It felt like a normal Friday night back in 2014. I was driving home from work at the time and excited for another date night with my soon to be husband and our new Australian Shepherd puppy, Bentley. As I walked into Jonathan’s apartment I began to smell smoke, and noticed something was wrong. As I entered the apartment I found my dazed and confused boyfriend sitting on the ground with Bentley. Jonathan was just snapping out of a hypoglycemic incident, (aka low blood sugar), and it was one of the first times I saw and realized how serious T1D is.
Jonathan was cooking food on the stove. He gave himself his insulin shot, which he has to do before every meal, when he began to feel really tired. Next thing he knew, he was getting nipped at and barked at aggressively by Bentley. He had completely blacked out while cooking due to dangerously low blood sugar. Bentley somehow managed to wake up Jonathan to an apartment full of smoke. Jonathan fought his way up to turn off the stove and then crawled to the refrigerator to chug orange juice.
I walked into the kitchen not long after this all happened and was completely shocked. It’s a moment that has always stuck with me. It was the first time I really saw how scary and life threatening Type 1 diabetes can be at any given moment. I am so thankful that both Jonathan and our lifesaving pup Bentley were okay!
FROM FRIENDS TO FAMILY
Jonathan and I met in 2010 in college where we both attended Georgia State University in Atlanta. Jonathan played on the Georgia State baseball team and I played on the Georgia State softball team. Shortly after we first started dating, we found out that we may have crossed paths earlier in life and never even knew it. We both grew up in the same hometown of Kennesaw, Georgia. Our families even lived off of the same exit. We grew up going to all the same restaurants, playing sports at the same parks and knew some of the same people.
Our families even attended the same church, Kennesaw United Methodist. We’re fairly confident we were in the same Sunday school class at some point. It was crazy to think that we never even met until college, but it was all in God’s perfect timing.
Both of our parents had us involved in different sports and athletic programs our entire lives. This led Jonathan to follow his passion of becoming a personal trainer. After Jonathan graduated college in 2011, he became a certified personal trainer and has worked at his older brother, Brad’s gym called, KoloFit since 2012.
KoloFit is a personal training studio located in the west midtown area of Atlanta where we work with clients of all different levels through one-on-one training or group training. Our goal at Kolofit is to help our clients reach their health and fitness goals. The best part about our job is getting to build relationships with clients while inspiring them to live a healthy and happy lifestyle.
The gym was started in 2012 by my brother-in-law, Brad and the name KoloFit was created to incorporate our last name, (Kolowich) and all the family members that are personal trainers at the gym. There are six total family members who are trainers at the gym, along with two close family friends. We are so blessed to be able to do what we love while working alongside people that we love.
WHY ME? WHY US?
Being healthy and fit has always been important to Jonathan, especially after he was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes at the age of twelve. Type 1 Diabetes is when your pancreas is pretty much a dead organ inside of your body, therefore you no longer produce insulin like everyone else. Type 1 diabetics are in charge of acting as their own pancreas. Whether that means giving shots every time you eat, finger pricking every time you feel “off”, wearing an insulin pump to get your insulin, or even now wearing a continuous glucose monitor attached to your body.
Before marriage, I learned a lot about how to help manage Jonathan’s diabetes. I learned what I needed to do in certain situations and look for certain signs of a low or high blood sugar. There were several very scary situations that occurred during college where I almost called an ambulance, but for the most part from what I could see, he managed it very well and was doing the best that he could.
We got married in 2016. Since then there is a lot more that I have witnessed. It is a struggle, nearly impossible, for him every single day to make sure his blood sugar stays within the ideal range of 70-140. Before every meal or drink that he has, he is debating how much insulin to inject in order to give him the best chance of keeping a good blood sugar.
A lot of people don’t understand how badly you can feel if you are out of that zone. A bad blood sugar can change your entire mood at any given moment. If Jonathan’s blood sugar ever goes too low or too high and no one is around to help him, it can be incredibly dangerous.
When Jonathan’s blood sugar is below 70, it can be very dangerous He begins to space out and isn’t able to put sentences together. His entire mood can change and he becomes angry or frustrated. If he is asleep when his sugar is this low, sometimes it is even hard to wake him, which can be a really scary situation. When this happens, my number one goal is to rush to the kitchen and find any type of sugar available. We normally keep our refrigerator full of orange juice because it is one of the fastest options to get sugar into his body.
When his sugar is high, there are very different effects. This can cause him to have headaches and experience mood changes. He begins to feel sick. Through these challenges we have learned to work together and we always try to have a plan for when this occurs. I think this has really helped our marriage by learning how to work as a team to avoid these scary situations as best as we can.
There are many times where he is feeling down and many more mornings when he doesn’t wake due to low blood sugar. In those instances I help to wake him and help restore his blood sugar level with some sugar or fast acting carbohydrates. There have also been a lot of days and nights where his blood sugar is sky high, and his insulin isn’t working right and is not bringing him back into a normal range. In the midst of these circumstances I sometimes question why God chose him to have Type 1 diabetes and he asks, “Why me?”
Jonathan is the strongest person I know and he battles through each day like a champ. Although diabetes makes life very challenging, we both know that there is good in God’s plan. Ephesians 2:10 says, “ For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” There is a purpose in his plan.
SAY ‘I DO’ TO GOD
Jonathan is determined to never let diabetes control his life. He believes that helping others with this same disease is what he was meant to do. He started his own company called Diabetes Strength, a website created with the mission to help others battling diabetes.
Type 1 is a tough disease with which to live. This website helps people living with diabetes by giving them a team in which they can help each other. The goal with Diabetes Strength is to have an online gym and build a community of diabetics to share ideas. Eventually, we plan on having strength camps and sports camps for fellow T1Ds. We are confident that helping others who are battling this same disease is what God wants us to do.
In 2017, I was so inspired by my husband’s love and passion for personal training that I decided to make a career change and become a personal trainer as well. Both of us now work at KoloFit where we get to inspire others to live a happy, healthy, and fit lifestyle.
Although diabetes has brought many challenges into our marriage, it has only made us stronger. We have learned how to manage and overcome scary situations by staying calm, working together, and putting each other first. We have accomplished this through experiences, and also through prayer and God’s help. A healthy marriage is accomplished when you put God first, work as a team, and love each other through the challenges. With God together, we can conquer anything!
Fitness is so much more than striving to look a certain way. It is about being healthy, happy, and confident in your own skin. Jonathan and I love to incorporate a ‘couples workout’ into our weekly workout routine. We’ve include Be Mine – Workout With Your Valentine, a fun couples workout in Faith & Fitness Magazine that you can do anywhere — no equipment is needed.
