The dizziness still comes. It is not as often, but when it arrived yesterday, I almost collapsed. My head spins, nausea begins, and I know to sit. If it is bad, I lay down. Yesterday was laid down.

Doctors don’t know why this happens. It’s the only thing they could not figure out in my five weeks in the hospital. The best explanation came from a cardiologist at Maine Med.

“Your body went through a house fire. Unlike a house, though, we cannot replace your wiring and plumbing. Parts of you were damaged beyond repair, unfortunately.”

This same fellow, when pressed, admitted no one knows why I lived it all, and predicted I had between five and ten years left.

It’s been four years. The spells used to haunt me two or three times a week while I was doing something as basic as chopping vegetables at the kitchen counter. Twice it happened while signing books after speaking at an event. A half dozen times, I passed out. Three times while hiking. Yesterday’s attack was the first in at least six months.

My blood pressure, usually around a healthy 98/64, plummeted to 79/60.

I’m 140 pounds lighter than I was when I had my stroke, my heart and kidneys failed, sepsis and blood clots and anemia set in. The weight loss has come over the last two years. This photo, taken by Ken Stampfer was two years ago. I do not have an up to date picture, but trust me, I look nothing like this.

There is no end goal, but by the way things are trending, I expect to be about 155 lbs. on New Year’s Day.

I recently joked to Ken, “I’ll be less than half the man I used to be!”

Following Dr. Michael Greger’s How Not to Die guidelines before graduating to Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn’s strict Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease program, I’ve reclaimed my life. Gone are the blood pressure and beta-blocker medications. Gone is the five to ten years left to live, most likely. There is no more sleep apnea. No more erectile dysfunction—this, by the way, guys, is the canary in the coal mine for coronary heart disease. If those tiny arteries are blocked, it tells you what is happening elsewhere. (Yes, this happens in women also.)

I stopped eating animals because I love and respect them. This, despite how much I relished the taste of all meat. But to save my life, I switched from too much vegan junk food (Impossible Burgers, Oreos, Fritos, Twizzlers, Pop-tarts, Earth Balance vegan butter) to a whole-food/plant-based way of eating. This means no animal products (including dairy), and no processed foods, which includes all oils. That was tightened up with Essy’s program by excluding all nut butters, nuts and seeds (other than flax and chia), avocados, and coconut. My daily total fat calories are ten percent or under. Sodium stays below 1,000 mg a day.

I aim for six servings of greens a day. This prescription helps my damaged endothelial cells lining my blood vessels through the production of nitric oxide.

Breakfast today included an enormous mango before our walk, and steamed broccoli sprinkled with mustard powder to enhance the sulforaphane content and a plate of no oil hash browns with red onion and minced garlic after the walk. (The broccoli counts as a green.) As I type, I’m snacking on a bowl of golden and red beets. (These also count as nitric oxide producing greens.)

Looking down at my Fitbit, my heart rate is 54 beats per minute.

I’m healthier than I’ve ever been. Food tastes better and is more enjoyable than it was before I limited what I ate. Strangely, although I follow strict guidelines, the variety of foods I eat is astounding. Eating a diversity of a minimum of thirty different whole plant foods a week tends to my gut microbiome.

Taste buds change, you know. Once a Coca Cola man, I drink only water or green tea. No longer do I have food cravings and the sure-to-follow food hangovers.

The only thing limiting me now is what I did to my body in the past. The dizzy spells remind me I cannot outrun it all.

On mornings like today, when the dizziness lingers, I’m reminded how fortunate I am to have improved my quality of life. Yes, I’ll never completely undo the damage I did to my body with the Standard American Diet, with a love of meats and sweets. But I have given myself a good life with a fighting chance for many more years.

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Thank you, everyone, for the thoughtful comments of the three posts of the last week. Between Samwise’s run-in with the porcupine and Emily’s continued recovery in the last post, I appreciate your words. When it comes to health updates like today’s, I find it’s best to turn off the comments. They will return for the next post, however. Thanks for reading!

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Our dear friend means the world to us. Yesterday, she celebrated a decade at North Country Animal Hospital. If you’ve read Will’s Red Coat, you understand what a remarkable soul she is.