way that I see my food and in the way that I eat, and
the way that I feel. The last usage went down to 35 -- from 110
to 35. Because I
was starting to go low and even though I was eating 250 carbs
a day, my weight -- I weigh 165 pounds. I
haven't weighed this since high school and I'm 55.
I've always though -- been
told -- once you pass 40 you can forget about losing weight. Never in a million years would I
have thought how much weight I would lose doing this or I would
have done this a long time ago. This is the way
to go. If you're diabetic, it's definitely the way
to go because of how much help you're going to
get with your numbers and with your diabetes.
It can be reversed. It's just
amazing. I'm 55 years olf. Most of my adult life I weighed over 215 pounds.
Tried all
kinds of fad diets, exercise, diet pills, shakes, Weight Watchers,
you name it. I could lose about
10 - 15 pounds and then I would just gain it right back. Back in 1998 when I was diagnosed with
type 2 diabetes, probably very similar to what they do now,
the doctor put me on Metformin, 500 milligrams to
try to get it to come down. Then he sent me to a diabetes education class
where the main topic
that they taught was how to count your carbs, read the labels, and limit your
carb intake to 60 grams per meal, no more than 15%.
Not once did they refer to anything that had
to do with fat and diabetes, which after seeing the
online summit really opened my eyes. My A1c would range anywhere from 10.7 To
7.9. I went
up on my Metformin usage because I wasn't really maintaining control of what I
was eating and my diet. And I was under a little bit of stress too.
Around 2013 is when my
primary care physician decided that it was now time for
me to start taking Lantis, so he started me on 25
units. Well that took me about a year to get up to
where I was actually taking 10 units of it. My
blood glucose wasn't under control and I was still heavy. My cholesterol was
still high.
My
triglycerides, blood pressure, everything. Now I've also been living with heart disease
since 1994. I got 9 stents. The
last heart procedure that I had done was in February of this year.
Prior to that in December of 2016
my cardiologist had me come in to do a nuclear stress test
which is something that I've been doing every year. He saw an area that looked like the blood
supply was low, so he decided I needed to have a
heart cath done to see what was going on. Okay, my experience had been stress
test, heart cath, 1 or 2 stents, and go home, do 12 weeks
of cardio rehab and start all over again. Well,
that didn't happen this time.
This time, the cardiologist came out of the
cath lab a lot quicker
than he ever has and was telling my wife and myself that I had extensive
blockages in my heart, which I don't think he was really surprised
to see. This is the same one that's
been putting my stents in. And he was like you need to actually get with
your regular cardiologist. He said
because what I see is you need to have 6 bybasses.
I said okay. And it just so happened that it was on February
3 that I had the heart cath done. And the online
summit -- the Mastering Diabetes online summit that y'all did was during that
same time frame. So that Saturday and Sunday my wife sat and
watched every one of those people on the
summit.
And we were amazed at what we were hearing
and seeing. We were like,
okay. On one
hand, you go in the hospital and you get these 6 bypasses done. On the other
hand, listening to some of this information on the Mastering
Diabetes Summit, it can be reversed.
You don't have
to do this. And that's when I decided I didn't really
want my chest cracked open like an egg, and
have my plumbing rerouted so I was like okay, we're gonna do this. My wife was onboard with it. It was just fantastic.
We became members of the
Mastering Diabetes. Everything that we've been doing is plant-based
whole food. I have not
had any meat, cheese. And when I say meat, chicken was my big thing.
I loved chicken. And I
could eat chicken forever. You know, breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Not any more.
After seeing just
all the stuff that I've seen and the information that I've
gotten from you guys has made such a big
difference. Big difference in the way that I see my food,
in the way that I eat, and the way that I feel. It was
nothing for me to sit down and eat 5 pieces of fried chicken. And you'd wanna
just sit back and take a nap.
Not do anything. And I'm sure it did affect my thinking also. You
know it clouded everything. It wasn't good, but I didn't realize how good
it could be.
It was
just a way of life. The
transition process was so much easier than my wife and I both expected. And it
all mostly stemmed from the information that we had,
that we got from y'all. You know,
again it was like bypass or lifestyle change.
Because we weren't looking at this as a diet. This
wasn't going to be a diet. This was going to be a lifestyle change. That's exactly what we did.
First it was a little
scary because nutritionists and doctors are always telling you especially if
you're diabetic, "Watch your carbs. You can't eat the fruits. You can't eat the potatoes. You
have to watch the breads." Going and seeing what a plant based and whole
food was I can eat a cup of grapes.
I
could eat like I do for my breakfast now, I kindof do what Robby does and I'll
eat 4 fruits. Now
I'll cut up an apple, a banana, a pear, and I'll throw a cup of blueberries in
on top of all that. I'll
take cinnamon like Cyrus. I love cinnamon.
I mean I douse it in cinnamon. I'll
throw chia seeds on there and I've gotten where I every time
I eat something for a meal, it's gonna have either
fresh or cooked spinach on it. I've gotten to where I love spinach. So the transition was easier than we thought,
easier than we expected because of the frame of
mind that we were in.
We were in. We were all in. We knew this is what we were
gonna do and we were gonna watch and see what happened. And it's just been amazing to see the
difference in the way that I feel, the way that I eat,
the way that I even act.
My moods,
my temperament, it's just...It's better. It's just all around better. Baseline numbers, insulin usage, things like
that were high. Average A1c was
around 8.2.
And
again I was still taking 100 units of Lantis. My blood pressure was high, my
cholesterol was 230, my triglycerides were above 150. And I was still on the Lantis, I was still
on 2 different types of
blood pressure medicine -- 1 which was a beta blocker, which reduced your heart
rate. I got to
the point of thinking well why am I doing that because my heart is not getting
any stronger if I'm keeping the rate of it down all the time.
I was just not doing too well with
my health. And
that was all before I started. Now when I went to the plant based whole food
diet, I gradually got off my Varsilia, my Lantis
usage went down like the first week down to like 35. From 110 to 35.
Because I
was starting to go low. And even though I was eating 250 carbs a day,
and it was all the fruit and the potatoes. I
was like, this is working. This is good.
So I was anxious to see what it was
going to do with my cholesterol. At one point my cholesterol was down to 99
and then it went back up to 121. My
HDL stayed up at a decent level, but my LDL. Was always really high and the
triglycerides were high.
Cholesterol was way down. The last A1c that I had done was 6.1, So it's
way down. My
weight -- I weigh 165 pounds. I haven't weighed this since high school.
And I'm
55. I've always
thought -- been told -- once you get past 40 you can forget about losing weight. Never in a
million years would I have thought how much weight I would lose doing this or I
would have done this a long time ago. It's just fantastic to see the difference
from 8 months ago.
From back
in February to where I'm at now. Just to give you another little idea. When we came out to California, when you
go through the TSA line you present your driver's license
and boarding pass. The guy looked at
my driver's license and was like, "You've lost a lot of
weight haven't you?" Yeah.
This is
the way to go. If
you're a diabetic, it's definitely the way to go because of how much help you're
going to get with your numbers and with your diabetes. It can be reversed. It's just amazing
to see the changes that have happened in my body and
knowing that it's not me.
It's what
I'm putting in my body. I've been doing the best I can to anybody
that I find to talk them in to try this. Try it
for 10 days. You will see a major difference and you won't
want to go back to eating this other
stuff.
Do not hesitate. Go at it as a lifestyle change. Don't go at it as a
diet. It's not a diet.
It is a
lifestyle change. You will be amazed how much better you feel
eating this way. The one key that
my wife and I found that was very helpful when we started was to focus on what
we could eat - - not what we shouldn't eat -- but what we
could eat. Mastering Diabetes.
Don't
hesitate. Even
if you're not diabetic, if you wanna keep from becoming a diabetic, do this. And
you'll just be amazed at how much better you'll feel, how
much the food tastes better, and all the options
that you actually have..
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