Good news from Heather and Lee!

Every Friday we share some good news from the Engine 2 community. Today we hear from Heather and Lee about their plant-strong journey.

Hey E2 Family!!!

My name is Heather  along with my husband, Lee, we have been on a plant-based diet for just over 2 months now. Here is our story!

My husband (34) and I (33) have always been slim and active, seemingly healthy. My husband’s cholesterol, however, was always in the 200’s throughout his twenties. At one point it reached 270. Adamantly opposed to cholesterol medicine, he kicked exercise into full gear only to see his total cholesterol drop to around 220. My cholesterol, while not horrible, has always hovered around 200 despite my consistent exercising. This past summer was certainly quite a shock when Lee’s cholesterol reached 311, and my cholesterol jumped to 233! Still uninterested in medication, I searched for an alternative.

I stumbled upon the community of researchers and clinicians that provide that data to support a whole foods, plant based diet. I never thought that veganism would be necessary, or that a reason to switch would be for one other than animal ethics. However, my husband and I were on board for what we thought would be a 6 week experiment.

The six weeks were filled with reading many books (Engine 2 diet, Preventing & Reversing Heart Disease, The China Study, The pleasure trap, & Whitewash), watching several movies (Forks over knives, Chow Down, Planeat, Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead), discovering new foods, creating new meals (some more successful than others), and weight loss. We never felt sick or tired, much less experienced any chest pain, prior to this diet. So we maintained our energy yet noticed decent weight loss. My 5’10 husband went from ~170 lbs. to 155 lbs., and I (5’5”) went from ~120 lbs. to 110 lbs!

Fast-forward 6 weeks later and the results were pretty amazing, especially for my husband

Lee:

Total Cholesterol: 311 to 232
LDL: 189 to 152
Tri’s: 305 to 103 (wowza!)

Heather:

Total Cholesterol: 233 to 212
LDL: 125 to 127 (? Not sure why)  *note from E2 – some people have this happen, but we see it go down with no problem.
Tri’s: 187 to 148

Obviously we are a work in progress!!! We are, however, forever changed by what we have learned in 2 short months. We are so grateful to have found out about the significance of a plant-based diet before we became a statistic! No more waiting for the other shoe to drop or worrying if our parents’ health has any say in ours!

Plant Strong,

Heather & Lee

Thanks for sharing Heather and Lee!

If you have a story to share, please send us an email: engine2family@gmail.com