker 1:

And so Fast of Faith has really helped me do that.

Speaker 1:

So what I've started to do is I have made I meant to bring them in here with me, I have made flashcards that on one side they have perhaps the lie I am believing, or the thought that the negative thought that I want to replace with a positive thought, and the same with a negative behavior that I want to replace with a positive thought, and the same with a negative behavior that I want to replace with a positive behavior. So on one side of the flash card I have the negative behavior or thought and then on the other side, I have the positive thought that I want to replace it with, and so I look through those every day and a lot of. There are things that when I'm reading a passage in the Bible, I'll say, oh wow, I really need this as a way to help me change my thoughts. Is a way to help me change my thoughts. So I'll make another flashcard and put the negative behavior that verse is addressing on the one side and the verse on the other side.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, that's so powerful. I love that. Wow, wow. Is there one card in particular that you struggle with the most, that you have to keep flipping back and forth and and renewing your mind on, um, well, I'll tell you.

Speaker 1:

I will tell you what has happened most recently. I really struggle with getting enough movement and exercise. Exercise is one of those things that has never made me feel better, ever. I've never gone to the gym and come out feeling like I'm more energetic.

Speaker 2:

Okay, well, I know there's some women feeling you right now. On that, I'm with you. Beverly, I hate working out.

Speaker 1:

I feel worse afterwards, so keep going so yesterday, um, during the um question and answer and faith builders call, I mentioned it and one of the things I've been doing lately is I had a gout flare. I've had a gout flare recently and I am I know how to take care of my gout flare. I learned from a physical therapist the stretches I can do to help relieve the pain. So I've started doing my stretches and I going okay, well, as long as I'm stretching my legs, I may as well stretch my hips. So I'm stretching my hips and then I thought well, as long as I'm stretching my hips, I may as well do my spine twists. So I am doing my spine twists.

Speaker 1:

Well, I have been the last several months I have been dealing with a lot of neck pain.

Speaker 1:

It refers down to my shoulder, so I really feel it feels like it's shoulder pain, but it is neck pain and sometimes it's so bad that I can't at night when I'm trying to sleep, I can't lay on that side of my body.

Speaker 1:

Since I've been starting, since I've been doing my spinal twists, I've been able to relieve some of that neck pain, of that neck pain, and I mentioned on the call yesterday that I just really wanted to remember to continue those stretches even after I started feeling better, because my tendency is, once I feel better, I stop doing it, stop doing it. So Ashley said to write down an intention about doing my stretching every day and not stopping when I start to feel better. And then later on she said she said that she wanted me to do it in the present tense. So I originally wrote down my intention as I feel better when I do my stretches, I will do my stretches every day. But I changed that to I am doing my stretches every day, so I've started. That was a real game changer for me to notice that that tense and that verb needed to change from the future to the present.

Speaker 2:

Yes, I love that because we're always going to start on Monday, we're always going to start next week, so that's really powerful. I think there's no time like the present, and I've been realizing that we cannot get this time back. You know, I was just saying to someone yesterday how in the world is it August already? We are recording this in August. I literally feel like it was just the new year and you know, I've been trying to be present in all of the moments, every day, and it just slips through our fingers and we are left with whatever we did. And so if we didn't walk and move our bodies, we are left with stiffness and pain and all the things. And I was.

Speaker 2:

I've been feeling you lately because I didn't go to Pilates for two weeks and two days ago I reached my breaking point and I was like oh my gosh, I'm not sleeping, I'm waking up, uncomfortable, I'm swapping out my pillows, I'm stiff, I'm grumpy, oh hello, you haven't been working out and moving your body.

Speaker 2:

And so I love this idea of like let's get into the present moment and just start working on what we can work on right now. And the fact that you're stacking it. You're like well, I'm doing the legs, I might as well do the hips, I might as well do the spine and the neck, like, yes, that is really going to make all of the difference for you. So I love that you're figuring these tricks out, these ways of navigating what's working for you and sharing it in the fast to faith group, because that is so powerful. We're just learning from each other, right? Yes, oh my gosh, I love that so much. So how has God shown up for you through all of this? I mean, I see it, I know I hear you on the calls, I see everything, but I want my listeners to really understand that when you finally give in and say God, I need you on this journey, he does start showing up and really powerful and obvious ways, doesn't he?

Speaker 1:

He really does. I know a lot of. Before I started this program and I was virtually bedridden because of the pain. I spent a lot of time in prayer and I would pray for my friends and sometimes I would let my friends know and then my friends would say, wow, you prayed for me at just the right time and I don't know what's going on in their lives. I have no idea what's going on on their lives. I have no idea what's going on on their lives. I just decided that it's Tuesday, so I'm going to pray for Tabitha and it just happened. I contacted Tabitha on Tuesday and she was going through a rough spot that day, on Tuesday and she was going through a rough spot that day. So you know, that's one way that God has shown up.

Speaker 1:

But as far as my recovery is concerned, that is that God has used people in my life most right now people in the Fast of Faith community to help me transform my thoughts by pointing out what my wrong thought was and helping me replace it with the right thought.

Speaker 1:

Also, I just our church just started to do a book on prayer. Pastor is doing it on Wednesday nights doing it on Wednesday nights and one of the things that is in this book to do is to take a Psalm and pray through the Psalm, and so I've started doing that and they do it. It's really fun because it's like today is the 19th, so I'm going to look at Psalm 19. Like today is the 19th, so I'm going to look at Psalm 19. And, yeah, it's been really great the way sometimes I really have to work hard at that Psalm to find out what's great about God or what's great about or what if there are any sins I need to confess through this Psalm, because it doesn't really talk about sin. It doesn't really talk about God per se, but it talks about the psalmist, or it talks about God's creation. But with prayer, god has shown me how to see him more in the things that I don't necessarily recognize as him.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I love that. Okay, oh, my goodness, that that was a really powerful thing for me as well, because I thought that things were just maybe happening or it was good luck. And once I really started to acknowledge, wow, god, like you did this. You answered my prayer, your provision is on me, and acknowledged it and spoke it out loud with gratitude and repented for my sins. Like it just became more obvious every time. I was like, oh, I see what you're doing. You are such a good father. That is incredible. So I love hearing that for you. That is so fabulous.

Speaker 2:

And can I just like honor you for a minute, because you haven't even shared like a tenth of what you've been going through in your story and you jumped into Fast of Faith. You jumped in not only to the community and like, let me do this program, but let me go through the coaching academy and become a certified coach. While you were having surgery you were having shoulder surgery and going through recovery and your husband's going through stuff. And I just want to acknowledge that, because so often we are waiting for the perfect circumstance, we are waiting for life to calm down or for, like, everything to be in its place, and that is just not what we're called to do, right. So I just want to acknowledge the fact that you did it, scared, unready, busy as can be. You could have had every excuse and instead you just continued to show up week after week for yourself, for God, for the sisters in Fasts of Faith, and I just want to say job well done. Like that is incredible girl.

Speaker 1:

I was just just before you said that. I was thinking about one other way that God has really shown up for me, and that is that, god, I did have to have shoulder surgery and there was a long time where I couldn't move my arm at all. And then there was a long time when I couldn't take any weight on my arm at all. And within during that time of healing, my dad, my husband, had to have double bypass surgery, but by the time he had and I had to help him well through his recovery. But God had allowed me to heal enough that I could help him do the things he needed to do, that I could help him do the things he needed to do, like get up off the sofa. I couldn't have done that earlier in my healing process, so it was just the right time that God allowed that to me, to me to do that, yeah.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, he sees everything that we're going to deal with. He is preparing a way. You know his, he, just he. He always keeps his promises. He really does.

Speaker 2:

And when we can trust that he sees the bigger picture and that we don't really understand at all, then life is just so much better, like I know you had so much more peace going through everything because you were like I trust you, god. You have been making a way all of this time. You're going to continue to make a way. I'm going to continue to stay in your word and ask for your guidance and, you know, be in the sisterhood of fast to faith and let these women pray for me and lift me up. And it's just really powerful to see how far you've come and that you are releasing these fears and these worries and you're continuing to trust and you're just it's getting better and better. I am so excited for you. So what would you say, as we close here, to the woman listening who is afraid because she's tried all the things, or she just feels too far gone, like it's not even worth it, because it's probably not going to work for me? I'm just, I have too much happening.

Speaker 1:

When you, when that you were asking that question, two quotes came up into my mind and they're very, very similar quotes. Uh, one was from Winston Churchill, who said never give up, and the other one was from the movie galaxy quest, where the theme was never give up, never surrender. And and then the other thing has just been to God had to put me in a place where I had to depend on him. I had no other choice but to depend on him, and sometimes that's where you have to start. Sometimes you have to start there and then you have to start. Sometimes you have to start there and then God will use things like fast of faith or reading your Bible or watching a silly movie like Galaxy Quest to help you move and to help you heal, help you move into healing and to help you move.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, oh my gosh. Yes, I always say God doesn't want to steer a parked car Like. That is a challenge. You need to be in some kind of forward action in motion for him to intervene. He wants you to be an active participant in your life. He's not a magic genie in a bottle like wish and you know you get whatever he wants you in the game. He wants you putting skin in the game. He wants you to move forward through that fear and be brave. Like Second Timothy says, he did not give us a spirit of fear, he gave us a spirit of power and self discipline.

Speaker 1:

So, ladies, of power and self-discipline.

Speaker 2:

So, ladies I know this is resonating with you Just be like Beverly today Just start. Start because you're not ready. Start because you don't possibly see a way for it to work out. Start because you don't feel equipped. God wants to help you and I just I'm hearing like give him your five loaves and two fish and he will multiply. You just give a little and then he comes in and he does the miraculous things. So thank you for sharing your incredible journey with us. You're just getting started, which is the coolest part. Like I can't wait to see you coaching women and helping other women on their journeys through all of this, because you are an overcomer. You're more than a conqueror, just like the Bible says you are. You've proven that. So I'm really proud of you, I'm really excited for all that you're going to be doing and I appreciate you.

Speaker 1:

So thank you for sharing Well thank you for having me on your podcast and allowing me to share with you I it has been a great experience for me, Awesome.

Speaker 2:

All right, ladies, go out and be like Beverly today Just get into messy action. That's what we say at Fast to Faith Just get into messy action. God will clean it up, he'll direct you, he'll steer you, but he can't steer a parked car. So, I love you, go be Christ's hands to serve, but take care of yourself, ladies, and we'll see you soon.