One Year Later: Finding The Secret To Good Health! It's My 60 Pounds Lost And Other Great Numbers Report!

One Year Later: A happy healthy me!

It has been over a year since I started my transition to a plant based lifestyle. Looking back I can say making these changes in my food choices was very easy, rather fun, and life saving! Yes it's life changing stuff! Before this my life had become miserable, because most of my body systems were shutting down. I am too young for that stuff baby! So with the support of my hubby, we did a complete food change to organic, non-GMO, fresh whole plant foods. You can read more about that beginner path on my Get Started page above in the green bar. The initial kick 'in the mind' was watching these documentaries: "Fat Sick & Nearly Dead" and, the movie "Simply Raw" a powerful film about Diabetics, also known as 'Raw For Thirty.' At that point I was feeling helpless, and beginning to believe I was a victim of my body. After watching the movie 'Fat Sick & Nearly Dead' I cried, because I suddenly had an "aha moment," and saw my way through the disease, and found something I could do for my self. I love my life, and I really wanted to enjoy it with vitality! I knew I had found the answer. Time to stop being a victim, and do all that I had power to do about my own situation. For it was made perfectly clear to me what I had to do. This really was something in life that I really did have the power to change and improve, all it took was the knowledge about what is really in the food. I highly recommend you watch these documentaries! You need to break open your mind.

Ultimately this journey to health has been a food adventure for both my husband and myself, full of delish new dishes to try and love! A whirlwind of learning, igniting a passion for healthy good food, and sharing the good news with others ready to hear! After a year I have grown naturally into a vegan, with leanings towards raw foods. That was not a goal, but the body tells you what is best when you listen. When I was diagnosed with breast cancer a few months ago, I learned from my new doctor that meat, dairy, and oils would have to be removed completely from my diet anyway. It was no biggie for me to do that and I have no regrets. I was already on my way to the next food level of health. When you experience the positive results of your work, it is a joy to continue on that path. I am grateful for the knowledge I have found.

Thanks and giving 2012

Having a cancer thing to deal with was very frustrating in the face of so much success with reversing diabetes, lowering blood pressure, lowering cholesterol levels, and losing the excess weight. Thankfully it was that health and strength that I received from my body improving with my new organic plant lifestyle this year, that was key in getting me through the surgery and overall experience so well. I healed very quickly. I have plant power to alkalize my tissues, and I had already given up the acidosis and inflammation causing processed foods, sugar products, meats, and dairy. Although really I simply over time just lost my taste for meats and dairy. Still I recognize everyone will go at their own pace and realizations as they gain more food and nutrition knowledge. If everyone could just add more and more uncooked organic fruits and vegetables into their life they would see remarkable improvements.

Now I get to feel a bounce in my step as my lighter body moves through the world. As one of my Doctor friends said to me "It will only get better and better!" That is news I can use! Even right after my cancer surgery I had the energy to start Yoga and Rebounding too! I am totally back to working outside and around the house with no problems these days! A far cry from my life a year ago of shuffling across the room, and needing Ben to hold me as I walked across the parking lot to the doctor appointments three times a week. Then there is the new bonus factor to be wearing some of my old favorite clothes, and buying smaller jeans too! Sometimes I pass a mirror and I am amazed at the changes I see looking back at me! I feel and look like me again! There is 20 more pounds to lose in the weight department to get down to 150 pounds. I am confident it will continue to come off slow and steady, just as it has this past year. My initial goal was to lose 1 pound a week this year, and I have done that without thinking on it too much. It was just a natural result of my body getting itself healthy. The magic came from putting the high nutrient whole foods in, and not ingesting the white flour, sugars, and toxins from processed foods and drinks. Simple. 

Christmas 2010 two years ago. I see soda on the kitchen counter!

I tried to find a few photos of me back then. Kinda hard, because I did not want my photo taken, and I am the photo taker anyway. I have posted a few here, and there are also a few Before/After photos on my About page because people can relate to the outward change that has happened. As you view these photos also remember that the real change has happened inside my body. This continues to happen as I regenerate my body to become the healer it really is. Given the opportunity the body reversed diabetes. Some people say to me that I now look like a different person. I say... I now look like me. I think when we become so obese from processed foods and illnesses, we lose our self inside the haze of just trying to get through each day. Breathing became my focus, and now, living and enjoying my life work is my focus. The past three years delayed any life plans I thought I had in my head. Now I can revisit those things or something different since I have life energy. Although I have to admit, I am at the "What am I going to be when I grow up?" stage again!

Photo taken around the beginning of trying to make new food choices.

I can remember thinking over a year ago that if I could lose fifty pounds in a year my life would change. I was willing to wait out the year for the results, because my body was in such pain, and anything would be better than what was happening. Fortunately I did not have to wait long to start to feel better! In a few months there was a shift in my body. People without hypothyroidism will lose weight probably easier than me. My husband has lost 15 pounds. My daughter has lost 80 pounds in less than a year, after she saw what positive results her momma was having with healthier high quality foods. She has become a foodie as well, researching nutrition on her own these days. I am very proud of her, and after all, it is she who is feeding my grandchildren! I wish I could have known about this important life saving food information when my children were young, so they did not have to deal with health issues as adults. Hopefully now my son will join us on our journey to health, so he can be sure not to reap the sick results of the SAD (standard American diet) lifestyle. We may have some genetic weakness, but we can avoid having those things turn on, by eating a plant based whole foods diet.

Before realization: Taken during the one moment I got off the chair on that day.

Over this past year it has been very exciting to hear from 'The Queen's Table' blog and facebook followers, as I have gone on this new adventure. Their desire to also choose healthier whole foods, and to add juicing to their lives has been full of wonderful results. When I attend my husband's concerts and shows, I am always approached by those who are reading my blog posts and making changes. To meet them, and know they are now working on their good health is the best feeling! Plus I can see the actual results of their efforts, and their enthusiasm in person. Well that is totally awesome! Everyone is thrilled to be feeling so good! Juicing and morning green smoothies rock!

So after much delay, due to recently moving and that cancer thing, I finally am able to post the results from my latest labs. I feel this is the solid proof that juicing and eating your fresh local veggies works! All the doctors I speak with are excited about the changes I have made to my health. The only ones who do not "get it" are the ones from the cancer industry. That is just sad. The possible causes of my breast cancer will be discussed in another post in the near future, but I definitely knew I had to step up my research in the cancer area of nutrition and health too. I hope I can help others to realize the options that they do have beyond the limited world and viewpoint of the cancer industry. So if you know anyone facing a cancer diagnosis be sure to read my Cancer Prevention page above filled with links to help you or a loved one get through the system with their personal power intact. There are times we need doctors, no doubt. It is my opinion that they need to be doctors who fully understand the best of all worlds, the scientific and the nutritional. 

Three months after starting to eat real whole organic foods. 
Already feeling better! I am out and doing things again!

Giving yourself the opportunity to create a healthier body is done by your everyday choices. We have to be the ones to learn how to alkalize and detoxify the body, so it can do its job of healing. In all things we must always be our own advocates for health, and participate in our medical choices. This is especially true with the cancer business, which comes down on you hard. If you do not have cancer now, you should still read over my prevention page. In a world where there is a cancer epidemic, you want to make sure that you do not have a body environment that is a home for cancer cells to thrive. If you are eating the standard American diet, I am telling you that the probability is very high that you may have already given cancer a happy home. Believe me, you do not want to hear that diagnosis.

In conclusion, if you start eating whole fresh foods when you are young, you will live a healthy vibrant life. So kids get in on it while you have time, instead of having to fix things later in life like me. Don't risk the agony of disease. I was ignorant to the truth of what has been going on with the food "industry," and what I was really ingesting on a daily basis. The effects of fake foods, chemicals, GMO's, msg, toxins, hormones, antibiotics, fats, sugars, gluten filled modern wheat products, salts, and low nutrients from these so called food stuffs and drinks, is a disaster waiting to happen to you! The body can only handle so much, and eventually will reach its tipping point. If you fill it with this junk, your body will have to spend all its time working on these toxins and have no time to heal and protect you. It is only a matter of time until you will wonder, "Why is this happening to me?"

One year after: I am taking photos at a recent Hectic Red concert. Back to my Rock N' Roll hours!

As a bonus from eating real whole foods like fruits and veggies, I have not gotten sick during this past year with any colds or flu symptoms. Wow! That is very remarkable for me, as in recent years I was always sick with some evil germ. I got the nasty stuff from everybody. Then there was the bad antibiotics I would have to take to fight the various illnesses. Being a person who does not like to take medicine I disliked that this was becoming a common part of my life. So yes, this ingesting of healthier organic whole foods and juicing, creates a strong immunity system too! You gotta love it!

Folks, now that you know... what you eat many times a day.... everyday.....for weeks months, and years...of your life... does matter and adds up, really consider what your eat. Yes...food matters. What direction do you want to go? Check out what changing the 'quality' of the food I ate had on my body this past year below.  Is it worth spending your money on better food choices? Hell yeah! In the long run it is cheaper too!

My Recent Lab Tests Tell The Tale Of Success!!!

A1C (Reading of the sugar in your blood cells that stays there for 3 months) 

(Reference for Normal 4.4 - 6.4)

May 2011 - 6.7
Nov 2011 - 6.4

April 2012 - 6.1
July 2012 - 5.9
Nov. 2012 -  5.3

Daily Blood Sugar:

(Reference for Normal - 70 - 99)

June - Aug  2011 -  Daily Readings ranged from 102 - 176 (average was 130)
Sept - Dec 2011 - Daily Readings ranged from  91 - 125 (average was 110)

April 2012 - Daily Readings Ranged from 74 - 96 (my average now is 86)
Nov 2012 - Daily Readings Ranged from 66 -112 (my average now is 78)

Cholesterol Changes:
(Reference for Normal with no chance of heart attack is 150)
April 2009 - 197
May 2011 - 170 
April 2012- 165
July 2012 - 149
Nov 2012 - Everything looks good so they did not test this time.

Weight loss Changes:
Sept 2011 - 15 pounds gone
December 2011 - 25 pounds gone
April 2012 - 40 pounds gone
July 2012 - 50 pounds gone
Nov 2012 - 60 pounds gone 
Jan 2013 - 65 pounds gone

Blood Pressure Readings:
2009 - 150/100
2010 - 176/100
2011 March -160/110
2011 November - 130/85
2012 April - 120/85
2012 November - 122/70

Medicine Changes:
June 2011 - Immediately dropped the diabetes medicine Metformin after two weeks, and said, "no way!" to taking pills to control something I knew I could change with better quality food. My doctor had given me 3 months to prove I could do it, and I did! I reversed my diabetes!
December 2011 - Dropped one of my two blood pressure medications. 
December 2012 - Dropped my blood pressure medicine altogether.


Everyone is different and each person will approach their changes in lifestyle in a way that is comfortable to them. What is your mindset when faced with the reality of declining health, or even to keep a vibrant healthy body? Do you have an excuse why you don't follow through, even now that you know what to do? I say just start now and reverse it! Keep trying and restarting over and over till you have a pattern of change. The good news is organic whole food works! Sometimes when we immediately say that "we can't because of this or that" we need to ask ourselves, "Is that really true?" What if we asked ourselves, "What could I do differently to make this happen?" Perhaps it's time to change your own "story" about food, and love yourself, more than the excuses. Are having the "excuses be true," really more valuable than you? Have compassion for yourself and keep trying, and move forward with a vision of success. The goal is to feel better, and be as healthy as you can be! You deserve to live your life to its fullest! Just so you know, I did not even do any exercise until I lost 60 pounds! How easy was that?!! It only took changing up the food to change my life. Of course exercise is important, and now that I am lighter, I am adding that element into the new mix because I can!

Hey! Here is an exciting new announcement: Below is my new doctor! When it came time to get a second opinion on my cancer protocol, I went to Dr.Joel Fuhrman Associates. That is the place where science meets nutrition. So I got that going for me! If you would like to learn from a professional doctor how to reverse disease through nutritional excellence visit Dr.Joel Fuhrman's website, which is filled with valuable information and recipes. He is a true light in the medical field and loves what he does in life. Dr. Fuhrman has been featured in just about every documentary on food and health. Along with having specials on PBS recently, Dr. Fuhrman has also recorded a radio show called "Nutritional Wisdom," with episodes that you can download. I like listening to them while I am working on the computer. The two books of his that I highly recommend you purchase are Eat to Live: The Amazing Nutrient-Rich Program for Fast and Sustained Weight Loss, Revised Edition ' and Super Immunity: The Essential Nutrition Guide for Boosting Your Body's Defenses to Live Longer, Stronger, and Disease Free. He has also written an important book for parents to help transform their family's eating habits, and get their children started on the road to life long good health called Disease-Proof Your Child: Feeding Kids Right. His latest book about reversing Diabetes is a far better method than relying on the usual medications which eventually shorten your life, that book is called The End of Diabetes: The Eat to Live Plan to Prevent and Reverse Diabetes. For me, I choose life! So I highly encourage you to watch the video clip below, where Dr. Fuhrman talks about overall good nutrition, the fallacies of modern medical care, and the importance of having micro-nutrients in your diet for a long life. Dr. Fuhrman has a DVD set that helps you learn to eat like a Nutritarian, which is what you will be if you choose highly nutrient foods over dead processed foods, that set is simply called Eating Like A Nutritarian.




Having gratitude in advance for feeling better, and thanking the Universe for good health at the start of your new journey is a powerful place to begin. Go visit my 'Get Started' and 'Inspiration' pages to get ideas on how to embark on your own exciting journey in health. I am continually adding new information to the pages at the top of my blog, as I tweak what I am eating and doing, while I continue to learn and grow on this food adventure! So be sure to revisit those pages every now and then for tips and information you can use! If you are feeling badly, are overweight, suffering from diabetes and/or other diseases...can you give yourself the present of a year of change?  Visualize yourself taking steps in that direction. I know you can make these improvements too, so that you can live a happy vibrant life and have fun! Every day is a new opportunity to do it better! Juice on to your own happy, healthy life, with amazing results! You are the key to that door!

Be healthy. Be happy. Be peace.