Embrace change
Change may be hard, but it’s worth it! Remember that diabetes is a lifestyle disease. You cannot solve the problem by continuing the same lifestyle that caused it.
Change can be difficult in the beginning because we are creatures of habit. It can take at least 21 days to learn something new or change a habit. When you change your toothpaste or tea brand, you may not like the new one initially. But, after some time, the new habit prevails. It’s the same with food—and unhealthy addictions.
We guarantee that if you do everything we suggest you will see a positive shift in your health!
Clean out your kitchen
Today and tomorrow you will learn about the important changes that you need make in your kitchen. Read, watch, and listen carefully, making notes as you go, so that you can learn to eat and cook in a way that will prevent or reverse your diabetes.
What products to avoid
To prepare for the 21 days ahead, you need to clean out your kitchen of any food items that contributed to causing your diabetes in the first place.
Watch this video by Dr. Nandita Shah to learn what you need to remove from your kitchen.
So you may have to avoid some food that you like and are used to. However, we are confident that you will be pleasantly surprised with many of the replacements, some new ways of preparing and even some new foods that we hope you will soon come to love.
Humans are the only species who refine their food, making it less nutritious. The SHARAN 21-Day Online Diabetes Reversal Programme promotes a whole food, plant-based diet. This means you’ll need to avoid all animal-based, refined, and processed/packaged products and food that contains them:
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- Animal-based products including eggs, meat (such as chicken and mutton), fish/seafood, honey, and dairy products (such as milk, milk powder, cream, buttermilk, butter, ghee, curd/yoghurt, cheese, paneer, and ice cream)
- Refined products including white flour (maida), white rice, white poha, refined flour vermicelli, sugar, jaggery, oil, and rava (sooji) or juices
- Processed/packaged products including biscuits, baked items, noodles, snacks, mithais, candy, tea, coffee, alcohol, and anything that comes in a bottle, can, or package and contain a number of chemical ingredients
Whole food also means eating fruit and vegetables like a monkey would. In other words, only remove that part of the vegetables and fruit that a monkey would not eat. (A monkey has no tools). This means no peeling of apples and pears or any of the vegetables except onions and garlic and perhaps some roots like yams and tapioca.
You’ll learn more about plant-based food and whole food in week one.
Key Points
- All your food should be whole. So you’ll need to avoid all refined and processed products—such as maida, white rice, sugar, tea, coffee, and biscuits—and food that contains them.
- All your food should be plant-based. So you’ll need to avoid all animal products—such as dairy, eggs, meat, seafood, and honey—and food that contains them.
- Go through all the items in your kitchen and separate the whole and natural food from the refined and animal-based products.
- You can give away the food that you don’t need anymore. This will benefit your whole family.
Tomorrow you will receive a sample shopping list of essentials.
Surendra K. Anand, a 65-year-old entrepreneur from Mumbai, attended the SHARAN 21-day Health Retreat in June 2014—despite being skeptical. His goal was to lose six kilos. In only 21 days, he reduced his HbA1c from 5.8 to 5.3; stopped taking all insulin and blood thinning and cholesterol medications, and lost nine kilos—all by adopting a whole food, plant-based diet and exercising! All his friends were telling him that he would never be able to stay on a plant based diet for 21 days, but he thought the food was delicious. In addition, he feels rejuvenated, active, and looks much younger. Watch his testimonial.
“The food was so delicious and so tempting—I don’t even know why people eat non-veg food!”
Trailer: May I Be Frank
Documentary about Frank’s transformation as he stumbles into the aptly- named vegan Café Gratitude, and, over 42 days begins a life-changing journey during which he is coached back to health. Funny and very authentic story.
Buy full movie here
