What does it take to release weight?

Do you have one of these at home?  For years I have been wishing for my husband to downsize, and instead he just kept on piling on the weight.  It wasn’t that he ate junk food, it was more that he ate too much meat, too many relishes, sauces and chutneys, and too much food generally. Combine that with lack of exercise, and slowly a health scare began forming.
(He also takes advanced quality nutritional supplements that include heart healthy CoQ10, Omega-3 and magnesium plus others. But that’s not all that is required for prevention: 10 Healthy Aging strategies).

He didn’t tell me that over the last 15 months he had been experiencing angina upon exertion.  But I did know that he was putting himself at risk of becoming diabetic (and it was getting very challenging finding size 3XL shirts).

It took the death of his much-loved 55 year old cousin (a sudden fatal heart attack) in May this year, to wake him up (not his wife’s nagging…).  He contacted his cardiologist and told him to forget the treadmill, take him straight in for an angiogram. And the results were grim.  As the cardiologist said, ‘a bit of mischief has been going on’ (my husband had two stents placed in 1997 so was on the heart watch list).

Four weeks later it was into hospital and 5 bypass grafts were performed.  (If you know anything about bypass operations, they do not perform a graft unless there is a 70% or more blockage.)  For the next 7 days, the pain of recovering began.

Back home again and then a visit to the GP’s nurse to check the stitches and get a blood test done.  Diabetes Type 2 was diagnosed.

30/7/2012 Blood test results:
Total Cholesterol 5.8 mmol/L
HDL: 0.87 mmol/L
LDL: 3.8 mmol/L
Chol/HDL Ratio: 6.7 (high)
Triglyceride: 2.5 mmol/L (high â€" normal < 2.0)
Glucose: 8.0 mmol/L (High â€" normal 3.5 to 7.7)
HbA1c: 56 mmol/L (high â€" normal 20-40)

Meanwhile, I had recommended that hubby reads a book â€" Dr Steven Gundry’s Diet Evolution.

Bingo!  Now he is on a “no grains, starchy vegetables, sugar and fruit” regime.  And boy, is it working!  The day of the operation he weighed 125 kgs and now he weighs just under 113kgs.  In less than 6 weeks. He has found it easy to do because he enjoys growing and eating vegetables, and importantly he doesn’t feel hungry. Here is a list of Heart Healthy Food Groups.

We are now waiting for next set of blood to be taken and tested. (Last weekend he had a home blood sugar test done and his result was 6.3 â€" normal!).

“The research actually shows that it’s the sugar and grains (which turn to sugar in our bodies) that cause high cholesterol as well as weight gain and type 2 diabetes, NOT the animal fats. If you eat animal products along with sugars and grains, that *will* cause your cholesterol and blood sugar to rise.”

And yet when we look at the food pyramid we have grains taking up the large portion.  What if we put vegetables where the grains are, and put grains in with the sugars at the top.  Do you think that would solve many of our chronic health issues?  I believe it would.

“Apparently wheat causes all sorts of issues, even if you don’t have a known allergy or intolerance to it….or I guess, you just don’t realize it is wheat causing trouble.”

When you visit the supermarket, how many aisles hold products based on wheat? â€" breads, biscuits, cakes, muffins, crackers, bagels, pasta, pizzas, cereals, ready made meals, sauces…wheat is everywhere â€" you could even say… “ingrained”.

“Check out the book Wheat Belly by William Davis MD.  He says the (very) genetically modified strains of wheat used everywhere these days cause havoc worldwide with the human immune system which has not been able to keep up with the change in structure of wheat products.”

“It’s interesting information at worst and very enlightening at best.  Dr Davis says going wheat free leads to weight loss, alleviation of things like diabetes, colitis and celiac disease, improvement in cholesterol, reduction of inflammation and arthritis pain.., and so on.”

Meanwhile, I began supporting my husband on the 8th August by following the same eating regime. I do have about 5kgs that I would like to release, and I have been fighting a pot belly for the last 10 years. So far, I have released 1kg and 3cms from my waist â€" the pot belly is flattening out!

For more personal accounts from real people, read and share:
Lower cholesterol unfolds mystery diet

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