What 26 Months Of Plant Foods Have Done For Me (So Far)
Posted: Thu May 23, 2013 2:00 pm
It's possible to blather at length, and I've proved it here. So let me start this thread with a raw numbers post. For background, I'm diabetic, obese, hypertensive, and have some cardiac valve disease. I've been eating plant foods exclusively (with the usual challenges and setbacks of course) since March 19, 2011. A lot more detail about that is in the linked thread for those who are curious, including meds info, which has changed a lot for the better over the period.
A1c -- measure of blood sugar control
Nov-16-05: 7.1
Nov-28-06: 7.9
Mar-28-07: 7.6
Dec-18-07: 6.1
Mar-05-08: 6.2
Jan-08-09: 6.7
Oct-26-09: 5.9
Mar-03-11: 6.0
Mar-19-11: ---- started eating plant foods
Aug-30-11: 5.5
Oct-20-11: 5.4
Dec-28-11: 5.3
Apr-17-12: 5.2
Aug-20-12: 5.2
Nov-26-12: 5.2
May-21-13: 5.0
Total Cholesterol:
Nov-23-05: 245
Oct-26-09: 246
Mar-19-11: ---- started eating plant foods
Aug-30-11: 142
Oct-20-11: 152
Dec-28-11: 133
Apr-17-12: 126
Aug-20-12: 195
Nov-26-12: 161
May-21-13: 158
HDL Cholesterol (the good stuff)
Nov-23-05: 23
Oct-26-09: 25
Mar-19-11: ---- started eating plant foods
Aug-30-11: 25
Oct-20-11: <15
Dec-28-11: 27
Apr-17-12: 29
Aug-20-12: 31
Nov-26-12: 26
May-21-13: 34
LDL Cholesterol (the bad stuff)
Nov-23-05: 188
Oct-26-09: 168
Mar-19-11: ---- started eating plant foods
Aug-30-11: 75!
Oct-20-11: not calculable due to HDL non-detect
Dec-28-11: 69
Apr-17-12: 71
Aug-20-12: 130
Nov-26-12: 83
May-21-13: 90
Triglycerides:
Nov-23-05: 169
Oct-26-09: 263
Mar-19-11: ---- started eating plant foods
Aug-30-11: 211
Oct-20-11: 200
Dec-28-11: 185
Apr-17-12: 130
Aug-20-12: 169
Nov-26-12: 259
May-21-13: 170
Weight:
Nov-23-05: 450
June 2010: 575-600? (peak weight, est)
Dec-25-10: 518
Mar-18-11: 482
Mar-19-11: ---- started eating plant foods
Jun-17-11: 441
Sep-16-11: 395
Dec-25-11: 375
Mar-15-12: 370
Jun-22-12: 347
Sep-21-12: 362
Dec-14-12: 360
Mar-29-13: 379
May-23:13: 376
I'm not going to write a long essay about these numbers. To me they demonstrate the benefits of plant-based eating ranging from spectacular (blood sugar control) to pretty awesome (blood lipids) to fairly damned good (initial weight loss plus partial maintenance).
For those wondering, my compliance in terms of avoidance of animal products has been very strong, except for some dairy creeping in during part of 2012 (and you can sorta see it in the lipids numbers). I'm currently eating very cleanly and my level of contentment with my food is high. The stall and partial giveback on the weight loss I'm attributing to a variety of factors, including my ongoing problems with volume eating, some laxity (currently suppressed again) I was allowing myself about refined grains and oil contamination in public settings, and an unholy combination of stressful life and too much alcohol consumption. (Fixing those are works in progress.)
It's not a perfect picture by far, and the last year's been rough in all kinds of ways. But I've been amazed by how comfortable and easy it's been to stick with the plant foods, even when other factors have caused me to eat too much of them, exercise too little, drink too much whisky, and generally stumble through life. And the measures of well-being that the plant foods way of eating have enabled for me remain quite dramatic: much better mobility due to reduced weight, radically reduced quantity and expense of medications, visibly improved circulation in my legs, ability to walk much further and spend much more time on my feet, improved digestion, a more justifiable optimism about my cardiac issues.... I could go on, but that's enough to be getting started with.
A1c -- measure of blood sugar control
Nov-16-05: 7.1
Nov-28-06: 7.9
Mar-28-07: 7.6
Dec-18-07: 6.1
Mar-05-08: 6.2
Jan-08-09: 6.7
Oct-26-09: 5.9
Mar-03-11: 6.0
Mar-19-11: ---- started eating plant foods
Aug-30-11: 5.5
Oct-20-11: 5.4
Dec-28-11: 5.3
Apr-17-12: 5.2
Aug-20-12: 5.2
Nov-26-12: 5.2
May-21-13: 5.0
Total Cholesterol:
Nov-23-05: 245
Oct-26-09: 246
Mar-19-11: ---- started eating plant foods
Aug-30-11: 142
Oct-20-11: 152
Dec-28-11: 133
Apr-17-12: 126
Aug-20-12: 195
Nov-26-12: 161
May-21-13: 158
HDL Cholesterol (the good stuff)
Nov-23-05: 23
Oct-26-09: 25
Mar-19-11: ---- started eating plant foods
Aug-30-11: 25
Oct-20-11: <15
Dec-28-11: 27
Apr-17-12: 29
Aug-20-12: 31
Nov-26-12: 26
May-21-13: 34
LDL Cholesterol (the bad stuff)
Nov-23-05: 188
Oct-26-09: 168
Mar-19-11: ---- started eating plant foods
Aug-30-11: 75!
Oct-20-11: not calculable due to HDL non-detect
Dec-28-11: 69
Apr-17-12: 71
Aug-20-12: 130
Nov-26-12: 83
May-21-13: 90
Triglycerides:
Nov-23-05: 169
Oct-26-09: 263
Mar-19-11: ---- started eating plant foods
Aug-30-11: 211
Oct-20-11: 200
Dec-28-11: 185
Apr-17-12: 130
Aug-20-12: 169
Nov-26-12: 259
May-21-13: 170
Weight:
Nov-23-05: 450
June 2010: 575-600? (peak weight, est)
Dec-25-10: 518
Mar-18-11: 482
Mar-19-11: ---- started eating plant foods
Jun-17-11: 441
Sep-16-11: 395
Dec-25-11: 375
Mar-15-12: 370
Jun-22-12: 347
Sep-21-12: 362
Dec-14-12: 360
Mar-29-13: 379
May-23:13: 376
I'm not going to write a long essay about these numbers. To me they demonstrate the benefits of plant-based eating ranging from spectacular (blood sugar control) to pretty awesome (blood lipids) to fairly damned good (initial weight loss plus partial maintenance).
For those wondering, my compliance in terms of avoidance of animal products has been very strong, except for some dairy creeping in during part of 2012 (and you can sorta see it in the lipids numbers). I'm currently eating very cleanly and my level of contentment with my food is high. The stall and partial giveback on the weight loss I'm attributing to a variety of factors, including my ongoing problems with volume eating, some laxity (currently suppressed again) I was allowing myself about refined grains and oil contamination in public settings, and an unholy combination of stressful life and too much alcohol consumption. (Fixing those are works in progress.)
It's not a perfect picture by far, and the last year's been rough in all kinds of ways. But I've been amazed by how comfortable and easy it's been to stick with the plant foods, even when other factors have caused me to eat too much of them, exercise too little, drink too much whisky, and generally stumble through life. And the measures of well-being that the plant foods way of eating have enabled for me remain quite dramatic: much better mobility due to reduced weight, radically reduced quantity and expense of medications, visibly improved circulation in my legs, ability to walk much further and spend much more time on my feet, improved digestion, a more justifiable optimism about my cardiac issues.... I could go on, but that's enough to be getting started with.