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Tamara M. Lost Over 142 Pounds, Reversed Type 2 Diabetes

Updated May 24, 2023

Before and after a year!

What made me change the way I ate? Simple…the way I felt! I hadn’t felt good for a long time. I was overweight, tired and achy, uncomfortable, and I hurt a lot. I was unhappy with the way I felt! I was tired of feeling that way and wanted to be able to move easily and freely, get healthy, be active, and get my weight to a healthy BMI. I was addicted to unhealthy food.

I decided that I was worth it to get myself healthy and in a place where I was comfortable with myself and felt good. I had to acknowledge my addiction and take action to change it. I decided I was going to focus on self-care for myself and that meant a lot of change and some new eating and exercise habits. It is ok to focus on ourselves and take the time to make sure we are giving ourselves good nutrition, plenty of healthy movement, good rest, time to ourselves, and time doing things we enjoy. “Self-care is something that refuels us, rather than takes from us” – Agnes Wainman. There is a difference between self-care and self-indulgence. I’m still working on identifying self-indulgence in areas of my life.

My starting weight was 290.5 pounds on March 15, 2022. I’m 5 foot 4 and was considered morbidly obese. Which means I was so overweight that it was basically killing me. That’s what the “morbid” part really means. I wasn’t always overweight. I was pretty thin throughout my life until my late 30s or early 40s. I’ve pretty much always eaten the standard American diet. I was nutrition deficient and addicted to food. I had tried Weight Watchers, counting calories, tried Adkins, Nutrisystem and tried moderation. I lost weight several times only to go back to my previous eating habits and gain it all back, plus more as time went on. I was less and less active during this time. Our entertainment often involved food and meeting people at restaurants for a meal. A lot revolves around food, vacations, holidays, birthdays, and celebrations of all sorts.

I didn’t have much energy and was tired a lot. I enjoy traveling with family and friends and we do travel often. We weren’t as active during these trips the heavier we found ourselves though. It was a chore walking very far. Being in the heat was harder on me being that heavy too. I was constantly hot and felt like I couldn’t cool off and was always sweating. When traveling by plane, I had gotten to the point I needed a seat belt extender.  It takes a lot of effort to move your body when you’re overweight. Everything was sore and it was hard to get comfortable.

I was diagnosed with stage 3 colon cancer in 2016 and 2018. I had surgery and 6 months of chemotherapy both times. Chemo took a toll on me. I developed neuropathy in my hands and feet. They were painful and numb in places and felt like pins and needles a lot. I developed type 2 diabetes during this time, had sleep apnea, found out I had non-alcoholic cirrhosis, my blood pressure was starting to increase, had to deal with bowel issues having only 14 inches of colon left from the surgeries. I dealt with pain in the abdominal area due to adhesions, and I got short of breath and sweaty a lot.

So yes, I was tired of the way I felt at 57 years old. I didn’t like the direction my health was going and there was so much more I wanted to do. I love to travel and experience new places. After not knowing whether or not I was going to survive two cancer diagnoses, I knew I needed a big change. I wanted to get out and enjoy life more.

A few years earlier, I ran across a plant-based diet and found Esther Loveridge. I started following her page on Facebook. She followed the McDougall Program for Maximum Weight Loss and lost 130 pounds in her 70s. I thought if she could do it at her age, surely I could too. That’s about as far as I got then. Fast forward to 2022, I googled a plant-based diet and found the Starch Solution by Dr. McDougall. I read through all of his website which he gives you all the information you need for free. I ordered and read his book and a few others, joined a Starch Solution McDougall group on Facebook, watched several documentaries like Forks Over Knives, What the Health, and Game Changers, and searched out other plant-based pages to educate myself.

I learned processed meat is a group 1 carcinogen. Eating animal products leads to heart disease, hypertension, and diabetes. Animal protein turns on cancer cells. Cholesterol is only found in meat and dairy. There are so many PCB’s, mercury, saturated fat, and cholesterol in fish. Salmon and fish are mercury sponges. Pesticides and herbicides bioaccumulate and are found in the flesh of fish. Antibiotics are in farmed fish, making them no better. Dairy leads to several cancers  (especially those related to hormones) and autoimmune diseases. Most people are lactose intolerant. Cows milk is the most allergenic food. If we eat these animal products, we will get these diseases, and I have. Plant food has all the nutrients you need and they do not promote disease. Eating a plant-based diet can reverse disease, and has. The standard American diet is addictive and designed to be that way so you’ll keep going back for more of these products.

After learning all I could, I decided to do an intervention on my kitchen! I cleared out my refrigerator and cabinets of everything non-compliant. I decided that day that this was the answer and I had to get out all the food that was literally poisoning me. I gave away food and threw a lot out. By the time my husband came home from work, there was not much left in the house. We had a lot of processed junk. I explained to him the basics of the Starch Solution and told him what diseases it was known to reverse and he said he would do it too! Wait what!? I figured he would continue to buy his meat, cheese, and crackers and I would buy what I planned to eat. To my surprise, he said he’d do it with me and eat what I did. I’m thinking ok vegetable hater, we will see how long you last. I went out and bought an air fryer and an instant pot right away. I knew I needed to equip myself with everything I could to make this way of eating easier. I shopped for everything I could find that needed to be replaced and stocked our fridge and cabinets with all things whole food plant-based.

We eat a lot of potatoes of all kinds, lots of fruit and vegetables, whole grains, beans and legumes. We limit bread, pasta, nuts and seeds, avocados, and tofu since we are in weight loss mode. We cut out all animal products – meat, dairy, eggs, and no processed foods – including all oil. I have a new lease on life. I realized we each have the power over our health when we choose whole food plant-based eating habits and provide our body with the proper nutrition, we can become healthier and be free of disease and from taking medication. Food is medicine!

Our cravings for meat, dairy, and processed food have gone away. We don’t have it in the house and we rarely dine out. We hope that in the near future, more opportunities arise for us to dine out in restaurants that are WFPB where food is not covered in butter and oil. Our kitchen is stocked with healthy plant food and we always have quick meals ready. We keep meals pretty simple. I eat oatmeal with fruit most mornings, lunch and dinner is some kind of soup, potatoes, veggies with hummus, fruit, rice, beans, or cooked vegetables, and salad with a homemade dressing. We’ve had apple crisps, banana nut muffins, and nice cream as far as dessert. On occasion, we have vegetable pizzas and pasta.

Since March 15, 2022, we both are still going strong and plan on eating this way for the rest of our lives. My husband also had serious health issues and he was willing to try anything if it meant he could keep his disease in remission. Which he has! I’ve lost 142.5 pounds so far and weigh 148 pounds as of March 2023 and my husband has lost 123 pounds. We’re 265.5 pounds lighter and so much healthier! We’ve both lost a lot and have gained so much of our life back. I walk daily and my husband does cycling, we hike together on the weekends, go kayaking, play basketball, practice yoga, and have tried a few other exercise classes. We’re healthier and more active than we’ve been in a long time. We don’t know what the future holds, but we know we’re doing the best we can for our health. We have a fresh new outlook on life and that’s what matters.

We don’t miss one thing about the way we previously ate and like most, I wish we would have made this change much sooner. I believe we’ve added years on to our lives now and we’re excited to continue on this journey and look forward to seeing where it takes us. It’s allowed us to already meet some amazing new friends and it’s fun to see and try new things. I’m so thankful to Dr. McDougall and all the people who make it their life mission to teach about plant-based eating and its many benefits to us all, the animals, and our planet. We do have control of our health through a plant-based lifestyle.

I’m no longer type 2 diabetic, no longer have sleep apnea, my liver enzymes improved, my blood pressure is normal, my neuropathy has improved, and I’m in a lot less pain. I was off insulin the first week of changing to eating plant-based. My husband’s inflammation markers went from 80 to 1. He hasn’t suffered from the debilitating symptoms of vasculitis since he changed the way he eats. He’s hoping he will be able to discontinue the injections he’s had to take to keep it in remission soon.

Besides the weight loss and health benefits, probably one of the biggest highlights for me is being able to hike a mountain in the Great Smokey Mountains last fall. It was a truly monumental achievement. I went from being sedentary a lot of the time to hiking up mountains! All through plants!

I hope we inspire others to make the change. Your health and outlook on life will be so much better. You do not have to live with disease and you’re not destined to be sick and tired. We keep it simple and consistently stick to easy meals and exercise we enjoy and will be able to sustain. Healthy habits for life. Changing what we eat does have the power to change our lives!