So I knew I wanted to lose weight and avoid dropping dead from a heart attack, but I could never get my eating under control long enough to keep it off. I had had Forks Over Knives in my Netflix queue for months, and decided to watch it out of desperation . . . hoping for some clue about how to get my eating under control. I got that and more.
If you haven't seen it, watch it. Now. It changed my life, at least health wise. Within 7 months my cholesterol had gone from 396 to 188, my blood pressure had normalized and my A1C (test for diabetes) had gone from 6.3 to 5.4. And yes, I did the diet 100% and didn't cheat. I chose the strictest form of the diet recommended by cardiologist Caldwell Esselstyn, known as (you guessed it) the Esselstyn Diet. The day I decided to go for it, I gutted my house of anything that wasn't legal and started over. My goal was to avoid having a heart attack, since I had every. single. marker. indicating that I should have, or was about to have one at any moment.
I know your first question: Was it hard? Hell yes it was hard! The diet includes only foods that are plant-based with no added oil or sugar, and the foods must be minimally processed. Zero animal products, oil, and sugar. I think day 11 was the most difficult. Thank goodness I had the guts to purge the house of anything not on the eating plan, or I'm sure I would have failed. It took about 4 weeks for the meals to become "normal", but it too almost 12 weeks for the fat cravings to stop. In the second week I discovered my sensitivity to gluten (sluggishness, swelling and inflamed joints) so I cut it out too.
I lost nearly 50 pounds in 7 months. At one point I was losing about 1/2 pound a day. It was pretty amazing, especially when I saw those blood test results every 3 months. They were dropping like crazy with NO medications. Just changing my diet.
In the next installment:
It's the Food Stupid. PART 2: How the Food Industry Makes Us Junkies
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