DEBBY's Story

I decided that I was going to change my lifestyle and follow the Nutritarian way no matter what. My birth dad had type 2 diabetes and didn’t take car of himself and ended of dying of end stage kidney failure. I decided then and there that I would not go down that road, that I would change my life and live healthfully. I had been leaning to the Nutritarian way of eating for a few years but didn’t know how I could implement it into my life on a daily basis, especially when my husband and grown children who live close don’t eat this way.

It has changed my life completely in a short time. Before I started the diet my blood pressure even with medication was higher than it should be, 144/90 or sometimes a little higher than that.  I had been starting to have swelling in my ankles as I sat at my desk at work and slight tingling in my legs. I was often anxious, sometimes I would get a pain on the lower side of my neck when I was anxious. I had episodes where I felt my heart race or jump for a few seconds here or there which made me even more anxious. I was exhausted by the end of my work day. I had thickening on the bottoms of my breasts and one was identified as a benign cyst on a mammogram. They are no completely gone.

I have more energy, and a sense of well-being. My anxiety is much better, my blood pressure is better, 118/79 or less with 4 mg of medication I am still taking. The swelling in my ankles has stopped and the tingling in my legs has stopped as well.  I don’t feel my heart race or jump around anymore. My skin is better. I just look and feel so much better.  I lost 26 pounds but still have 64 pounds to lose, I am not worried about it, I just keep living this Nutritarian lifestyle and I know I will get there, and also will maintain the weight loss once I do.

As a side note, my husband had blood work done in April and his cholesterol was up and his blood sugars were borderline diabetic so his doctor wanted him tested in a 2- hour test for diabetes. I convinced him to do the Nutritarian diet. He started April 29^th and then went for blood work on May 18^th and drank the sugary drink and waited 2 hours. His blood sugar peaked at 7.7 (Canadian measurement) and the doctor said that was in the normal range. My husband was very happy. His doctor didn’t seem to believe that diet makes a difference when we told him what we are doing. He said of the blood work for my husband, I don’t if it was the dietary changes for a month that made the difference or that the last test done in April was an aberration.

I am very grateful my husband is eating this way now because he had a hemorrhagic stroke in December 2015 due to uncontrolled high blood pressure due to his lifestyle diet. He recovered from that stroke, but I don’t want him to have another one and if we can prevent it following the Nutritarian diet, it is so worth it.