No More Diabetes

Just 3 months on the Zizania program and I am no longer diabetic. I cannot express my gratitude in words to Dominique Hoffman for putting such an innovative program in place, for her patience and in-depth knowledge of nutrition, food, and her ability to assist me in changing my eating habits.

I have been diabetic for 10 years, I did not believe that it could be reversed. I have lost 20 lbs. My hands and face use to be swollen and puffy, they now look normal. One morning I woke up and I felt my toes. It just occurred to me that I have been living with neuropathy for God knows how long and did not know it. But the best part is the food was amazing and I did not feel deprived one day! I stopped snacking on cheese and crackers, I ended by afternoon visits to the candy bowl, and because I no longer eat packaged food, take outs, and restaurant meals, my grocery bill has reduced by 30 %.

It is simply wonderful to feel healthy every day and so easy to get used to feeling good.

From Lana
Springfield, VA

New Blog Contributor

Hello all, My name is Terri and I signed up with Zizania in mid-June. I am working to reverse my Type 2 diabetes and get healthier overall. Dominique was referred to me by two of her other clients. No sooner had I met Dominique that I ended up in the hospital for a week and had to delay the program. I didn't know it, but I had a bone infection that was affecting me systemically. The whole time I was in the hospital I was eating from their "diabetic" menu. I still can't believe the diabetic-unfriendly items on their menu. My blood sugars were over 300 everyday.

Dominique came to my home the day I was released from the hospital and we made our first recipes. My blood sugars reduced significantly everyday after making the change to a healthy dietary plan. In a week my blood sugars were in the 120 range. I also lost 16 pounds in 4 weeks, very exciting and very promising! Working with Dominique and Brandi has been such a great honor and a pleasure. Both of them are so "real" and make the program fun; I have learned so much.

I hit a rough spot about four weeks into the program when I had to have surgery. It was traumatic for me and left me feeling very depressed and seeking old comfort foods. Then I was too embarassed to submit food journals. Although the last three weeks have been rough, I hadn't given up completely and still primarily adhered to the diet. Dominique and I had a long talk this week and I am back on track. She and Brandi are always so supportive and helpful.

I add this information about the rough spot to give encouragement to others to keep going with the program even when the stressors of life may contribute to deviations in your plan. Life is full of ups and downs. Eventually it will be up again so I keep moving forward; hopefully you will too. :)

Lost 6 lbs in 1 week

I'm doing very well! 6 lbs off as of this morning and loving it! Energy is high, stayed thoughout the weekend. I bought a blender that also came with a food processor so this is going to help a lot with all the smoothies and the chopping that's done. Sat with my SO and he was having roasted potatoes with ketchup. I read the ingredients on the bottle and was amazed at the high fructose corn syrup and corn syrup loaded into those ingredients! Next step is to take instructions from Dominique to sustain this life style after the detox - which, by the way, I'm continuing this next week as well.

Author: Noel Weller, Alexandria, VA.

(Client: Claire) Beefaroni?!

I just made the most amazing dish, quite by accident… I had some roasted veggies that needed to be eaten and I decided to blend them into a dip, a la Dominique’s delicious all-you-can-eat dip. Unfortunately, since I’d not roasted them with Dominique’s special herbs and spices—I just used a bottle of commercial Italian dressing (never again!)—the dip was not as tasty as I hoped. I added a little oregano and pepper, but it was still missing something. So I added some spaghetti sauce! The result was a thick, delicious mixture that would have been great as a dip… but alas, I had nothing to dip except cucumber which is not really the right flavor combo. I decided the cook some elbow macaroni that was tormenting me—“Why did you bother buying me? You have NO idea what to make with me.” Combining the dip and the macaroni created a taste that I’d missed since childhood—beefaroni! There’s no beef in it, but the texture and fiber of the veggies made it seem like the real thing. What a yummy but healthy comfort food! It’s good hot or cold; I may even take it camping this weekend because I’m sure it will keep just fine in a cooler.

(Client: Claire) Permissions

It’s occurred to me more than a couple of times that if Dominique said, “No, you may never ever eat this, this or this” I’d want to rebel like a bad kid. But Dominique doesn’t do that… she educates me about how different foods react with body chemistry, and helps me balance my diet so I’m nourished and satisfied. And when I was whining about wanting red meat, she told me to have a steak and enjoy it! Her attitude is so helpful—she helps me remember that this diet is not a punishment, but a way to treat myself to a better life every day.

(Client: Ed) A Fresh Start

I am one of Zizania's clients. I am a recently diagnosed Type 2 Diabetic. I was married to a diabetic for 18 years and I have a daughter who is diabetic, so I understand what the disease can do. My goal is to let you follow me through my coaching with Zizania. Hopefully other diabetics can find a way to treat their disease through what I share. Here are my starting statistics:

Age 46 Height 6' 0" Weight 240lbs HDL 90 (bad cholesterol, pretty low) LDL 40 (good cholesterol, also pretty low, need more exercise) Hemoglobin A1C 10.5 (measure of avg. blood sugars over the last 90 days, should be less than 6) Fasting blood sugars 200+ (should be between 80 and 110) Started on the Zizania program 7/6/2009

For those who don't know what all this means I am over weight and my blood sugars are very high. My personal recipe for bad things in the future. I watched my wife and daughter go through the all of the debilitating effects of diabetes. Loss of vision, kidney failure, loss of feeling in the hands and feed, digestive problems, heart problems, and a bunch of other less obvious issues. I know what my future holds if I don't change. This is pretty good incentive to take action.

I hope to reverse my disease, change my future, and by documenting it, help others fight theirs. Loosing some weight would be a nice bonus. In my first two weeks my facilitator, Dominique, has done an evaluation and given me some basic rules for changing my diet, as well as a list of do's and don'ts. Just these simple things have already had some effect. Changing my diet to follow her direction has caused my blood sugars to start slowly dropping. Now we will work on adding selections to my list of foods I can eat. Tomorrow will be my first cooking lesson. Can't wait. Thanks for reading.

(Client: Claire) Be careful… it’s catching.

I never doubted the support of people who love me, though I never really expected that they’d eat what I eat without feeling deprived. After all, it’s not their diet, it’s mine. But the food is so good that people want to try it—and they may want a little sample of the resulting energy and weight loss too. A couple of weeks ago, a friend was sweet enough to bring vegetarian sushi to a picnic. A week later, another friend who had sampled it was craving it, so she went on a mission to find it and bring it to another picnic! My mother and sister really liked the tri-color pasta that I whipped up, and it became a fantastic cold pasta salad that we enjoyed for a few days. Of course, I love this. I’m not “poor baby who can’t eat whatever she wants” or someone who limits a group’s menu because of her needs, I’m someone who is making different choices for myself—and it would be great if people I meet along the way decide to make healthier choices too!

(Client: Claire) I found the H Mart!

7/8… I may have to learn several Asian languages to reap all the benefits that this great store has to offer. But for now, I stuck with the reason that Dominique recommended it: the fresh, varied and inexpensive selection of fruits and vegetables. It was amazing! I got everything I needed to make parsley potatoes, kale/apple salad, romaine/pear salad, marinated mushrooms, grilled veggies, Dominique’s amazing roasted veggie dip, salsa, and wilted spinach. Plus I picked up some mung bean noodles to pair with peanut butter/ginger sauce when I need a treat. So tasty!

(Client: Claire) Home Repair and Self Repair

This past weekend I put in two 10-hour days working on my house, including shopping and heavy lifting at Home Depot and Ikea—and even went to a concert Friday and a party Saturday where I danced like I didn’t have a care in the world! It’s amazing to think that just a month ago, my body wouldn’t respond to such demands. Back then I needed naps in the daytime and if I’d done something really strenuous, a late night out would be impossible. But my energy level keeps rising, and the day-after effects of demanding physical tasks keep shrinking. If my blog entries slow down a little bit, rest assured it’s because I’m out living (and loving) my new life.

(Client: Claire) Mmmmmexican.

I love Mexican food, but I thought I might I’d never eat it again. After all, what is Mexican Food without grilled meats, heaps of cheese and a dollop of sour cream? In a word: tasty. Last night I had corn tortillas with Amy’s vegetarian refried beans, tomatoes, scallions, romaine, and Trader Joe’s amazing Three Pepper Salsa. Yummy! What I thought would be the most difficult part of this process, “giving up” my favorite foods, has become my favorite part of the process: “remaking” my favorite foods. It’s a double treat to eat things you love and know that you’re eating for your health.

(Client: Claire) Still going strong.

Loyal readers of this blog must have wondered what happened… did she fall off the wagon? Did she return to her poor eating habits? NO! (Thank goodness.) I had a family situation that involved stress, long hours, lots of driving and living at someone else’s house. There was plenty of not-so-good-for-you food in the house, but I brought two big shopping bags of groceries and a cooler with lots of stuff from my fridge. I successfully got through my first order since the diet change at a burrito joint, prepared food for others that I would not eat myself, and even enjoyed a bowl of berries with agave while I watched other people eat ice cream. At each fork in the road, I was strengthened by my good choices—and I was rewarded! I’ve lost 25 pounds overall and my sugar has dropped 20 points. I decided to ‘shop’ in a bag of clothes that being sent to charity because they were too small, and found that half fit me—and the other half will fit in a couple of weeks.

(Client: Claire) “Nothing tastes as good as thin feels”?

6/25... I’ve always hated this saying, especially since it always seems to be coming from skinny women. But this morning, I may have had an inkling of what it really means. My life is a bit complicated right now, and last night I was convinced that I had at least three good reasons to take a break from my diet. I pondered all the choices of tasty food, the rationalizations for “treating myself”, and then tried to write some new rule in my diet plan that would encompass the occasional bad eating (“once a week”, “once every ten pounds lost”, etc.). I even had an extra glass of wine at a social outing so I could add “drunkenness” to the list of reasons that I wouldn’t be responsible for a slip. Luckily I realized that I was so tired from a very long day that crawling into bed would also be a treat, so I did that ASAP. When I woke up this morning, I realized how close I came to sabotaging myself and was really glad that I had not. After all, this whole diet shift is about treating my body better, and so eating stuff that I know to be bad for me is not really “treating myself” at all, is it? So as I headed into another harder-than-average day today, I was glad for the experience and the awareness—I had said no to an intense momentary need in favor of my long-term need, even though I couldn’t grasp the long-term need at the time. I loaded my little red cooler (which is more important to me now than a purse!) with soy pita, red pepper hummus, almonds and clemetines to tote around all day. And I decided to treat myself to a Coke Zero; I’ve been avoiding soft drinks, even diet ones, so the sweet fizziness was a great way to treat myself without triggering a return to my old eating habits. While I hope I’ll never parrot “Nothing tastes as good as thin feels”, I can say that nothing tastes as good as mindfulness of and respect for your long term health feels.

(Client: Claire) Be prepared…

6/23... Today I was driving around doing errands, my morning oatmeal was wearing off and I was really hungry. As a former fast food junkie, I found myself having to control a LOT of impulses—and needing to find something good to eat! I ducked into Safeway and did my first shopping in a major chain since I’ve been on my new diet. I read the labels and bought more than a dozen options for instant meals, plus I got to munch on some Veggie Booty on the way home. But when I got home and made one of the veggie burgers, I realized that these pre-packaged foods were not nearly as tasty as what Dominique’s been making for me. The lesson for me was to be prepared, or jeopardize what I’ve accomplished! Tomorrow I’m spending much of the day in a hospital while my mother has surgery, which could be a no-choices, stress-eating nightmare. So I packed a lunch and lots of snacks to take with me.

(Client: Claire) Energy!

6/22... I’m not a runner; I don’t run unless something is chasing me. Don’t you watch CSI? It’s always the joggers who find the dead bodies. But I digress. On Saturday night, I ran about a half mile… chasing a dog. When one of my dogs is loose and in danger, the endorphins kick in and I MOVE. But on Saturday night, I made the sprint without feeling like I was going to die. And the next day, I felt fine. How is this possible? I’ve only been with Zizania a little over a week, I’ve only lost a few pounds, and (despite Dominique’s suggestion) I’ve not made it back into the gym yet. It was really puzzling me. Then it hit me—for the first time in years, my body is nourished! I am actually giving it the fuel it needs to go. This shouldn’t be a revelation—Dominique talks about properly nourishing the body at every session. But actually experiencing the benefits was incredible. Last night I took the dogs for a brisk 1.5 mile walk and ended less winded than the dogs—something that was out of reach two weeks ago. It was pure happiness.

(Client: Claire) More Challenges

6/20... On Thursday and Friday, I overcame two challenges that worried me. First, my weekly networking meeting where there is a pre-fixe menu with no options that worked for me. I took a waiter aside before the lunch and asked nicely if he’d bring me a plain garden salad with dressing on the side, and fruit for dessert. When the salad arrived, I pulled a small Tupperware out of my briefcase that had cubed, pre-cooked “Roma” flavored tofu and sunflower seeds. My salad was fantastic; nothing at that table looked better to me. And when I was enjoying my fresh fruit, I thought that those who were picking at their cake might be wishing that they had fruit too! Friday night we went to a concert at Wolftrap, a treat that usually includes a fantastic collection of cheeses and crackers. Plus, whatever I was eating would be shared with a friend—would she balk at the food choices? I made Dominique’s potato salad and some hummus, and brought some almonds and sweet apples. I hadn’t had bread in a long time, but Dominique said that pita bread would be fine. So I also brought pita bread and kalamata olives, and my friend brought watermelon. It was a delicious! Everything we ate was Dominique-approved, but I had a couple things on the menu that were a real treat. And to my delight, my friend was pretty happy too.

(Client: Claire) Rejoining Real Life

Changing what you eat within the confines of your home is one thing; walking into the same restaurants you always frequented and ordering something different is a little harder. My lunch appointment today was at Nicholl’s and Scheffler, a wonderful café/catering place at King & Henry Streets in Old Town Alexandria. They know me there, and I told them I was eating ‘vegan’… without blinking, chef Lou pointed me towards their roasted vegetables, faro dish, and red potato salad. It was DELICIOUS. My lunch date was eating a roast beef salad and remarked a couple of times that she wished she got what I had. Then I went to the coffee shop “Buzz” and asked for vegan options. Nothing, they said. But I ordered a soymilk latte and a fruit cup, and had my ‘coffee meeting’ needs satisfied. (I also suggested to them that their signature granola, bound with a little honey, would make an excellent vegan cookie.) Dominique and I had a wonderful conversation tonight—she’s really truly happy to see me feeling so much better and losing weight already (6 pounds). And she’s helping me prepare for some upcoming challenges. Next week contains a family visit that is likely to cause stress, plus my first concert at Wolftrap without cheese and crackers. She mentioned recipes that I can’t wait to try!

(Client: Claire) Committing Out Loud

After you’ve done enough diets, you decide you don’t really want to announce it to the world when you start a new one. If you’re starting ‘yet another diet’, chances are that you’ve failed the previous one and will fail this one too. But committing out loud is often a good step—when I told a dear friend about the decision to work with Dominique, she embraced me and teared up. “You deserve this” she whispered, and I had to agree.

Last night I mentioned the eating change to my brother. He’s seven years younger than I am and has been a vegetarian for at least five years. (It might not be a coincidence that he chose the lifestyle while managing a major chain steakhouse.) It always impressed me that he stuck to his guns but didn’t proselytize, so I was a little excited once I started telling him about this choice I’d made for my own health. I was also excited to learn that he too had noticed the lethargy that came with eating meat, and that it was part of his decision to quit (he still remembers his last meat meal and how he felt afterwards).

My brother also counseled me on what tofu to buy and how to cook it so it’s palatable. I found this the MOST exciting, because I always assumed that your taste buds had to die to happily eat a vegetarian diet. I actually know a lot of vegetarians and vegans who like tasty food, and I will be collecting recipes from all of you!

DISCLAIMER: I reserve the right to eat a tasty steak once a year. It’ll probably make me sick, but I’ll savor it anyway. Carnivorousness dies hard.

(Client: Claire) Shopping with New Eyes

Dominique’s food is great, but I have only made a few recipes thus far and really need a little variety. After many, many fleeting thoughts of fast and easy (and bad) food from my pre-Dominique life, I decided that Sushi was a winner—a treat for me and something Dominique mentioned as an acceptable occasional meal. I decided to combine it with a trip to Trader Joe’s , because I needed a couple of staples (olive oil, vinegar, salt) and some produce. Trader Joe’s is a healthy place, but those of us looking for bad stuff can always find it—so I needed to not be hungry when I arrived and to have a ‘prize’ in hand when I left. I ate some potato salad mid afternoon and went to TJ’s at dinner time.

Cruising around TJ’s with new eyes was amazing. I saw different vinegars to use in salads, hummus made with white beans, ‘orange cranberries’ to put in my oatmeal, mini Portobello mushrooms that screamed to be paired with wild rice, and more. And I was able to walk past of lot of my ‘regular’ items that are no longer on my diet, because there were things that I wanted to buy that were okay—like Baba Ganoush, a baby watermelon, and lemonade (to make Arnold Palmers). I also bought a couple of items that I would never let myself buy before because I didn’t know how to buy them or how to eat them—almond butter, peanut butter, sunflower seeds. It sounds strange, but after so many years of shunning nut butters as a “not for fatties” rule, a celery stalk with some peanut butter will be a decadent late afternoon pick-me-up. (But now I know not to buy the stuff with all the additives, not to pair it with crackers or bread, and not to overdose on it.)

To my surprise, I left Trader Joe’s happy rather than deprived. I had a couple of treats, the makings of meals I looked forward to eating, a new concept of the store’s offerings, and hope to make it through another day.

(Client: Claire) Ugly Monday

(6/16) Today has been harder than I thought it would be: my first normal workday without the emotional retreat or excuse of food. It’s amazing to look at all the ways food impacts my life, other than nutrition. So today, every time I was hungry, I ate something yummy from the fridge. Normally, “quittin’ time” would be when I look around, starving, then find something unhealthy to eat, and then crash from the overload of calories, carbs, whatever. But Dominique stressed not depriving myself, so I decided to eat good stuff until full. I just had some cucumber salad, which was much more satisfying than I thought it would be. Then I was still snacky, so I grabbed a handful of almonds. I’m not feeling ravenous anymore! So now I have an opportunity to make non-panicky decisions about dinner. There’s salmon in the fridge, which isn’t really on the diet, but I’m not going to let it go to waste. I’ll steam some asparagus to go with it. And I see a sugar craving on the horizon, but I have some all-natural fruit strips if that happens.

(Client: Claire) Breaking Habits

Today has been harder than I thought it would be: my first normal workday without the emotional retreat or excuse of food. It’s amazing to look at all the ways food impacts my life, other than nutrition. So today, every time I was hungry, I ate something yummy from the fridge. Normally, “quittin’ time” would be when I look around, starving, then find something unhealthy to eat, and then crash from the overload of calories, carbs, whatever. But Dominique stressed not depriving myself, so I decided to eat good stuff until full. I just had some cucumber salad, which was much more satisfying than I thought it would be. Then I was still snacky, so I grabbed a handful of almonds. I’m not feeling ravenous anymore! So now I have an opportunity to make non-panicky decisions about dinner. There’s salmon in the fridge, which isn’t really on the diet, but I’m not going to let it go to waste. I’ll steam some asparagus to go with it. And I see a sugar craving on the horizon, but I have some all-natural fruit strips if that happens. No, this isn't the first time I've had to struggle through a day of a new diet, but it's much easier knowing hat I can talk to Dominique about why and how the plan doesn't work for me. And knowing that she will let me be honest and forgive me!