My journey began with a medical diagnosis that literally changed my life. Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease, otherwise know as NAFLD had quickly and quietly invaded my life, with out me knowing it. Sadly, in America, it is estimated that 33% of us including 6 million children have this disease and most are not even aware that they have it. It can easily be tested for with a simple blood test. Typically, once you start to feel the symptoms, damage to your liver is already occurring.
A few interesting things about the liver………..
1. Your liver is a critical organ in your body that filters and cleanses all of the toxins you put into your body or that are absorbed from the environment.
2. The liver is the only organ with two blood supplies. One from the Hepatic Artery which brings blood from the heart and the other the hepatic portal which brings all the blood from the intestines.
3. The liver is the only visceral organ that possesses the capacity to regenerate.
How did I get this you might ask? I was prescribed a medication from a doctor and in just 4 short months, my liver had been damaged and was showing scarring. Public Service Announcement :Reading the side effects on all drugs that you are being prescribed and taking control of your own health should be your number one priority. Thankfully I had been forced to find a new Dr, and was very fortunate that she spotted the symptoms immediately and took action. She and I have been tackling this beast head on since.
So let me explain how things start to go down hill quickly. Because my liver was damaged and not functioning 100%, instead of removing the fat and toxins from my body, it began storing the fat and toxins in my liver. Eventually this clogs the liver, slowing it down even more, while continuing to do damage and storing more fat and more toxins. Eventually you hit a critical point where serious changes need to take place or your options for recovery become less and less.
There is nothing better than a medical diagnosis to scare the shit out of you and kick your ass into gear!!!!
So the Journey began……
I very quickly scrambled to read everything there was to know about the liver. Reading medical research and medical journals, books, videos, you name it…… to try and get up to speed on what was happening to me and to try and figure out what in the world I was going to do about it. This might sound odd to you, because your probably thinking, didn’t your dr tell you what to do? LOL LOL. Thats funny. What I quickly began to realize is that this epidemic is so NEW, that Dr’s themselves are scrambling to try and figure out the best way to treat this. Fatty Liver, truly is a serious side effect of the obesity nightmare that is taking over the United States and frankly, the medical community did not see this coming. So if you speak with 5 doctors, all will tell you something different. The two I have been seeing just kept telling me, Loose 10lbs and everything should get better. This lack of knowledge in the medical industry quickly became the most frustrating thing to deal with.
After all of my research was done, it become very clear what needed to take place. After several conversations with my dr, we came up with a plan. It would be drastic, but its the only thing that has been shown to make a huge improvements in the liver. A whole food plant based diet, with no oil. So what does that really look like? Well, that removes all processed foods and sugars, animal and fish fats and oils from my cooking and eating habits.
So that started immediately. I don’t call this a diet, because its soooooo much more than that. This is a NEW WAY OF LIFE!!! and thats way easier said than done, let me tell you. This NEW WAY OF LIFE is hard for most people to comprehend yet so incredibly simple. I can eat all vegetables, fruits, grains and legumes. Thats it. No oil or butter to sauté the veggies in and nothing processed because it all contains oil or chemicals in one form or another. The purpose of a WFPB way of life, is to allow my liver to recover and heal. The less crap I put into my body, the less my liver has to work to remove the toxins and heal.
Here I am today… 4 months after I started this journey. Ive lost 45 lbs, have improved my liver enzyme numbers by 50% and have become very very comfortable in the kitchen. There might be something to the old saying, ” The healing power of plants ” after all.
So, JOIN ME ON THIS JOURNEY, as I discover the true healing power of plants.
I want to share my experiences of becoming a WholeFood Plant Based consumer and cook with you . I will show you that processed OIL has no place in your kitchen and will give some great recipes I have found along the way or accidentally created while not following the above said recipes. I will share with you some batch prepping menu tips that will help simplify meal prep time.
BONUS…… and because I love to garden and I spend my summers in my garden, ill be sure to give you some garden tips along the way. There is nothing better than growing your own food. Its therapeutic and can save you a crap ton of money.
Be sure to sign up for updates and join me on this Journey, if anything, there are sure to be some good laughs along the way.
Until next time…..
Steve
