Sixteen years of bad lifestyle choices have ruined my life. My marriage was dissolved. Connections with friends and family were almost completely severed. I moved from job to job for several years. My health condition worsened day by day. The root of it all is alcohol and improper diet. I was drinking every night, more than I would like to admit. I was eating oily, fatty, and highly processed foods at every meal.I was up all night and was poor. sleep hygiene. I weighed a whopping nearly 300 pounds. Tired; sloppy; and constantly out of breath.
In January 2018, after over 10 years of this terrible lifestyle, my body had had enough. While I was at work, a colleague noticed that my skin and eyes had turned a deep yellow color. I was clearly jaundiced, so her boss gave me the option of finding a ride to the emergency room or she could call an ambulance. Still in denial, I simply drove to the local emergency room near my house. The doctor there took one look at me and said, “What are you doing here?! You need to go to the emergency room.” When I finally went to the hospital, it was discovered that my liver and kidneys were dying.
Over the next few weeks, multiple doctors told me there was nothing they could do. The only way to save me was a liver transplant, and most of the doctors there weren’t willing to risk a perfectly good organ to an addict who would go back to his old lifestyle and waste his life again. I was told to get my affairs in order.
But the two doctors believed in me and convinced the transplant team to give me a chance after eight weeks. I really appreciated it. Obtaining healthy organs is extremely difficult, and there are many other qualified candidates besides me. We scheduled the surgery. The day of the transplant arrived, but not too soon. When they wheeled me into the operating room in a wheelchair, my body felt like it was going to shatter. The nurse told my fiancé that without the transplant I would die within hours.
Life after liver transplant
When I woke up from surgery, a flood of emotions overwhelmed me. I was filled with feelings of gratitude and guilt. I felt a sense of gratitude for everyone who helped bring me to the afterlife, and a sense of guilt for putting myself and my family in this situation. The first 10 seconds after waking up changed my life.
The road to recovery has been difficult, to say the least. While in the hospital I became weak. She needed 24-hour care. I couldn’t even walk on my own. I couldn’t take a shower by myself. I couldn’t cook for myself. In regular conversations with my medical team, I was told that diet and nutrition should always be a top priority and that I needed to eat well and take care of my new liver. For the first few months after my liver transplant, I closely followed their recommended diet, but gradually I started eating a more typical American diet. It was healthier than what I was eating before the transplant, but still not great.
About a year after my transplant, I entered the world of endurance sports and completed several half marathons and several other races. As my interest in distance running grew, I started reading memoirs by endurance athletes. rich roll And Charlie Engle. They both had similar stories to me, turning to a plant-based diet for health and athletic performance. Taking this as an opportunity, fork than knife documentary film, outlined the effects of a diet rich in meat, dairy, and processed foods. I was shocked to find out how unbalanced my eating habits had been.
Over the course of several months, I tended to eat a more plant-based diet. Then one day I decided to commit 100 percent to a whole food, plant-based diet.
Plant-based initiatives
Within a few days, I began to fully benefit from the WFPB diet. I can now sleep better. My thoughts became clearer. I had more energy and actually wanted to go outside and exercise. I started setting goals for myself.
In the year and a half since adopting the WFPB diet, I have run five half marathons and one full marathon. I competed in a 100 mile bicycle race (El Tour de Tucson). I’ve hiked more than a dozen mountains and trekked from one end of the Grand Canyon to the other. I’m currently training for my first triathlon and have signed up to run my first 50 mile ultramarathon in January. At the root of it all (sorry for the pun) is my WFPB lifestyle. You can properly fuel your body before your adventure and give it a chance to recover after your adventure.
Since the first 10 seconds of my second chance at life, I have been dedicated to earning this gift that has been given to me. I want to demonstrate this determination to my doctors, my family, my donor family, and most importantly myself. Currently, I help other transplant patients navigate their own health and wellness journeys. I truly believe that her WFPB diet is the foundation of my successful life after a liver transplant. This turned out to be the best decision I made for my health.
Ready to get started? Check out forks meal planner, FOK’s easy weekly meal planning tool helps you maintain a healthy plant-based lifestyle. If you would like to learn more about whole foods, plant-based eating, please visit: plant based primer.
