Reversing My Diabetes Thru a Whole Food Plant Based Diet

This picture to the right is me. Overweight, out-of-shape, and at the end of the road when  it comes to my living in denial. 

The battle lines have been drawn.  

Monday evening I had my annual physical and blood tests to get a better picture of my health challenges and what I am dealing with.  It turns out to be a good news/bad news situation.

The good news: my esophagus is slowly healing due to my adopting a plant-based diet.  I still have a way to go because the healing is taking place via food as medicine rather than pharmaceutical assistance. I am okay with that!

The even better good news is that given my esophagus is healing and the choking / vomiting has decreased dramatically, this suggests that cancer, is currently off the table as a health concern.

The bad news is, my not taking my blood pressure and blood sugar issues seriously two years ago, when I first started my practice, has me now scrambling to get my “act” together before it is too late.

Here’s the challenge.

Challenge #1: My blood pressure is hovering at dangerously high levels. I need to get even  stricter with my plant-based diet and remove even the “vegan junk food” to lower sodium where possible. If I can’t get my blood pressure down via nutrition, my doctor said we need to discuss medication. That is not an option for me, so bring on the celery juice and daily transcendental meditation!

Challenge #2

I received a phone call on Wednesday afternoon from my doctor’s office informing me that my A1C levels have moved from 6.5, which diagnosed me as pre-diabetic two years ago, to 6.7 which has NOW classified me as diabetic. Yes, I replaced worrying about the Big C last month, to worrying about the Big D.  

I returned to have my blood work retested to confirm the A1C results and then I meet with the doctor on February 11^th.

What does this mean? I have three months to not only get my blood pressure in check, but also lower my A1C numbers or I will face having to take medication for both high blood pressure and diabetes for LIFE.

YIKES!! NO THANK YOU!

Talk about taking it to the Gohonzon…

I have my work cut out for me. Yet, I’m not wallowing in sadness or fear. I don’t have time for it.  When I got off the phone with my doctor’s office, I recognized that NOW is the time to not just lean into my practice, I MUST BATHE IN THE POWER OF MY FAITH to literally transform my mind & body so that I reverse my diabetes and eliminate any trace of hypertension in my blood.  

My mantra for the next three months is

“Wake Up With Determination. Go To Bed With Satisfaction.”  

                     

It is not lost on me that my Gohonzon Birthdays seem to be markers for major change in my life.  Last year when February rolled around, I learned my mother passed away. 

This year, I approach February 25^th with the knowledge that if I want to be around for a third Gohonzon birthday, I need to radically revamp my health. 

As strange as it sounds, having gone through a few months of fearing I have cancer, I had more than my fair share of shall we say “facing my mortality” moments. I already decided last month, “I WANT TO LIVE”, so I have no intention of being undone by these two challenges.

The time for dabbling at healthy living is over. I must move thru each day with the determination to:

1.     Chant in front of my gohonzon      “NAM MYOHO RENGE KYO”

2.     Do my Trancendental Meditation

3.     EXERCISE. EXERCISE. EXERCISE

4.     Eat PLANTS ONLY

5.     REBOOT MY HEALTH

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Nichiren Daishonin writes:                                                                I am . . . praying as earnestly as though to produce fire from damp wood, or to obtain water from parched ground” (WND-1, 444). _____________________________________________________________________

So, here I am. Unafraid. Ready for change.

I don’t feel alone in this. I have found inspiration from Sensei left and right popping into my day, reminding me that I have the power to achieve my goals as long as I “Never Give Up.” 

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N i c h i r e n Daishonin states in one of his writings: “Illness gives rise to the resolve to attain the Way.

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Thank you, Universe, for guiding me to this Buddhist practice, providing me the tools to connect with my Buddha-nature, and take action to literally transform the health of my mind, body and spirit in 2019 so I can get on with the business of LIVING MY DREAMS.  

That said,Δ

Welcoming A Year of Victorious Living in 2019

It is early New Year’s morning as I upload this post and finally say good-bye to what has arguably been the most exhausting, challenging and emotionally draining year of my life. I have leaned heavily on my Nichiren Buddhist practice and the promise of this practice to get through some tough challenges. As a leader in our district, I found it important that I lead by example and do my best to face my fears and challenges as directly as possible. However, it was not until after our December Discussion meeting that I allowed myself to feel all there is to feel about what has been going on with me.

Mig and Sam last Saturday reached out to me to check in and set up a home visit.  It actually came  right at a time when I was needing guidance The holidays were here and I was missing my mum as this has been the first Christmas without her.  Also, if my health challenges were not enough, my car has decided to slowly die on me. With vacation time upon me and no district activities to distract me from my life, I recognized that I was dropping the ball with my practice.

There is something about walking that brings up exactly what is going on in my mind. Without my car I was walking everywhere. I tried to put a good spin on things because it was helping me to get my 10,000 steps a day in. However, as I walked, I noticed I was carrying around a lot of anger. Everything and almost everyone angered me. I saw quite clearly  I was making time to be there for others but I was not taking the time to “be there” for myself. It is not that I did know what I needed to do I just wasn’t really doing it. 

I expressed myself to Mig and Sam and received guidance that was most helpful. I’m not use to leaning on other people. It feels like a sign of weakness, but it is not in this practice. No one does this alone. Success comes from taking action and learning to seek guidance and support. 

I didn’t seek the guidance but I needed it. And in some strange way, it gave me the freedom to feel what I was feeling. As much as I am determined to lose the weight I need to lose and face my health challenges head on, in the quiet of my apartment, I have moments of fear deeper than I have ever felt. The idea of cancer being a part of my life experience and having to contemplate my own mortality for the first time is the stuff that insomnia is made of.

 I won’t lie, I have found it hard this week to chant for clarity and strength but when I did I found the clarity to not allow myself to wallow in sorrow for the sake of wallowing. So,the Sunday before Christmas, instead of being sad about my mum, I hopped on a metrolink train to spend the day with my cousins in Rancho Cuchamonga. I spent the day laughing, eating and getting recipes for Guyanese dishes my mum cooked when I was a child so I could cook them for myself in years to come. I felt her presence with me and that sadness went away.  


Christmas arrived.  I baked Guyanese meat patties and attempted to make ginger beer as I said good-bye to my old eating habits and embarked on a new path. For the moment, it is a six week journey following the guidance of Dr. Joel Fuhrman’s “EAT TO LIVE” plan. 

The concept is focused on not counting calories but increasing the consumption of nutrient rich foods like raw fruits and vegetables and eliminating “dead foods” so your body has time to heal itself from all the nutrients in the living whole foods. I am in the early stages of reading the book and understanding the process but if it works it holds the promise of not only healing my current health issue but also correcting my blood sugar and blood pressure difficulties as well. My success will as with all things require changes like I have never done before but I am determined. So far I am at the beginning stages of confronting my food addictions and having that dark night of the soul where you see your life with terrifying clarity. 

Of course, as I chanted for strength and understanding, my Buddha nature decided to give me guidance through my dreams. Let’ s just say, that last night, I had my own version of A Christmas Carol  where my mum who died this year, and my late boyfriend Johhny, who died in 1996, chose New Year’s Eve eve to let me know I had a choice to give up the fight and let Death win, or I can choose to LIVE in every sense of the word in 2019. To be clear, it won’t be easy but it requires me making the choice to stop mourning what could have been and making room for the new LIFE that begins for me in 2019.

I woke up this morning with “the chill of truth.”  Oddly, I felt a need to watch Meet Joe Black  where Death takes a holiday and falls in love.  I found myself at 7:00 am crying tears of joy because I recognized how much I have NOT been living and how much living, loving and growing I have to do starting in 2019. 

If you’ve never seen this movie with Anthony Hopkins, and Brad Pitt, watch it! It will remind you of the importance of living fully and allowing yourself that one “great love.” I want that for myself. 

I know, thanks to Mum and Johnny that this Buddhist practice came into my life at this exact time for a reason. I know it was a dream, but I can’t tell you how powerful it was to have forgotten they were both dead and feeling if only for a few moments that they were actually visiting me with the message to LIVE! So I find myself here, embracing this practice and making 2019 the new beginning I never before allowed myself to imagine was possible. Δ