1/22/14 Go 100%

I got a facebook post from a buddy the other day.  He said, “You've created an opportunity. Whether it's Kimberly's (energy healing therapist) hands or food or shocking your heart or exercise or riding your quad or your crazy ass dog or the combination. This is the first time that you could possibly be without any medication giving the food its first true opportunity to let your body heal itself.
“There is no other way to reverse vascular damage. No drug, no treatment, nothing. This (proper food) is 100% successful. You must be 100% compliant to get 100% benefit. Accidents happen and there is also things that will sneak in. For instance, the oil they put in the brand of hummus you eat. Fresh and easy brand has less. You can scoop out the oily part to reduce it, making it yourself oil free would be best. Fine tune your food and eliminate the bad fatty oily. Go 100%.
“Will this work at 90% or 98% compliant? I don't know. I can't wrap my head around not doing it 100%. The hard part is going 95%, fine tuning the last 5% is relatively easy. Would it make a difference if to not put the proper torque on the bolts of a bike, not hammer the deck nails in all the way, a few wire nuts off the wiring in the house?
“If this way of eating was a pill it would cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. Get the maximum benefit go 100%. If you paid for it wouldn't you want maximum benefit?
“Yes, small amounts of refined sugar and cream will affect your hormones dramatically. Yes, when eliminating vitamins and the other things you were or are taking, it will take time for your body to adjust.
“You are so close.
“Put 90 dollars in pennies in a back pack that's the 50lbs extra you are carrying.  You get to take 5 to 10 pennies out a day. That's the rate of healing there is to your vascular system when 100% compliant.
“For weight loss I was a little reluctant because I want maximum nutrition. But in a week or 2 you will start to lose about a lb a day, while staying with the same plan remove high glycemic food.”
Now this friend of mine is the one who convinced me to go to the plant-based life, as he walks the walk himself.  He has lost weight, got his cholesterol under control, controlled his glaucoma, and all kinds of other blood parameters.  He isn’t a nutritionist.  He isn’t a doctor.  He’s a guy who likes to ride and wants to see me healthy and walking normal again.  He’s the one who also told me I might be walking normally again by May. 
How dare he say things like this?  Who is he, not trained in medicine, to make such predictions?  Well, I’ve lost weight.  Down to 283 last time I checked.  Was about 315 in October when I started this, lost a bunch right away, stagnated for a bit at 290, then another 7 off.  30 pounds in 4 months, eating until I’m full, heart in rhythm, full of nutrients and hydrated.  Stopped taking almost all the supplements, and I take no medication. 
I previously reported eight or so measurable improvements.  And now it’s starting to happen.  The legs have started – just a little bit – to work in harmony.  I know because I feel it.  My wife knows because she always could tell who was walking down the hallway and I scared her last night as I walked into the laundry room.  Literally.  Walking on hardwood floors for the past few years, the right leg is normal and the left leg flumps down clumsily.  Now, the left leg walks almost normally too, to the point where the heel lands first, rolls down to the ball of the foot, and thrusts for the next step.  The trained eye could spot a problem, but it is pretty good.
I can’t sustain it for too long, the left quadracep feels like I have a charley horse every now and again, and of course the rough terrain and standing on one leg remains difficult.  But I can’t believe it.  Mayo Clinic never got me this far.  Not UCLA, University of Utah, nor any doctors here in Las Vegas.  CCSVI came close, which is why I did it so many times.  But for the clotting, CCSVI would probably have advanced me more.
I don’t know if I will continue to improve.  I am starting to like my odds.  A heart that has beaten some 8 million times in sinus rhythm probably helps, as does being hydrated.  I drink a third of what I used to and drink when I’m thirsty now, instead of all day drinking and still being thirsty.

As my friend said, I am so close and it sure feels like it to me too.  I am beginning to dream about walking normally again.  I’ve even had a couple dreams about running, but I’ll take this a step at a time.  Literally.