About Me

Welcome to my blog!

I'm a guy--a guy's guy. A BIG guy's guy. I'm 6'6" and 271 pounds down from 286 Jan 1, 2013. I could have easily played pro football, but instead joined the Marines for eight years back in 1984-1991. I've always been big. In fact, I was 40 pounds when I was only a year old because I was fed baby formula instead of natures gold. I've heard I'm "just big boned" my entire childhood. But that's not necessarily true.

The fact is, I was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes in 2004. My recent Hemoglobin A1C (HbA1C) was 10.8, meaning out-of-control blood sugar (people without diabetes is between 4 and 5.6). So the Docs give me meds, and more meds, and adjust my meds, but nothing is changing. And I've been eating really healthy: lean meats, vegetables, an occasional dessert, etc. I'm in the Navy, so I exercise regularly. I've been shooting Lantus (insulin) twice a day, and Novalog (mealtime insulin) three times a day. The medications make me gain weight, which makes me need more medications, which makes me gain more weight--and Medical Boards in the Navy loom over my head, you can see the cycle: more diabetic.

After watching the Joe Cross documentary "Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead," and reading Dr. Joel Fuhrman's books "The End of Diabetes" and "Eat to Live", I decided to take the radical plunge and begin a 60 day vegetable juice fast, as Joe did in his documentary. Every day, for 60 days, vegetables in a Vitamix or in my Omega juicer. Some may call me crazy, but I figure I don't have anything to lose--except the extra pounds (or "energy" as Joe Cross call it) around my gut. How about reversing diabetes I thought to myself.

So why 54/7?

54: In honor of my dad when he died at age 54 with diabetes. After he died, we counted the bottles of different medications--about 30. I'm up to 10. I've got a beautiful family with four kids, and I want to be around for their weddings and my future grandchildren.

7: On the seventh day, God rested--our Sabbath. I am giving my body a rest on this reboot, a Sabbath of sorts from meat, dairy, soda, caffeine, and all processed food. Only fruits, vegetables, seeds, nuts, and beans. A food rest to never return to the American way of eating again.

I begin my journey on February 1, 2013, and will break it on my birthday on March 31. After this 60 day juice fast, I'll be going to a plant-based ("Nutritarian") diet, as in Dr. Fuhrman's Eat to Live book. My goal is to get down to 225 pounds. No more medications, no more needles. Diabetes gone. Oh by the way I am telling my Doc's with their care what I am doing. Every 10 days I am giving blood to monitor my progress and leave my meds behind. I will be giving blood to my Doc's every 10 days posting my lab results and picture of my waist so we can show the world reversing diabetes is in fact an option.

Thanks for taking the journey with me!

Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Day 5

Well got my baseline labs yesterday.  Not good news at all:
A1C: 11.5 (very poor and out of control I need to cut it in half)
FBS: 306 (fasting blood sugar FBS)
Weight: 272
Waist: 43 (Down 1")
Neck: 19.5

Some have asked me what is an A1C Hemoglobin. The HbA1C is a measure of the percentage of the hemoglobin in the blood that has been glycated (has had a sugar molecule added to it); the higher your blood glucose, the more glycation occurs. The HbA1C result is an indicator of blood glucose levels over the previous three months. So that would include for me Nov and Dec Holiday period food.  So the longer I am fasting the better the AIC will become.  Currently mine is extremely poor at 11.5. After three months on the bean-enriched or grain-enriched diets, this measure of long-term glycemic control can be improved but a greater improvement was seen in the bean folks when tested in two groups.
Although it may seem small, a 0.5% decrease in HbA1C is actually quite large, considering that a “healthy” (nondiabetic) A1C is below 6.0%, and a poorly controlled diabetic level is 8.0% or higher and that is me. A1C reductions in the range of 0.5-1% translate into significant risk reductions for complications such as kidney damage. A small improvement in HbA1C (like the half-point improvement) is very significant, as it could represent years of lifespan gained or lost. Beans as the major starch source in the diet have the potential to make a huge positive impact on the long-term health of diabetics. These improvements in health are cumulative with other dietary changes that improve HbA1C. So a small improvement from more beans and squashes, comes with a small improvement from berries and greens, and an small improvements. Additionally, using nuts and seeds, and a small improvement from not snacking and so on all these small improvements which at first may seem like just a few tenths in HbA1C cumulatively result in massive benefits and for most, the end of diabetes.  So here we are day 5.  I juiced all day but ate some carrots, salad and hummus in the evening.  It seems that I am able to get further in the day without any solid vegetables.  My goal is to eliminate any solid food but not quite there yet.  My next blood draw is Monday so we will see what that brings.  I am a very discouraged with my AIC but I understand that it will go down because I am being consistent with this fast. The good news is I dropped one inch off my waist line so I am seeing some improvement.

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