My doctor gave me very little information to go on when I received my NAFLD diagnosis. I knew one of my first steps needed to be determining a nutrition plan that met my unique needs. I consulted with a few coaches, did some reading, watched a few documentaries, and was convinced that a whole food plant based diet would be best for my needs. A huge shout out to my friend Claudia Alcantara at Live to Thrive Coaching who encouraged me to explore a plant based diet to help my body heal. As we discussed my health concerns and she shared about the research of Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn and Dr. T. Colin Campbell, I began to understand how the right nutrition is going to be a key to me improving my diseased liver. At her suggestion, I watched the film Forks Over Knives to gain more information and knew by the end it was the program I wanted to follow. If you haven’t watched it, I highly recommend it. It really helps you understand the impact every meal has on blood flow, cholesterol levels, arterial health… its mind blowing how much your body can change with just one meal. Thankfully, Forks Over Knives has become a movement with lots of great resources. I encourage you to check out their site. They have some free recipes and an amazing meal planner that I subscribed to in order to make this journey easier. This Hippocrates quote now hangs in my kitchen as a reminder that I need to focus on what I eat in order to heal: “Let food be thy medicine.” I know I still have a lot to learn and the work to do to actually heal my liver, but narrowing down a nutrition plan to follow is a big step in my opinion. So here’s to healthy eating, trying a bunch of new recipes, and healing!   Click here to try a free week of the Forks Over Knives meal planner. 

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At the end of 2019, I established care with a new general practitioner. I was less than thrilled with my last doctor who didn’t want to run annual blood work because she thought nothing would change year to year if I didn’t change anything I was doing and she cited cost savings as her motive. What on earth? Not only do I have familial history of heart disease, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol, I have insurance. I’m really glad I knew better than to just let that be. When my blood work results came back, my doctor was concerned. My liver enzymes were elevated and more investigation was needed. When hepatitis was ruled out, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), cirrhosis, or cancer were the remaining possible suspects and I was scheduled for a trans-abdominal ultrasound. Honestly, I was scared. At 39, I had a lot of life I wanted to live and a LOT of responsibilities I couldn’t ignore. And I kept thinking of my husband and my kids and not being there for them. The five year survival rate for liver cancer is abysmal and I kept hoping NAFLD would be my diagnosis, even though I didn’t really know what it would mean. On January 2, 2020, I was given the diagnosis of NAFLD, but not much else information from my doctor. According to her, I just need to not eat sugar, consume anything full fat, or drink alcohol. She also told me to lose 10% of my body weight and avoid acetaminophen. That. Was. It. And so the journey began to learn what I needed to do to actually beat this disease.

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