How I reversed diabetes

If you told Munge Wachira that he could live a healthier life eating well-seasoned marinated steak, as much cheese as he wanted and little to no carbohydrates, he would not have taken you seriously.

However, this has been his diet for two years now, and it has come with incredible results — a 21-kilogramme weight loss, a leaner physique, joy, and remission of Type-2 diabetes.

Five years ago, he received a shock diagnosis. “Young man,” he recalls the doctor saying. “If you don’t do something about your health, you’re not going to see your 45th birthday.”

At the time, he was 39, with a healthy appetite for alcohol and food, compounded by a sedentary lifestyle and a family with a history of diabetes.

“I weighed 84 kilos with a blood sugar level of 9-10mmols/litre. That is double the recommended range,” the 44-year-old says.

He was wrecked by the diagnosis but for four years, he did little about it. Advice from his mother who is a diabetes educator fell on deaf ears. Diabetes, a pancreatic disorder, can lead to heart attacks, stroke, nerve damage, kidney disease, visual loss and cognitive impairment.

At one time while on a live TV interview, his shirt ripped apart as he sat down.

“That day, I knew I had to do something about my expanding waistline besides taking my meds. I’m living proof that it’s possible to get to Type-2 diabetes remission, managing diabetes with diet and exercise instead of medication,” he says.

This, he says, is a mistake diabetic people make. “We faithfully take the medication but don’t change our lifestyles. Sooner or later, we find ourselves dependent on them.”

Instead, he explored the body’s ability to heal itself. In 2019, he lost his father to a stroke. When the reality of his death sank in weeks later, he decided to change his life.

“You can say the death of my father was the beginning of my life,” says Mr Wachira.

He started filling his plate with vegetables and torching calories with short daily walks. He also saw a doctor who advised him to monitor his sugar levels closely.

A year later, he was at 78 kilos. Inspired, he decided to jump into this lifestyle with both feet, completely changing his diet to eliminate visceral fat.

A doctor put him on a Keto diet to help him achieve his ideal weight of 60 kilos.

“Keto diet helps one drastically cuts down carbohydrate intake, prioritising healthy fats, non-starchy vegetables, proteins, and low carbohydrate fruits. The diet drives your body into ketosis: a state where the body uses fat as its primary source of fuel as opposed to external carbohydrates which we consume,” he explains.

Research shows even a loss of just five percent to 10 percent of body weight can often control the disease in people who are overweight.

Knowing that he had more than enough visceral fat in his body, he took the challenge and did a diet spring clean to create a low-carb-high-fat-and-fiber diet.

A typical meal for him comprises meat, stir-fry vegetables, and greens seasoned with pink Himalayan salt. He eliminated all carbs, grains, and sugars. That is, all flour products such as bread, chapati, and ugali, and rice; replaced his cooking oils with healthy alternatives like animal fat, olive, and coconut oil and gets his fats from fatty meats, avocados, and nuts.

He upped his protein intake by eating steak, eggs, and bone broth. These are washed down with water, herbal teas, bone soup, or bullet coffee made from lactose-free high fat milk, cinnamon, ginger, and coconut oil. For fruits, he ate strawberries. In addition to his daily 10-kilometre walks, he incorporated cardio workouts.

The change was tough.

“I had withdrawal symptoms such as headaches, dizziness, fatigue, frequent bladder emptying, constipation, dry lips, and the dreaded keto breath. But there was no way I was going to back down,” he says.

To manage these symptoms, he took painkillers, rested, drank ginger-garlic water which acts as a diuretic and helps in manage constipation.

Eight months later, he was at 68 kilos with a waistline of 31 inches. His weight plateaued but under the guidance of his doctor, he went on an OMAD (one-meal-a-day) diet in March 2021 and by June 2021, he had lost six more kilograms.

Currently, he weighs 62 kilos – only two kilos shy of his goal. But this is not his greatest accomplishment. With his new lifestyle, he says he has so much energy.

“I walk to Maragua or Muranga thrice a month from my home in Nairobi’s Kahawa Wendani,” he says. [He covers about 60 to 70 kilometres.]

People have nicknamed him “Munge the Walker.” During his walks, he carries water, almond nuts, a glucometer and strawberries, and eats nyama choma and avocado.

“My recent readings confirm my diabetes is in remission. My energy levels and concentration span have improved. I sleep better and don’t need medicines. Walking has also built my physical and mental endurance,” explains the outdoor lover.

Healthful recipes do not have to be bland. He has become creative in his cooking ability, that he has learned to bake bread using flax seeds and coconut flour.

He now strives to inform people about how to counter this health- and life-robbing disease, which is increasing in Kenya drastically, even among children. On his social media platforms, Mr Wachira shares his journey, food recipes, and fitness tips. His live walks to Karura and Murang’a walks have gathered a following.

“These diseases are called lifestyle diseases because they are a result of our lifestyles. If we change our lifestyles, we will change our health outcomes.”

He is currently doing a course on diabetes remission to gain certification that will enable him to support people. Next month, he will be turning 45. How will he celebrate this incredible milestone?

“I don’t know yet. What I do know is I won’t die of diabetes,” he says.

20 percent

Dr Daniel Katambo, the founder of Klinic Reversa, one of the few diabetes remission clinics in Kenya says that the first mode of treatment, especially for Type-2 diabetes lies in lifestyle change.

“If you have Type-2 diabetes and change your lifestyle to include a better diet and exercise, you can put diabetes into remission. This is the most cost-effective way to deal with the disease,” he says.

Such a diet focuses on reduced amounts of carbs and high intake of proteins and dietary fats. Carbs are mainly targeted because they are converted to sugar in the body.

But why this method? “Science is driven by data. Ten years ago, we thought that Type-2 diabetes was a chronic progressive disease yet it’s a lifestyle disease. Clinical trial studies have showed immense success in managing diabetes to a point of remission by making lifestyle adjustments,” he says.

So far, 20 percent of his patients are in remission.

He is quick to mention that weight loss does not cure diabetes.

“If you go back to an unhealthy lifestyle, you’ll go back to using medication. Hence the term remission,” adding that “before anyone starts cutting out carbohydrates, get medical advice on how to regulate medication.”