It was somewhere around 2 a.m. on the weekend of Memorial Day 2012 and Micah woke me up in the middle of the night telling me he had chest pains. I had that nagging thought of "it could be a heart attack" but I thought, surely not, he's only 32. I suggested maybe it was just gas(ha, ha..)and that he should try laying down in a different position. A few minutes later he insisted that I take him to the ER since the pain was not subsiding. I woke up our then 2 year old and off we drove to the ER. They were able to confirm pretty quickly by means of a blood test that he had suffered a heart attack. They quickly admitted him to the hospital and my daughter and I went home to rest for while since he was stable.
I think I was slightly in shock, but I also had peace. I knew that God was with Micah and with us as a family to comfort us and to help us through the recovery process. I was so thankful that it was considered a minor heart attack. He had no damage to his heart and no blockages in his arteries. I knew it was time for us to make some big changes.
Of course, it's not easy to change everything overnight, but we did work towards eating even healthier and he joined a gym. This continued for about a year and a half but Micah wasn't experiencing any drastic results or improving his health. In addition, he was experiencing unexplained pain in his shoulder that he had tried treating with acupuncture, massage, and chiropractor visits. Nothing was really helping and he resorted to taking pain medication when it was too much to bear. He also had sleep apnea that was well-controlled with a machine but still not an ideal situation.
Over Christmas break, I convinced him to watch "Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead" on Netflix with me. I had already seen it and thought it was so inspiring! We decided to start the second week of January on a 10-day juice fast. We purchased a juicer on Amazon and followed the plan given on www.rebootwithjoe.com. It was definitely not easy! We had to attend birthday parties(with BBQ!!), watch other people eat their lunches at work, and still prepare food for our daughter. For the most part, we did feel really good. After our 10-day fast, Micah had lost about 25 pounds and I lost about 10. We transitioned to the Eat to Live Diet after reading the book and hearing the great testimonies.
Eat to Live has a very strict 6-week period in which it claims you could lose 20 pounds or more. That's about what Micah ended up losing. I lost about another 5, but I was not really doing it to lose a lot, more just to be supportive. Plus, Eat to Live is not just about losing weight, it's about fighting diseases, especially cancer which I definitely do not want! We both felt great and Micah was having some amazing results. He revisited his sleep doctor and did a sleep study that found he didn't have a single incidence of apnea so he was released from using his machine. His cardiologist requested him to lose about 10 more pounds before getting off his medications. And his shoulder pain is gone as well. I have noticed a huge decrease in the amount of seasonal allergy problems as well as more energy. No one in our family has had a single sick visit since beginning our diet and I have also had very few to no headaches(which I was having 1-2 a month that I blamed on hormones).
I am not being paid to say anything of these things by Reboot with Joe or Eat to Live/Dr. Fuhrman. I just want to share our testimony with others so it might help them to be healthier. I am saddened by seeing strangers, friends, and family, who are suffering various ailments because of their diet choices. Food is a huge part of healing our bodies!
So, in saying all that, I am starting this blog to hold us accountable but also so people can see realistically what it looks like on our "diet". We don't really consider it a diet anymore, more of a lifestyle, right? We mostly eat vegan, but occasionally "cheat" on the weekends with meat, dairy, or a dessert. I hope that in this blog you can find some real recipes that you can enjoy and improve your health! Below are my husband's "before" and "after" pictures. Amazing! I am so proud of him.
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