Three year anniversary!

[MINNIE]

Hello,

I hope that someone new to this will read this post and feel enouraged to give it a try;).

I started following the McDougall Starch Solution way of eating on January 1, 2013.

I was thin and active then. I had been a vegetarian most of my adult life, out of concern for animals. I had been a vegan for several years, and was eating what I thought was a healthy vegan diet. So based on that, I thought I shouldn't be sick.

But I was, all the time. I had chronic GERD, IBS, allergies, high cholesterol, depression....life hardly seemed worth living.

I was at a loss for a natural lifestyle-based approach to regaining my health, but conventional doctors had nothing useful to offer.
I didn't want any more pills, invasive tests or suggestions that my problems were psychosomatic (i.e. the patient's fault). I was almost convinced that my body must be congenitally defective, and that nothing would ever change this.

Fortunately, in the course of some random reading about health and nutrition, I came across The Starch Solution and Dr. Esselstyn's Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease at about the same time. Reading these books completely changed my thinking.

I wasn't overweight, and I'm not sure why I first picked up The Starch Solution -maybe it was just the potato on the cover. Why would a doctor tell people to eat starch to lose weight, I wondered. Didn't everyone know that starch made people fat? I actually expected it to be just another silly diet book written make money off gullible people. But when I started reading I learned that diet was also directly related to the kinds of problems I was having. I was amazed that nobody had told me any of this before. I wasn't defective, it was my food that was defective!

I decided to follow Dr. McDougall's starch-based diet 100 % for one year and see what would happen. After just a few days I realized that this was what I had been waiting for, and that I would continue it for the rest of my life.


I have followed it since then with 100% compliance. This was possible because I decided to prepare all my own food and not eat any restaurant and take out food for a year. I thought this might be hard, but it was actually easy. I had to re-learn how to cook my own food, and again it was easy. With the help of blogs such as Straight Up Food, and Jeff Novick's videos, I learned to enjoy simple and quick food preparation.

I still prepare all my own food and am perfectly happy doing so. Eating was fraught with anxiety for me when everything I ate seemed to hurt, but now it is stress-free and enjoyable. I never crave fat or processed foods now.

The results have been everything I wanted - and so much more . My cholesterol quickly went down 100 points, my weight stayed stable, my allergies, GERD and IBS disappeared so fast it was unbelievable. This was after years of unnecessary pain and suffering.

All I can say now is thanks to the McDougall's and to everyone else who has helped educate me about how to be really healthy.

Best wishes to all for a happy and healthy year!

[Yomom]

Congratulations, Minnie. Thanks for sharing your results.

[DangerousKiwi]

Congrats! That's awesome.

[Paul21]

Thank you Minnie for the encouragement. I am just starting this program and also giving it a year to see how I do. I am sure I will do fine, thanks to the many posts like yours.

[JaniceYvonne]

Thanks
What were you eating before Starch Solution? Processed vegan?

[pundit999]

Congratulations Minnie. Thanks for sharing.
It is so inspiring.

[f1jim]

"I have followed it since then with 100% compliance...........I thought this might be hard, but it was actually easy."

Another person with a testimonial that reflects not only myself but many other Star McDougallers and members here on the forum. What SOUNDS like it would be near impossible turns out to be rather easy. The results are predictable because when we fuel the body with it's perfect food we know what it's capable of.

Thank you for sharing your experience and I hope it encourages others to follow the well worn path you chose to health.
f1jim

[MINNIE]

Thanks
What were you eating before Starch Solution? Processed vegan?

Yes. I had stopped dead animals back in the 70's, and actually ate mostly unprocessed foods at the time. (Think hippie-crunchy). But when processed vegan convenience foods started coming on the market, I thought they must be "healthy". I didn't see anything wrong with eating vegan cheese, vegan snack foods and frozen entrees. I realize now that this was adding a lot more fat to my diet, along with more salt and sugar.

Now I think that all those foods should come with black box warning labels .

Probably the worst thing in my old diet was olive oil. Because I didn't eat animal products, yet had high cholesterol I believed that there was something wrong with me. Since I had read and heard everywhere that olive oil was heart-healthy, I was adding even more of it than I actually wanted.

Nobody had ever explained to me that my high cholesterol was related to total fat intake! So it got worse. Doctors were telling me that my choices were either statins or an increased risk of heart attack. I was desperate to find another alternative, and fortunately I found it here:).

[Melba76]

What an inspiring testimonial for me to read when I'm just starting my own journey - thanks for sharing Minnie and a big congratulations on your marvellous 3 year success!

I've some way to go, but reading stories like yours I know it doesn't have to be a hard path, it can be easy when you see the benefits start rolling in