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Back earlier in the year on 30th Sept 2019 I published a blog which marked the beginning of my 3 month diet/lifestyle trial on the Whole Food Plant Based Diet. It would make sense for anyone reading this to click on the link to have a good read of this, to see my inspiration for this trial and reasons behind it. Essentially I wanted to see if I could improve the following by living on only Whole foods and Plants - 1. Will my Cholesterol get to an ideal range? 2. Will my Kidney reading improve? 3. Will my metabolism improve? 4. Will there be improvements in my workouts or athletic ability? 5. Can I gain muscle mass on plants and grains? 6. Can I make the food tasty and interesting enough for me to last 3 months? 7. Will my toilet trips improve? I now have the answers to these questions, and am out the other end of the trial. So...how did it go? Let's tackle one question at a time - 1. will my cholesterol get to an ideal range?So these stats below are taken from my own readings on my home Tanita scale.
 AFTER 20 Dec 2019 -  I am a bit blown away by these results. This is a massive difference from the previous reading, and the best reading I have had since I can remember. I only actually received these result this morning (31st Dec 2019) so am still elated with with the results I'm seeing. Well, the answer is a big fat yes to this question. It most definitely does reduce cholesterol. 2. will my kidney reading improve?Well lets see - BEFORE 20 Sept 2019 -  AFTER 20 Dec 2019 -  EGFR jumped right up and Creatinine in the normal range! And a green light for overall kidney function. This again is the best reading since I can remember. And I would imagine the EGFR reading would normalise to the perfect range at this rate if I continued on WFPB. Another thing I noticed was my blood pressure. I didn't have an issue with blood pressure, however it did drop quite considerably. So for those of you who do suffer with blood pressure issues, this could be of interest to you. Before 30 Sept 2019 -  After 20 Dec 2019 -  So you can see here, my blood pressure went into the prefect range. The target in blood pressure being on or under 120/80. For the first time in my life I was asked if I have ever suffered from low blood pressure. No, was my answer, only high blood pressure! Another fantastic result. 3. will my metabolism improve?Now this one was an interesting one. During the first 6-7 weeks of the WFPB lifestyle I rapidly lost weight and dropped 7-8 pounds of weight. This wasn't necessarily the plan and was too fast to be a good thing (especially when you are not trying to) but it did mean my metabolism was working faster as my usual daily intake of 1800 - 2000 calories was no longer enough as I was loosing weight. First, I had to cut back on my fasts. I only fasted once a fortnight. And I had to eat more. So I added around another 500 - 700 calories per day to stop loosing weight and to possibly gain some back that I had lost. So I did need to eat a lot of food to maintain my weight. Which suggested that my metabolism did speed up. However, was if a permanent fix? So in other words, will my metabolism continue to be fast even if I started eating meat and dairy again? Alas, the answer is no. I have eaten meat and dairy since Christmas eve. As soon as I started eating meats and dairy again I quite rapidly started to gain weight. Gaining an unusual amount of weight in the first 2 - 4 days. More than you would of thought possible considering the amount of food I was eating, which didn't warrant the gains I experienced? So, in answer to the question, whilst on the WFPB diet my metabolism did speed up for sure. But my metabolism will only stay fast by continuing to eat this way. And it doesn't fix any metabolism issues moving forward. I do think the WFPB diet does your digestive system the world of good. And as you would expect, food digests at a much better rate, enabling you to eat a lot more. And therefore food being processed much quicker than normal, and moving through you quickly. With the high amount of fibre consumed making the metabolism work like clockwork. And enabling you to have to eat more because of the efficiency of your digestion and high fibre content.. However, when you go back to eating meats etc, these foods are harder and to digest, take longer to process as they slowly get broken down and more of this type of food (meats etc) gets utilised by the body so not so much is waste. My theory on the rapid weight gain after finishing the WFPB diet, is pulled from my experience of all diets, is just my body grabbing onto nutrition it hasn't had for a while. So it clings onto these new meat/dairy/fish proteins, carbs and fats and doesn't let go, in case they are banished from my diet again. Also, over eating at Christmas is the norm for most people, including me! I do believe this will balance itself out over the next few weeks as my body adjusts back, and realises they are a regular food now. Or are they? 4. Will there be improvements in my workouts or athletic ability?A lot of people have been asking me if I 'felt' different during the diet. I can honestly say, not massively. However, I didn't feel bad in any way before. I always feel pretty good. So feeling better, wasn't a goal for me. However, I did at the beginning feel more energetic in the gym at the start. This I believe is because my carb intake would of jumped, as previous to this lifestyle I always followed a pretty low carb diet, and then on this diet I was suddenly eating lots of fruit, oats, grains, pure sugars such as maple syrup and veggies which is a lot more carb than I was used to! So yes I did in the first few week feel full of beans (pardon the pun!) And I noticed too my deep sleep lessened and my REM went up. I think this was a rise in energy to. Deep sleep being when my brain is fast asleep with no activity but there is physical movement in my body, and REM being when my brain is very active but my body is paralysed. It didn't effect the overall good quality of my sleep, but my deep sleep to REM sleep ratio changed as my brain seemed more active in rest. I did find as time went on, my energy levels plateaued. I would imagine that your body adjusts and gets used to the food intake and therefore energy levels normalise. I was also loosing weight in the early stages so this could of effected energy levels too. Although when I added more calories, I didn't particularly feel more energised. If anything towards the end I felt less motivated. Although I do think that in the run up to Christmas, when you are super busy and a lot on your mind, this could of been the real reason for the later lack of work out motivation. So I am left hanging a bit on this question personally. I do think the other reason I lacked gym motivation was my loss of muscle mass. I lost over a kg over this whole period. And I think that loosing this, and loosing some strength was also a reason for the later loss of gym motivation. So I do think this answer for me to this question was no. With loss of muscle mass and strength, and then eventually motivation...it didn't help my workouts or athletic ability. 5. Can I gain muscle mass on plants and grains?Well, you probably read just now, that the answer to this question for me...was no. I lost over 1kg of muscle mass during this process. Physically, I don't look much different, but I wasn't expecting any massive visual physical change as I kept my workouts the same as before on a 4 day split on weights, and 4 cardio sessions a week,, but was at least hoping to maintain my muscle.
I ask myself 'Could I have adapted the diet a little more, with the knowledge I now have from this process?' Well, yes, is the answer. The early quick weight loss done me no favours. And I think my foods could have been more grains, nuts and beans and less veg and fruit, so to have a higher protein intake and less carbs and sugars. So, I think I would have needed more calories from the start, and more whole food proteins (one hell of a lot of chickpeas! Lol!) to try to maintain the muscle. I also found I craved sugar. I got through litres of maple syrup and honey, lots of fruit 3-4 pieces a day towards the end, as well as lots of coconut and unrefined sugars. All this I wouldn't normally go for. But couldn't get enough of it! I do also think that eating sugars make you want more sugars. You could argue that this had zero effect on my Blood Glucose readings which were perfect. So why does it matter? Well, it shows my insulin hormone is working very well if anything! Doing a fab job at clearing out and storing my excess sugars! (Read further down to its effect on my hormones) But sugars have little nutritional value. These would of been better in the form of grain and legumes, so that I am not just getting empty calories, but getting other good nutrients too. I am forever learning. 6. Can I make the food tasty and interesting enough for me to last 3 months?The answer to this was a big fat YES! I loved the food and never got bored of it! If you follow my Facebook page you would of seen a whole host of delicious foods I have been eating. Click on each picture to see the recipes on my recipe page.
I had no trouble making food that was very enjoyable. There was some epic fails mind! But hey, nobody's perfect! Lol! I also do think that I had an advantage in that I am not a bad cook. I do think that if you were not very good in the cooking department, that this could be a difficult regime to follow. If you are not very inventive or knowledgeable about the range of foods available and included in this lifestyle, you could quite quickly get bored and fall off the wagon during this process. I was impressed too with the range of ready made foods now available in shops. They often come under the Vegan category, which remember isn't always under the WFPB rules, but it's near enough when you are caught short in a cafe, or want to buy ready made meals instead of creating you own. To help you understand what else you can eat other than all the fruit and veg available out there, I have put together these charts to help and to use as a reference of what is included in the WFPB lifestyle - And with all the recipes I added to My Recipes page, this should give you a good heads up. And also, if you need help with explanations of Vitamins and Minerals, you can also click on this link to take you to my descriptions of these too. 7. Will my toilet trips improve?And this was a definite yes! I was sometimes going 3 times a day! And if you have followed any of my previous blogs you would know I suffer from a complex colon, which means I have during my lifetime struggled to regularly go and was told I would need to be on laxatives for life. Well, a WFPB diet definitely sorted this out! I also sent off a stool sample at the end of this process to get my Microbiome tested. This is something I regularly do. I do generally have a good microbiome. As overall my diet is always healthy and clean. And when I blogged my Prebiotic and Probiotic diet I learnt a lot about what foods to eat to add good bacteria to my microbiome and and how to feed it with prebiotics. Following this WFPB lifestyle meant I was naturally eating lots of prebiotics which would of been feeding my good bacteria's by the bucket load, so I was interested in how it would of effected this. My results were as follows -  I was amazed to find my Probiotic levels had risen to max count of 10! I had never had that level of result before. A perfect 10. The other results all were pretty much the same as previous tests. But its good to know I have a high Microbiome diversity, which means a good range of good and bad bacteria, high Butyrate levels signally no sign of leaky gut and a strong colon wall, my vitamin K levels are means high levels of absorption of protein and calcium, and an average Dietary Fibre Intake which broken down was levels of specific B vitamins ranging from average to high. So, my Microbiome is strong. I couldn't really ask for much better. And my immune system to strong too. Very happy days. If you are interested in getting your stats checked, I use Check my Body Health and Bluecrest for my fitness and health checks. The latter I get half price with my Vitality Insurance. another unexpected bonus - hormone balancedDue to being a body builder and before that long distance running, I hadn't had periods for about 10 years. This may be shocking to you, but it is quite normal for female athletes not to have periods. I was checked out by my GP a couple of years ago, and all my reproductive organs were healthy, so no problems there. And no sign of menopause either. So that wasn't the reason. It's excessive exercise and low body fat that can cause it. And higher muscle mass also means higher testosterone, which also plays a part. Think of an anorexic female, they often have no periods due to very lower body fat levels. Often being force fed if they fall below 15%. Us female body builders often go down to 8%. And female athletes often live in between 15 - 19%. Low body fat had a much bigger physical impact to woman than it does men. After not competing or any high intensity training over the last 2 years my body fat levelled to normal always sitting at about 23 - 27% over this time frame. And this year I had one period back in June. This I put down to a consistent body fat. But just one. Then nothing. Until I went on the WFPB diet that is. When I had 3 periods. Once every 4 weeks, exactly how it should be. This I didn't see coming! I do honestly believe it helped balance my hormones. Also Vegan style diets often can lower testosterone levels, which could also account for the muscle mass loss. And my clear increase in oestrogen levels. So, I now have regular healthy periods in my late 40's back again. I actually quite like this and feel good about it. Although I'm sure some of you wonder why! Lol! final thoughts....When I reached Christmas eve, and had the choice to continue the WFPB diet or go back to eating meat, fish and dairy, I chose to eat meat again . I hadn't yet had all my results through. And this morning, they did make me think long and hard about whether going back to meat was a good idea? But I am sticking to my return. I have decided to eat a lot less meat/dairy/fish than before and make my general diet mostly grains, legumes, veg and nuts, with small amounts of meat and dairy as a treat. As I do think we were built to have meat in our diets, but no where near as much as we have become accustomed to. I think where we source our meat and dairy leaves a lot to be desired. I.e. supermarkets or cheap online outlets/markets. With farmers being forced to lower quality of life of the animals and to use all sorts of methods to keep them well (over use of antibiotics) and keeping them fattened with growth hormones and sugary foods. Chickens being housed in awful conditions, and our fish filled with mercury and small particles of our plastic waste from our rubbish being tipped in seas. As well as our grains and wholefood products being genetically modified to be bigger or to produce more grain when harvested. All this to produce more, to be able to make more money from the pennies that supermarkets pay our farmers for produce. We are and have been eating these modified products. Not knowing the effect it is having long term on our health. Or in fact only just starting to realise the impact this is having on our health is more the case. And all to keep the costs down more mass production. We end up suffering. I think its no coincidence that we have a rapidly growing level of diseases in the world when for years we were unknowingly eating genetically modified fake foods and knowingly eating vast amounts of processed foods. But now we know. I get my meat direct from a local farm that doesn't sell to supermarkets. I get raw milk and dairy from them so its in its whole state. I was once told that the cost of a 2 pint carton of milk would by 8p to a supermarket, when it can be sold direct for £1.20 off the shelf direct from a farm. All enzymes in place, no preservatives, non GMO, no middle man. And not that much more to pay out of our pockets, but a little effort in finding a good supplier near you. This to me is still a whole food product and worth the effort in finding a good supplier. Thank you Angela at Crawley Dairy Farm! Whole food to me is sourcing product in its original form. From a farm direct, or from an organic source. I have just started growing my own vegetables at a community farm and hope by next year to be growing all the veg I need. Knowing exactly were it comes from. Thank you Richard and Megham at Treewell Farm! It can cost more when purchased from shops. And I do realise that spending more on foods isn't possible for a lot people. But if you have a garden, your kids could benefit from growing some veg out back, eating better and at the same time, saving money, improving your health and learning about where food comes from. Whole Food 'Mostly' Plant Based, is what I'm going to follow for now. After following the WFPB diet these 3 months, and on receiving my results this morning it has had a massive impact on me. The WFPB diet has reset all my health markers to a level of near perfect. Which has amazed me. Totally amazed me. But the loss of muscle mass and energy matters to me. And I do think the ideal diet is whole food, mostly plant based, organic meats/veg with intermittent fasting for cell cleansing and digestion resting. We as human beings have out lived most living creatures because of how we can eat and digest a vast and varied range of foods and survive on all of it. To survive we would mostly gather and pick foods as they were often in abundance, we would occasionally kill an animal and feast on it, we would go without for weeks or months living off our stored fat that we had built up in times when food was abundant. And during fasting times, our bodies became more efficient, energised and our brains sharper when living of off fats/ketones to help our chase, hunt or catch food. Our digestive systems can process veg, fruits, grains, meats, fish, shellfish, nuts, legumes etc because we needed this diversity to survive through the ages. I believe that lifestyles and a lifetime filled with processed cheap fake foods, or supposedly healthy looking produce filled with genetic modification, has a large part to play in what is breaking the human races health. And with the hospitals filled to the brim with Obesity, Diabetes, Fibromyalgia, Alzheimer's, Allergies, Intolerance, a vast rise in Mental illnesses, Multiple Sclerosis and other auto-immune diseases, Heart Disease, Stroke and Cancers are just some of them. Looking at using food for medicinal purposes to repair, help to ease or get rid of these illnesses is got to be the way to go. Rather than relying on drugs, and filling the pharmaceutical companies pockets. Surely at least yourself to eat better and more naturally is something to try first? And for the not yet broken, prevention is always better than cure. The WFPB diet does reset all your health stats for sure. But just like all the diets I trial, Keto, Paleo, Fasting, Microbiome and WFPB...they all have their place. And all have been proven to fix certain ailments. And all have supportive research and professionals claiming one is the best of them all. But they are all fixing already broken lifestyles. But once you are fixed, what would be the best lifestyle/diet? If you are fit and healthy like me, and don't need fixing what would the best choice be? I think as I said before Wholefood, mostly plant based diet with intermittent fasting. Good quality foods, lots of prebiotics, in its original form, organically sourced, varied and fresh. Just how we would of survived for thousands of years before us. This year I also had an all clear result on my mammogram, smear, cancer blood check (part of the Bluecrest Health Check) and again another clear dental check. I am not intolerant to any foods (gluten, lactose etc) I have no allergies (apart from crickets! Don't even ask!), I suffer from no mental issues, or auto immune issues. So now I go into 2020 with a clean sweep of all health markers, I am interested if when eating like I have aforementioned, will maintain these markers? I have no plans to do diet trials on myself this year, just to live following the lifestyle/diet I think is right for me, and for all of us. And this time next year I will retest, and see if this varied and balanced wholefood, mostly plant based diet with intermittent fasting has maintained my excellent health markers. I am also going to work on getting back my lost muscle, and I would like to be a little leaner this new year of 2020, but not going to break my back or health doing so. I hope you enjoy my diet blogs. If you would like to read any previous ones please see below a list of links - Wholefood Plant Based - The Beginning Intermittent Fasting Part 1 Intermittent Fasting Part 2 My Ketosis Journey Part 1 My Ketosis Journey Part 2 My Ketosis Journey Part 3 My Ketosis Journey Part 4 My Ketosis Journey Part 5 My Ketosis Journey Part 6 Update Keto Conclusion Part 7 Five Day Extended Fast Can I Reverse Diabetes T2 with Keto and Fasting? The Prebiotic and Probiotics Diet Thank you for reading my blog. And I would like to take this opportunity to wish you a Happy, Healthy and Prosperous New Year! Happy 2020! All the best Terri xx 
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