Obese Indignation

At the risk of being way too transparent I type this post.  I'd be the first to freely admit that eating healthy is difficult and requires diligence and discipline.  Maybe I am making excuses for my wanton, holiday behavior but I think it's extra tough for those of us that do not eat plants based on ethical/moral reasons (ie vegan) or religious (7th Day Adventist).  The plant-based diet I follow is solely based on willpower and I was sadly running on empty for quite some time.

I began following a plant-based diet in 2011 after getting negative cholesterol results.  I was diligent.  I had a re-test date etched in stone and really wanted to get that number down to a manageable level.  Before converting I read Engine 2 Diet, The China Study and You Can Reverse Heart Disease.  These three books helped me immensely and gave me some ideas on how to prepare tasty food. 

I then stumbled upon the book Eat to Live.  That gave me increased motivation to not only get and keep my lipids under control but to lose excess weight.  I followed Dr. Furhman's diet and the weight began to fall off.  To be fair I was also doing a P90x and Insanity hybrid exercise routine.  The results were remarkable but surprisingly not everyone was thrilled.

I began to get back handed compliments on a regular basis.  "Oh my God! If you lose any more weight you're going to blow away."  "Let me introduce you to my new friend, Slim Shady." Sadly, I still was about 5 pounds too heavy!! Unfortunately, the comments began to wear me down and my food choices began to deteriorate.  I didn't eat meat or dairy but began to fall into the processed food and booze trap.  The weight slowly began to reappear.

I was at the Y swimming last night and decided to weigh in after my laps were complete.  I knew I was up but wanted to quantify the number.  I'm not really big on scales but was sure I was inching to close to an area I worked to hard to flee - and I was right.

I've allowed the opinons of unhealthy people to get me off the mark of staying healthy and living a long, pain free life.  I've allowed back handed compliments to break my focus on what's really important to me.  Being healthy is one of my core values.  I don't want a spare tire, muffin top or love handles.  I don't want to be dependent upon Lipitor, Cialis, insulin, or BP medicine.  I don't want stents, back surgery, or to test my sugar daily. So I'm declaring my freedom today.

I declare my freedom from back-handed compliments.  I declare freedom from caring what people think (other than my doctor) of how much I weigh.  I've seen too many people die prematurely based on poor eating and exercise habits and I am not going to be in that statistical category. 

I'm free and will begin dropping the weight again.  Next fat person that says to me, "If you lose anymore weight you are going to blow away", I'm going to say, "No, I won't fat ass I'll just hold on to you!" 

Okay, I'm too nice but I just might be thinking it. :)

Temple of the Holy One

Living a life that honors God is not always easy.  We're informed by scripture that our bodies are a temple and I am assuming we need to treat them as we would a temple of worship.  Torching or trashing a temple is obvious when it happens but not so much when our bodies are the temple.

According to an excerpt from the book Forks Over Knives, I damage the endothelial walls each time I eat meat and dairy.  Without going into all nitty-gritty details (this is supposed to be an average joe blog) let's assume it's true.  However, the damage is not noticed the first time I gorge myself at White Castle, In-and-Out, or 5 Guys. It's accumulative and often goes unnoticed until it's too late.  For many people death is the first sign of heart issues.  I want to stop that or at least minimize it.

There are many authors, bloggers, and others that are superior to me and I know that.  However, not everyone is being reached.  Every day dozens of people die unncessarily, every day billions of dollars are spent surgeries and medicine that are also unnecessary, every day some snake oil salesmen is selling a panacea to our health problems and yet we're fatter and sicker than ever. 

It. Must. Stop.

Forks Over Knives and Thrive

I'm a sucker for plant-based cook books and information.  Since I'm not a "true" vegan and am not a Seventh Day Adventist I have not moral or religous grounds on which to stand to eat in clean manner.  What helps me, though, is reading good books on plant-based eating and new cookbooks to help expand my thinking when it comes to food.

I recently picked up Thrive (the cook book) and Forks Over Knives.  Both are okay and I will definitely spend some additional time with the recipes.  Like using a veggie peeler to make zucchini ribbons in place of pasta --- brilliant. Having additional salad dressing recipes are helpful too.  Not trying to sound too prideful but I believe the things that I cook are better than much of what is out there and simpler.  Some things are just too complicated and the ingredients are too obscure.  If I can't buy it from Meijer I really don't want it.

I want people to live long, healthy lives.  I want heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, and ED to be a thing of the past.  Most people are rushed, time is compressed and they don't want to spend an hour discussing odd-ball foods with a snooty person at a health food store.  We simply want to toss some stuff in our car and get out with as little damage as possible to our wallets.  It can be done. I want to help. I guess I could be the Blue Collar Vegan.  Or I could make it sound better by calling it bourgeois...Anyway. 

Look for some tips, tricks, and help when it comes to reversing the curse and living life to its full.