I’ve been somewhat heavy all my life. No one really considered me “fat”, but I sure felt that I way. At 247 pounds, my 5”11” frame really carried all that weight really well. I didn’t look typically obese, and interestingly enough, even though my BMI was nearly 30 and I had elevated blood pressure, my general practitioner never recommended that I lose weight.
My dieting journey started about 15 years ago. I tried every diet in vogue—Atkins for quite some time, Keto, Paleo, strict calorie counting and quite honestly, all of them worked for a while. Fortunately, I had the mindset to combine exercise with the dieting, and generally speaking, despite constant setbacks, was able to get down to a consistent weight of anywhere between 206-210 pounds. It may have been my real heavy exercise routines that kept the weight down—I was running at least 2 half marathons per year at the time, so I had to be careful with what I ate. And there I stayed for well over 5 years; still quite overweight, still with borderline hypertension and still unhappy with how I looked.
Throughout these years, I read every diet book I could get my hands on. And I tied each new “diet option” as it came along. One in particular—that of the “Starch” diet pioneered by Dr. John McDougall— was always quite intriguing. In a nutshell, it’s more of a healthy dietary lifestyle, rather than a diet. It promotes eating starch (in the form of potatoes, beans, brown rice, sweet potatoes) as the mainstay of one’s diet along with all sorts of vegetables and fruits. And, one of the best things about it is that there truly is no portion control—just eat as much as you’d like. Of course, fast foods are out as well as oils, meat chicken and fish and all types of dairy.
Covid changed our world, of course, but pre-Covid I had heard that the McDougall group had a a center in Santa Rosa, California where they offered a 12 day intense introduction to the diet and lifestyle. And they also had similar courses in Mexico and even on cruises where you could learn all about the program (and diet) where one could not only try out their incredible recipes, but also listen to lectures about calorie density, lifestyle change, nutritional guidance, cooking demonstrations, and scientific background on why and how this diet works so well. I hadn’t heard of the terminology at the time, but the program is a WFPBD program (Whole Food Plant Based Diet). All of the California and “vacation” programs were incredibly expensive and at least for me, with my work and family schedule were just too time prohibitive.
I dismissed the diet as just being too impractical for me. For one thing, I had already seen that just reading a book and implementing change was not working—at least not for me. And whenever I spoke to friends or family about it, they laughed and thought I was joking. “You’re going to lose weight by eating potatoes and beans”, they said!!! I pretty much sided with their opinions and sentiments too, being that I had read over and over again how carbs are so fattening. And as much as I was intrigued by the program, I simply could not justify the time away from work and family and the cost of the program was beyond my budget at the time.
Covid changed our world, of course, and one of the positive changes it brought about was greater usage of telemedicine and Zoom conferences taking the place of on site meetings. So, the McDougall group started offering their program as a 12 day on line course and it was virtually the same as their on site program. When I heard about it, and when I saw that the cost was incredibly reasonable, I jumped at the opportunity to take the course. I didn’t have to pay for room and board, didn’t the cost to travel 3,000 miles to California, and I could still maintain my work schedule while still attending the course. It was simply the perfect program for me.
I’ll save the details of how incredibly excellent the program is for another blog post. I took the course exactly one year ago (July 2022) and here are the results:
- I now weigh 173 pounds—a weight loss of 33 pounds.
- I am off all blood pressure meds
- All of my lab results are picture perfect! No irregularities, no problems and no issues whatsoever!!
Here are a couple of photos of me after the McDougall program (33 pound weight loss)
I’ll be discussing how the program works in future blog posts, focusing also on why the diet and lifestyle is so easy to adopt. For me, taking the 12 day intensive course and adhering to the program has been truly life changing for me and I am 100% confident that it will be beneficial to everyone out there trying to improve their health and lose weight. .
