45 Day Food Experiment Ends Today and Results are Here

"The rules were so simple that even a food dummy like me could follow it with very little effort"  ~ Michael Mulligan

The lab rat is free.  The cage door has been removed and I'm ready to go out into the world and share the good news from my final lab results.  I'm cured.  No more high blood pressure.  No more high cholesterol and no more excess body fat.  The problems were solved during my 45 day food experiment.  Here's my story:

I didn't know how sick I was until I went on a family vacation at the end of August.  The first stop on the 4,100 mile road trip was a visit with my sister in Arizona.  She survived two weeks in intensive care battling a bacteria that invaded her lung nearly killing her.  The odds of survival were in the 5% range.  She was home recovering when I visited.  My brother, who was by her side night and day during her illness, offered to take my blood pressure.  He was using a home blood pressure monitor to keep track of my sister's vitals.  That's when I discovered my blood pressure was out of control.  My head was spinning.  I always attributed my high readings during doctor visits to "white coat syndrome."  There weren't any white coats around.  I was sick and didn't even know it.

The next morning my mother invited me to go to church with her.  Today is the first time I'm revealing my private prayer to Jesus on that morning in Northern Arizona.  I prayed Jesus would heal my blood pressure without the need for medicine.  I was very specific.  At the time it seemed like an impossible request – blood pressure readings of 120/80.  Was this request realistic?  Was it impossible my sister beat all the odds and is on her way to a 100% recovery after coming within hours of death?  No.  Jesus has shown me over and over throughout my life he is a miracle worker.

The blood pressure readings continued to spiral in the wrong direction.   The look in my wife's eyes was enough to convince me I needed to visit urgent care and get immediate help.  My mother called my cousin, the doctor in the family, and told him about my situation.  Meanwhile, we were looking for the keys to our rental car so we could seek medical intervention.  The keys were nowhere to be found.  We assumed they were locked in the trunk and called AAA.  No keys in the trunk.  By the time we found the keys, my cousin called back and talked me out of going to urgent care.  Instead, he offered an alternative he would discuss with me when I returned home.  His only request was that I buy my own blood pressure monitor and keep him advised about the numbers.

The 45 day lab rat experiment began on September 2.  The rules were so simple that even a food dummy like me could follow it with very little effort:  Don't buy any food with a label on it, no animal food, no dairy, no grains and no alcohol except wine (two glass maximum per day for guys and one glass per day for ladies).  On September 7, Five days into the experiment, my blood pressure dropped to 120/80!  I visited my new primary care physician on September 16 and ordered a complete lipid panel test and comprehensive metabolic panel.  Everything was in the normal range for the first time in my life.  A second cholesterol test at the end of the experiment confirmed the numbers were holding steady.  Bad cholesterol is down about 50% from two years ago, good cholesterol doubled since the last screening eight months ago, overall cholesterol dropped 90 points from a high of 230 in June, 2013 and blood pressure is averaging 115/70 consistently without any medicine.

The primary goal of the experiment was to lower blood pressure without medicine.  Perhaps more shocking than the blood pressure drop which happened almost overnight, is my twenty-five pound weight loss since returning home from vacation.  I weighed in at an all-time high of 185 on August 30.  My weight today at the end of the experiment is 159.4.  Even more impressive is the body fat loss which dropped from 30% according to my bmi scale to 22.4% today, meaning I lost enough body fat to fill two sacks of potatoes weighing 10 pounds each.  80% of my 25 pound weight loss is body fat, formerly centered around my belly.

I'm going to leave the reason for these results to the experts to explain why all of this happened in such a short period of time.  By the way, I did not make any major changes to my exercise routine which has been little to none during my book writing journey.  I believe all my hours of writing with little or no outside activity contributed to my problem with my health and I'm making the appropriate adjustments to avoid this problem ever again.  My wife decided to give my new food program a try when she saw how fast I was losing weight.  She's also experiencing positive results.

I would like to thank my cousin for taking the time to put this experiment together.  He saved my life.  I had three strikes against me going into the experiment and now I'm safe at home.  I would also like to thank my new primary care physician for listening to me about the experiment and for ordering the extra tests to confirm what I'm feeling on the outside.  Special thanks goes out to the lab technicians who handed me the lab results within thirty minutes yesterday so I could publish the final report today at the conclusion of the experiment.  I've never felt better.  Please share this story with your loved ones, especially those who may be dealing with high blood pressure, high cholesterol or excess body fat.  One caveat to those on prescription medicine – please consult your physician before making radical changes to your diet.  Your body will respond almost immediately when you cut off processed foods and your medicine needs may change.  You have my permission to share this story.  Have a great day.  May you live long and prosper.