Tom's Story

I have followed Dr. Fuhrman online for several years and have read most of his books. A few years ago, I did a three-month trial run of the Nutritarian lifestyle but fell off the wagon. In August of 2020 I broke a bone in my foot and was in a cast and then a boot for several months which led to a long period of inactivity and subsequent weight gain. I topped out at 400 pounds! I have had Type 2 Diabetes for many years and my numbers got worse during this time. I was injecting 60 units of insulin, taking 2 oral meds to no avail and my neuropathy was getting worse. At age 72 I decided it was time to draw a line in the sand and make some radical lifestyle changes before things got beyond the point of no return.

In March I got hooked up with a new diabetes educator who was very familiar with Dr. Fuhrman’s work, and we hit it off. With her encouragement I started phasing out some of my bad eating habits and began eating more plant based/whole foods. During my transition period leading up to the Weight Loss Challenge I lost about 18 pounds.

 When the weight Loss Challenge started on May 3rd, 2021, I weighed in at 381.6 pounds. I did the 21-day detox and the pounds started disappearing. My blood sugar numbers also improved rapidly. I was able to reduce my insulin injections and eventually got off it entirely. I also was able to get off Glipizide. I am still taking Metformin but when I see my doctor next month, I think we can eliminate that as well. My blood pressure has also improved substantially. My current weight is 294.8 which I have been maintaining for about a week since the Challenge ended. My official weight loss during the challenge was 86.8 pounds and my BMI dropped 11 points.

A large part of my strategy has been to bombard myself with Dr. Fuhrman videos from YouTube. I am retired and an early riser, so I start each day by listening to an hour or so of lectures featuring Dr. Fuhrman’s talks at various conferences or his appearances on Public Television. I have watched them repeatedly as an attempt to brainwash myself into following the Nutritarian lifestyle. To be fair there are other doctors who I listen to in addition to Dr. Fuhrman, but I always come back to him. After the first month or so of the challenge I settled into a routine—steel cut oats with walnuts, flax, blueberries, raspberries or strawberries for breakfast, a big salad for lunch with some fruit for dessert and a vegetable bean soup for dinner and more fruit. Occasionally we have something else for dinner just to break things up a little. I was on a mission and menu variety was not a priority. My wife was a big help in meal preparation and moral support. We both gave up alcohol during this adventure which also helped drop the pounds.

I’m feeling great at this point with much more energy and endurance. I’m also proud of myself for accomplishing a monumental weight loss of over 100 pounds.