I am losing weight. My blood pressure is dropping to the normal range and even lower at times, due to my blood pressure meds. (Note: I see my doctor for my semi-annual checkup in a few weeks and in the mean time I am sending her logs of my blood pressure readings every week. If it dips dangerously low, I will call her immediately.) My fasting blood sugar is below 100 every morning, something that hasn’t happened in years.
Why is all of this happening? I only have my own personal experience as evidence but I think it is because I am following Dr. Joel Fuhrman‘s Eat to Live lifestyle. I’ve been eating according to his recommendations for a little over a month and I’ve lost over twenty five pounds so far, in addition to the lowered blood pressure and blood sugar. My cholesterol is 140 and my LDL is 98. Strong evidence.
How did I happen upon this wonderful book? Another wonderful, and very funny book, Penn Jillette’s (of Penn&Teller fame) book Presto!: How I Made 100 Pounds Disappear and Other Magical Tales. In it, he tells about his own moment of truth where he decides he has to change how he is living if he wants to live. His blood pressure was dangerously high and his doctor was suggestion he have surgical weight loss intervention (a lap band).
As I read the book, it started making sense. He had a personal coach, Ray Cronise, that helped him through his phenomenal weight loss odyssey. But toward the end of the book he mention Dr. Fuhrman’s recipes and books. He even called his dietary lifestyle Nutritarian, a term coined by Dr. Fuhrman. When I looked for publications by Ray Cronise, I didn’t find any.
Eat to Live is a great book. It is well written and heavily referenced to the medical literature. In places where he believes that studies were flawed he explains exactly what data they neglected to collect an sites other studies that collected that data and refuted the flawed studies when they exist. In short, while he makes some remarkable claims, he has evidence and a functional model of human nutrition to back it up.
I know, I sound like an evangelical preacher. I also know that some people may not choose to eat this way. I am not judging how anyone else chooses to live their life. I am just thankful that I am finally starting to lose a significant amount of this excess weight that was killing me and making me tired all of the time.
I expect to keep dropping weight until I reach my target. Then I’ll adjust my diet slightly to maintain that weight and still eat a nutrient rich, plant centric diet. Spoiler alert – Dr. Fuhrman recommends you eat mostly leafy green vegetables, raw vegetables, and fruits. He discourages eating much if any animal products such as meat or dairy. He emphasizes low salt, low oil, and low sugar. He also suggests avoiding highly processed, nutrient poor foods such as white flour, white rice, etc.
I eat all I want, I’m not hungry, and I’m losing about a pound a day. I’ll update you on my progress in a future blog post.
Don’t take my word for it. If you’re interested, read the book, Eat to Live, and give his plan a try for six weeks. I believe you may find a solution to weight loss and healthy living that you can live with.
Sweet dreams, don’t forget to tell the ones you love that you love them, and most important of all, be kind.