This is from TrimFitMe, who is joining us this month. I'm just reposting it here so that everyone can get to know her story too.
TrimFitMe wrote:New here. Hope I am doing this right. I want to weigh in for the first time. I have gotten as low at 137 but since November I have crept up to 147, which is my weight today, Friday, Dec 1st.
My husband and I went WFPB in May of 2015, and by September of 2015, he lost weight and I didn't lose weight but I felt better.
He lost 25 lbs and his pre-full-blown high blood pressure and pre-diabetic condition disappeared and he dropped from a 38 to a 36. I think if he was at his optimal weight he would be a 34, but he is happy at his new weight and condition, and is devote because he feels so much better and has so much energy and focus.
I was not so happy with my results. I was still gaining weight. I had replaced my coffee with delicious chai tea which I would brew at home and drink with a cup of soy milk every morning! And I was eating the groats (whole whole grain oats) fixed with 3 cups of groats and 1 cup each of pecans, walnuts and almonds, and 15 small dates.
In February of 2015 I weighed 156 lbs. My total cholesterol was 217 and my LDL was 142 (high). My BUN/Creatinine Ratio was 27 (high), My RA Factor was 14.9 (over 13.9 is high). Glucose serum 87.
By August 27 of 2015, four months on a WFPB diet (still cooking with oil and not mindful of the fat in certain plant based foods), my total cholesterol had dropped to 187 and my LDL to 120 ( still high but improved). My RA Factor dropped to 11.4 (under 13.9 is “normal”).
By September of 2015 I got off of HRT which I had stayed on for 10 years, and by March of 2016 I was having so much trouble with inflammatory arthritis, it was becoming painful just getting up from bed or sitting down, walking, squatting, climbing stairs or doing anything that required me to bend my knees. My knees felt bruised and I felt frail and brittle.
Opening jars became so difficult I was having to use a tool, or ask my husband to help me. And I was still gaining weight.
By February of 2016, I got up to 159 pounds before I discovered first, the Paddison Program, to help me with my inflammatory arthritis, which has never been diagnosed as RA, but which was progressively worse. Paddison’s protocol is very similar to Dr. McDougall’s and he cited Dr. McDougall in much of his work. It involved a very restricted elimination diet.
The Paddison Program was working. So in my quest to learn more about this low fat whole food plant based way of eating, on February 29th of 2015 I downloaded Dr. McDougall’s book, The Starch Solution and devoured the info on his website as well as in his book.
In March of 2016 I had another blood test to measure the results. I had been on an elimination diet which is a restrictive low fat WBPB diet.
On March 15 of 2016 My total cholesterol was 179 and my LDL was 126 (It was up from 120 in Aug of 2015, but my total was down). My BUN/Creatinine Ratio was down to 12 (normal), My RA Factor was 8.1 (over 13.9 is high). Glucose 82.
I was hoping my cholesterol drop would be better, so I asked my doctor if we could do another test in May of 2016. My this time I had dropped down to 140 pounds, 18 pounds lighter than when I began a low fat WFPB diet.
May 11, 2016, My weight was at 140lbs. My total Cholesterol was 167 and my LDL 113. My Bun/Creatinine Ratio was down to 7 (considered low and below normal but not a red flag). My glucose serum 86.
I was slowly recovering flexibility and strength. Yoga at home and walking were helping me to build muscle and strength, and following knee exercises I learned from Paddison, my knees began to heal.
By May of 2017 I weighed 137 pounds. That was 20 pounds less than when I first began following a low fat WFPB diet.
But I have since gained back 7 pounds, and my joint pains in my hands, elbows, and feet have come back even though I have not lost the strength I regained back in 2016.
My weight gain is do to a combination of things--eating out a lot more often than we have in the past, regularly eating sourdough bread (refined flour), eating tofu in the Pho we have been eating out, eating lots of fruit, more than 3 or 4 pieces a day, and instead of 3 or 4 corn tortillas with my dinners I have been eating 6 to 8 at one sitting, and I will occasionally indulge in a 10 inch flour tortilla made with bleached flour and canola oil as a snack.
I started eating from the batches of oatmeal prepared by my husband with three cups of groats (great) but also 1/4 cup of pecan, 1/4 cup of almonds, 1/4 cup of walnuts and 10 dates (not conducive to weight loss).
I had given up coffee, but for some reason got back on it and this past week I decided to quit it again and am drinking tea instead, but I have been sweetening it with soy milk and honey.
I would like to get back down to 137, and then drop further. I weighed 135 when I was in my twenties and was fit and trim. That is my weight goal.
And I want to get my inflammatory arthritis to be back to where it was earlier this year, before I started eating foods that promote weight gain. They are generally higher in protein and I think this is a factor that slows down my healing of my arthritic condition. I may need to eliminate beans and oatmeal for a while, and see if that is necessary, but first I’ll cut out those foods that are not advised on the Maximum Weight Loss Diet.
I have discovered I am sensitive to gluten, based on three separate episodes where I got severely ill and bedridden for two days each after eating food with fake meat made with gluten, before McDougall’s book The Starch Solution, and once after eating a bagel made using gluten.
by amandamechele » Mon Dec 04, 2017 12:20 am 
