As of December 31, 2016, Joseph Alexander weighed 394 pounds and was suffering with type 2 diabetes.
He also had been suffering for a long time from recurring cellulitis, a dangerous bacterial infection of the skin and tissues beneath the skin.
In a recent interview in the Big Change the Film interview series (watch the video below), he describes himself as having been significantly overweight since high school and for all of his adult life, despite having been a slender child. He gained 40 pounds in the first year of college, and continued gaining weight year after year. He had tried for many years to diet and exercise, without success.
A FEW DAYS LATER, suddenly, a switch flipped.
In January 2017, Joseph was again looking for a solution to lose weight and improve his health, when he re-watched the documentary Forks Over Knives, and then found the (free) online 7 Day Rescue Challenge.
As a biochemist and registered nurse (with master’s degrees in both fields), he wondered, how could dramatic health changes happen in only seven days?
He also thought to himself: I can do this for seven days. A person could “stand on one leg” for just seven days, if the incentive and motivation are worth it. Interview (from the “Big Change the Film” interview series) below at @20:52.
He joined the 7 Day Rescue Challenge.
He describes his light switch moment as not only deciding to join the 7 Day Rescue Challenge, but in accepting full responsibility for his own health destiny, and deciding to commit 100%, unfailingly, for one week.
At the time he began the challenge, he was taking the maximum dosages of diabetes medications, but EVEN WITH the diabetes medications his blood sugar was at 250-450 … His blood sugar levels were THAT high while he was ON the diabetes drugs.
(A normal range would be 70-100 or a little over 100.)
BEFORE the 7-Day Rescue Challenge
The night before he began the 7-day Rescue Challenge, these were his numbers (while ON the highest dosage of diabetes medications):
Weight: 394
Blood Sugar: 458
A1C: 9.7
He followed the Seven Day Rescue Challenge diet to the letter.
TWO DAYS LATER
Blood Sugar: 110
In only two days after he began eating this way his blood sugar went from 458 down to 110!
AFTER the 7-Day Rescue Challenge
Within two days his blood sugar was in the normal range.
Within 6 weeks of starting this way of eating, his hemoglobin A1C had dropped down to 6.3, in the normal range.
In monitoring his results, his medical doctor took him off all of the medications.
At first, Joseph was worried that his numbers would shoot up again when he stopped the medications, but they didn’t. His A1C and his blood sugar remained perfectly normal.
After the Seven Day Rescue Challenge he has continued to eat this way, and ever since, his blood sugar and his A1C continue to be in the normal range.
Joseph has lost more than 152 pounds as a result of taking the challenge since he switched to whole food plant-based foods with no added oils, and continues to lose weight.
Seven days has turned into more than 550 days, and he is still going strong.
Commit 100% for Life-Changing Results
Joseph Alexander’s advice to others who are in a similar situation, overweight, suffering from type 2 diabetes, and other illnesses directly related to eating the standard Western food: You have got to do this 100%.
Do yourself a favor and don’t make it much harder on yourself by thinking you can just go “80%” or “90%.”
He explains in the interview (below) that because food is so addictive, having “just one bite” of something that you know is unhealthy takes you back to ground zero, and then the downward spiral continues. You have got to commit 100%, and then it’s actually much easier to succeed. When you commit 100% you benefit from the confidence – and the testimonials of so many others who have reversed their type 2 diabetes eating this way – of knowing what your results can be.
Take Ownership
In the interview (below), Joseph emphasizes that it doesn’t matter why you are overweight, whether you are 30 pounds overweight, or 100 pounds overweight, or more. He emphasizes that a key to success in this is to take ownership and accept responsibility for changing.
Joseph points out that people might say, for example:
‘I’m overweight because of the kind of childhood I had’,
or ‘I’m overweight because of the environment I lived in/live in’, or
‘I’m overweight because of the job I have’. (Interview video below at 40:06).
Those things may be very true, but UNTIL I TAKE RESPONSIBILITY for being the person who can make the change, the change is not going to happen. I know for myself, and I know this advice seems to help a lot of people, [accepting and saying:] ‘I AM THE ONLY PERSON WHO CAN MAKE THIS CHANGE HAPPEN.’
That’s a big difference. For me that was part of what made that switch FLIP.
It doesn’t matter why I am the way I am; it doesn’t matter what other people are doing.”
(emphasis added, interview video below at 40:40).
Watch Joseph Alexander’s full interview with Jason Cohen (who also is an exceptional inspiration) in the Big Change the Film interview series here:
Support From Others Who Have Successfully Reversed their Type 2 Diabetes
In addition to the Engine 2 Seven Day Rescue Challenge, back in January 2017 Joseph Alexander also signed up for the challenge’s (then-fledgling) Facebook group.
At the time, there were several hundred members. By May 2018 there were already more than 30,000 members in the 7 Day Rescue Challenge Facebook group.
Joseph remains a member of the group, and he offers great advice and often replies to other member’s questions about his own experience in reversing his type 2 diabetes very quickly, losing more than 152 pounds, and still losing weight toward his goal weight.
He continues to lose weight (with a goal of losing an additional 80 to 90 pounds).
Additional Weight Loss Support and Camaraderie Through Running
At the time Joseph was making these changes in the foods he ate, no longer eating the standard Western diet, but instead committed 100% to eating whole food plant-based foods with no oil added, he did not imagine that in the coming months he would take up running and become an athlete.
Through the Seven Day Rescue Challenge Facebook group, Joseph learned about and joined another very supportive and inspirational Facebook group, the “Missing Chins Run Club”, which at the time had 50 or 60 members. Now Missing Chins has become another excellent source of support, with its members accomplishing dramatic weight loss, reversing type 2 diabetes, and regaining their health, through switching to whole food plant-based foods (no added oils) as well as running.
Less than a year and a half after beginning the 7 day rescue challenge, Joseph Alexander now runs in Marathons
In the year after completing the initial Seven Day Rescue Challenge and changing his eating to WFPB / plant-strong foods, Joseph not only was inspired to begin running (thanks to his supportive friends online at the Missing Chins Run Club), he has competed in numerous marathon running races, both in the US and in Europe (Czech Republic).
In June 2018, a year and a half after beginning the Seven Day Rescue Challenge, he competed in the Leadville Trail Heavy Half Marathon, running 15.5 miles from 10,200 feet up to over 13,000 feet, and then back to the town of Leadville, Colorado. He has already signed up to run in the 2019 Leadville Marathon (which adds an additional 11 miles and several more peaks into the race). Read more details about Joseph Alexander’s experience in the June 2018 Leadville Trail Heavy Half Marathon in this interview over at Engine2.com.
Joseph was Inspired to Change by Watching the Forks Over Knives Documentary and its Testimonials from People Who Have Reversed their Type 2 Diabetes
Joseph mentioned in the interview (watch above) that he had watched the Forks Over Knives documentary in the past, but it hadn’t quite gotten him to the point of switching to whole food plant-based foods with 100% commitment.
But he remembered the Forks Over Knives documentary and watched it again at the beginning of January 2017, which led him to visit the Forks Over Knives website and then Rip Esselstyn’s Engine 2 website, where he discovered the free online Seven Day Rescue Challenge, (along with the Facebook group) and committed to doing the challenge 100% for the full seven days.
The seven day challenge led to his blood sugar testing in the normal range after only TWO DAYS, reversal of his type 2 diabetes, A1C in the normal range, off the diabetes drugs completely in under six weeks, 152 pounds lost and still losing more weight, and now, running in marathons.
If you or someone you care about wants to reverse type 2 diabetes and commit to taking back control of your own health destiny, follow Joseph Alexander’s example.
Watch the documentary, Forks Over Knives online at Amazon (Click on More Options to find Amazon’s lowest rental rate, “SD” for standard definition.)
Read The Seven Day Rescue Challenge book by Rip Esselstyn
Join the Seven Day Rescue Challenge (free) online
Join the private Seven Day Rescue Challenge Facebook Group (You will receive the link to join when you sign up for the challenge.)
Commit 100% for SEVEN DAYS . . . and then commit fully to continuing this lifestyle to change your health destiny for life, as Joseph Alexander and thousands of others have done.
MORE TESTIMONIALS
Read about how Jason Mraz Helped His Bandmate Reverse Type 2 Diabetes in Under 30 Days
Read about how board-certified medical doctor, Dr. Steve Lawenda, reversed his pre-diabetes and now helps his patients reverse their type 2 diabetes
Read about how a Florida Dad and Business Owner Reversed Diabetes Naturally in Weeks in the Forks Over Knives documentary
Read about how an Ohio Mother of Five Reversed her Type 2 Diabetes and Reversed Hypertension 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 Kirt Tyson reversed his diabetes in under 30 days in the Simply Raw: Reversing Diabetes in 30 Days documentary, and now has become a naturopathic doctor to help others reverse their type 2 diabetes naturally.
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