60 Days Vegan

[Jack B]

Wow...I never thought I'd be posting about being a vegan, let alone actually enjoying it. A little history...most of my younger years I worked in restaurants...mostly fast food. As a manager, and eventually supervisor, I was able to eat almost any time, and as often as I wished. And eat I did!

After leaving the fast food business I enrolled in college and completed my degree...all the while still eating pretty much anything that was slower than me! The weight continued to rise...eventually hitting 303 pounds (and I'm only 5'6").

A summer of testing and newly diagnosed heart issues led me to researching (and praying) for the possibility of reversing my heart disease...which in turn led me to Dr's Esselstyn and McDougall!

So, here is a run down on my first sixty days...

1. No chest pains since day 3 or 4
2. Sleeping through the night consistently for the first time in a dozen years
3. Down about 28 pounds
4. Little to no ear wax (sorry...it really is true)
5. Just went to Kohls to buy some new dress cloths for work...pants used to be size 48-50...now 44
6. Tri's down just over 1000, chol about cut in half
7. No night sweats since day 3
8. Learning to cook all over again...and loving it!

Many thanks to all of you on these boards for constant positive motivation. I hope to help others along my journey...I have lived the life of a "fat jolly guy" most of my life, and now realize the horrible damage I have done to myself. Yet I have hope...such dramatic changes in just sixty days?? And no surgery!!! Thank you Dr. McDougall!!

[SactoBob]

We need more and more FORMER heart patients.

[ncyg46]

just curious...is a bypass for heart and a bypass for legs plus an aneurism mean heart disease? It's been 15 years now and i have no symptoms....never had a heart attack, just blockages......

[toadfood]

Congratulations! I'm looking forward to reading about your future successes. You're doing great!

[Letha..]

Welcome Jack,
I love to read about people getting good results on the McDougall program. Thanks for sharing.
Letha

[kirstykay]

Congratulations on your road back to health! You're doing a great job! Thanks for sharing your story with us.

[Riva]

Jack - thanks for writing. YOur story is great and I know you will add to that already beautiful list of improvements as time goes on.

I was thinking the other day of one of my improvements that seems subtle
but perhaps is significant. For years I used to wake up with swollen hands and a kind of numb Left arm. Docs tested...nothing wrong. Ever since about 2 months into McDougalling all that is gone. So SOMETHING bad was happening that is NOT happening.

Cheering you on!
Riva

[Faith in DC]

Wow Jack, you are one smart man to take matters into your own hand and do some research. If only others would do the same. I know you have to feel better with those kinds of improvements.

Keep up the good work, and can't wait to hear more.

[Birdy]

I agree with SactoBob, "We need more and more FORMER heart patients." I'm so happy for your rapidly improving health. Cheering you on!

[Birdy]

I agree with SactoBob, "We need more and more FORMER heart patients." I'm so happy for your rapidly improving health. Cheering you on!

Riva, I've also had the same numbness in my left arm, so your experience promises another benefit of McDougalling!

[Nettie]

Faith is right - you are one smart man, and a very brave one at that. To give up fatty foods and embark on this journey can be very fear-inducing to some people. Keep up the good work. You won't believe yourself in a year!

Nettie

[nomikins]

Bravo! And welcome. Stick around, the folks around here astound and inspire me every day.

[f1jim]

Several of us here on the forum were in the heart disease business. It's a terrible business model. You get more procedures, you spend more for those procedures and the medicines they lead to, and you get progressively worse till you are finally wheeled around in a chair with the oxygen bottle beside you, then you get the privileged of being bedridden, then you die an ugly, early death. I am so proud to be out of that business and into one with much better prospects. Glad to have you as another example of getting your life back. It only gets better.
Thanks for posting.
f1jim

[talkingmountain]

just curious...is a bypass for heart and a bypass for legs plus an aneurism mean heart disease? It's been 15 years now and i have no symptoms....never had a heart attack, just blockages......

Sounds like systemic vascular disease (cardiovascular + peripheral vascular). Dr. Esselstyn has shown reversal of this with those who adhere to his diet (basically the same as McDougall, as you probably know).

My understanding of aneurisms from two friends who had them in the brain is that they can be (or who knows, maybe always are?) related to genetic weakness in the vascular wall from genetic disposition or physical trauma, as opposed to blockages which are usually related to cholesterol deposition/inflammation.

[Pat]

Fantastic job. So happy you had the courage to take responsibility for your own health and join us. You are experiencing the rewards, which as mentioned, they will continue to increase.

Pat