New to ETL
CoffeeandHumblePie
Posts: 139 Member
Hi all - I thought I would give a quick hello and introduce myself! I have been on quite a journey over the past two months, and it has brought me to the point of considering Eat to Live. A bit of history: My previous weight loss successes resulted from eating Low Carb, High Fat and Protein. However, this was an eating lifestyle I could not sustain long term and every time I'd lose weight, I'd gain it back and then some. Carbs are addictive to me! I am pre-diabetic (have been for years) and even the diabetes forum that I participated in encouraged LCHFP for weight-loss and blood sugar control. But I wasn't feeling well on this diet.
A year ago (Dec 2016) I became very ill and was diagnosed with diverticulitis. I'd never been so sick! This resulted in a year of figuring out what I could and could not eat - what my body could tolerate. I began to consider other diet possibilities for weight loss and as I did research I stumbled across videos of people following Dr. Fuhrman's Eat to Live. I was intrigued, but coming from a LCHFP background you can imagine how foreign this concept was for me.
I'd been watching Eat to Live and vegan videos for much of this past Fall and continued to warm up to the idea of trying this eating method. But this past December (2017) I started having chest pain. I thought it was acid reflux but it turned out to be my heart. A scan was done and blockage was found. At the age of 54, I received a stent in my main artery (99% blockage!), and was told I also had a non-alcohol fatty liver (which was noted in the scan and bloodwork). What a life changer!
Since December, I've been following the cardiac diet that was sent home with me and have been walking 5 days per week. The diet is fairly loose: eat low sodium, limit saturated fat and sugar. I'm discovering that I need a few more boundaries.
Eat to Live has popped up in my life over and over during the past several months. Most recently last week when I visited our new Y and they had a feature display of Eat to Live. I'm compelled to give it a try! I scooped up all of Dr. Fuhrman's books at the library and am in the process of reading ETL and am perusing his cookbooks. (I also have his book The End of Dieting - is this the same information as ETL?). As I read, I will prepare for implementing. The book intro recommends reading the whole book before beginning so that's what I'll do. In the meantime I'll continue to follow the cardiac diet.
Sorry for the long introduction! I'm looking forward to learning from you all!
A year ago (Dec 2016) I became very ill and was diagnosed with diverticulitis. I'd never been so sick! This resulted in a year of figuring out what I could and could not eat - what my body could tolerate. I began to consider other diet possibilities for weight loss and as I did research I stumbled across videos of people following Dr. Fuhrman's Eat to Live. I was intrigued, but coming from a LCHFP background you can imagine how foreign this concept was for me.
I'd been watching Eat to Live and vegan videos for much of this past Fall and continued to warm up to the idea of trying this eating method. But this past December (2017) I started having chest pain. I thought it was acid reflux but it turned out to be my heart. A scan was done and blockage was found. At the age of 54, I received a stent in my main artery (99% blockage!), and was told I also had a non-alcohol fatty liver (which was noted in the scan and bloodwork). What a life changer!
Since December, I've been following the cardiac diet that was sent home with me and have been walking 5 days per week. The diet is fairly loose: eat low sodium, limit saturated fat and sugar. I'm discovering that I need a few more boundaries.
Eat to Live has popped up in my life over and over during the past several months. Most recently last week when I visited our new Y and they had a feature display of Eat to Live. I'm compelled to give it a try! I scooped up all of Dr. Fuhrman's books at the library and am in the process of reading ETL and am perusing his cookbooks. (I also have his book The End of Dieting - is this the same information as ETL?). As I read, I will prepare for implementing. The book intro recommends reading the whole book before beginning so that's what I'll do. In the meantime I'll continue to follow the cardiac diet.
Sorry for the long introduction! I'm looking forward to learning from you all!
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Replies
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Welcome C&P!
I too have tried a lot of diets and most recent was a LCHFP diet that elevated my cholesterol, triglycerides and LDL. I lost a little weight but gained it back quickly. I know as a retired ER nurse I was headed toward a heart attack. After 6 weeks on the strict part of the ETL diet my levels were down to high side of normal or normal!!!! My A1C dropped to 5.7 which is high side of normal for blood sugar control. My doctors were impressed.
A few truths things I have relearned:
Sugar in the form of cakes, cookies, pies, breads, pasta and alcohol are unhealthy.
Sugar in fruit (blueberries, bananas, apples, etc.) are very healthy...I struggle to add fruits back into my diet because of the LCHFP mindset that they have too much sugar. Not only do they have sugar but fiber and vitamins...this makes all the difference in the world. They also really help my sugar cravings.
Beans are so satisfying and when I start craving sweets I look back on my diet and see that I have not been eating my beans.
Walnuts are heart healthy. Oatmeal is heart healthy as well as flax (buy ground flax).
There are people here who have been on ETL much longer than me and know fantastic web sites and recipes that are very helpful.
I have been on the diet since end of September and almost 40 lbs down...I am losing slow but feel much better. I am a lot more active. In the Eat for Health by Dr. F there are 3 levels to choose from and after the 6 week program I chose level 2 where I have some fish and eggs but not every day. I try to have a few strictly vegetarian days each week. Several people here adhere to a more vegan diet and I have obtained a lot of useful information from them. He also wrote a book The End of Heart Disease.
Good luck and I think you are making the right choice. Keep reading. Dr. F also has several You Tube videos that I listened to.
Donna (aka Bisky)2 -
Hi! Welcome to the group!
We are lucky in that eating whole food plant based food heals our body in all different ways, so you can eat the same way for your heart, and for diabetes. I went away from this way of eating, and I just got bad blood work indicating that I'm diabetic. My doctor is very supportive of this way of eating and has agreed to let me use diet and exercise to get my blood sugar under control. It isn't great to have the diagnosis, but it was a good kick in the pants for me, and I've been on plan for a little over a week.
I also recommend Dr. Fuhrman's The End of Diabetes book which has good info on what is happening in your body, as well as more specific recommendations for what to eat. I have the book and I'm about to reread it. You can also check out www.nutritionfacts.org if you haven't yet, for evidence based advice on what to eat. It is a non profit site with no ads, and lots of videos. Here's one of his hour long talks that is good to start with:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rNY7xKyGCQ
Stop by and say hi in the monthly post! We post in there almost daily and share recipes etc.1 -
Welcome! Wow, you are dealing with a lot. So glad you are considering ETL. It's amazing how much difference it can make in a short time. While you are reading the first book you can start working on upping your greens. Throw a big handful of baby spinach or baby kale in a smoothie with some berries and water or plant milk, eat a big salad every day, have some cooked cruciferous veggies and mushrooms with dinner. Just adding lots of greens to your day can really help you get cravings under control. As Carla mentioned, we run a monthly thread so we can check in with each other easily. Feel free to join in there too.
Great observations Donna! All very true.
Thanks for that video link Carla. Wouldn't you know... I was all excited about the new laptop and finally being able to watch videos without going to my desktop PC, and the sound quit working. I have tried several things to fix it and none have worked. Stupid windows updates did it I'm sure, but even rolling back the updates didn't work. Grrrrr.1 -
Thank you so much for the encouraging advice, links and suggestions! I will tap into the monthly thread as well.
I dipped my toe in yesterday and had a big salad at lunch and dinner w/ beans, as well as a green smoothie. Satisfying!2 -
That's great! The more I have salads, the more I actually start to look forward to them. The trick for me is making a dressing that is ETL friendly, and having something like roasted yams, bean burgers or baked tofu in there to keep it interesting.
Keep up the good work!1
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