I don't usually make resolutions but I guess I'll tell the story of my end of year and the changes I have made so far. About 10 years ago I was falling apart. I went to the doctor for something unrelated and they diagnosed me as pre-diabetic and suggested I started to take metformin. First I learned about keto diet and this made no sense to me so I kept looking and found Forks Over Knives and the Whole Food Plant Based Diet. Around that time I had moved in with my partner who was a vegetarian and was became one as well so I decided to make the plunge to fully vegan style diet. Following the plant based doctors I lost a lot of weight (270 to ~160 lbs) and reversed the pre-diabetes diagnosis. Once the meat goggles were full off I went all the way hard core animal rights vegan.

This year though I crossed into my mid 40s and towards the end of the summer I started to have headaches, I wasn't sleeping well and I generally was having a hard time paying attention. In October I decided to do something about it. I've been a pretty heavy cannabis smoker for most of my life and I switched to dry herb vapes about 10 years ago. This was the first thing I stopped doing. Anecdotally I really don't think cannabis is addictive because if I were drinking as much as I was smoking I would have gone into the DTs and had to go to the hospital, I was grumpy for a few days then didn't smoke since, after daily smoking for 25+ years.

I don't really like or trust doctors either so I didn't believe that going to one would really help me with vague symptoms. So I downloaded medical textbooks from Annas archive and started to perform a physical on myself. I purchased some medical equipment on ali express all under 15 dollars, a blood pressure monitor, a blood oxygen sensor, and a thermometer. I started working through the family medicine examination process on myself.

I learned I had first stage hyper tension/high blood pressure between 121/81 - 135/90. I started to revisit my diet and made some tweaks to it. White rice crept in, I was eating processed food more often, I wasn't really being very careful about added sugar any more. I also haven't really been exercising since I moved from a big city to a more suburban place. I ordered my own blood work (I can do that where I live, I don't need to go to a doctor to do this, I called a lab) and I got my blood work back. It actually came back pretty good except my triglycerides were high (200 and good is < 150) although my cholesterol was good. My A1C was good which is a metric of diabetes, I am still non diabetic. I am more anemic than I have been in the past, but I knew that and it is non-reversible in my case because of a blood disease called beta thalassemia.

So I got to work on correcting the blood work and the hyper tension, I got an exercise bike which I use almost every day and started going for hour long walks most days. I bought 5, 8 and 10 lb weights and started doing a routine I found on Youtube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNsKEG3hIzI). I switched out white rice for brown rice and started eating salads every day along with steamed greens with lemon juice (turnip greens, collard greens, kale, spinach) because where I live I can get bundles of them for a dollar within walking distance. I am following this rough plan although I add tofu and tempeh to my dinners too https://www.doctorklaper.com/hsep.

Anyway it has been working well, I have been sleeping much better, I stopped snoring. I got my blood work done again and all my numbers have gone to normal dropping 50 points of triglycerides in a few weeks which according to the internet is rare to do without taking medicines and have been in a much better mood. My blood pressure has gone down to an average of 110/60 over the past few weeks now without any more days of over 120 or over 80. So for the new year I intend on keeping on this path for a while and feeling better for my late 40s and 50s. I am really thankful I found veganism and healthy plant based eating when I did in my life and didn't end up like my grandma who had amputations from diabetes and died in her 60s. I want to have a healthspan that goes way longer than that.

Happy New Year everyone!

[–] WhereDidMySpinachGo@vegantheoryclub.org 5 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Damn, hope you feel better!

But what a journey! That is great that you were able to turn things around and reversed the pre-diabetic diagnosis. I saw my dad fail to do that until he was diabetic.

And for me it's not that i don't trust doctors, so much as i don't trust the capitalist machine they serve where practices have been bought out and every patient is just another metric. I'm impressed by your ability to navigate all that on your own though, and great job getting things back in check

[–] hamid@vegantheoryclub.org 7 points 1 week ago

Both my parents were doctors so I might be extra biased but I agree with your assessment of why I don't trust them. Maybe I would in a different economic system. I've had better luck with doctors in Mexico than the US but even still if you have vague symptoms they don't really have any way of helping. I really didn't want to tell a doctor that I was having headaches and fatigue and then just hearing I should eat red meat or something.

Sorry about your Dad, I wish I could scream at everyone about how to eat but no one wants to hear it and there is massive push back by even suggesting you might know what is good for someone so I don't really bother any more, it is really sad. I focus more on animal rights in terms of vegan messaging even though I believe that healthy eating is a good entry way into veganism. I helped run the "vegan circlejerk" on reddit for a while and that is really targeted towards vegetarians more than full on meat eaters and I still believe that to be pretty effective but I wish I could figure out a way to be a health communicator as well.

[–] Arcanepotato@vegantheoryclub.org 4 points 1 week ago

Thank you so much for sharing. It's hard to talk about and so personal but I think it's so important to hear especially for the young and invincible crowd, lol.

[–] grrgyle@slrpnk.net 3 points 1 week ago

So I downloaded medical textbooks from Annas archive and started to perform a physical on myself.

This is incredible. I can't imagine being so self-sufficient. I hem and haw over ordering one canister of floss online. Thank you for sharing. I didn't even consider that taking one's health in hand like you've done was possible.