What I Found Surprising About My New Meal Plan

I'm not exactly sure what my diet would be labeled. My goal in the day is to eat a lot of high fibre vegetables, 2-3 green smoothies, and plant based protein (soy, nuts, seeds). 

The most surprising thing I've found is that I'm loving cooking and recipe experimentation. Before going plant based, our family ate meat at every meal. I'm a germaphobe and didn't realize how much stress this was causing me. Since eliminating animal and animal products from 90% of my meals I've become less stressed in the kitchen. I don't worry about washing my hands a million times because I'm worried about spreading e. coli, and I'm not constantly washing utensils that have touched raw meat.

When looking for recipes I search Vegan Keto. Keto recipes tend to have low to no carbs and sugar. If you're looking to recipe test, I recommend Googling, Youtubing, or Pintersting "Vegan Keto Recipes."

Below I share a bit about my restrictions, incase you are thinking of trying something new :)

This is a list of the foods I don't eat:

Starchy and High Carb Vegetables (Potatoes, Yams, Beets, etc)

Tropical Fruit

Grains (Wheat, Quinoa, etc)

Sugar

These are the foods I eat sparingly:

Carrots

Onions

Apples

Blueberries

Strawberries

Raspberries

The How

The first couple of weeks I tried the Keto diet with meat. I ate a lot of meat and cheese at every meal with an even larger helping of greens and fresh vegetables.

My numbers improved, but I could get past 6.0 mmol.

I did more research and found that blood cells with too much fat in them made it hard for them to absorb insulin... Meat and Meat Products have a lot of fat...

I cut out meat and went fully plant based for two weeks.

The results came back within a couple of days. My mmol began to drop to the mid and low 5 mmol. I couldn't believe my eyes!

What I learned during this time is Fibre, Fibre, Fibre... The more fibre you consume the fuller you'll feel, and the better it is for your blood sugars.

This is what my day looks like:

8:00am check fasting blood sugars

11:30am make lunch of green smoothie (no fruit except lemon), salad, and plant based protein

2:00pm or 3:00pm snack of nuts, but only if I need a snack.

6:00pm check blood sugars, dinner of green smoothie, roasted greens, plant based protein

8:00pm snack of keto chocolate, green smoothie, or nothing

My Green Smoothie consists of Celery, Cucumbers, Ginger, 1 Slice of Lemon, Spinach, Water
Celery is the major ingredient because it is so fibrous.

I drink this smoothie 1-3 times per day as a meal filler if I'm still hungry at the end of the meal.

I Reversed my Type 2 Diabetes in 6 Weeks

The summer of 2018 was the greatest summer. It was filled with sun, fun, and sweets!

But the fun needed to be reigned in when I realized that I couldn't sustain the sweets I've been consuming and controlling my blood sugars without medication.

Most diabetes medication makes me sick. The fillers in all types of insulin give me welts and rashes, and most medications makes me violently ill...

The main option for me in controlling my blood sugars is to control my diet and exercise.

My doctor gave me a bit of an impossible task. He said that he would see me again in 6 weeks, and at that time if my blood sugars didn't drop to 5.5 mmol before every meal, I'd need to go on insulin. Well... it was either control my blood sugars or live with rashes at every injection site.

I was excited and nervous to be tasked with something so crazy. He was basically saying that I needed to reverse my Type II diabetes in 6 weeks! I was to drop my medication and figure it out with diet and exercise.

I did A LOT of research. I watch youtube videos of success stories, and read the book "How Not to Die" by Michael Greger, M.D.

My conclusion from all my research was a plant (more green veggies than fruit) based diet with low carbs and starches; and tons and tons of physical activity.

I recently went back to the doctor and the results were positive. I lost 10 lbs, and my blood sugars stabilized to 5.5 or lower at ever reading. I started with 9.0 - 8.0 mmol readings at the beginning of my journey.

I can't believe it was possible for me to reverse my diabetes in 6 weeks, but with a lot of hard work and self control anything is possible.