My biannual blood test results were done this week, and things continue to be great. Like last time, I was slightly worried about my HbA1c blood sugar results, because I continue to eat fruits every day, and also sometimes some 100% honey hard candies (honey is not vegan, but OK with Dr. McDougall, though Dr. Greger thinks honey is only slightly better than sugar, and Chef AJ frowns upon it). But my HbA1c blood sugar actually went down again! And all my blood test results continue to be great.
I can’t emphasize enough how great I think WFPB (Whole Food Plant Based) eating is for health and weight control. I’ve been completely off blood sugar meds for two-and-a-half years now.
Eating WFPB seems to have reset my body. I wish I had discovered it earlier. My doctor said I have absolutely no more blood sugar worries, and I should just concentrate on building upper body strength. I get plenty of cardio exercise with my dog walks. And lately I have been doing some extra resistance training, like daily squats and short workouts with my old Bullworker.
I’m not having any trouble maintaining weight, though it does go up and down by a few pounds. Basically I’m stable around 144 or 145 lb, a total loss of about 140 lb. Sometimes it’s a bit more, sometimes a bit less. While I continue to log my weight every morning I don’t let fluctuations of a few pounds bother me.
You can read more in detail about what I eat in my blog post, Oh Boy! Doug Food Again! But to sum up quickly, I follow WFPB (whole food plant based) eating: mostly vegan, no oil, very limited nuts, and limited sugar and salt. No intermittent fasting, no keto, lots of carbs including potatoes and fruits. I stick to low calorie density foods to help with maintaining weight loss. For example potatoes are surprisingly low calorie and bread is very high calorie.
Here’s a recent before-and-after photo. (This is the same photo I posted last time. I’ll try to take a newer one.)
I log my food and exercise calories in MyFitnessPal, and keep within 1600 net calories per day (food calories minus exercise calories). I recently upped that a bit. Today is MFP streak day 3,644.
As far as the new test results go, my blood sugar remains normal, without medication (HbA1c is 5.1, normal range 4.7-6.2). That’s down from 5.3 in my last test, and way down from a dangerously high 11.8 when I started WFPB.
My cholesterol is fantastic (total 128, normal range 120-219; bad cholesterol LDL 65, normal range 70-139; good cholesterol HDL 39, normal range 35-80), triglycerides are fine (83, normal range 30-150), and blood pressure is great (101/59 with heart rate 62 bpm). If you are interested you can check my May 2021 biannual results to see the historic values and how they have improved over time. You can also see my October 2021 results from 6 months ago.
I do recommend WFPB eating for both health and weight loss.
