Testimonials and success stories from people who have reversed their type 2 diabetes are powerful inspiration for anyone who wants to change their own health destiny.
Amy Johnson, 54, of Frisco, TX is a great inspiration for anyone who wants to lose weight, reverse type 2 diabetes, and/or improve osteopenia, as she accomplished all of those things, simply by changing the foods she ate, with the support and camaraderie of her husband and her sons.
Amy credits the documentary film Forks Over Knives as her inspiration to make these changes to transform her life and her health.
Jason Cohen interviewed Amy Johnson for the Big Change the Film interview series in June 2018 (watch below), and in the interview Amy shares her top advice for anyone who is looking for solutions to lose weight and/or reverse type 2 diabetes naturally.
Watch the June 23, 2018 interview here:
Amy got off her diabetes medications and statins in only three months after switching to whole food plant-based foods (inspired by the movie Forks Over Knives). That was SIX years ago, and Amy feels great, never gets sick, and says she feels twenty years younger than her age.
Other people tell her she looks like she is reversing in age; they tell her, “You look younger!” She says it’s because she feels younger, and she feels so good and healthy eating this way.
She also lost 50 pounds (without feeling hungry, without measuring, counting calories, weighing, etc.)
Amy also marvels happily that she has never been sick once in six years after she switched to whole food plant-based nutrition.
She now helps other people who are committed to reversing their type 2 diabetes and/or weight loss, with the Mrs. Plant Facebook community she created, as well as with her recipes online.
Amy’s Path to Type 2 Diabetes, Osteopenia, Obesity (220 pounds) & Other Serious Health Issues by her 40s
In the interview (watch above), Amy describes how she was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes when she was in her 40s.
Previously, she had been diagnosed with endometriosis in her 20s, and was told she should have her babies early because endometriosis could affect her ability to have children.
Amy says she piled on the weight year after year, especially during and after pregnancy, and she was constantly having to buy new clothes in increasingly larger sizes until she was wearing women’s plus size clothing.
Later she worked in the corporate world, where unhealthy foods were always available (candy bars and cookies in the lunch room, catered lunches). She also says she was addicted to every kind of fast food, and her busy working life gave her an excuse for eating that kind of food (even though she likes to cook and is a good cook). She later became a teacher, but still struggled and never was able to lose weight.
At her heaviest, she weighed 220 pounds.
She tried diets constantly, but always ended up gaining the weight back. She was “tired of weighing and measuring, tired of counting calories, tired of not getting results.”
By the time Amy was in her 40s, she was 220 pounds, she had type 2 diabetes, and she was on three medications. She was taking statins due to high cholesterol. She hated taking the medications and had a hard time choking them down.
In addition, she also had severe osteopenia, and she walked with a limp due to significant bone loss in her left hip. (Her mother had also suffered from severe osteoporosis.)
She credits her miracle change to watching the documentary, Forks Over Knives.
Amy’s path to reversing type 2 diabetes and other health conditions in under three months (six years ago, and now she never gets sick!)
Six years ago, when one of her sons was in college, and her younger son was in high school, her college-age son brought her the Forks Over Knives DVD to watch together as a family.
Amy emphasizes in the interview (watch her interview, above) that the Forks Over Knives documentary CHANGED HER LIFE.
By watching Forks Over Knives together, Amy and her husband and sons learned about the power of whole food plant-based foods (WFPB) to prevent and reverse disease.
Forks Over Knives includes testimonials and success stories from inspirational people like Joey Aucoin, who reversed his type 2 diabetes. Read more about Joey Aucoin’s journey to reverse his type 2 diabetes and reclaim his health here.
Adopting the whole food plant-based (no added oils) lifestyle means eating an abundance of delicious healthy foods, without weighing, without measuring, without counting calories — and losing excess weight. When eating whole food plant-based foods you can lose weight without feeling hungry, since the nutrient-rich and fiber-rich plant-based foods fill you and satisfy your body’s nutritional needs.
Whole food plant-based nutrition offers freedom from all of those negative things associated with what most people associate with “diets” (measuring, counting calories, weighing, counting points, etc.), while also having powerful RESULTS in weight loss and preventing illness and disease, as well as the potential to reverse type 2 diabetes.
In the interview, Amy emphasizes how grateful she is that the “three men in her life” (her husband and two sons), all agreed to go plant-based together, “ALL IN” as a family, immediately after watching Forks Over Knives, at her husband’s suggestion.
In the past, her boys and her husband (who didn’t need to lose weight), didn’t join her on her diets. So back then, it was “just her” and she was eating different foods than they did while she was dieting, which was even more challenging for her (to be the only one on a “diet”).
She appreciates the familial support in making the change to whole food plant-based nutrition together.
In fact, she says that the #1 success key for her in making the switch to WFPB was having her family support her in doing this together.
Upon making the change to whole food plant-based nutrition, her health issues simultaneously resolved.
After switching to whole food plant-based foods, she reversed her type 2 diabetes and got off all of the diabetes medications in under three months.
After switching to whole food plant-based foods, she also lowered her cholesterol to normal, healthy levels.
Before switching to whole food plant-based nutrition, Amy was walking with a limp, due to osteopenia, with bone loss in her hip. Now she walks every day.
More recently, Amy also trained for and ran in a 5K race. She used an app called the Couch to 5K APP, a training program that has helps beginning runners move from the couch to the 5K finish line. Amy says she followed that app’s program to the letter and ran in that year’s HealthFest 5K in Marshall, Texas. That is a LONG WAY from walking with a limp before switching to whole food plant-based nutrition! Amy says that finishing the 5K also was great for the feeling of accomplishment she got.
She says that in six years since she switched to whole food plant-based food, she has never been sick; she has never had a single illness. Before, she had chronic constipation because what she used to eat was lacking in fiber, lacking in nutrients. Upon switching to whole food plant-based nutrition, that problem disappeared: another benefit of whole food plant-based nutrition.
Amy’s husband and sons also had excellent health results within weeks of making the change.
Don’t wait to make these nutritional changes until you hit “rock bottom.”
Amy cautions that anyone who is overweight and says — “I’m just overweight, but I don’t have health issues” — should consider Amy’s experience.
Amy got health tests annually as a teacher. Up into her 40s, even though she weighed up to 220 pounds at her heaviest, she had normal blood sugar and normal cholesterol, with nothing bad showing up in her blood work . . . UNTIL . . . the NEXT year’s tests.
One year, her test results were fine, but the very next year she was diagnosed with full-blown type 2 diabetes and high cholesterol.
It was a REAL SHOCK for her to have these devastating diagnoses, seemingly out of the blue like that (when her test results previously were fine – despite the obesity, up until that point), so Amy cautions other overweight people to heed the warning of her example.
Amy points out that if you are overweight, even if your numbers look good now, “IT CAN CHANGE IN A MINUTE.”
When Jason Cohen asked Amy whether she had to hit rock bottom in order to change, and whether she was still looking for an answer at that point, Amy said:
I would say I was rock bottom. But I was not looking for an answer. I felt like I had done everything and there was no hope for me.” – Amy, Big Change the Film interview series June 25, 2018, at 11:09. (Watch the full interview above at the beginning of this article).
Amy explains that although she had given up looking for an answer, her college-age son brought the Forks Over Knives DVD home for the family to watch together, unexpectedly and out of the blue.
When they watched Forks Over Knives it was the first time in a long time that she had felt encouraged or had hope about the potential to reverse her type 2 diabetes, stop taking the medications, and regain her health.
Upon watching Forks Over Knives, Amy kept asking her husband, “Why did we not know this?” She had never heard this information before. She says it was a complete shock to her.
Another question one might ask upon watching Forks Over Knives and learning about the power of whole food plant-based nutrition to heal, prevent and even reverse illnesses and disease might be, “Why didn’t my doctor tell me this? And if my doctor knows nothing about this, why DOESN’T my doctor know about the power of whole food plant-based foods to prevent and reverse disease?” Best-selling author John Robbins has made this analogy, in that regard: “What if fire fighters didn’t know about the water?”
After watching the film, Amy’s husband said, “LET’S GO ALL IN,” which was a big relief to Amy because she knew she would have the support of her family and she was going to be doing this alongside her husband and her sons, encouraging her.
One note on this point: as Joseph Alexander emphasized in his Big Change the Movie interview (read more about Joseph Alexander’s type 2 diabetes reversal success story here), it’s important not to use lack of support from family or friends as an excuse. Don’t use NOT having support as an excuse to stop you from making the changes you need to make for YOUR health … because the ONLY person who can make these changes for yourself is YOU.
Additional Health Benefits for Amy’s Husband and her Son – Cholesterol Lowered, Cystic Acne Completely Cleared Up, & Weight Loss
Amy’s husband had always had high cholesterol, as did his parents, so he also had his own incentive to switch to whole food plant-based nutrition in order to lower his cholesterol, after watching Forks Over Knives.
After eating whole food plant-based (no added oils) for only two weeks, his cholesterol went down to 150.
He also lost twenty pounds.
Amy’s son cleared up his cystic acne completely after only 3-4 weeks after switching to whole food plant-based foods.
He had suffered from cystic acne affecting his confidence through middle school and high school, but whole food plant-based nutrition cleared it up completely, quickly, and as a result he has clear skin with no scars. He also lost the 15-20 pounds he had gained while in college before switching to whole food plant-based foods.
Now her son is married to a woman who also eats whole food plant-based, and they post delicious recipes online. Amy says she is so happy to see her children choosing to eat these whole plant-based healthy foods.
The Steps that Amy Johnson and her family took in making the change to whole food plant-based foods
First, Amy’s husband enlisted everyone’s help together to go through all of the food in the kitchen, and look at the ingredients of every package.
They sorted the food, with any meat or dairy on one counter, processed food in a different place.
A rule Amy uses when looking at package ingredients is this:
If the box or package has an ingredient we couldn’t buy at the grocery store, we probably shouldn’t eat it.”
By the time they had finished sorting the food, they threw anything unhealthy into the trash, because now, they looked at all of the unhealthy food as poison.
Amy adopted this new mindset quickly, simply thanks to watching the documentary Forks Over Knives, and applying what she learned WITH her husband and sons (who were not very overweight and did not have the kinds of health issues that Amy did).
NOW she looked at that food as poison, because she looked at the sorted foods and thought to herself, “This is what caused my type 2 diabetes. This is what caused me to be overweight.”
Keeping unhealthy foods OUT of your home is key, too. Don’t bring it into your home, don’t store it in you home. It makes it so much easier to stick to delicious nutrient-dense healthy foods (with delicious healthy snacks) when there is nothing unhealthy to tempt you in your home! Bringing anything other than healthy food into your home is a set-up; don’t set that kind of trap for yourself in your home. Choose health (in the form of delicious, abundant, fiber-filled, nutrient-filled whole plant-based foods).
Watch Forks Over Knives, and then start by figuring out what recipes you already like. Make that kind of food (the kinds of food you already like), modified to be whole-food plant-based, without added oil.
The next step after cleaning out the kitchen and cupboards: Amy would find great vegan recipes online, or in cookbooks, and if they had oil in them, she would just eliminate the oil and make the recipe oil-free.
For inspiration, Amy also watched Rip Esselstyn’s Engine 2 Kitchen Rescue video, in which Rip Esselstyn goes out to three families to help them sort through the food in their cupboards and refrigerators, showed them how to grocery shop, and how to cook delicious meals.
In describing how she got over her previous junk food / fast food addiction, Amy said that switching to whole food plant-based nutrition is easy, because “We like EVERYTHING [whole food plant-based they now eat] BETTER than any standard American diet [S.A.D. foods] we have ever had.” Amy, interview at 17:14.
Also, she didn’t miss the junk food because she was feeling better all the time.
She points out that people eating a whole food plant-based diet don’t eat perfectly ALL the time, “but eating this way makes me LESS interested in the food we used to eat.” – Amy, interview at 18:19
Throughout the interview, Amy emphasizes that “Once you go whole food plant-based, IT’s SO EASY TO EAT THIS WAY!” (emphasis added).
Amy began to have so much energy after making this change, that she naturally just wanted to get outside and move, so she also began taking walks, and still enjoys walking (with a little running). A few years ago she also completed a 5K and was thrilled by the feeling of accomplishment she got from setting that goal and achieving it.
Amy celebrates her new way of eating by helping others, through her Facebook community (where others share their recipes, and their success stories, including a large group of type 2 diabetes success stories and testimonials), and by publishing recipes online, for people anywhere in the world to enjoy.
Amy notes that over the past six years, eating whole food plant-based foods has become even easier now, with so many more options available in grocery stores and restaurants, and so many people learning the power of whole food plant-based nutrition to heal, prevent, and reverse disease.
As Amy points out, “Plant-Based nutrition is global. People everywhere are recognizing the power of plants.” – Amy Johnson
In the interview, Jason Cohen asked Amy (at 34 min.),
When you hit play on the Forks Over Knives [DVD], what has surprised you about this journey the most?”
Amy replied that the biggest surprise for her was that, “It’s NOT HARD! It’s REALLY not hard.”
She reiterates that her family still enjoyed the same kinds of food they liked before, just modified, plant-based and oil-free.
She also explained that she enjoys eating so much more now, because there is NO GUILT in eating this way … including at a spiritual level.
She says that grocery shopping also is easier and faster because she skips over half the store. However, she notes that you do have to put some effort into planning what you will eat.
Watch Forks Over Knives and get started to protect your health, lose the excess weight, and change your health destiny.
Amy says that she had pretty much hit rock bottom after trying for many years to lose weight. It was a blessing out of the blue when her then-college age son brought her the Forks Over Knives documentary DVD to watch together as a family, more than six years ago.
If you or someone you care about is suffering from type 2 diabetes and other diseases and illnesses, or have tried to lose weight but still haven’t found the solution, take heart.
Just as Amy’s son handed her the solution in the form of the Forks Over Knives DVD, Amy has now passed the solution on to you, in the form of her testimonial and type 2 diabetes reversal and weight loss success story.
As Amy describes in the interview (watch the full interview above at the top of this article), whole food plant-based nutrition quickly becomes an easy, fun, delicious lifestyle that offers the rewards of regaining your health, giving you the hope and inspiration you need to change your health destiny for the rest of your life, getting off the medications, losing the excess weight, having energy and clarity and purpose, reversing type 2 diabetes, reversing heart disease, lowering blood pressure, and so much more. All from switching to eating lots and lots of filling, delicious whole plant-based foods.
As Amy emphasized in the interview video (watch the interview above), watching Forks Over Knives with her family gave her the belief and understanding that, “I CAN DO THIS!”
Watch Forks Over Knives with your family and friends, because you can do this too, and reap the same kinds of rewards that Amy and her family have.
You can do this for yourself, but also, like Amy’s son, you can do this in solidarity to help someone you care about.
Give the Forks Over Knives DVD to someone who, like Amy, had gotten to the point where they may even have given up on looking for a solution to losing weight, reversing type 2 diabetes and other illnesses, reversing heart disease, lowering blood pressure, regaining their health for life.
The chain continues, as each person making these changes can offer inspiration and help to other people, and then those people can help and inspire others too, and on and on. Success story testimonials are powerful motivation to help other people to change their lives for the better.
Here’s to your health for life!
What do you have to lose? What do you have to gain?
More Type 2 Diabetes Reversal Success Stories
Read about how Jason Mraz Helped His Bandmate Reverse Type 2 Diabetes in Under 30 Days
Read about how a Joey Aucoin, a Florida Dad and Business Owner, Reversed Diabetes Naturally in Weeks in the Forks Over Knives documentary
Learn More: What is the Cure for Type 2 Diabetes?
Read about how a Mebane, North Carolina Woman Reversed Type 2 Diabetes as part of PlantPure Nation
Read about how an Ohio Mother of Five Reversed her Type 2 Diabetes and Reversed Hypertension in Weeks
Read about the powerful testimonials and type 2 diabetes reversal success stories in the Simply Raw: Reversing Diabetes in 30 Days documentary.
More About Amy Johnson’s Type 2 Diabetes Reversal and Where to Find her Recipes
You can find Amy Johnson, also known as “Mrs Plant in Texas” on Instagram for inspiration, recipes and food pics.
Amy also offers advice and recipes on her Mrs Plant Facebook page, as well as the Mrs Plant Community on Facebook, where people share their own recipes, diabetes type 2 reversal success stories and testimonials, and support for other people’s weight loss through switching to whole food plant-based foods.
Visit her website for her recipes, and for her ebook about how she got off the medications for type 2 diabetes.
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