Introduction

I needed to do something drastic.

I had just woken up with my pillow soaked in sweat and my heart racing. It was about three o’clock in the morning, and I went downstairs, pulled out my blood pressure machine, and hooked myself up. What I saw on the display thoroughly shocked and frightened me. My blood pressure was higher than it had ever been at 190/120. Not only that, but I felt hot, swollen, and sick. It was at that moment that I decided to do something profoundly different.

I felt like I was on a train moving toward a life that I didn’t want—one of obesity, diabetes, medications, disease, and early death. If I didn’t change right away, I felt that I might never be able to stop the momentum. And I had that sinking feeling in my chest that it was almost too late.

The thing is, I should have known better. I had been practicing for almost ten years, helping people prevent and reverse chronic disease with nutrition and lifestyle management. I had seen the worst of the worst when it comes to diabetes and metabolic problems. I had images etched into my mind of people losing their feet, going blind, injecting insulin, and lying in bed on kidney dialysis because they didn’t stop it in time. Still, I had let it happen.

Over the preceding three years, I had slowly gained thirty pounds. It had been a tough period in my life. I got divorced, moved several times, ended a business relationship with another doctor, and had a lot of financial stress. At times, my life seemed out of control. So, I ate. My diet wasn’t even that bad except for the popcorn and fries that I enjoyed a bit too often, but I was overeating at night while worrying about my future.

Have you ever felt like you were at a crossroads with your health? Like you had to do something radically different or you might lose your health forever? That’s exactly how I felt.

I had heard about theprotein-sparing modified fast and had researched it as a potential treatment option for my patients with obesity and diabetes but never thought that I would need it. It was aprotein-centric,energy-restricted diet designed to help people maintain and protect lean body mass while losing weight or during illness.

There were dozens of studies showing the effectiveness of this program, but it wasn’t easy. I knew that I needed something that would produce rapid results and would work if I committed to it, and I felt confident that the PSMF could provide that type of success. So, that’s what Idid.

During the next several months, I lost the thirty pounds that I had gained in the three years before that and was able to shed an additional twenty pounds while cutting my body fat by almost 20 percent and adding muscle. More importantly, I was able to normalize my blood sugar, blood pressure, lipids, and hormone levels while creating more energy and feeling bett