Blood Work Results Are In

My doctor's appointment is not until Friday, but I got the report from my blood work in the mail a few days ago.

This process back to health has been a good experience. I have learned so much in the last few months. I am getting results that I haven't been able to attain before. My diet, as most of you know, has made all the difference in the world. I have been vegetarian before, but never got the results I have now that I've gone vegan. For me, eliminating dairy, eggs, oils and sugar was the key.  I am 100% vegan now and I don't eat any overt fats or take in any added sugar.....nothing more than what comes naturally in fruits and vegetables.  And contrary to many beliefs, plant-based foods have plenty of needed protein, calcium and good fats. I get everything I need except Vitamin B-12, which is a concern for most vegans....so, I take a supplement. I also take Vitamin D, but honestly I am outside so much that I probably get more than enough from the sun.

I still have a little work to do. My doctor's comments on the latest lab report was to continue diet and exercise and repeat in 3 months. I'm confident I will be completely in the normal range by the time I have those labs done.  My diet and lifestyle have changed for the better and I will continue this way for the rest of my life, so there's no reason to believe otherwise. The results below will show the before and after. 

The results.......

Since March 1, 2017:  I have lost 22-23 lbs. and am still losing.....ever so slowly.

Lab reports:
                                    March, 2017     May 31, 2017
Glucose (fasting)       262                    99 (excellent)
A1c                              10.6                   6.8  (needs to be below 6.0)
Cholesterol                 322                    214 (needs to be below 200)
LDL Cholesterol         220                    143 (needs to be below 130)
Triglyceride               285                    194 (needs to be below 150)
       (sorry if this looks wonky....trying to line up numbers in blogger.....argh!)

Well, that's it in a nutshell. Much improved and feeling great, I'll continue doing what I've been doing. It's working!

I'll update you in 3 months to let you know the results then. In the meantime, hope everyone is having a good spring. It is super busy around here. My garden is doing so good. I picked squash, cucumbers and green beans last week. There are a few tomatoes on the bushes...small and green and plenty of blossoms. I have two new additions to my kitchen repertoire....an Instant Pot (pressure cooker, etc.) and a pressure canner. Love the Instant Pot and I can't wait to use the canner. I'm gonna have so much fun!

Take care.....talk soon,
Laurie

Journey: Diabetes

Let food be thy medicine.

-Hippocrates

Hey y'all! Hope everyone is doing well. I'm back with some information regarding diabetes. Now, let me just say that even though my doctor did not diagnose me with diabetes, I feel sure I have a problem. Or should I say...had a problem. My sugars are staying down close to 100 and I feel like they will go even lower over the course of the next 2 months.  It is truly amazing how quickly your health can go south and how just as quickly, you can see major improvements.  I'm excited to tell you a little of what I've been learning about diabetes. 

 

What, exactly, is diabetes? Most people will tell you that you have too much sugar in your blood and they would be right to a degree. But, it actually goes further. Yes, you have too much sugar in your blood and when it sits there, it can cause damage to your blood vessels, eyes, kidneys, legs, feet, etc. Usually, when a person is diagnosed with diabetes, they are put on medication to bring the sugar levels down. Medicine works for that purpose, although, over time your condition can worsen and even more medications are needed. This line of defense, in my opinion, is no defense at all. That treatment plan treats the symptoms - too much sugar. 

What we need to do is treat the root cause. The problem is with our insulin. Insulin is the hormone that helps our cells take up glucose (sugar) to use as energy. If you eat a diet high in fats (animal products....meat, dairy and oils), over time your cells start storing that fat, taking up space that is designed for glucose. Now that your cells are gummed up with fat, your insulin can't unlock the door, so to speak, to allow glucose to enter. Therefore, the glucose just hangs out in your blood. This is called insulin resistance and we may end up having to take insulin just to keep up.

So, what's the solution? Well, if eating animal fats gummed up your cells to start with, then wouldn't it be wise to stop eating the fats? Yes! Not only should we stop eating animal fats, but olive oil, avocado oils, and vegetable oils, etc. Oils, whether considered healthy or not, are still 100% fat.

Not only does eating animal fats affect how our insulin works, but eating animal fats and oils also raises your cholesterol levels, in particular your LDL cholesterol, which puts you at a greater risk for heart disease.

Popular diets are low in carbs and high in protein. Initially these diets will work to help you lose weight. Losing weight will bring your cholesterol and sugar levels down, but eventually they stop working and you regain some of the weight, if not all. Because of the high fat content, they will raise your LDL cholesterol levels. And because they are high in protein, these diets can be hard on your kidneys.

The better option, a low-fat plant based diet with no oils.....this includes carbs.

So, let's talk about carbs. Our body uses carbohydrates for fuel. That's what it's designed to do. If you don't have diabetes, after eating, your pancreas secretes insulin to go grab those sugars from your blood and help them into your muscle cells. Everything works fine, insulin does a great job and now you have all the energy you need to go about your day.

I have been reading Dr. Neal Barnard's book for reversing diabetes and I don't know all the science behind it, although he explains things very well. I think anyone concerned about diabetes would benefit from reading his book. I'll give you the title at the end of this post.  Dr. Barnard says that eating carbs is not the problem, we need carbs, he encourages them. I'm not talking about simple carbs like sugar, cookies, cakes, etc., but complex carbs. By eating complex carbohydrate rich foods, we are not putting the fats into our cells that gums them up and makes insulin's job nearly impossible. We are putting fuel into our cells. Examples of complex carbs are, brown rice, sweet potatoes, beans, oatmeal, fruits and veggies.

Dr. Barnard's guidelines are this:
Choose foods from plant sources. Avoid all animal products and keep vegetable oils to a bare minimum. Favor food with a low glycemic index (GI).

He focuses on what he calls the 'New Four Food Groups':
Whole Grains: Whole grain pasta, brown rice, bran cereal, oatmeal, pumpernickel or rye bread, couscous, bulgur wheat, millet, barley, etc.  Suggested servings: 8 per day.

Legumes: Beans (black, pinto, or kidney beans, chickpeas, baked beans, soybeans, etc.), peas, split peas, lentils, fat-free soy products (fat-free veggie burgers, fat-free tofu), etc. Suggested servings: 3 per day

Vegetables: Sweet potatoes, broccoli, cauliflower, spinach, kale, collards, squash, green beans, bok choy, etc. Choose those with a low GI. Suggested servings: 4 or more per day.

Fruits: Apples, bananas, grapes, pears, peaches, oranges, kiwifruit, berries, etc. Choose those with a low GI. Suggested servings: 3 or more per day.

Other permitted foods:

• Fat-free dressings and other fat-free condiments

• Coffee (with fat-free nondairy creamer, if desired)

• Occasionally, alcoholic beverages

• Rarely: sugar, nuts, seeds, dark chocolate (made without milk), full-fat soy products such as tofu, tempeh, soy cheese, etc.

Foods to Avoid:

• Meats, poultry, fish, eggs (whites and yolks), and all dairy products (regular and fat-free), including milk, yogurt, cheese, ice cream, cream, sour cream, butter, etc.
• Added oils, such as margarine, salad dressings, mayonnaise, cooking oils, etc.
• Fried foods, such as potato chips, french fries, onion rings, doughnuts, etc.
• Avocados, olives, and peanut butter
• Refined foods and/or foods with a high glycemic index, such as white bread and white potatoes. 

He also recommends taking a daily multivitamin as a source of vitamin B12 and vitamin D, which you may need if you rarely get exposure to natural sunlight.

He speaks of low and high glycemic index (GI) foods. The GI is a number that indicates how rapidly any given food releases sugar into the bloodstream. A food with a high GI releases sugar into the blood quickly. A lower GI food has less effect. You can easily google those. Examples of a high GI would be: white bread...a lower GI option would be pumpernickel or rye bread. Examples of low GI foods would be: beans, green leafy vegetables, nearly all fruits with a few exceptions and even pasta. Choose lower GI foods. I'll admit, I have eaten white potatoes a couple of times, but it was before I read about the GI Index. And I eat rice, but it is brown or wild rice as opposed to white rice. I haven't been eating bread except for whole wheat pita pockets, occasionally. I bought a loaf of rye today to try, though.

So, my diet is high in complex carbs. And the only fats I'm getting are what occurs naturally in plant based foods. Plant based fats don't gum up your cells like animal fats and the fat content in plants is very, very low. Yet, it is enough to give us the amount of fat our body needs.

The other day, I mentioned that my beverages are water and coffee. But today, I remembered to tell you that if you drink milk, an excellent alternative to cow's milk is Almond milk, Soy milk, Rice milk, etc. Make sure it's fat content is no more than 2 to 3 grams per serving. The milk I choose is Almond milk. Rarely do I drink it and I'm not a cold cereal eater. But Cliff does, so I buy it for him. The brand I buy is Silk, the unsweetened one. It's NON-GMO, has no saturated fats, no cholesterol, no added sugars and has 1 gram of protein and 50% more calcium than cow's milk with only 30 calories per cup.

Whew, that was a lot of information. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask or comment. Thanks for taking time out of your day to read this. In my next post, I'll tell you where to get other key nutrients, such as protein, calcium and omega-3 fatty acids.  It is a lot of information, but the more you read, the easier it gets to understand and retain.

How am I doing? Fantastic! I have so much more energy than before I started eating vegan.  I've already ridden my bike 25.74 miles this week and I've walked 3.05 miles. I don't dread getting out there and exercising at all. And as far as my diet, it's not hard at all. I love the foods I'm eating. I don't feel deprived and I don't have cravings. I feel completely in control and I know that the end result will be complete health.

Take care and we'll talk soon!
Laurie


Book recommendation of the day: Dr. Neal Barnard's Program for Reversing Diabetes

My Journey to Health and Wellness

 

 

Get ready, y'all. This is going to be a little long.

I am a fifty-something woman who grew up in the south eating some very amazing, deliciously sinful foods. Fried chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, hamburgers and french fries, pizza, barbecue chicken and coleslaw were the norm. Basically, a typical western diet. Years of eating this way took it's toll. In 1983 my father started experiencing heart problems. He had his first open heart surgery that year…. a bypass. Daddy’s journey of battling heart disease had begun. Mama changed how she prepared meals and cut sugar from their diet. Daddy tried to eat right, but longed for those good foods he grew up eating, too. In the end, he fought long and hard. After his second bypass surgery, a stroke, angina, diabetes, copious amounts of medication, and thousands of dollars in health care he finally succumbed to his long battle with these chronic diseases. In May of 2008, he drew his last breath. Daddy’s struggle and death ingrained in me the will to do life differently. At the time, I was in x-ray school. I had gained weight and my blood pressure was getting high. I remember one day after clinicals, one of my classmates and I stopped to have our blood pressure taken. Mine was 150/80 something. I was taken aback. This blood pressure reading definitely got my attention. I had just lost my father to heart disease and here I was about to go down the same path. I declared I wouldn’t follow in his footsteps and started searching for a better way. However, I was so busy with school, studying and clinicals that I didn’t give it my best effort. But after graduation, there were no more excuses. 

One afternoon around that time, I was watching the Oprah Winfrey show and her guest was Kris Carr. Kris was a young woman diagnosed with a rare cancer that was incurable. She had multiple tumors in her lungs and liver. Given this news, Kris was determined to live the best life she could live with cancer. The short story…..she began a research journey that led her to some amazing discoveries in the area of nutrition. Using the grocery store as her pharmacy, she arrested her cancer. She had found a way using nutrition and then wrote a book about it. Kris' book is what led me to become a vegetarian in the fall of 2008. I remember thinking that if eating a plant-based diet can do this for her with cancer, what would it do for me without cancer. 

So, I began eating a vegetarian diet a week before Thanksgiving.  Wow, what a time to start something so new. I ate about a 2 oz. piece of turkey that Thanksgiving and then that was it for years. The first thing I noticed was how amazing I felt. My skin looked dewy and my blood pressure had returned to normal. Within 2 weeks, I had lost 4 lbs. That was a nice benefit since I had struggled with weight issues for many years. I never seemed to be able to lose more than 5 lbs. on any diet or at any given time. I was hopeful that this way of eating would not only keep me from having the same health issues that my father had, but that I would also, finally, be able to lose the weight. Unfortunately, the weight didn’t come off like I thought it would. The other benefits, however, were outstanding.

I stayed committed to eating a vegetarian diet for a few years. But then, when we moved to the lake, we found this great little hamburger joint that made the most amazing hamburgers. I began eating meat again. This little hamburger addiction only happened on the weekends. I would eat healthy during the week.  I was still struggling with weight issues and desperately wanted to lose a few pounds. Back in 2008, I had signed up to follow Kris Carr’s newsletter and blog and last summer, she announced that there was going to be an online health summit hosted by James Colquhoun of Food Matters taking place and that I just needed to sign up online to be a part of it. I signed up and began watching the numerous videos and interviews and became intrigued by all the health information I was hearing. I mean, I thought I knew so much about health and nutrition, but this health summit opened my eyes to so much more. This health summit focused a lot on people dealing with cancer, but the science behind it just made so much sense to me. I could feel a change taking place in my outlook on food. As a result of that summit, I was beginning to think that eating some meat wasn’t so bad. They recommended that if you ate meat, to eat wild caught fish and grass-fed animals. They also recommended that you cut out gluten and sugar. So, I did. Deep down, though, as I was eating the grass-fed bison or wild caught salmon, I just felt like this was not the way I should be eating. 

And then, almost simultaneously, I began going to a new doctor that wanted to do blood work for a baseline measurement as part of getting started in his practice and I watched a video by Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn, Jr. where he talked about reversing heart disease. He wrote a book called Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease. As it turned out, I would need to read that book. When my blood work came back, I was shocked and so disappointed in myself. I felt like I was a healthy eater. And, although my exercising had been sporadic all winter, I still exercised. Yet, my numbers were high……high cholesterol, high blood glucose, high triglycerides and I mean really high. All I could see was my father’s journey of poor health, but this time it was happening to me. After my initial shock and a few tears, I went straight to the bookstore and purchased Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn’s book and devoured it in two days. He made sense…..a lot of sense. He performed a study on a group of heart patients, some of which had angina and some had already had bypass surgeries. They were sick! This study was conducted to see how the patients would do on a low fat, plant-based diet. Basically, they would not eat meat, dairy or oils (which included nuts and avocado). They would eat only plant-based…whole grains, legumes, beans,  vegetables and fruits. The result...every one of the participants improved dramatically and over time reversed their heart disease. They lost weight, their cholesterol levels came down, their angina went away and 20 years later they are still alive and well. 

Well, I thought, that’s it! I am going to have to be one of those people that eats a vegan diet. Vegan sounds radical, it sounds restrictive and depriving. Low fat, plant-based sounds better, doesn’t it? Anyway, that week, I turned a corner. I made the commitment to get healthy. I am committed to eating in such a way that it results in weight loss and good health. I heard someone say this and I feel exactly the same…I don’t want to grow old being fat, sick and medicated. I want to grow old as healthily as I can. 

So, why am I sharing this with you? I can tell you that I thought long and hard about it. If you have been a follower of my blog, you may have noticed that my trend is to be upbeat and light-hearted as well as fun. I would rather tell you good things than dwell on the not so good. It has almost given me the shivers to share my state of health with you. LOL!  But, just the other day, one of my favorite doctors that I follow online shared a verse of scripture. When I read it, it resonated with me. I felt like I had done all this research, watched countless videos, followed many doctors and their findings on health and realized that I shouldn’t keep it to myself. The scripture…. Matthew 10:8…..Freely you have received, freely give. So there you have it. I want to freely share what I’ve learned with you.

Over the next few weeks, I will share with you my journey back to health. I will share the names and websites that I’ve followed. I will give you the numbers from my original blood work, my progress along the way and finally, the new numbers on my follow-up visit for repeat blood work at the end of May. 

I know this has been long, I apologize for that. But I really felt strongly that I needed to give you a little background before proceeding. My hope is that the information I share will be of help or at least of interest and that I can be an encouragement to you, if you find yourself on a similar path or want to avoid it altogether. 

Take care and we’ll talk soon.

Laurie

Disclaimer:  I am not a doctor nor am I a nutritionist. I am not here to tell you that my journey to health is the answer for everyone. I encourage you to do your own research and decide the best course for your health. But, if you want the short story…something to get you started toward better health, then maybe I can help. 

I’ve done the research according to my lifestyle and health concerns. Along the way, I may not tell you exactly how something works. I may not remember the details, but at the time of my research it made sense to me. So, I remember the main idea, the benefits, basically the thing that you are supposed to do. I will be writing these posts to tell you what I’ve learned about what to eat or not to eat and how it can affect your health.

Again, I am not a doctor. If you find information here contrary to what your doctor says, then by all means…do what your doctor tells you to do. I am not a professional, just someone who is truly interested in living healthy, for as long as I live. And, I would love to be that encouragement for you.