My success story.

Share your McDougall successes here in order to inspire others.

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My success story.

Postby joshrd78 » Sun Jul 15, 2012 11:24 am

Hello Everyone,
I've been reading the boards here for over a year and a half now but this is my first post. I decided to post here because recently I posted a picture of myself on facebook after changing to this way of eating for this past year and a half and judging by the reaction I got from my friends and family (most who don't see me all that often) I decided that I indeed have been successful and wanted to share it with all of you. My story is fairly lengthy but I feel the details are needed to fully understand how I got to where I am.

This first picture below is me in 2001 moving into my apartment 2 months after having graduated college. At this point in time I don't remember exactly what I weighed but I'm thinking it was around 210+ lbs. Needless to say, I had gone from being being a trim 8th grader (130 lbs) to this in a span of 9 years.

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After that my weight kept going up until around 2007 I was at my all time high of 240+ lbs. The second picture below is is me at thanksgiving around to 230-240 lb mark.

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In 2007 I managed to lose 40 lbs. in about a year doing nothing but cutting back portions. It worked for a time but I was starving all the time and when the stresses of my work came back I quickly regained almost everything I lost to where in 2009 I was back up to 235 lbs.

So how did I end up here on McDougalls website? Believe it or not it all started out with finances. For many years I had constant anxiety about my financial situation (although in retrospect it wasn't as bad as I made it out to be.) when in 2008 I stumbled across a guy on the radio talking about finances. The advice he gave was making sense to me and so I looked into it some more. After reading his book, listening to him on the radio, and taking some of his classes I was deeply inspired and worked my way out of debt, put aside money for emergencies and began budgeting on a monthly basis. I was making great progress on my fiances and this was making me extremely happy and motivated. So much so that my motivation for losing weight and getting healthy came from a quote the guy had in one of his books...

"If you want to be Rich do what Rich people do. If you want to be skinny, You're not going to eat what fat people are eating...If you want a good marriage don't go to some guy that's been married 16 times and wrote a book. Find some old couple walking down the street that's been married 62 years and she's holding him up. Find out how he did that. Take that guy to lunch. He's got some wisdom. Find winners and mimic what they're doing to win."


This quote kept running through my head over and over and over and over while I was working on my fiances and after I time I began to think about my health. I started to think about the skinny people I know and was wondering if any of them could inspire me to be skinnier. The more I thought about it though the more I realized that the skinny people I know weren't my idea of healthy nor did I think they could help me. Why? Because they all ate the same junk I ate just less of it. I had already proven to myself that eating less of junk food doesn't really work long term. That's when I realized it's not about finding skinny people and doing what they do. It's about finding HEALTHY people and doing what they do. Problem was, I didn't know anyone that screamed HEALTH to me. So I thought what typical people think...it's all about diet and exercise. I decided to concentrate first on learning the truth about nutrition. I was determined that know matter what, even if I had to read college level text books that I was going to understand what truly is healthy based on science. I didn't want to know how to eat nothing but cookies for 30 days and lose weight. I wanted to know how to become a beacon of health and it had to be based on solid science. So my search began by trying to find books for my Nook (like the Amazon Kindle) on health and nutrition. I downloaded several samples that sounded interesting and began to read. The first two samples I read didn't catch my attention. But the third one did. It was a book called The Spectrum by Dr. Dean Ornish. I read the sample and was hooked so I bought the entire book. After reading the entire book in one evening I was just amazed. Here was a guy that had shown that you can reverse heart disease. Like many other people I had always believed that this was impossible. I changed my diet the very next day and after 6 months I had lost 20 lbs. But I was having trouble coming up with recipes to eat so I search on Amazon for vegan cookbooks and it just so happened at that exact time Happy Herbivore by Lindsay Nixson had just come out so I ordered that. While I was waiting for the cookbook to arrive I checked out her website and found an interesting blog post about not consuming oil. I was intrigued...why no oil? Dr Ornish allowed some oil, low fat dairy, and egg whites after all. In her blog post she had a link to a video on the VegSource.Com website of Jeff Novicks talk on oils. I was hooked so I went looking some more and ended up here on Dr. McDougalls website where his starch solution video was posted and I watched that. Now I was convinced to follow this way of eating and thus I modified my diet slightly from Dr. Ornish and starting following Dr. McDougalls and Jeff's advice. After a year and a half I'm now down to 167 lbs. The picture below is me at this weight. Not only have I lost almost 70 lbs. But I am healthier than I ever been in my life. Before changing my diet my blood pressure was getting to the hypertensive stage. High 130s / 80+. My cholesterol was 192 (Tri = 192, HDL = 39, LDL = 114) but that was taken 3 or 4 years before my worst weight so my guess is it was even worse. As of June 2012 my blood presume is right around 110/70 and my cholesterol is 90 (Tri = 97, HDL = 27, and LDL = 44). Needless to say I am thrilled and I feel great. At 5'6" I still have 12 lbs to lose until I can be considered in the 'ideal' range for weight but even if I don't ever shed another lb I know I will enjoy great health continuing this way of eating. I want to give thanks to Dr. McDougall, Jeff Novick, Dr Campbell, Dr. Esselstyn, Dr. Ornish, Dr. Bernard, everyone who shares their inspiring stories here on the boards, and all of the other great people for teaching me to truth about nutrition and health. They are the winners I was looking for to be examples in my health journey!

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Thanks,
-Josh
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Re: My success story.

Postby Lexus » Sun Jul 15, 2012 11:44 am

Wow, way to go Josh!! The best part about the pictures (even more than the weight loss) is the smile on your face! You look as if you were forcing a smile on the first two pictures. Now you have a genuine look of happiness!!

So glad you found this WOE and good wishes on your journey ahead!
All my best, Lexus

Began the journey to health on April 20, 2012!

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Re: My success story.

Postby PotatoFiend » Sun Jul 15, 2012 12:16 pm

Lexus wrote:The best part about the pictures (even more than the weight loss) is the smile on your face! You look as if you were forcing a smile on the first two pictures. Now you have a genuine look of happiness!!
I agree! :nod: Thanks for sharing your success! :thumbsup:
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Re: My success story.

Postby Frieda » Sun Jul 15, 2012 12:16 pm

Awesome, Josh! Thanks so much for sharing your story and congratulations!
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Re: My success story.

Postby Starchyme » Sun Jul 15, 2012 1:43 pm

Fantasic testimony, Josh. So inspirational. Especially for young people who are inclined to think heart problems, diabetes, etc., are diseases that come with aging. Keep on keeping on and let us know how things are going. Happy McDougalling!
Happy McDougalling!
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Re: My success story.

Postby blue » Sun Jul 15, 2012 2:56 pm

You look amazing! Congrats!! :)
Success using WFPB diet to avoid steroid treatment for polymyalgia rheumatica. I don't hurt anymore :)
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Re: My success story.

Postby Birdy » Sun Jul 15, 2012 3:06 pm

Your story is just wonderful and you do look so happy in the recent photo. Thanks for sharing and inspiring us. Wishing you much success in the future!
"The program is essentially cost and risk free." ~ Dr. John McDougall
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Re: My success story.

Postby Vegankit » Sun Jul 15, 2012 3:31 pm

Very inspiring. Wish I was as smart about my diet and health in my youth as you are.
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Re: My success story.

Postby Kate » Sun Jul 15, 2012 3:36 pm

Thanks for sharing your wonderful story! You look amazing! Way to go!!
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Re: My success story.

Postby Earthangel » Sun Jul 15, 2012 7:04 pm

PotatoFiend wrote:
Lexus wrote:The best part about the pictures (even more than the weight loss) is the smile on your face! You look as if you were forcing a smile on the first two pictures. Now you have a genuine look of happiness!!
I agree! :nod: Thanks for sharing your success! :thumbsup:


Congrats Josh! Your smile says it all. You are truly an inspiration! Thanks for sharing!
Amanda Newcomer

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Re: My success story.

Postby veggie lover » Sun Jul 15, 2012 10:04 pm

Wow! Congratulations! You look fantastic!
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Re: My success story.

Postby Watermelon Lady » Mon Jul 16, 2012 8:22 am

Congratulations! You look great!
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Re: My success story.

Postby John McDougall » Mon Jul 16, 2012 9:25 am

I loved reading about your journey.

Like all of us, once you discover the truth you have no need to look elsewhere for answers.

Congratulations.

John McDougall, MD
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Re: My success story.

Postby greentea » Mon Jul 16, 2012 9:38 am

Josh, thank you for sharing your wonderful story!

The gentleman who got you started on your journey, was that Larry Winget by any chance? I have recently read a couple of his books and found them to be incredibly inspirational and would highly recommend them to anyone on these boards who are having trouble getting started or committing.

Cheers and welcome!!! :D
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Re: My success story.

Postby ETeSelle » Mon Jul 16, 2012 10:25 am

Congrats! You look GREAT! :)
Elizabeth
Weight now: 124 (20.0 BMI)
Weight in 2010: 207 (33.4 BMI)
Star McDougaller Story
Testimonial thread

Trust me on this: One day you'll wake up and realize that it no longer feels like "being strict." It just feels GOOD. :)
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